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Via Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA's) newsletter (top link), happy news for mariachi players in regard to the Mariachi Hotel at 101-105 N. Boyle Street: "Upon City Council approval, a two-year, low-interest loan will be provided to the East LA Community Corporation (ELACC). The $22.8-million project includes rehabilitating 31 affordable rental units in the Boyle Hotel, known as the Mariachi Hotel, and adding 20 new affordable units on nearby parcels." The East LA Community Corporation (ELACC) purchased the hotel in 2006. In October 2007, Evangeline Ordaz-Molin, vice-president of the ELACC, spoke with the LA Times in a Q and A: Ordaz-Molina: "...the worst thing that could happen would be a Mariachi Plaza with no Mariachis. Which would just be a repeat of what happened at Olvera Street."
Q and A continues: "And so that's part of what prompted us to buy the Boyle Hotel, or the Mariachi Hotel as people call it in the neighborhood, is that: to try to preserve some affordable housing for those mariachis so that they stay on that plaza — which they made, they created. That was a traffic island with a donut shop. And they started hanging out there, and then that's when they brought in that kiosk, which now unfortunately doesn't serve much function except to look pretty to people driving by." Plans have been in the works for a while--earlier this year, View from a Loft showed off an April 2008 edition of tu ciudad that featured a computerized rendering of the renovated hotel.
· CRA LA Press Releases [CRA LA]For more stories from Curbed LA, go to la.curbed.com.
