(L-R) SLNC Beautification Committe Chair, Tom Blanchard; CD13 Environmental Deputy, Glen Dake; SLNC Co-Chair, Rusty Millar; Committee to Save Silver Lake Reservoir Chair, David Keitel

Thanks to the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council and its newly formed Beautification Committee, the Gateway to Silver Lake project (GSL) is on the move again.

GSL is the ambitious effort to beautify the area around Silver Lake Blvd and the 101 Freeway through landscaping and mural painting.  The project began as a gleam in the eye of SLIA, the Silver Lake Residents Association, the Silver Lake Chamber of Commerce, and individual businesses and residents in 1997.

With the enthusiastic support of government officials from then-State Senator Richard Polanco and then-Mayor Richard Riordan on down, and with funding from Neighborhood Matching Fund and other grants, GSL got as far as landscaping the northern median, planting trees along some of the parkways, and hiring local artists together with local youth to paint three of the eight mural surfaces beneath the freeway overpass.  Then in May 2000, all work came to a crashing halt due to a law suit that resulted from a car accident near the site.

Bea Gold, SLNC Beautification Committee

The suit led to a GSL-supportive editorial by the LA Times and was eventually dropped.  Some good even came from the tragic affair, since it moved the City Council (in a measure sponsored by 13th District Councilmember Eric Garcetti) to adopt a more comprehensive indemnification policy for community volunteers.  Still, the legal action was a devastating blow to the people most actively involved in GSL, and even after the suit was settled, the project floundered.

Enter the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) and its newly formed Beautification Committee (BC), founded by SLNC board member Michael Locke and chaired by Silver Lake resident Tom Blanchard.  With the BC's infusion of fresh blood, energy and talent, and the ongoing support of 13th Council District aide Glen Dake, GSL is once again up on its feet.

	Tom Blanchard; Vince Brook, former President SLIA, co-founder GSL Project

Adopting GSL as one of its top-priority projects, the BC quickly went into action.  A BC crew took the lead and, together with Glen Dake, did the lion's share of the work on the April 17 tree planting of the southernmost median (see photos).  And through their connection to the Neighborhood Council, the BC is also helping with funding.

As a result, GSL hopes to provide state-of-the-art mural preservation and graffiti-protection treatment to the already completed and pending murals.  As for the former, they now include Frank Romero's magical, childlike landscape with snow-flake clouds; Ralph Loynachan's glittering, kaleidoscopic collage starring Laurel & Hardy; and Joe Severino's surrealistic lake view with multi-ethnic hands rising from the depths to the sky.

The two remaining murals, by Mary Whitecloud and Eloy Torres, should be completed by the summer, as hopefully will the remainder of the median landscaping (all of which will be maintained courtesy of nearby Holiday Inn Express).  Once this pinnacle is achieved, GSL and the BC plan a neighborhood party to celebrate the day many of us at GSL (and much of the Silver Lake community as well) thought we'd never see.

Vincent Brook is a board member of SLIA and the co-founder and co-chair of GSL.

	Silver Lake Neighborhood Council
	Meeting Schedule: First Wednesday of each month, 7 pm Meeting Location: Micheltorena School 1511 Micheltorena Street Silver Lake Contact:    Jason Lyon    (323) 663-3996