It stands five blocks from the flashing lights of L.A. Live, around the small intersection of 12th and Valencia streets in the Pico-Union neighborhood. People who live nearby have walked by the old building their whole lives without knowing its story.
“I came to the neighborhood when I was only five years old and I still remember my brother took me to sneak in that house,”recalled 60-year-old George Alvarez. “We saw all the beautiful stained glass within; that is the beautiful time in my life.”
It is little known that the house was built in 1906 as Temple Sinai, the first Conservative Jewish temple in Los Angeles. In 1925, Temple Sinai began a slow migration that would eventually take it to Westwood as the Jewish community in Los Angeles shifted from east to west. Standing still, the house went through several changes of ownership，the waves of Central American immigration and numerous earthquakes.
In the end of 2012, the house welcomed its new owner, Jewish musician Craig Taubman. Taubman was attracted by the Jewish heritage at first; but what interested him later were the possibilities for a new kind of community center for people of all faiths to break bread, share performances and to celebrate.
The Pico-Union neighborhood is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods and poorest urban neighborhoods in the United States, and that it is 85 percent Latino. The median household income of 2008 was $ 26,464, which was low for the city of Los Angeles and low for the whole county.
Inside of this historic building, Taubman opened his non-profit organization: the Pico-Union Project, and started to build a multi-faith community art center for the Pico-Union neighborhood.
“If you walk around, you will see nothing here really: there is a liquor store on the corner; there is no market with local organic product anywhere;”said Taubman. “The nearest theater we have is LA Live, which is extremely expensive for the neighborhood.”
“As a songster, I really want to take high quality art pieces and productions to the neighborhood,”Taubman said.
The Pico-Union Project has organized several big-scale activities so far, including the Thanksgivukkah Festival in November, marking the unusual convergence of Thanksgiving with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, and a concert by Israel musician David Broza in January. The success of these events attracted several hundred people to join.
Nevertheless, few people from the neighborhood took part in these or any other events the project organized.The community outreach coordinator of the Pico-Union Project, Kendall Dill, described her work as “Challenging yet rewarding.”
“The more time I spent here and more people I met here, I realized things we have done here are really encouraging in terms of community development,”said Dill, who lives in Studio City and works at Pico-Union. “But it’s been very challenging because I feel that has a lot of to do with the neighborhood’s mindset.”
“For people that are really set for their faith and their ways of living, sharing a house of worship and enjoy different kinds of art sometimes can be tricky,”Dill continued.
The organization did a mixture of flyers that are usually printed in Spanish and English to distribute; and also keeps updating on social websites such as Facebook. Dill and other staff were also reaching out for other organizations that are serving Pico-Union, such as the Youth Policy Institute, an organization that provides after-school programs for students from low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods to learn skills they can apply to high wage jobs. The Pico-Union neighborhood was one of the institute’s primary targets.
Estephania Vazquez now works as the Pico-Union community liaison for the Youth Policy Institute. Vazquez was born and raised in Pico-Union. After graduating from the University of California at Riverside, she returned to where she was born, eagerly to contribute to the neighborhood. Vazquez and Dill were bringing the two organizations together to create new programs for students in the neighborhood.
“What we feel about the Pico-Union Project is also what we feel about ourselves. We are kind of new to the community; Pico-Union has been there just a year and a lot of people do not know them yet,”said Vazquez. “But it always a good thing to have organization like Pico-Union Project to devote to the neighborhood and trying to do something good.”
As the personal experience of Vazquez in the Pico-Union Neighborhood showed, it will remain a challenge for organizations like Pico-Union Project to truly get in touch with the residents. In a neighborhood where most people were born in either Mexico or El Salvador, the inner connection within groups stays strong. There is natural resistance to a multicultural organization.
The future was challenging, but Dill was optimistic.
“I grew up very modestly and I did not have that kind of luxury to really go to great movies and concerts for free with my family; and under the economy now, it is a lot harder for families to do so,”said Dill. “It is great to have a space that is kind of like a hub for the neighborhood to enjoy art.”
“Slowly, the neighborhood is realizing that there is a new place called Pico Union Project and our doors are always open,”said Dill.
George Alvarez finally got to know what Pico-Union Project was about recently. He was thrilled to revisit the site of his beautiful childhood memory.
“I will take my friends and family over,”said Alvarez. “It doesn’t matter what you believe, doesn’t matter how you looks, and doesn’t matter how much money you got. What really important is to have a good relationship with one another.”
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