Some Saturdays the Edendale branch has classical music.

Here's info, emailed by Niels Bartels, librarian:

We'll be having a frugality forum at the Edendale Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library this weekend. It will be an open discussion on doing more with less. Bring your money-stretching tips, your challenges, and your questions to ask.

Saturday, November 7th, 1-3 p.m.; 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A. 90026; (213) 207-3000; there's parking behind the library.

It promises to be rich.

So when I saw that a representative of the Angeles Group was included on the agenda for the Echo Park Improvement Association's monthly meeting on Wednesday night, I made time to go to Barlow Hospital's meeting hall to find out how things were developing for the Durbin development.

But there was no representative from Angeles in attendance. According to board members, they had been invited, one guy had said they might come to address the group. But they didn't come.

It seems fitting that the ghost town would lack a representative. One we could see at least.

On one list, a neighbor offered:

We're lucky if it's only broken beer bottles we find, there are usually a bunch of used condoms strewn around, too.

Chicken Corner is heartened to see renewed passion for a renewed padlocking of the dreaded gate.

Inside, we have long-long-legged tan colored spiders with tiny abdomens; they walk slowly and awkwardly when forced to move. Many of these we leave alone, clearing away their webs, and then they make new ones. Sometimes, when I'm not in a mood for a big, slow spider in the bathroom, we catch it and put it out.

Yesterday, we saw a large one of these harmless spiders in the living room under a window sill. My daughter shined a flashlight on the lady spider, and we saw that she had an egg sack -- a little white ball with white bumps that soon would turn into hundreds of spiderlings.

"Sorry, lady spider. You're going outside with those."

I got a stiff piece of paper to carry her out with -- at which point she turned into a hero. She grabbed the egg sack and ran for it. But she ran slowly, and I kept catching up with her, trying to get her to walk onto the paper so I could carry it out. She ran and ran. I gave up on the paper and went to get a plastic cup. My daughter kept an eye on her in the meantime. I assume the spider was exhausted. She stayed where she was. When I got back we got her into the cup and then took her outside. She still had the egg sack, which she had carried all over the living room. It was cold out, and she probably found a way back inside -- future generation in tow -- anyway.

It's a bug's world. We're just visiting.

The first is from Anna Sklar, of Brown Acres fame:

Dear Jenny, Hate to sound like a cynic. But. Many years ago (late 70's), the Bureau of Engineering held many meetings regarding a planned multi-million dollar project at the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant. Dozens of residents showed up, many expressed opposition. Plan went ahead. Oh, by the way, it ended in a Rube Goldberg-like project that wound up costing several hundred million dollars, was finally abandoned in the late 80s. Unused equipment sits like an enormous beached whale at north end of plant.

Unless you can marshall 1) a demonstration of folks (Saul Alinsky style) best done in front of City Engineer offices downtown with lots of notice to >media folk; or 2) many hundreds of letters. ... The only thing that City Hall (i.e., the Mayor) pays attention to is baaad publicity. Heal the Bay began with just a half-dozen very angry, but determined organizers.

Then, artist and community activist Jonathan Williams forwarded the following, to which Chicken Corner gives its most heartfelt cluck of approval:

Dear Ms. Martin, I have been following plans for draining and rehabilitating the Echo Park Lake from the beginning of public hearings.

One issue, which has been consistently mentioned at meetings is the community's concern for wildlife living in the park. This wildlife, most notably birds, depends on our lake for nesting and general habitat. Additionally, citizens of Echo Park and the rest of Los Angeles who use the park do so in large part because of the variety of wildlife present there. People count on seeing birds nesting and raising young at Echo Park Lake.

I understand that no provision has been recommended through the Environmental Impact Report to provide water and nesting habitat for resident birds during the period of construction.

I urge that the designers consider partial retention of water in the lake during construction. Under this condition the existing population of water birds would at least have a chance of remaining to live in our park during construction and we would thereby have a hope that our birds would continue to thrive here in the newly constructed lake thereafter.

If the State of California Department of Fish and Game has not weighed in on this issue, they should. It seems to me unconscionable that birds in our park would not be at least partially provided for in the interim during construction.

A few years ago, in the Chief Parks days, I had an unfortunate concern over some miscreants who lived in the neighborhood. I spoke to my senior lead police officer about it. And was told: if I ever were to call the northeast station, there were some magic words I should use: quality of life. Don't say: There are armed youngsters firing their guns without proper training, and it affects my personal safety. Do say: My quality of life is being impacted when armed youngsters fire.... The authorities had been trained to respond to those words.

Well, help! 911! If Black & Veatch kills the geese and ducks and the coots and the herons at Echo Park Lake, my quality of life will be impacted!

No one goes to a lake just to see water -- they go to see everything that water sustains, i.e., life.

****************************************************

Email comments for the EIR can be sent to:

Maria Martin (include "Echo Park Comments" in subject) Maria.Martin@lacity.org.

Most of what we saw I liked very much. Lots of new wetland areas, soft edges around the lake, well-chosen vegetation. The plan moves the waterpump station from the peninsula to the south end of the park. (It's hard to imagine how anyone got away with locating a utility building at the most beautiful lookout point in the park - but it happened. These things do happen when no one says no.) The lotus bed will be restored.

More good: 12 to 18 inches of slime are slated to be scraped off the bottom of the lake. An underwater berm will serve as a dam - because the lake is actually a dam. The lake bottom will be made of clay. And the drainage plans were impressive, designed to stop the use of city water for filling the lake -110,000 gallons of water are to go in the north end and out the south end every day -- and designed to keep sediment and garbage out. One things I learned: outflow begins at the south drain at Bellevue then proceeds beneath Glendale Blvd. to 2nd St., which it follows all the way to the LA River.

Not so wonderful: A rep for the landscape architects said they want to get rid of the floating-marsh islands that presently exist on the lake because, the rep said, they wouldn't add enjoyment to the lake. "What about the aquatic birds who have protected nests there?" I asked. Rep said they could nest along the edges of the lake instead. But unscrupulous people and children take the eggs.... No answer. He also said some of the trees, which should never have been planted 70 years ago, would have to be removed. But new ones, better ones, would be planted.

Black and Veatch's rep Hala (couldn't read her last name) said they are planning to drain the lake in one go - instead of in phases as many residents have requested for two years - because it would be less expensive to do so. When Judy Raskin, local birder of note, asked how much money would be saved, Hala said they didn't know. No one seems to have done calculations for that. They're just assuming it will be more expensive. Then she started to become impatient with questions. (The point of draining in phases is so migrating birds could still use the lake.) She said of course Fish and Game would have a say in the matter. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me at that moment to ask whether Fish and Game has to weigh in during the EIR. It seems strange that they wouldn't, but if they do they only have a few days to do so. And if they say the lake should be drained in phases then what good is an EIR that doesn't address that plan?

My friend Jane Bowers, who has a degree from the Kennedy School of Government and who is visiting from Boston, commented about how suspicious the Echo Park folk were of the information they were being given. (Well, that's Echo Park: it's full of smart, cranky skeptics.) She says she has more faith in the motives of people who are trying to get things like the lake rehabilitation done.

I had to agree that I want the project, and I didn't see any signs of villainy in front of me yesterday morning. I also like the overall plan, which seeks, happily, to respect the history of the lake and the neighborhood. But I care about the wildlife who presently LIVE at the park. And the way the animals and their advocates seem to be less than an afterthought for the giant private companies, well, that makes me cranky. Not a crank, but cranky. Certainly the birds add more overall enjoyment to a visit to the lake than a shapely view of the boathouse. And the cost of draining the lake in phases? Who knows what that would be?

If you have anything to say: Comments must be received in writing by October 9, 2009. Mail to: Maria Martin, City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering, 1149 South Broadway, Suite 600, Mail Stop 939, Los Angeles, CA 90015; or e-mail (include "Echo Park Comments" in subject) to Maria.Martin@lacity.org.

And then, of course, there is the bottling plant down on York Ave. Sparkletts, I think. Porch talk has them pumping their water right at the spot.

Now comes along my friend Darrell Kunitomi to put facts to work. He found a great map: described by Myriad Small Things as "the intimate history of the suburban landscape from the point of view of water in Northeast Los Angeles..."

It shows an 1888 map of storm drains and "water courses," toggling it with a modern map. Muy interesante.

I asked Darrell where he found the map, and he wrote:

I was out in cyberspace [a few days ago], and sent it along to you and several others, native Angelenos and fellow fly fishers who could be concerned with water matters.

It may have been from the marvelous L.A. Creek Freak blog. So much lore and history -- and longing -- on that site. Appeals to me, because as an Angeleno who fished Echo Park as a boy, whose father actually swam in the L.A. River in the 1920s as a boy in Little Tokyo and who vividly recalls a greener (vacant lots were our playgrounds, where we constructed tunnels in the high weeds and forts and treehouses) more open less congested Los Angeles (driving to Disneyland was fantastic when the orange groves were in bloom, and Knott's Berry Farm's parking lots were dirt) I miss my old city. I miss the butterflies that flew all over Los Angeles. I could catch over a dozen species with the net my mom made. I mounted them in Riker boxes. Now and then a lost Monarch came through.

I visit rivers and streams now as an adult fly fisher. In many ways I search, and find, what now seems lost in the city.

A greener time -- fed by the same waters that run beneath us today. Perhaps!

Previously, Chicken Corner had been under the mistaken notion that we really weren't allowed to have even one in city neighborhoods (though there are many in Echo Park). Hens yes, roosters no, is what I thought. But I asked Eric Garcetti's office about it, and they got back to me with:

According to Hahn's office, there was no limit on the number of roosters at a residence before this ordinance. The only restrictions previously were that the roosters had to be 35ft from a residence and 100ft from neighbors' residences.

Over here at Chicken Corner we're crowing happily. Meantime, if you want to see a fine, rockin' rooster click here. Link courtesy of RJ Smith.

Pooper troopers kept a list of the top ten reasons for not picking up poop in the park, and as you'll see the top ten list grew longer than ten:

Top 10 Reason not to Participate with the Pooper Scoopers
1. "I'm going out of town that day"
2. "I pick up after MY dog"
3. "My dog poops off the trail"
4. "I fill bags of other dogs poop all the time"
5. "It's Saturday"
6. "My dog poops before we leave our house"
7. "I have Bursitis"
8. "Who me? Get my hands dirty?"
9. "I don't do group anything"
10. "I...don't want my "tats" to fade in the sun and all the heat!"
11. The poop biodegrades in to the soil (true, but not before it has done harm to wildlife and native plants)
12. Plastic bags are not bio-degradable
13. Gotta go to work.
14. My dog is too shy to poop in the park
15. Other people pick it up, so why waste my time?
16. Gross
17. I just got my nails done
18. I'm texting
19. My dogs takes off, and I don't see where they do it
20. The coyotes don't pick up their skat

Chicken Corner particularly loves the last one, number 20. Coyotes don't pay taxes, either. So...does this mean you can claim a federal deduction for leaving a big pile of dog poop in the park?

Meanwhile: insider tip. Chicken Corner has heard from publishing insiders a bit of gossip concerning Dante's Inferno. Apparently, the author had written an entire circle of hell just for the citizens who did not pick up after their dogs (with bio-degradable poop bags). But Dante's editor convinced him to cut the 10th circle. Dante later told his friends Dana and Steve that he regretted cutting the 10th Circle. But, of course, it was too late.

First, there is the poop pick-up event taking place this very minute in Elysian Park. A service social occasion. All of dog society will be there, and I wish we were helping out, too, as it's not only poop that needs scooping but other bits of debris and trash that kills birds and robs our special park of beauty and grace. It was organized by the Echo Park Animal Alliance.

Next, there is the Frogtown Artwalk. This is the fourth annual -- organized by Tracy Stone -- and there are some 30 studios open to the public on a self-guided walking tour down by the river. In the past there have been fire-breathing pianos, there have been paintings, crazy furniture and...the river.

Well, it would have been swell to join in the fun back home. But it isn't exactly exile here at the Monterey Bay. So far, we have seen tiny deer that came near our lodging. Loads of seals. A lone sea nettle. Long-legged shore birds with long beaks. And the aquarium. We have met people from Merced and Cincinnatti, and I now believe that frozen vegetables are, in fact, "too good to be true" -- I won't be buying them anymore unless for very special reason (for one thing, they have been cooked and treated to cease enzyme action before freezing).

And, of course, the shoreline is better than you can believe. Just like in Los Angeles.

Whenever I take a driving trip away from LA, I am always struck by two things -- first by for how long I drive before I actually leave L.A. The journey begins way before we get out of town. And in this instance, it included an I-5 swing around the back side (north west) of the Angeles Forest, where there were patches of black that ran right up to the highway, and it all looked scary bare. The next thing is how enormously the state opens up and becomes huge faster than I can believe.

We need good examples -- we need encouragement. Real models for living in new ways. Which is what Laura Gabbert (a friend of mine) has done with her documentary, No Impact Man, which is about a man who actually lived the life in New York City.

No Impact got a good review in the L.A. Times. I am hoping to see it this weekend. I'll forgive myself the drive. Baby steps....

The community room, Williams Hall, at Barlow is hot, and it is packed. I'm not good at crowd guessing, but I'd guess over a hundred information seekers, who have been cast in the role of input givers. Because, you see, there is no particular presentation -- because there are no proposals that have been made available to the good citizens who came to the meeting to...view proposals.

Instead, what we see is a three- or four-slide large projection explaining the principles of a scoping meeting. (These principals: this is a meeting for "Us" to learn what "You" want. Unless what you want is no new residential development in Elysian Park, because that's not what we're here to talk about.) There are no speakers. There is no video. Instead, there are representatives of the city planning commission and reps from about four consulting firms. With the exception of a planning guy from LA City, none of them have the names of their firms written on their "Welcome, I am--" stickers that they wear on their clothing. The name tags give their names and a general description such as "Project Management." (Project? What project?) The first consultant (let's call her Anne) I ask for a card says she does not have one. When I ask her to tell me all her information so I can write it myself, she goes and gets a card (from Impact Sciences) that she does have after all. The second rep has to go find one, and I wait a long time. At least he doesn't pretend he doesn't have a card.

So here's the event: each consultant or city employee has a folding table. There's "History"; there's "Community"; there's CEQA -- i.e., environmental impact -- and so on. The table "hosted" by the city employees has a few printed handouts...of maps of the general area (and no, I am not kidding; I am surprised the few pages they offered didn't include a map of the United States of America), and then the site. The "Community" table has nothing but a laptop and a staffer from who knows where.

I mean (as Arlo Guthrie would say) I'm sure the staffers knew which consultancy or which city department they were from... but we don't. And a laptop is not okay, in terms of sharing information with the public. At one point I tried to see what the "Community" laptop had to say. But there were people kind of crowding it, and they seemed confused. I asked what they'd seen (they were friends) and hell if they knew.

It must have been on this laptop (or maybe next door in the library) that the Eastsider found a pretty drawing of some apartments. You gotta fight -- or be smart -- to find the pretty pictures.

So each table (except "Community," which had only the laptop) has some sort of sign saying "This is a meeting to hear what you think." EXCEPT there is nothing to think about. Because no plans are proposed. Not EVEN hypothetical ones. We are being asked to give our opinions about a fictional construct that wasn't even constructed. The wordless poetry workshops were held next door in the library.

Here is one place where I really start to worry...because I believe there are more than enough hypothetical plans we could look at and comment upon. I have been contacted for over two years by grad students who have been drawing plans for this site. A couple of years ago, I attended a planning conference at the Pacific Design Center. Thom Mayne gave a presentation at which he insufferably declared that he'd been assigning his students at UCLA to think about high rises in Elysian Park. At Dodger Stadium, he said.

So why should the burden of expression be on the surrounding community? And, for that matter, why should it just be the community of Echo Park that has something to say?

Los Angeles has to be the biggest city in the US in square miles, and we have one of the worst person-per-park ratios. The best and most famous minds here have been grabbing at Elysian Park for a long time. The Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park is a tiny organization, but it is aptly named.

Among the crowd on Wednesday were about fifteen city planning students from Cal State Northridge. I'd be curious to know how they enjoyed this evening's theater.

CHANDIGARH: As many as 15 turtles and eight conches were recovered from Mayor Chicken Corner, Sector 37 on Thursday. The turtles, a prohibited wildlife species, were in the illegal possession of Monu Kumar, owner of the shop, who used to sell these at high prices in the market, said SHO of PS 39, Janak Singh Rana.

On getting secret information, wildlife department officials had set up a joint team for nabbing the culprit, sources said. An official of People For Animals (PFA), Saurabh Gupta, was coordinating the operation, who he had earlier busted a gang involved in illegal trade of certain other endangered species of turtles. Sources said that a person identified as Shabir was arrested in Delhi and during interrogation, he revealed the name of Monu Kumar.

A case under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 was registered at Sector 39 police station. Accused Monu Kumar would be produced in the court on Friday.

We have illegal turtles -- and illegal tortoises -- in Cali, too. At least 500 large red-eared sliders at Echo Park Lake. And I'm sure that in the Daily News story I read about arrests in the Mojave desert after tortoises were found in a trunk the language sounded just as foreign to readers from India, if they read it. (I have always loved Indian English for what seems to me its extreme earnestness, and its varied cadences.)

A couple of things I didn't know how to translate: the "interrogation" that led to Monu Kumar's betrayal, and precisely what it means that he will be "produced" in court today. Oh, yes, and "The turtles...were in...possession of Monu Kumar."

My daughter and I left the heated, wet air of Washington/Maryland/Virginia in early evening. It was cooler than it had been all week, but soupy nonetheless. Hot in the sun and no less hot in the shade, the shade that in the mid-Atlantic, in summer, is always softened by moisture. You could say the shadows are soggy in summer. Or you could say they are free of edges, especially with the constant August thundershowers. Until you've been to the desert, you don't know the meaning of shade.

We returned to Long Beach Airport, landing at 8:16 p.m., and stepped down to the tarmac. The air was crisp and snappy, like a piece of fresh xerox paper. And it was almost cool. My husband met us. We got in the car. The 710 ramp was blocked -- a detour proposed. So we ended up approaching L.A. on the Harbor Freeway. Which gave us a head-on view of 17 miles of fire high in the sky. Like a broken necklace. On fire: the defining edge of our geography.

I was glad my daughter was asleep.

The "culture shock" came in realizing how calmly we drove toward the fire, on our way home to go to sleep not so many miles below.