Laurel Busby will be the new editor of Canyon Alliance.
New interim Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association (SMCCA) President Doug Susiman announced on March 13 that Laurel Busby had been engaged as the Canyon Alliance’s news and information editor.
Susiman, an architect and urban planner is working on a cohesive plan to bring all five neighborhoods in the two Canyons (Rustic and Santa Monica) into one unified group, The Canyon Alliance (http://the-canyon.org).
Especially after the Palisades Fires, the evacuations and the mud slides following the fires, Suisman felt there was a need for “Canyon residents to get reliable, up-to-date news and information regarding the Canyon’s recovery, emergency response, disaster preparedness, and initiatives for greater resilience.”
In his email to residents, he listed Busby’s accomplishments, which included a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder and that she had worked with The Palisadian Post, The Palisades News, and Circling the News, which means she is familiar with the Palisades and the Canyon.
The plan is to have Busby connect directly from representatives in all five neighborhoods and the Alliance.
“She’ll receive and edit news and information directly from Canyon residents and via online platforms such as WhatsApp, Google Groups, and group texts,” Suisman said. “She’ll also review and disseminate critical Canyon-wide information via that can be shared immediately across the Canyon.”
(Editor’s note: Doug Suisman is the author of “Los Angeles Boulevard,” considered a classic urban study of America’s second largest city. The book’s 25th anniversary edition was released in 2014. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, UCLA, USC, and UC Berkeley. He has won numerous design awards including The Future Project of the Year award at the 2010 World Architecture Festival. Locally, he designed the entrance to the Palisades High School at Temescal Canyon Road and Bowdoin Street. In 2014 he told this editor: “We want to transform the corner from a dangerous entrance and an eyesore and bring back the view obscured by benches and fences and the [digital] sign. You should be able to sit here and look all the way down Temescal and see the water.”)