GIGA GRANADA HILLS

FINALLY! The Kogi BBQ Truck is going to be in GRANADA HILLS tonight !!! From 10:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., Granada Hills residents will be able to savor the goodness of Korean BBQ in Mexican form right in our own backyard: at the corner of Zelzah and Chatsworth. Their web site lists the location as "Northridge," which I would find unforgivable if their tacos weren't so damned good. Believe the hype: go.

This Saturday, the Granada Hills Street Fairy will wave her magic wand over Chatsworth Street to once again bring us the Granada Hills Street Fair! E! What to look for: KRTH, a/k/a K-EARTH 101 , will be on hand to drop the funky fresh beats, with DJ's spinning trip-hop, trance, and techno, or so I have been told. Three stages of entertainment , including dance troupes and a music revue curated by Blue Ridge Pickin' Parlour. The L.A County Earthquake Simulator Truck ! That's right: i f this truck's rockin', please come knockin! Y ou can take the kids inside and let them experience what things were like back in the days when we had earthquakes. Thank god that will never happen again. Emergency preparedness info and freebies. But seriously, folks: we went 23 years between the Sylmar and Northridge quakes, so if that pattern holds, you'd better get ready by at least 2017 -- or sooner . Over 100 pre-1975 entries in the car show . A pie-eating contest ,...

It's official: the lease extension has expired, and the kids' baseball and soccer teams that use the Balboa Boulevard Youth Sports Complex must vacate the premises by November 1, 2010. On that date, Metropolitan Water District, the property owner, will reclaim the land for use as a sludge spreading field. At present, arrangements for a new Youth Sports Complex location have not been finalized. Mitch Englander, Chief of Staff for Councilman Greig Smith, told GigaGranadaHills , "I haven't heard that they have a signed lease yet, and it will be a long term lease at that. Basically, we brought everybody to the dance, identified property, and now we're moving. Everything's still in process." Englander said that funds to cover relocation expenses have already been set aside, to cover costs for infrastructure, landscaping, and other necessary improvements to the new location. The youth groups' lease on the Balboa Boulevard property expired in 2004, but an e...

Verizon has agreed to move those pesky FiOS boxes! Contra Costa Times story here. *Update* 4:31 p.m. Here is a letter on the issue from Jerry Askew of GHSNC: Good News! Verizon has tentatively agreed to relocate all of their low-mounted FiOS boxes in the City of Los Angeles. This is a huge win for our community as it will eliminate the graffiti nuisance and various hazards presented by the boxes. The agreement will be finalized at the Board of Public Works meeting on Friday, September 25th (see meeting information at the end of this email). Many cabinets can simply be raised above 8ft. on the pole. Some cabinets will need to be moved to another pole or converted to a ground-mounted cabinet (aka an Above Ground Facility or "AGF"). AGFs require a permit, notification of adjoining property owners and a public hearing. Accordingly, those may take some time to complete. There will be a minor interruption of service for Verizon's customers while their box is being rais...

A reader recently contacted me with a news tip: a plan is in place to terminate the lease on the Granada Hills Youth Sports fields up at the top of Balboa, and replace them with sludge from the water processing plant. Apparently, Metropolitan Water District owns this land and leases it to the Granada Hills Recreation center so the kiddies can have a place to play soccer and baseball. The tipster said that this season may be the kids' last at this location, and the sports fields are to be relocated to the other side of the freeway. So I did some searching, and found this Daily News editorial about the very topic. Trouble is, the article is more than four years old. It seems that this disaster has been imminent for some time now, but no action has taken place. My inquires to MWD and Granada Hills Recreation Center have not yet been answered. Anyone out there have the straight dope on this PR disaster?

Kirtan is call-and-response chanting performed in India's devotional traditions. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, the two-headed mrdanga or pakawaj drum. Refreshments will be served. Suggested donation: $15 North Valley Aikikai,16 901 San Fernando Mission Blvd. (818) 652.5025

In a stifling hot room at First Baptist Church of Granada Hills (not to be confused with Granada Hills Baptist Church), Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council meeting attendees munched pizza and chatted freely amongst themselves during a presentation by representatives from the Deaprtment of Sanitation on a city plan to make biofuels from black bin waste. The whirring of box fans and ambient chatter made it difficult to hear details of the plan, as did problems with the room's sound system. As I strained to hear, a woman sitting next to me loudly groused, "Idiots. What do they spend all that money on microphones and they don't even use them. Five thousand dollars on that sound system and it doesn't even work. Disgusting." When I began Giga Granada Hills , one of the first things I did was email all of the members of both the North and the South Neighborhood Councils, inviting them to write guest blog entries. No one responded. However, Linda Romney, who ...