News Muncher - searching for heights

Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León and tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado take part in an Oct. 9 debate in Boyle Heights. Long before she uttered the words “F— the police,” Los Angeles City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado made clear she was not happy with the city’s approach to public safety. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents …

Column: Kevin de León takes a page from Trump’s playbook at Boyle Heights debate

More than 200 people packed the pews at Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights on Wednesday, and they all had one question on their minds: Where was Kevin de León? “She has lied a lot.” City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado is challenging incumbent Kevin de León. “To this date, you haven’t lifted a single finger to help nuestra gente,” De …

Ysabel Jurado made a huge splash on Los Angeles’ Eastside last spring, coming in first in the five-way primary election for a City Council seat representing neighborhoods stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock. Since 2020, the year De León took office, the city has opened “tiny-home villages” for unhoused residents in Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Boyle Heights. So has …

Voters in City Council District 14, which includes downtown, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock and other communities on L.A.’s eastern flank, have a stark choice on Nov. 5. Jurado’s strong performance over better-known and better-funded politicians speaks to both her strength as a grassroots organizer and the community’s desire for a council representative who can restore trust and address an array …

Mariachis, struggling since the pandemic, get a tiny home in Boyle Heights

For three years, mariachi musician Ramiro Becerra has been living in a motor home near Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights. “It’s the kind of life that sometimes makes you feel like you don’t want to keep on living.” Mariachi musician Ramiro Becerra checks out one of tiny homes he will move into in the Boyle Heights Tiny Home Village. Los …

Boyle Heights

Heights

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, at her family home in Boyle Heights, on Thursday is officially announcing her intention to run for Kevin de León’s City Council seat. Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo walks near “El Corrido de Boyle Heights,” a mural painted in 1983 that was defaced by graffiti. When she ran into Brenda Martinez, a member of the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council, …

Vicente Fernández, king of ranchera music, is honored with Boyle Heights street naming

From left, Alejandra Fernández, daughter of Mexican ranchera legend Vicente Fernández; Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León; Fernández’s widow, Maria del Refugio Abarca Villaseñor; and other relatives are among those celebrating the renaming of a Boyle Heights street segment after the late entertainer Friday. “Look at my playlist: Vicente Fernández makes up 80% to 90% of my songs,” said …

Vicente Fernández’s name will grace a Boyle Heights street, L.A. City Council decides

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to approve the renaming of a Boyle Heights street after legendary Mexican ranchera singer Vicente Fernández, who died in December at age 81. Bailey Street between First Street and Pennsylvania Avenue will be renamed after Mexican ranchera singer Vicente Fernández, the City Council decided on Tuesday. However, De León’s communications director, Pete Brown, …

Should Vicente Fernández get a street in Boyle Heights? Question exposes a divided legacy

Bailey Street in Boyle Heights, which runs past Mariachi Plaza, could be renamed after Mexican ranchera star Vicente Fernández. In a draft letter to De León, members of the neighborhood council’s Planning and Land Use Committee referenced a 2012 television interview in which Fernández said he refused a liver transplant because he was concerned that the donor was a “homosexual …