My friends over the 1947project have done a soft launch of their new
site. Instead of selecting another year for daily entries, my longtime
crime buddies (and some new authors) have chosen a vanished neighborhood:
Bunker Hill. The blog is titled "On Bunker Hill, a Lost Neighborhood Found."

Kim Cooper writes:

With this project, we intend to shine a light on a community that was
displaced by a well intentioned but misguided slum clearance plan that
tore the heart out of L.A.’s downtown, a blow the city still staggers
from. As downtown struggles to be reborn as a city center, we need a
history more than ever before. Visit On Bunker Hill this year and share
in our discoveries, or join us and contribute your own.

This is an inspired project. Years ago, my former wife and I were involved
in a somewhat similar effort in Tucson exploring a historic downtown
neighborhood that was wiped clean for urban renewal. The project was a wonderful way to make amends and ease some of the bad feelings among the Latinos who were displaced from that area.

I wish Kim Cooper, Nathan Marsak, Mary McCoy, John Toomey, Ed Fuentes (author of View From a Loft), Joan Renner, Christina Rice and Joni E. Johnston  the best of luck and I’m looking forward to their updates.

Happy Foot!

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