LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS April 16, 2012
Volume 41, Number 16
INSIDE
Hail the Gatekeepers! 12
2
Bridge designs, a new historic monument, and other happenings Around Town.
11
Ways that Downtown workers and residents can go green on, and after, Earth Day.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
PLAY BALL! The Dodgers Began a New Era, and Marked the 50th Anniversary of the Opening of Dodger Stadium, With a Win Before a Sell-out Crowd. See More Pictures on p. 10.
Budget battle heralds L.A.’s Silly Season.
5
Travel convention has the Wow factor.
6
Buy your own Chinatown building.
7
photo by Gary Leonard
Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp poses with fans before the team’s home opener on April 10.
Origami is all the rage.
14
The Pastor, the Rent, the Streets and the Cats Funding Issues Could Put an End to Skid Row Church, And to the People and Felines It Serves by Richard Guzmán city editor
Why pianos are all over L.A.
15
16 CALENDAR LISTINGS 18 CLASSIFIEDS
L
ast Monday morning, Melya Kaplan and two volunteers knelt down in front of a pile of wood pallets in a trash-filled corner of a church parking lot. As they searched beneath the wood, Kaplan spotted a black plastic bag with something wriggling inside. She knew exactly what it was. Kaplan picked up the bag, gently cradling it in her hands. She carefully unwrapped it, revealing a tiny kitten that was slowly being suffocated by the plastic. The kitten, which Kaplan estimated was a day old, is one of the dozens of stray felines that have a home at Skid Row’s One at a Time church. That, however, could change, and more than the cats could be affected. Pastor Ken Holladay said the church that has
operated at the corner of Seventh and San Julian streets for a decade has lost its primary funding source and is having a hard time making its nearly $50,000 a year rent. Without a financial lifeline, he said, the church will have to close next month. “Come May 10, we’ll have to go back to the streets ourselves,” Holladay said. “We’ll operate out of our van.” The closure would mean the loss of a place for the area’s neediest people to get a meal, some clothes or to attend Sunday services. It also means the stray cats have to be rounded up and relocated. “I don’t think cats belong on the streets so we’re going to try to catch every single one of them,” said Kaplan, who is the founder and executive director of the Santa Monica-based Voice for the Animals. Small Player Holladay has ministered to his Skid Row flock see Church, page 8
photo by Gary Leonard
Melya Kaplan with a kitten she found outside Skid Row’s One at a Time church. The 10-year-old facility, which has several dozens feral cats on its property, could go out of business.
metro.net/expo
> Ride Free All Day April 28-29, 2012 (Expo Line only)
metro> Free Activities Saturday, April 28, 10am-4pm – 7th St/Metro Center Station – USC/Expo Park Station – Expo/Crenshaw Station – La Cienega/Je=erson Station