...(at a late hour) is twofold. First, Ed Reyes' CD1 Community Pride Day involves a cleanup at the river. About 150 early cleanup birds are expected down by the banks tomorrow morning. The event begins at the awfully specific moment of 8:05 a.m. Till 11 a.m. Chicken Corner happens to be a CD13 gal, but perhaps I'll stop in. It's the best time of year to be down by the river, and one of the most important times, too, with the increased water -- and detritus -- flows.

I assume parking will be catch as catch can, which isn't too horrible down there. For more information, click here.

The other good news is a different kind of cleanup. Again from Reyes' office. Again Saturday.

At 10:40a, more than 200 volunteers are projected to converge at MacArthur Park throughout the day for mural painting, an art gallery and clean-up. Mural artist John Zender will donate his services to restore his mural on the west tunnel at MacArthur Park. Also, Carecen will have an art gallery at the recreation center. Note, these mural cleanups are especially important with the severely limited City funds allocated for mural clean-up. [Possibly the] last time we had one was $50,000 for Chicano Time Trip mural in Lincoln Heights.

If you didn't "click here" before, click here now.

Chicken Corner is genuinely heartened by the mural event. The public outdoor murals are one of the most important distinctions of Los Angeles and one of the best ways culturally/artistically/democratically that we take advantage of our hot dry weather. I love greenscape -- even more than murals sometimes -- but I am so glad to see a mural being restored rather than first painted over and then set upon with a planting of creeping ficus, which "resists" tagging. Exhibit A in security landscaping.

Recently, I received a notice about a workshop the city was holding for landlords. One of the items it advertised was landscaping for security. Read: creeping ficus, which is 2009's version of the high-narrow windows in split-level houses of the 1970s. At least it's green. But I was curious. I considered attending the event to find out more about the subject. What, I wondered, were the best security plants? Beyond creeping ficus, that is. Do daffodils make miscreants feel good about themselves, so that they lose interest in vandalizing your property? Will cactus protect you? Will you be safer without a yardfull of poisonous plants? If you plant a rose is that a call to arms? Will the CRP get you for planting nevins (a wildflower of Bulgaria)?

Seems Chicken Corner has wandered away from the good news, just as parts of Echo Park have wandered over to Silver Lake, or so thinks the L.A. Times, which even in better days had trouble grasping the idea of two mini-city neighborhoods -- both with strong cultural identities -- right next to each other. Overlapping even!

Long live the good news.