Woman’s Club under New Leadership

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Sue

Kathy Dunbar Later is the new Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club President.

Kathy Dunbar Later is the new Woman’s Club President and has exciting plans for the coming year.

She told CTN that “The Woman’s Club has been dark for a year and we are bringing back as many traditions as we can! Watch for announcements on Grants and the Town’s 90th Birthday Party.

“As Covid restrictions allow, we also plan to join forces with other local organizations like the YMCA and Historical Society to create even more community events,” Dunbar Later said. “We’re starting to plan another Wine Tasting Event in February and will participate in the 4th of July Parade.”

 

Later, who grew up West Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University, spent a lot of her childhood at her grandparents’ farms. She still is in touch with high school friends and “eight of us are traveling to Naples, Florida to celebrate our 70th birthdays this month!”

She attended the University of Oregon, majoring psychology and early childhood education. Later was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and is now on that sorority’s advisory board at UCLA.

Although one of her jobs in high school was the 5:30 a.m. shift at Dunkin Donuts and claims she “learned how to carry six cups of coffee without spilling,” her first adult job was with a Portland travel agent.

“Luckily, I progressed up the ladder pretty quickly and managed Mercer Island Travel in Seattle then moved to San Francisco to work for Royal Viking Line,” Later said, noting that the cruise industry became her passion. “I was one of the first 25 employees of Crystal Cruises based in Los Angeles.”

She retired four years ago as director of reservations.

Later had moved from Seattle to Los Angeles 21 years ago and bought a house in Westchester. Shortly after she met her husband Roger, who had graduated from Santa Monica High School. Both were single until they married in their early 50s.

“We were fortunate to have a beautiful wedding on the beach at The Beach Club and now live within walking distance of the beach!” she said.

Roger had a home near Santa Monica airport, which they remodeled, never expecting to move again, but then . .. “I found a house for sale on Michael Edlen’s website and that brought us to Rustic Canyon where we have lived for the last eight years.”

About six years ago, she joined the Woman’s Club, because she knew would be retiring and wanted to give back to the community.

“The first year I retired I was elected vice-president, in charge of Home Tour,” Later said. “What an incredible experience and a lot of work!  I remember feeling rewarded and thinking how much more you get back when you give.”

She pointed out that since she didn’t grow up here and didn’t have a network that many residents have from schools/children, “It meant the world to me the first time I was able to walk from PPWC down Sunset to the bank, stop in to say hi to Susan at The Gift Garden and run into people I had only known a short while and smile and say ‘hi!’

“That experience was grounding and something I hadn’t felt since I left my hometown in Indiana,” Later said. “All thanks to the Woman’s Club and the community of Pacific Palisades.”

She mentioned that the club had surveyed members and there might be new plans such as game nights, hiking, meals together at local restaurants and classes.

“We have discussed launching an intriguing and exciting Virtual Home Tour for this year’s biggest fund raiser,” Later said. “Covid restrictions have given us the opportunity to think out of the box and the Home Tour could be so interesting if we incorporate personality, a gorgeous home, gardens and art and décor in one really good ‘tour.’  If we could find an experienced cinematographer to volunteer their time, we have someone already lined up to coordinate the project!”

Interested members can e-mail membership@theppwc.org (visit: theppwc.org) and to be contacted by Membership Chair, Emily Scheid.  Membership for the year is $100 and “While we won’t be up to full speed, it’s a great time to join in and become familiar with our PPWC family,” Later said. “While there are no restrictions to membership, we anticipate our members are not only community spirited but also want to join for friendship, fun and philanthropy!”

Recipients of the Woman’s Club grants in 2020 were all smiles as they showed their checks.

ABOUT THE WOMAN’S CLUB:

The development of the philanthropic club parallels the growth of Pacific Palisades. Initially, the JOC (Jesus Our Companion) were Methodist women, with the male equivalent called the We Boys. As the town grew, so did the club and in 1925, women who were not Methodist were allowed to join (and it became the Woman’s Club).

After meeting in homes, church basements and open meadows, the group in 1950 decided to raise money for an assembly hall. At that time there were about 300 members and 200 juniors.

The first building was Quonset-hut style with no bathrooms and a single room. By 1956, the original building, at 901 Haverford, had been paid off and money was raised to add the restrooms, a kitchen, foyer, stage and lanai. The kitchen was updated in 1965.

In 1970, the Woman’s Club and the Junior Woman’s Club separated. In 1973, the Club bought the land that bordered Temescal Canyon, which today is the lower parking lot.

In 1984, minor interior decorating was done, which may have been when the mosaic tile on the fireplace was painted white, wallpaper added, and white wood picket fence placed on walls.

In 2014 over three years, a major renovation was done on the clubhouse to update the bathrooms, kitchen and lighting.

The Woman’s Club and the Junior Women’s Club once again merged in 2012 under the leadership of Tricia Grossman and Trish Bowe.

Annually, the club gives grants to nonprofits in the community and over the decades has awarded more than $1.5 million to local groups.

The club is rented out to community groups but has a contract with Seven Arrows School through December.

Posted in Community, General | 1 Comment

One Woman Starts Homeless Email Campaign

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Sue

Pacific Palisades volunteers were told how to deal with the needles left behind by the homeless when cleaning up a campsite.

On April 5, a resident of Studio City started a daily email campaign. This individual was frustrated because there had been no response from Councilmember Paul Kerkorian and Mayor Eric Garcetti about the plight of the homeless.

The resident told Circling the News in an email, “I finally got fed up (after years) and I realized that I was just one person emailing, calling, using social media to tell the officials how disgusted I was by the unbelievable filth and crime that I was surrounded by in my (once lovely) Studio City neighborhood. But what really put me over the edge was the fact that the homeless were dying on the street (just blocks away) and NO ONE CARED. What kind of society are we?”

The resident participated in a neighborhood Zoom call, and most were at loss how to get help for the homeless. “My idea was to flood all 60 elected officials and representatives with one email a day for the month of April,” the resident said, noting that everyone would send the same letter and demands. “The goal was to overwhelm and get the attention of the officials.”

About 75 neighbors immediately contacted her. She then researched officials’ emails to make sure they were correct and then sent instructions to those who wanted to participate. “I send everyone a ‘reminder’ email each morning.”

Neighbors asked her to extend the campaign to May, which she has done. “The idea is to get the attention of the elected officials — the residents of the city are fed up and want something done to clean up our neighborhoods. This is NOT about denigrating the homeless, it’s about doing something to help them.”

CTN is not sharing the individual’s name, because “homeless advocates” then troll and try to disrupt the campaign. The individual said that she is hearing from residents from all over the city that they are tired of the status quo and want something done.

During a Recreation and Park Commissioners meeting several months ago (as reported by CTN), many people in North Hollywood spoke against the tiny homes for homeless that were being placed in two City parks in that area.

“While laudable, this is not a sustainable solution for 66,000 homeless people and there are a few concerns,” the woman said and listed her community’s top three concerns.

  1. Many of the homeless do not want to move into the tiny homes due to the rules. There is a curfew and rules against drugs, alcohol and weapons. “I have also heard that convicted felons are not accepted,” she said. “This leaves the most dangerous people on the streets.”
  2. The privatization of park land has taken the area away from people in the most disadvantaged areas of North Hollywood: those who mostly live in crowded apartments.
  3. Paul Kerkorian, a very powerful councilman, has awarded “no bid” contracts to his political friends to build and run these “tiny homes” and has decided to build three villages and other bridge housing and apartment homes in North Hollywood, in direct opposition to the guidelines of the H bonds which state that shelters have to be equally distributed in all communities.

The Studio City resident supplied the list of demands that are being sending to officials:

  • Comply with Judge Carter’s fiscal order and provide enough shelter to satisfy Martin v Boise

  • Expand the definition of gravely disabled

  • Expand conservatorship laws

  • Repeal the Lanterman-Petris Short Act

  • Repeal the ACLU case: Jones vs the City of LA

  • Enforce existing “people with disabilities” laws

  • Use H & HHH Bonds to quickly move people into simple shelter

  • Obey the mandate that shelters be distributed equally among neighborhoods

  • Make drug and mental health treatment mandatory

  • Name an MD who specializes in addiction & mental health to the homeless committee

  • Incarcerate criminals, instead of releasing them into our streets with no support

  • Return policing to the police and above all else, hold people accountable for their actions

“I hope to grow our voices against (what I believe) is the destruction of our beautiful city,” she said.

Trash lines the beaches in Venice by homeless encampments, and also the streets near the ocean.

Posted in Homelessness | 1 Comment

OBITUARY: Col. Richard Littlestone, Community Activist, Responsible for the New VA Columbarium

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Sue

Col. Richard Littlestone, a long-time Palisadian and activist, died in his sleep on May 15. He was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1923.

In 2019, Littlestone wrote to Circling the News, “Thanks for the delightful article on Route 66. Our family: my mother, father, brother and I, moved from the Chicago area to L.A. in 1929, driving the original Route 66.”

Littlestone transferred from UCLA to Berkeley in 1942 and was enlisted in a Navy reserve program. But in 1943, he was drafted by the U.S. Army. Then, out of 2,400 draftees, the commander recommended him to West Point, where there were 120 openings for active-duty soldiers. He was sent to Amherst College for courses and entered West Point in 1944, graduating in 1947.

Dick’s first assignment was in Germany, and he had to be in Brooklyn by July 19, 1948. He married his wife Doris in Los Angeles on July 11, the day before her 19th birthday, and even though he didn’t have orders for her to accompany him overseas, the two started driving across the country.

Their first night, in Barstow, Dick called to see if Doris had received clearance. He repeated the call from Las Vegas and every other stop until they arrived in Des Moines, where he finally was told she could accompany him.

Littlestone spent 32 years in the Army, serving as a battalion operations officer in Korea and a logistics officer in Vietnam. His valor and skill earned him a number of decorations including the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and more than a dozen other medals.

In one of many notes to CTN, Littlestone wrote: “For most of that time in the Army, I was stationed, with Doris and our children, in other states and countries. Over those years, we drove Route 66 many times with our children to return to LA for visits with family & friends. An enduring sight along the Route was the changing series of fun Burma-Shave signs.”

The couple had three children — Richard, Nanette and Mark — and Doris remembers that he didn’t see his daughter until she was 16 months old because he was in Korea.

The couple, who were married 72 years, moved to the Huntington Palisades in 1972.

After 32 years of military service, Littlestone went back to school and received a master’s degree in business from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA, adding to his master’s degree in physics and nuclear engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

He served as Chair and Professor of the UCLA Department of Military Science and Associate Director of the UCLA Computers and Information Systems Research Program in the Graduate School of Management.

One day, Littlestone learned that Los Angeles vets had to be buried in Riverside, because the National Cemetery in Westwood had been filled by 1978. He started a one-man campaign in 1997 to have the VA build a Columbarium at the West L.A. Veterans Administration campus, which turned into a 22-year effort.

In 2014, Littlestone told the press: “When I started working on this, I was doing it for the veterans in Los Angeles.” And then he underwent open-heart surgery and suffered from shingles and worried that his wife would have to travel a long distance to his gravesite.

But his pleasant, quiet and determined persistence of contacting news media, Congressman Henry Waxman and different VA Secretaries finally paid off. In 2017 there was a ground-breaking ceremony for the Columbarium, which can hold ashes for nearly 100,000 veterans. The site was dedicated in October 2019.

Littlestone also volunteered on the 1984 Olympics Youth Activities Subcommission, whose report led to the creation of the LA84 Foundation, which has provided an average of $7 million in grants each year to youth sports activities and installations throughout Southern California.

In addition to belonging to Ronald Reagan American Legion Post 283, Dick was also active in Pacific Palisades Rotary. Members remembered him at a May 18 meeting. One said, “He was always a worker; always had a project in mind. His motto was always helping others.” Another commented, “He was a good guy, someone I was proud to associate with. He was not self-important.

Littlestone, with the help of then-Councilman Marvin Braude, got a stop sign installed at the corner of Antioch and Swarthmore.

“That was my first community doing and I’ve been trying to help out ever since,” Littlestone said in an interview. He later worked to get the left-turn signal installed at Mandeville and Sunset, the streetlights in the Huntington Palisades upgraded and a safer student drop-off plan adopted at Paul Revere Middle School.

Pacific Palisades Community Council President David Card said, “He single handedly got the homeowners association and the city to beautify the little street island at Alma Real and Ocampo. He made every effort to phone and write to get people to help him accomplish it.”

More recently, Littlestone was working on the sidewalk on Antioch (at the driveway next to Cafe Vida), which is not handicapped accessible. He had sent several letters to CTN and to Councilman Mike Bonin’s office.

He is survived by his wife Doris, children Rick (Toni), Nanette (Peter) and Mark (Allison) and grandsons Cooper and Hudson. Services, which will be held at the Columbarium, have not yet been set. Cards may be sent to 1158 26th Street #401, Santa Monica, CA 90403.

Dick Littlestone in front of the traffic island on Alma Real he helped beautify.

Posted in Obituaries | Leave a comment

Palisades Civic League Meets Monday

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Sue

The plans for the house at 600 Via de la Paz will come before the Civic League on Monday.

The Pacific Palisades Civic League will meet via Zoom on Monday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. because of the current stay-at-home, social distancing edicts. (The meetings are generally held the fourth Monday of each month.)

This is a perfect opportunity for Palisades residents to follow the Civic League process from home, by emailing office.ppcl@gmail.com for Zoom meeting information.

Under NEW BUSINESS: A new single-family, two-story residence at 15907 Asilomar and a second-story addition at 14640 McKendree.

Under OLD BUSINESS: Four homes are under review: 600 Via de la Paz, 1106 Monument, 1106 Fiske and 15228 DePauw.

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Homeless Task Force to Feature Dr. Jonathan Sherin, Director of the County Department of Mental Health

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Sue

 

The Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness will host an important meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 24. The guest speaker, mental health expert Dr. Jonathan Sherin, will address “Ending the ‘Off & On’ Street Cycle of Severely Mentally Ill People.”

The two social workers who have been hired by the PPTFH to assist homeless individuals living on the streets, canyons and hillsides in Pacific Palisades describe confronting mentally ill homeless people who require law enforcement or paramedic assistance.

The PPTFH states, “We hear that these individuals were put on a ‘5150’ hold. They disappear only to return a few days later in the same or worse condition. This is the disturbing ‘Off & On’ street cycle that increasing numbers of our mentally ill homeless people must endure and so must the communities in which they live.”

Members of the Task Force on Homelessness tried to get Timmy off the streets. He resisted the PPTFH efforts and died on the streets.

PPTFH invites the community to listen on Zoom as Sherin discusses pathways to end this painful, destructive cycle through stratifying the homeless population, policy reform and collective action.

In a December 2020 L.A.Times OpEd piece co-authored by Sherin (“Our Mental Health Laws Are Failing”), he wrote:

“We see them every day.

“They are people like C, a woman in her mid-50s who has for years lived mostly in the parking lot of a Hollywood mall. She suffers from untreated, severe psychotic illness as well as from diabetes and hypertension. She spends much of her time talking to herself angrily and screaming profanities at passersby. Unfortunately, trapped by her profound sickness, she has resisted repeated attempts by L.A. County’s mental health workers to connect her with care and housing.

“Or there’s B, a man in his early 30s who lives next to the 110 Freeway, sleeping away much of his life wrapped in a soiled blanket on the ground. He is addicted to crystal meth, appears malnourished and has numerous skin lesions on his arms and face. He doesn’t speak much, and although he has accepted food and water from mental health outreach workers, he refuses all efforts to connect him with other resources, including housing.

“C and B suffer from different types of disease, but they both exemplify one of the chief challenges in trying to address chronic homelessness in California: Many people who live on the streets are unable or unwilling to accept services because of crippling mental illness, addiction or both.

. .  . . “Today, the law allows for people presenting acute emergencies to be involuntarily hospitalized for short-term holds. But brief hospital stays rarely lead to a future in which people suffering like C and B can recover and live safely in communities. In fact, repeated short-term hospitalizations can be traumatic. But the bar on longer term, mandatory treatment is set arbitrarily high.

“If a person can articulate plans for providing for their food, clothing and shelter, even if that means getting donated food and clothes and sleeping in a tent on the street, that is enough to keep them from being considered ‘gravely disabled’ in many courts under current state law.”

. . . “Meanwhile, neighborhoods are left to deal with the fallout from our policy failures. In many areas of Los Angeles, families are understandably afraid to take their children to supermarkets or playgrounds, or to walk under local freeways. Not surprisingly, these concerns are festering into outright animosity toward the unhoused and toward local governments.”

After graduating from Brown University, Sherin pursued his graduate studies at the University of Chicago and Harvard Medical School, and his residency in psychiatry at UCLA.

Currently, he is director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) and oversees the largest public mental health system in the United States with an annual budget approaching $3 billion.

Prior to joining the County, Sherin served for more than a decade at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he held a variety of posts, most recently as chief of mental health for the Miami VA Healthcare System.

Questions are welcome and can be sent for Sherin through the PPTFH website pptfh.org, when registering for the event.

Posted in Homelessness | 2 Comments

Foo Fighters Named to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Sue

Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters performed at the Palisades Fourth of July concert in 2013.
Photo: Rosalie Huntington

Although there won’t be a concert this year with the Palisades Fourth of July Celebration, many people may remember back to 2013, when Foo Fighter and Palisades resident Chris Shiflett performed.

On May 2, the Foo Fighters led by Dave Grohl, performed at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium, when the international aid group Global Citizen presented “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World,” one of the first concerts after the Covid shutdown.

Then on May 12, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame officially announced this year’s inductees in the Performers category: Foo Fighters, The Go-Go’s, Jay-Z, Carole King, Todd Rundgren, and Tina Turner.

Three of the inductees, Grohl, Turner, and King, are entering the Hall of Fame for the second time. King was inducted along with her former songwriting partner Gerry Goffin in 1990 as a non-performer, Tina Turner entered in 1991 as half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo, and Grohl became a member of the Rock Hall as Nirvana’s drummer in 2014.

Grohl spoke to Rolling Stone about the new honor for the Foo Fighters “I’m mostly happy for Pat [Smear] and Nate [Mendel] and Chris [Shiflett] and Taylor [Hawkins] and Rami [Jaffee]. I don’t think any of us ever imagined that this would happen.

“But also, if there’s one common thread that’s run through the last 25 years of being in this band, it’s that everything just falls in our laps. It really does, like having the band begin with a simple demo tape, which was finished right around the time Sunny Day Real Estate was breaking up, and Pat Smear hearing the tape and offering his service.

“Then we made our second record and were let out of our contract due to a ‘key man clause’ because Gary Gersh was the president of Capitol Records. He was the man that signed Nirvana to Geffen. And we had a clause that said if he were to leave the company, we were free to go as well. So he left the company and we were free to go. Then we weren’t obligated to be a band. We decided to continue because we loved being a band. We built a studio in my basement, not knowing what we were doing, nailing sleeping bags on the wall for soundproofing.

“And then coming out of that, winning Grammys … I don’t know. It just seems like this band has been in the right place at the right time for the past 25 years.

It’s funny. There’s never been a boardroom full of people discussing any career direction or decision. It’s the same eight people for 25 years that follow our gut instincts. If it doesn’t feel right, we just don’t do it.”

Foo Fighter Chis Shiflett is being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In a 2013 story, I interviewed Chris Shiflett, who lives with his wife and three children in town. He was a genuinely nice, down-to-earth guy, and famous as the lead guitarist in the Foo Fighters, which has been nominated 25 times for a Grammy (winning 11 times, including Best Rock Album in 2001, 2004, 2008 and 2013 – more than any other band).

Shiflett sat down and explained why he agreed to headline the Palisades concert. “I’m usually on tour around the Fourth of July,” he said. “But last year I took my kids down to PaliHi and saw The English Beat. We had a blast, so I was totally up for it when they approached me about playing this year.”

The timing was also right. “Foo Fighters are gonna be off the road for a while and probably won’t start working on a new album until the beginning of next year,” said Shiflett, who had just come off a tour with that group promoting their album “Wasting Light.” Dead Peasants, which was formed in 2010, played the Stagecoach Festival in Indio in April, and is compiling gigs for the July 30 release of its second album.

“Pacific Palisades is like a teeny Santa Barbara tucked away in a corner of Los Angeles,” said Shiflett, who grew up in Santa Barbara. “There’s a sense of community here that you don’t get in other parts of Los Angeles. This is the only place I’ve ever lived in LA where we know most of our neighbors.”

A Palisades resident since 2002, Shiflett was the third of three boys. His father was a sociology professor, who exposed his sons to the music of the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

“My two older brothers played guitar and they were the biggest musical influence in my life,” said Shiflett, who started playing guitar as an 11-year-old. “All we cared about when we were kids was music and I wanted to be like them.”

His oldest brother Mike still teaches guitar at Jensen Guitar and Music in Santa Barbara, the school where Shiflett learned to play, and his middle brother Scott plays with the punk rock band Face to Face.

Shiflett was asked if it was difficult to go back and forth from country to rock-and-roll.

“You can draw a straight line from Hank Williams to The Clash,” he said. “The two genres are closely related. George Jones and Buck Owens early recordings were practically rockabilly, and I’ve always had an ear for twangy American music.

“Hank Williams is the perfect pre-rock and roll rebel archetype,” Shiflett added. “He had all the talent in the world but couldn’t get out of his own way.”

Shiflett has spent hours investigating and playing honky tonk from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. “We dug into back catalogs of people’s work. I wanted to get my head around this kind of music, so I could make it natural to me.”

One reviewer described Shiflett’s new direction: “This highlights Chris’s versatility and skill not only as a guitarist—showcasing his deft playing in an entirely new light—but also as a songwriter: the songs are some of the best, most realized that he’s written.”

In 2017, Shiflett released his first solo album “West Coast Town,” a collection of original honky tonk tracks, and in 2019, he released a second solo album “Hard Lessons.” 

And now, Shiflett will join the Foo Fighters in being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And next year, when there might be a Fourth of July concert. . . .do you think Shiflett might want to play for his hometown, again?

Posted in Arts | Leave a comment

AYSO Soccer Fall 2021 Registration Underway

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Sue

Everyone plays with AYSO.
Photo: Courtesy AYSO

Recognized as a Platinum Region for its outstanding soccer program, AYSO Region 69, is now open for registration. All children born between 2003 and 2017, are eligible to play.  Unlike many sports organizations, at least 45 percent of the players with AYSO are girls.

This is an all-volunteer organization that has served Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and adjoining areas since 1975. The mission is to deliver a quality soccer program while building a positive character.

AYSO’s philosophies are 1) Open Registration, 2) Everyone Plays, 3) Balanced Teams, 4) Positive Coaching, 4) Good Sportsmanship and 5) Player Development.

Unlike club soccer, in AYSO everyone has equal playing time and positive coaching is emphasized—kids are not screamed at or pulled from a game because a coach emphasizes winning over player development.

Long-time volunteer Debbie Held said, “We invite you to join our AYSO Family, and look forward to meeting all of you. We need many volunteer coaches and referees and provide training, so don’t forget to sign up to volunteer when you register your children.”

To register visit: ayso69.org and go to the registration tab.

Parents who register by June 15, will receive the early registration discount of $360. After June 15, the cost is $400 and after August 1 it is $440. Parents are urged to register early, so players are ensured of being placed on a team, rather than waitlisted.

Those that do register early will receive one free day at any of the Region 69 Summer soccer camp sessions (two weeks each month at Palisades Recreation Center). Visit: aspiresoccercoaching.com for dates.

 Held said, “We do expect to provide a normal season this fall.  The last nine months, many of our families participated in our Practice Only program, which was conducted by our trainers. During the regular season, the trainers will provide assistance to coaches.”

 

 

Posted in Kids/Parenting, Sports | Leave a comment

Two Councilman’s Different Views on the Palisades Fire

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Sue

Photographer Gary Baum captured the fixed-wing MD-80 plane, laying down fire retardant at the Palisades Fire.
(Photo may not be used without Baum’s permission).

Councilmember Mike Bonin in CD 11 wrote on Twitter:

“Arson is a heinous felony and the person responsible for setting the #PalisadesFire and risking the lives of residents and firefighters should be prosecuted and held fully accountable. Intentionally setting a fire to cause harm or damage is a despicable crime and must be punished.

“Arson is a crime committee by an individual and not a person’s housing status. Suggesting the suspect’s housing status is a contributing factor to the crime is irresponsible, and implies other people experiencing homelessness are inherently more dangerous or more likely to commit arson than housed people.

“I cannot recall a public official or the media every highlighting that a fire was set by, or a crime committed by, a housed individual, although most are. This was not an encampment fire; it was arson. The arson’s suspect’s housing status is no more relevant than his race, his religion, or his sexual orientation. Exploiting this incident to stoke anti-homeless sentiment is irresponsible and harmful.”

 

Councilmember Joe Buscaino in CD 15 wrote in a message he shared with the press:

“This morning the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that the suspect in the Palisades fire has been charged with arson and was identified as a homeless individual.

“Our homelessness crisis is destroying neighborhoods and endangering the lives of the housed and unhoused. Over sixty percent of the fires that the LAFD has responded to this year have been related to homelessness. Allowing unregulated sprawling encampments is not compassionate, it’s reckless.

“That’s why we must act now on passing regulations that will return the rights of every Angeleno to enjoy our public spaces, and prohibit encampments whenever people are offered shelter. We must support safe and clean sidewalks, parks, and beaches. We must support a livable city where we can raise our children without being subjected rampant crime on our streets.”

 

 

Posted in Accidents/Fires, City/Councilman Mike Bonin | 5 Comments

Palisades-Malibu YMCA Expands Hours; Swimmers Can Access Early-Morning Lanes at PaliHi 

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Sue

Palisades-Malibu YMCA is open and expanding hours for members.

The Palisades-Malibu YMCA has expanded its hours for members, making machines and weights available from 7 to 11 a.m. and from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Circling the News visited the gym on Friday and there were several clients working out with weights and on the aerobic machines. One has to fill out a waiver and be temperature checked when entering the facility at 821 Via da la Paz.

Palisades Y Executive Director James Kirtley said, “Thank you to all of those who have supported Your Palisades Y. I often refer to the Palisades YMCA as ‘Your Pali Y’ because it truly is the community’s Y.

“We recently received feedback on the hours of Your Y through a survey,” he wrote to CTN on May 14. “We did our due-diligence and from that information made the appropriate adjustments to our operating hours. Your Y will be open Monday-Friday from 7 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Also, we are very grateful for the partnership with Palisades High School. I’m so excited for the Y to have the opportunity for Y’s members to swim again!”

There are lanes open for YMCA members on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, at either 5:45 or 6:45 a.m. in the small, warmer pool. If a member wants to swim (or take a fitness class in Simon Meadow), download the Y app and follow the instructions. If a member has a problem with the app, the helpful Y staff can assist at (310) 454-5591.

Posted in Community | 1 Comment

Calling 311: Does it Work? 

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Sue

My May 17 Musings contained an item titled “Twilight Zone,” sent by a reader who lives in the Palisades Riviera: “I thought you’d find this tidbit interesting and weird. My wife and I have discovered that L.A.’s all-purpose help line, 311, has somehow been stolen by Santa Monica! It’s very strange. We live in the Palisades, 90272. But when we now call 311 from our house line, a recording of the mayor of Santa Monica answers!”

One reader responded:

“The 311 City information line was abandoned about a year ago. I used to use it, but it was very inefficient. Many times, the operator gave me the wrong telephone number, or they were so busy that they had to call me back with the wrong information. Instead of calling 311, now you can go online: https://www.lacity.org/myla311.

“You are not in the Twilight Zone. The City replaced an inefficient system with another.”

A second reader wrote:

“I’d be willing to bet that the reader reporting this issue has a ‘landline’ from Spectrum. Since Spectrum landlines in the Palisades are served out of Spectrum’s Santa Monica office, and the Palisades is in the Santa Monica ‘Rate Area’ for billing purposes as well, Spectrum seems to lump everything together as Santa Monica.

“Apparently, it’s so chronic that Santa Monica has an option on their Auto Attendant for callers to re-route to L.A.’s 311 service.  Perhaps the reader should contact Spectrum.

“This is just one example of how a Spectrum landline is not the same as a real landline from Frontier. A Frontier landline will work during a power failure, be it in your local neighborhood or nearby neighborhoods — even if there are lengthy widespread power outages, such as after a disaster. Not so with Spectrum.

“A Frontier landline is on a dedicated circuit to their central office in the Palisades, a hardened building with multiple connections to the outside world. Most of that circuit is underground. Spectrum relies on a fiber network shared between services and many users, often with fiber redundancy. Almost the entire route is exposed overhead on telephone poles, running through trees and next to/over buildings for the approximately six mile journey to the Spectrum facility, a ‘light industrial’ type building. But Spectrum’s landline is cheaper. Is it the same? Nope.”

 

Posted in City/Councilman Mike Bonin, Community | 3 Comments