VALLEYNEWS.COM WELCOMES NORTHEAST L.A. COMMUNITIES.

Byline: -- Jason Kandel

We welcome Atwater Village, Echo Park, Glassell Park, Highland Park and Los Feliz as we get people connected online in Los Angeles. All these communities now have hubs on valleynews.com.

As an introduction last week, I drove to Los Feliz to meet 82-year-old David Moss, a longtime fixture in the neighborhood in his fedora and thick horn-rimmed glasses.

He has not stopped working since retiring 15 years ago from the freight forwarding industry. On any on given day you can see David driving his Toyota 4Runner, stuffed with newspapers and books, making house calls to pick up books people want to donate to the library. He collects newspapers to get recycled, the proceeds from which he donates to Para Los Ninos, a nonprofit that provides child care, schooling and other services to at-risk children and their families.

``I go with the credo that nobody ever really retires,'' David said. ``Anybody who complains about having time on his hands is crazy.''

He gets a lot of satisfaction out of giving, especially this time of year. He's been involved in community activism for decades. His parents were active at their synagogue in Chicago in the 1930s, helping the poor during the depression.

People need help today.

``You've got the homeless. You've got rents going up all over. Senior citizens are being kicked out. Gentrification. You've got millions of people whose health insurance is being cancelled. The era isn't so different from the 30s.''

Dora Herrera, 49, the owner of the family-run Yuca's World Famous Tacos & Burritos on Hillhurst, who has known David for a decade, says he's an example for others.

``He's got a lot of love,'' she said. ``He always makes you feel like the most wonderful person in the world.''

If you take a drive over to House of Pies on the corner of Franklin and Vermont, you might see David eating a pumpkin pie in one of the corner booths.