Saturday, November 7, 2009

Worth a Thousand Signatures

For anyone reading blogs on this fine Saturday morning, please pray for our Take a Walk photo shoot. Stephanie Yu, one of our summer camp teachers from 2008, is a senior photo-journalism major at Cal State Fullerton. She has taken time out of her very full schedule to spend the day walking down our sidewalks, camera and tripod in hand. We have a full lineup of neighbors who have volunteered to pose on some of the least passable stretches. Our subjects include senior citizens, families pushing strollers and, of course, wheelchair users. On the 2600 block of Brighton Ave., just north of our home, a large community of adults with disabilities live in a wheelchair accessible apartment complex. The building manager has helped up collect signatures from almost all of her tenants and has recruited many of them for today's photo shoot.

Yesterday, the South LA regional administrator called Richard to arrange a meeting to discuss the CRA's budget. We expect they are preparing to tell us that there is no money for the repairs and that we cannot have all the sidewalks fixed. Let's continue to pray that God would go before us and prepare the way for all this work to be completed to his glory in and through the church.

One of the ways we hope to win support for repairs is by putting a face on the hazards our broken sidewalks pose. It's one thing to scan long lists of names and signatures. It's another to look into the face of actual people who can't get to the grocery store, have been injured by falls or have found themselves physically stranded. Please pray for God to guide Stephanie's work today and for this series of portraits to have strong emotional and moral impact.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Fire Station Adventures Continue

Near the corner of Western and Adams sits a vacant fire station owned by the city of Los Angeles. It's a beautiful historic building that has been unused since 2004. Three years ago, Redeemer Community Partnership submitted a proposal to purchase and renovate it for community use. The building has space to house our tutoring program, weekly youth group meetings, rehearsals and performances by Streetlamp Studio, community group gatherings and accommodations for work project volunteers. It also has a small parking lot and a beautiful patio shaded by sycamore trees and a wisteria-covered arbor. After a lengthy and (frankly) exhausting process, the city eventually turned down all three of the leading proposals, of which ours was considered the strongest. The building was boarded up and became an agenda item for neighborhood groups concerned about drug-dealing, prostitution and vandalism occurring around the property.

Yesterday the city released a new Request for Proposals to purchase this property. The original asking price of $760,000 has been reduced to $316,000. The process will be managed by the Community Redevelopment Agency. Proposals are due December 14th, following a Pre-Submittal Conference on November 18th.

We have many, many questions about whether to pursue this opportunity. Purchasing and renovating property poses challenges under any circumstances. The current economic climate, the historical nature of the building and city politics add extra complexity. But our programs are experiencing more and more growing pains at our current facility. Since RCP's September board meeting we have been praying earnestly for God to provide us with a more stable, physical "home." Could he be leading us back to this beautiful but complicated possibility?

Would you pray for God to guide our steps over the next couple weeks as we decide what to do?