We/You are not alone. The 9A scenario I mentioned this week and earlier -- Bigfoot comes to town on a manic mission, stomps on 200+ people, laughs when other city agencies and residents tell it to go away -- turns out not to be unique to Echo Park. A Granada Hills reader reports similar LAUSD practices, namely the disregard for legal process that led a judge to rule in favor of the Right Site Coalition of Echo Park on Monday. Richard Fisk wrote to me yesterday:

We are virtually in the same position with LAUSD except we have not "won". The demolition of a hospital building is scheduled to start in 2 weeks [to make] room for an unneeded high school. We have the info on: flawed EIR, violations of the Brown Act and CEQA process and most importantly demographics clearly showing that this $100 million school is being built in the wrong place.

Fisk also mentioned "an inadequate and untimely response from LAUSD to the California Public Records Act that we requested."

Tuesday was toddler time at the Edendale Branch public Library. The weekly story and games program for pre-readers. It was also Christian rock star time, as a crew for Reliant K (whose music I have never heard) streamed into the stacks where they would soon be recording a music video for the group, which reportedly transcends its Christian constituency -- "they're big" says RJ Smith, my husband, though he hasn't heard their music either. Come to think of it the Edendale library does remind me a bit of a modern church -- high high ceilings, frescoe-like murals, a nave-like center. The murals, depicting scenes from California history will most likely be on an LA Conservancy tour some time in the future. So twenty or so groovy-ish looking people are looking very busy. I interrupt a couple of them to ask who they are shooting. Answer: Reliant K. I try not to look blankly at a young woman crew member as I hadn't heard of Reliant K. Why are they filming in this spot? They look confused -- their turn to look blank. Do they have a connection to Echo Park? "Oh," says a young woman with crisp, black, thick eyebrows, "[We're shooting here] because it's a nice library."

So it is.

Same day, I came home to find some correspondence from a reader who remembers Room 8, the famous cat. Roger Vargo wrote:

I list myself among the fortunate to have attended Elysian Heights School during Room 8's reign. I graduated in 1963 and went on to bigger, but not necessarily better, educational opportunities at Thomas Starr King JHS.

I remember Room 8 as a big, friendly, tabby cat. He had free range of the school and would frequently walk in and out of our classrooms. Many times he would make rounds at lunch. Feeding him was discouraged, but it was obvious from his size that he didn't discourage handouts.

Each fall he would return from his summer vacation to greet new and returning students. The official expatiation was he disappeared to parts unknown after school let out for the summer. Principal Beverly Mason let me in on the secret of his summer hiatus during my last year at Elysian Heights.

Each fall, one sixth grade student (we only had one sixth grade class) was chosen as the "cat monitor" whose solemn responsibility it was to feed Room 8 in the morning. I remember in my class it was a girl named Carmen. The local newspaper, the Parkside Journal, would show up and the cat monitor would have his or her picture taken with Room 8. It was truly a position of distinction and responsibility.