Urban Utility Vehicle

An interesting object dredged up from the murky depths of Echo Park lake during the renovation was not the expected murdered body like some predictable CSI episode, but the multitude of discarded shopping carts that made their way to the lake bottom.  Before the lake was drained you could usually make out the algae ridden shadow of one or two shopping carts in the shallow muck near the shore as you walked around the lake so it isn't quite the surprise it was for the workers who cleaned the lake as for those who visited the lake on a regular basis.



(photo by Stephen Roullier/Flickr)

The ubiquitous shopping cart has become the urban socio-economic entry and exit utility vehicle of modern society.  It is an entry vehicle for newcomers to the city without a car who need to get their groceries home or dirty clothes to the lavenderia, landromat.  Sometimes shopping carts are repatriated by working men and women to fill with elotes, corn on the cob, or refrescos - fruit juices, tamales or any readily available street food for the foot traffic of crowded streets. It is a survival vehicle that brings food to the table in more ways than one.  They are the poor people's lunch truck and not quite as fancy as the gentrified trucks with twitter followers you find along Sunset Blvd., art walks or after the clubs let out.  These are literally hand to mouth operations and the shopping cart is the only four wheeled vehicle in the mix.

Used as an exit vehicle in society the shopping cart serves as a recycling vehicle for many folks who have been catapulted from the workforce, the daily grind, and/or the rat race of the new economy brought to us by the global-corporation-top-feeder-driven Raw Deal, as opposed to New Deal in days of yore.  Old folks who may have faced a catastrophic loss of savings or a home, young folks chronically underemployed and running out of dreams, and the always marginalized folks who can not enter the workforce because of a disability, addiction or status all depend on the shopping cart as a utility carryall for the sum of their worldly possessions.

There are no down payments or monthly dues with these vehicles.  Nevertheless, there is a vicious repo industry to snatch back the hijacked shopping carts and return them for a bounty to their conglomerate owners, leaving behind a pile of dumped goods if your lucky.  Sometimes the cargo is confiscated with the cart in municipal sweeps leaving a poor soul or family agonizingly adrift with nothing.  So what is the story behind the shopping carts at the bottom of the lake?  Was it merely a wobbly wheel that rendered it useless and therefore discarded?  Was it a new found hope or a good job that saved someone from spiraling poverty?  Was it merely gravity at play that drew the cart, like a torrent of rain water run off, to the low lying lake from the surrounding hills?  Each shopping cart probably carried the drama and burden of a hard life at one point and then, poof, it was let go.

Things that lurk in the night

Besides the hawk there are several natural predators at the oasis, which makes sense, since the prey depend on the water it provides.

There are many coyotes that live and flourish in the area.  They prey on small animals, even when the small fur balls are the companions of loving people who care deeply about their pets.  Coyotes do not distinguish between domesticated and feral animals, they treat them equally as food.  People gather around the water with their pets and so do the things that would like to eat them.  The telephone and utility poles are littered with announcements of lost cat or dogs.  Many showing an attentive pet, such as below, that certainly was adored by its owner.  But there are not many feel good success stories.  Most folks learn quickly to keep their pets indoors at night.

Yet, I have seen a coyote wait patiently for a traffic light in the late afternoon so he could cross a busy boulevard during rush hour.  Coyotes, hawks and other predators adapt.  Rabbits may be scarce in an urban environment but feral cats and lost puppies are fair play.  A coyote doesn't even wait until dark but will brazenly enter a yard to snatch little Fido.

A cruel trick of the modern mindset is to think that humans have tamed nature with our grand edifices and organized structures.  Nature adapts to us showing that while some rules may change, the game is still the same.

This is Water

While traipsing around the inter web thingy I ran across an impressive vimeo.  It is a commencement message for a recent graduating class.  I believe in a few short minutes it captured the theme of my blog, at least for the moment.  Please follow the link below and I hope you enjoy it, too.  (Broken link: please enjoy the fountain instead).

This Is Water

Fenced in Fountain

Not quite ready

But I'm ready.  I'm tired of the green plastic wrap that confronts me as I step out into my part of the world.  Even the taggers wont claim it, as they rarely target the green tarp with their turf scrawls.  Probably some sort of tagger hierarchy of target acquisition of which I'm unaware. My trash can, on the other hand, has been claimed by a mysterious someone.  Fine, I say.  Then you, mystery tagger, take the cans to the curb in the morning and bring them back to the sidewalk at night.  I never liked that chore anyway.

In the morning, when the light first promises the new day, I'm now awakening to hear the geese flying overhead on their way to and from the oasis.  I hadn't heard that sound for over a year as the water was completely drained while the bottom of the lake was lined with clay to make it impermeable, to avoid water loss.  Now I'm hearing the honks regularly, mostly from the Canadian geese who populate the lake along with ducks and other water fowl.  There used to be blue herons at the lake that would nest in a tall pine on the far side of the lake.  During the day they would wade in the shallows while stalking small prey. I haven't seen the herons return yet.

One feathered friend that did not leave when they water receded was a red tail hawk who has hunted in the park for as long as I can remember.  I often see him circling lazily, or being hounded by crows protecting their nests.  Sometimes I see him perched on a tall limb dismembering his prey and it makes me think that we are merely interlopers on nature's blueprint.

Echo Park Lake set to reopen June 15

LA Times article on the opening of the lake and park next month.  After two years I guess we have to wait just a bit more.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0511-echo-park-lake-20130511,0,4639170.story

Under Wraps

My neighborhood refuge is currently under wraps, being rehabilitated, rejuvenated and undergoing a little cosmetic surgery.  It has been under the knife for almost two years.  Since that time there has been a storm fence and nylon wrap around the perimeter.  After all, this is tinsel town where appearance is everything and like most things in this desert town, although it gives the appearance of being natural our little lake is man-made.  The magic is the finished product and not the process, which can be messy and unsightly.

The Big Reveal is close being scheduled to happen this month and we are all excited.  Our oasis had been neglected for quite awhile.  The water was murky, the lake was leaking and polluted, and the infrastructure was debilitated and shabby.  Not the kind of place you want to showcase in a gentrifying hipster neighborhood.  But it had served us well in the last century, being a moist landmark in a dry urban landscape, refreshing and cool on a hot summer day.

As a community oasis, we are impatient while the refurbishing is being done.  We are still drawn to it, to gather and replenish ourselves after a long day.  But it remains wrapped up, with newly placed palm trees tied up like hostages beckoning us to free them.

The other night, I saw a group of folks enter surreptitiously to play and explore.  I'm sure it was a nocturnal urge for some mischief but it is a much bigger thing than themselves so they can not harm it.  I'm sure they just wanted walk around and check out the new improvements.  We have all been held at bay for so long that holes line the green wrap along the fence so we can peer into the lake and lick our chops at the cool promise it holds.

Water or Mirage

In the desert the most valuable thing is water.  While the earth's surface is mostly water you would never know that in a desert, where a hint of any silvery reflection could haunt you.  I live in the vast urban desert inappropriately called The Angels and am lucky to live next to water.  Not that you would want to drink it, swim in it, fish from it or even try to put a fire out with it.  Nevertheless, it does offer refuge and a place to ponder amid the sometimes crushing weight of the concrete and steel in the city I call home.

My blog is about a fundamental element, water or humanity - I can't decide, trying to flourish in an environment that wants to suck it dry.  So grab a straw and visit often.