Santa Monica Dispatch

By Ava Tramer

Beaches
Mostly sunny and warming
Highs: 59-68; Lows: 44-47

Inland
Mostly clear
Highs: 58-69; Lows: 36-41

Deserts
Mostly sunny
Highs: 59-71; Lows: 42-47

And Santa Monica…
There once was a girl named Sally,
Who lived in a dark little alley.
The clouds she enjoyed,
The sun she’d avoid,
She never should go to South Cali!

Three decades ago, California’s public schools, colleges and universities were, in the words of the New York Times’ Max Frankel, “the eighth wonder of the world.”

Models for the rest of the world, they offered a peerless education for very little money, so any student could go as far as he wanted to go – K through PhD., There and then, California students, at all levels, were the best and the brightest in the nation.

But the passage of Prop 13 in the late 1970s triggered deep and continuing cuts in school funding, and, today, our secondary schools are among the worst in the country and ever- rising tuition at our colleges and universities has excluded many qualified students from higher education.

Howard Jarvis led the so-called taxpayers’ revolt that led to Prop 13. He’s dead now, but the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is still crowing about its “victory,” which only confirms what we have always known –- that these people are dumber than lumber and meaner than woodpeckers.

If, as has been said, the American presidency is the toughest job in the world, then succeeding the worst president in American history will be immeasurably tougher.

Imagine that New Orleans is America and George Bush is Katrina and you’ll have some idea of the havoc he has wreaked in seven years.

The next American President will have to undo virtually everything Bush has done here and around the world, repair everything he has broken – including the Constitution, sweep up all the ugly debris he leaves behind, and do it all quickly, so he or she can revive America’s ideals and its promise and lead us out of the miasma that has enveloped the nation since Bush was anointed president by the Supreme Court in 2000.

“In the iconography of American politics, California more than amyplace is where candidates, in Mario Cuomo’s words, ‘campaign in poetry.’ Odes to the state’s embrace of youth, change and possibility still linger in Democratic presidential politics.” according to New York Times reporter John Harwood, who went on to report that candidate Barack Obama recently said, “California has always represented the future in this country. I’ve got a little piece of California in me.”

Maria Shriver, California’s first lady, seconded the notion, and expanded on it at the boisterous Obama rally in Pauley Pavilion At UCLA Sunday when she said that if Obama were a state, he’d be California: “Diverse. Open, Smart. Independent. Bucks tradition. Innovative. Inspirational. Dreamer. Leader.”

The crowd agreed. We do, too.

Former New York governor Mario Cuomo, the most eloquent, idiosyncratic and elusive politician of the 1980s, almost ran for President several times.

If you missed the rally, at which Michelle Obama, the candidate’s wife, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late Presiddet John F, Kennedy and Oprah Winfrey also appeared , go to www.cspan.com and click on Obama rally at UCLA to see the video.

All major news media named Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton probable winners of their parties’ California primaries Tuesday, February 5, though at 2 a.m., Wednesday, 30 percent of the state’s precincts had still not reported.

Nationally, McCain ran well ahead of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in the delegate race split the conservative vote.

McCain led with 497 delegates, followed by 200 for Romney and 141 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination.

With New Mexico still too close to call and California votes incomplete, Clinton has 823 delegates, while Obama has 732, with 2,025 delegates needed for the nomination.

The Associated Press’s projected state wins and losses: Republicans --
McCain: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma.
Huckabee: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Romney: Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Utah.

Democrats
Obama: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah.
Clinton: American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s measure R, which needed a 67 percent majority to pass, actually won 72.54 percent of the vote.

There are 70,107 registered voters in the District. About 30,000 people voted in Tuesday’s election, with 22,307 favoring R, and 8,446 opposing it.

Following the election. The SMMUSD Superintendent posted the following letter on the district website.

“On behalf of all our children, certificated and classified staff, and Board of Education, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the voters of the Santa Monica-Malibu community for their overwhelming support of public education.

The City’s Planning and Community Development Department will explore “key” boulevards — Lincoln, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Pico and Ocean Park, and have another look at the so-called industrial areas at a Saturday, February 9, community workshop.

The workshop is part of the City’s continuing effort to revise the land use and circulation elements in the General Plan.

On the workshop agenda are “integrating transportation, housing and neighborhood services at key focal points along the boulevards, linking these key activity centers with transportation solutions, defining public benefits and community services, incorporating green spaces and long-term sustainable practices.”

The workshop will take place from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at John Adams Middle School, 2426 Sixteenth Street.

According to Verizon operators, about 700.000 customers are without voice mail service, including some Santa Monica residents.

By tonight, the service had been out of order for about 36 hours, and there was no estimate as to when it would be restored.

Data was not immediately available on the number of people who, having lost their voice mail, made emergency appointments with their shrinks, trainers or life coaches.

By Ava Tramer

Beaches
Mostly sunny
Highs: 65-69; Lows: 49-51

Inland
Sunny and warm
Highs: 69-76; Lows:

Deserts
Hot and clear
Highs: 73-79; Lows: 47-53

And Santa Monica…

Dear Santa Monica,

I would like to start off this note by thanking you for your kindness. You have been nice enough to give me a few tasks to do here and there, and I have enjoyed your generosity.

However, I must tell you that I feel I cannot realize my full occupational capacity while working for you. I think I have creative visions that you will never support or understand, and I think my talents would be better utilized and appreciated elsewhere.

That being said, I resign. Thank you for understanding.

Respectfully yours,
Rain

P.S. I wrote this note in purple pen, because I know it’s your least favorite color. This is my one rebellious resignation act, so please forgive me. I just felt compelled to do it.

The Malaria Club is having a second sale on Saturday, February 9, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m..

As at the first sale, a lot of brand-new stuff from the LA Mart will be available for purchase at very sweet prices, and every penny of the money raised will be used to buy mosquito nets to send to families in Africa.

$10 will buy a net that can keep an entire family safe from malaria while they sleep for up to seven years.

The Malaria Club invites everyone to come and buy. Or just hang out. And people who have stuff lying around that they were planning to donate to Goodwill, are welcome to donate it to the Malaria club.

The sale will be held at 633 26th Street, just north of Montana.

Condomania

Seventeen new condominium projects Appear on the January, 2008, Planning Commission case list.

If history is precedent, at least 17 existing rental apartment buildings will be demolished and the people who live in them will be evicted to make way for the spec projects.

70 percent of Santa Monica residents are renters, and the condomania that has seized our town has put more and more of these irreplaceable longtime residents at risk. They make too much to qualify for affordable housing and not enough money to buy condos.

In addition, the replacement of simple sound old apartment buildings and graceful garden apartments with tricked up new buildings further diminishes the historic character of Santa Monica and makes the townscape less and less coherent.

City Hall boasts of and promotes “adaptive re-use” and “sustainability,” but this condomania is neither.

Lucinda Mittleman, a volunteer naturalist with the Topanga Canyon Docents, writes, “We have formed an organization called the Campaign to Save Topanga State Park and are working in conjunction with the California State Parks Foundation and Save Our State Parks to keep Topanga and Will Rogers State Parks, along with 46 other state parks, open.”

She goes on to ask people who want the parks to remain open to email County Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky Tuesday, February 12. He represents this District and will ask the Board of Supervisors to send a letter to the Governor and Los Angeles legislative delegation opposing State Park closures, including Topanga and Will Rogers State Parks,

For more information:
www.savetopangastatepark.org
www.SaveStateParks.org

The Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba will screen
“A Successful Man” (“Un Hombre De Exito” – English subtitles) in Santa Monica at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 15.

The 1985 film focuses on the political storms in Cuba between 1932 to 1959 that threaten the life of a leftist sympathizer (Jorge Trinchet) whose brother (Cesar Evora) tries to remain prosperous by playing both sides.

Raquel Revuelta, Daisy Granados also star in the filn, which won the Grand Prize at the 1986 Havana Film Festival. It was directed by Humbertos Solasm whose “Lucia” is one of the most influential Cuban films of all time.

The film will be shown at the home of Rachel Sene and Jay Johnson, 601 9th Street in Santa Monica.

RSVP: RachelJay@earthlink.net or call 310-451-2752 (first 20)

$5 donation for The Cuban Five defense www.freethefive.org/

The post-film discussion will take place at Izzy's Deli, 15th and Wilshire in Santa Monica. Free parking in rear.

The American Red Cross of Santa Monica's annual Red Tie Affair gala will be held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel on Saturday, March 15.

This year’s "Red Tie" honorees are the cast and producers of the Emmy winning ABC-TV series, "Grey's Anatomy."

KTTV Fox 11 News anchor, Christine Devine will be the gala’s MC.

Celebrity chef, author and TV show host, Nick Stellino will once again supervise the preparation of a three-course dinner created especially for the event.

In addition to the presentation of awards recognizing heroes for their volunteerism and extraordinary service to the community, the gala will feature music and entertainment, as well as live and silent auctions, featuring designer watches, exotic vacations, limited edition cases of wines and jewelry.

According to a recent story in the New York Times, “Jan Sweetnam, the West Coast asset manager for Federal Realty Investment Trust, a REIT based in Rockville, Md., that owns most of the buildings on the two northernmost blocks of the Promenade, said annual rents were $20 to $25 a square foot in 1996 and have climbed to $220 a square foot now. ‘We have people looking at spaces for 2010 and 2011,’ he said.”

In this light, the current discussions to determine who will “manage” downtown Santa Monica seem at least redundant.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has resurrected plans to make Pico and Olympic Boulevards one-way throughways, over the objections of two L.A. City Council members, many residents and people who own businesses on the two streets.

Specifically, the mayor has ordered transportation officials to make Pico largely one-way east and Olympic largely one-way west. Parking on both streets would be banned during rush hours, beginning March 8, and traffic signals would be timed to keep traffic moving on both boulevards by April 28.

Six months to a year from now, the streets would be restriped, with four lanes in Pico going east and two going west on Olympic, with two eastbound
lanes.

What Santa Monica will do, if anything, with its portion of the two boulevards is not known.

By AvaTramer

Beaches
Partly cloudy
Highs: 61-69; Lows: 44-51

Inland
Mostly sunny
Highs: 62-73; Lows: 37-46

Deserts
Warm and mostly sunny
Highs: 65-80; Lows: 46-54

And Santa Monica…
The sun is out, with an occasional cloud,
No lightning bright or thunder loud.
The sky is blue, sometimes gray,
The weather is mild day after day.
We might get some showers, a drop or two,
But on the whole, the sky is blue.
The nights are cool, the days are warm,
It would be surprising to have a storm.
I suppose I shouldn’t find this so boring
But it seems as though the weather is snoring.
Our weather’s not exciting, it’s easy to say,
But perhaps it might be better that way:
Although some snow or rain would be nice,
I suppose that warmth is better than ice!

The City has scheduled a community meeting on appropriate uses for the 1550 beach parking lot that’s adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier.

The ,meeting will be held on Thursday, February 28, at 7 p.m. at the Ken Edwards Center

City staff is seeking community opinions, concerns and ideas” on policies related to the use” of the 1550 lot for “extended run cultural events”

Such events, in staff’s words, “if managed properly and held in the off-season, are an excellent source of revenue to help the City maintain and improve Santa Monica State Beach. These events also meet the community’s demand for cultural offerings and can provide an economic benefit to the city by increasing retail and restaurant business.”

Written comments may be mailed or emailed before February 28, 2008) to:
Open Space Management
2600 Ocean Park Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
or emailed to lorie.griffin@smgov.net

The latest editor o f the Los Angeles Times, Russ Stanton, was bumped up from “innovation editor” over the protests of some staff writers, according to
LAObserved.com.

No wonder. During his opening remarks to the staff, he claimed that former subscribers’ chief complaint was that the paper was so large, so packed with features that they were overwhelmed by it.

Tuesday night’s City Council meeting was more notable for Council members’ behavior than for their decisions.

To borrow a phrase from Joe Mankiewicz’s brilliant “All About Eve,” it was a very “bumpy night.”

Councilman Ken Genser got the meeting off to a fractious start by challenging City staff’s recommendation that the City spend $1,1 million on new trash and recycling containers. Genser believed the large purchase was at best premature. City Manager Lamont Ewell and Environmental Programs and Public Works Director Craig Perkins disagreed. Vigorously.

When the argument ended, a Council majority approved the purchase.

Genser’s ire escalated during a discussion of an Appeal of the Landmarks Commission’s approval for demolition of a “non contributing structure” and construction of new residence at 2642 Second Street in the Third Street Neighborhood Historic District.

At Tuesday night’s special City Council meeting. in addition to the initial discussion of the next fiscal year’s budget, the Council will hear appeals of the Landmarks Commission’s denial of Treesavers’ request that the trees on Second and Fourth Streets in downtown Santa Monica be designated a landmark.

Anyone who thinks the great tree debate is about trees has not been paying
ttention.

This is not to say that Treesavers, the residents’ group that was founded to save the 50-plus ficus trees that the City has tagged for removal, has a larger agenda. Or that the City doesn’t want to remove the trees.

It is to say that, as ever, City Hall’s first priority is the preservation of its power and process.

Everyone who opposes the City’s nitwit decision to, in its word, “improve” downtown Santa Monica by removing 50-plus ficus trees should gather on the City Hall lawn this afternoon.

Called by Treesavers, a residents’ group that’s been fighting the removal for months, a protest is scheduled from 5 to 6, preceding the City Council meeting.

(for more details on the controversy, see the following story)

Santa Monica residents have rarely been in better form than they were at last night s City Council meeting when they spoke on behalf of the 50-plus ficus trees the City wants to remove from downtown streets.

Unfortunately, the Council has rarely been in worse form.

There were dozens of residents, they ranged from students to older people, and they were uniformly passionate about the beauty and utility of the trees, and the multiple roles they play in downtown Santa Monica – softening the hardedged streets, providing shade, cleaning the air and generally elevating the prospect.

The speakers were there to support Treesavers’ appeal of a Landmarks Commission decision not to designate the trees a landmark, as they met none of the six criteria for landmarks.

Several speakers artfully reinterpreted both the criteria and the trees in order
to qualify the trees. But the very long and mundane staff report defended the Commission’s denial of Treesavers’ landmark application, and devoted considerable space to downplaying the place and importance of these particular trees, noting, among other things, that there were thousands of other ficus trees in the City and some of them were “better.”

Hollywood will bring its red carpet back to the beach Saturday for the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.

As in previous years, a tent has been set up on the beach off Barnard Way in Ocean Park. And this year, for the first time, the red carpet show can be seen in a live webcast on www.ifc.com, beginning at 11:30 a.m.

The live telecast of the awards ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. on IFC (channel 296 in Santa Monica) with Rainn Wilson, co-star of “The Office” presiding. It will be rebroadcast at midnight.

Best picture nominees are ”The Diving Bell And The Butterfly,” “I’m Not There,” “Juno,” “A Mighty Heart” and “Paranoid Patk.”

With the City Council’s rejection of Treesavers’ appeal of the Landmarks Commission’s decision not to designate trees on two downtown stress as landmarks, the fate of 50-plus trees the City wants to remove returned to the courts.

Treesavers and the City of Santa Monica were scheduled to appear in court today for a preliminary hearing on an injunction Treesavers is seeking. But at a hearing on the hearing Thursday, the court granted the request of Treesavers’ attorney, Tom Nitti, that the preliminary hearing be held next Thursday, February 28. In addition to acceding to the delay, the City’s attorney agreed that in the interim no trees would be removed – unless they threatened public safety.

Contrary to an earlier announcement, there will be no vigil.

The University Campus Choir, under the direction of Alexander Ruggieri, will present “Sing of Spring,” the 2008 Silent Auction and Musicale, with musical performances by the Upstairs Studio Dancers as well as the Choir on Sunday, March 2.

The auction will be held and High Tea will be served from 2 to 3 p.m. at which time the performance will begin.

It will take place at the John Carroll Parish Center, St. Paul the Apostle Church, 10750 Ohio Avenue. West Los Angeles.

Advance admission is $10 (order by Monday, February 25). $20 admission at the door. Orders: (310) 820-8503, or www. hinnebug@ucla.edu

As we reported earlier this week, the City Council denied the appeal of the Landmarks Commission’s denial of a landmark application filed by a residents’ group, Treesavers, for 50-plus ficus trees on Second and Fourth Streets that the City wants to remove.

Over 40 residents spoke on behalf of the trees. Though the Council denied the appeal, given the vehement community opposition to the proposed removal of the trees, it could have reconsidered its original approval the $8.2 million improvement” project, which included the excising of the trees.

Councilman Kevin McKeown. who has opposed the tree removal from the beginning, suggested it, but his colleagues remained silent.

The Council’s failure to be moved by the residents’ passionate defense of the trees was so depressing that the somber mid-year 2007-08 budget and five-year financial forecast, which followed, was, comparatively speaking, a laugh riot.

By Ava Tramer

Beaches
Mostly sunny with a wet Sunday
Highs: 57-67; Lows: 46-52

Inland
Partly cloudy
Highs: 60-74; Lows: 42-47

Deserts
Sunny
Highs: 66-79; Lows: 46-52

And Santa Monica…
With March just around the corner, it may seem like sunshine is inevitable. Highs will reach the upper 60s this week, and in the deserts highs will rest just below 80. The skies will be mostly clear, with only a few puffball clouds happily floating to and fro. But before you leave winter behind completely, I thought that, as your weatherwoman, I should warn you that it will most likely rain on Sunday – Oscar notwithstanding. Please, don’t be upset with me about this. It’s really not my fault. I am only the messenger, and I felt it was my duty to warn you. So while you may dream about pure sunshine, just don’t be shocked when the skies open up on Sunday…and rain on the Oscar red carpet parade.

For the smartest, sharpest, most complete coverage of yesterday’s Independent Spirit Awards and today’s 80th Annual Academy Awards, go to
www.awardsdaily.com.

The Oscars, hosted by John Stewart, will be broadcast on ABC-TV (channel
7) from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.. It will be preceded by the red carpet show, which, if weather forecasts are accurate, will be as wet as they are witless (channel 7, from 3 to 5:30 p.m.). E! (channels 26 and 108 in Santa Monica) will be there, too, beginning at noon..

A working group, City Council and staff members, consultants, Bayside District officials, and property and business owners have labored on and discussed a new “management plan” for downtown Santa Monica for what seems an eon, but has only been a year or so.

But, according to a recent story by Jorge Casuso in SurfSantaMonica, a few “key points, including the makeup of the new board that will run the agreed proposed assessment district” have been resolved.

Casuso quoted consultant Brad Segal of Progressive Urban Management Associates as saying, “This was huge… Governance has probably been the number one issue in this deal.”

Casuso also reported that, among other things, the new board will oversee the expenditure of $3,7 million in new assessments on “improvements.”

Store owner Doug Dutton met with his staff Sunday morning and gave each staff member a copy of the following statement.

“It is with profound regret and sorrow that Dutton’s Brentwood Books must announce that it will be closing on April 30, 2008.

“As our regular customers and friends well know, the past year for the store has been one of upheaval and turmoil. Hard on the heels of the closure of the Dutton’s Beverly Hills location came word that the Brentwood property had changed ownership, and the new owner, Charles T. Munger, announced plans to redevelop the property. The multiple uncertainties of the bookstore’s future, combined with the encumbrances associated with the closure of the Beverly Hills store have crippled the store’s ability to provide the kind of immediate service and depth of inventory that our customers have come to rightly expect.

According to LAObserved, a nude woman was seen on the Third Street Promenade at lunchtime today. She seemed to be posing for a camera.

In a hearing this morning, Superior Court Judge Ann Jones rejected Treesavers’ contention that the City of Santa Monica should be barred from removing 50-plus trees from Second and Fourth Streets in downtown Santa Monica.

Treesavers, a group of Santa Monica residents, has been fighting to save the trees since the City Council approved their removal, as part of An $8.2 million downtown “improvement” plan several months ago.

Over 2,000 residents have signed petitions opposing the City’s plan To take the trees out.

A 20-year old piece of bad advice has become the mantra of the current City Council, as well as the rationale for the apparently endless nattering of Council members.

A while ago, in the face of a rising tide of impatience at the excessive length of Council meetings, Council member Ken Genser cited the advice a School Board member gave him when he won his first term 20 years ago. She said that he should always remember that the meetings were for Council members, not for the public.

Council member Pam O’Connor repeated the piquant notion the other night, as if to
justify the extended monologues she and her more loquacious colleagues regularly deliver.

Time and time again, even if they have nothing to say, they say it at great length.

Council members also seem to enjoy bringing the meetings to a full stop to grill staff
members, which could be done as easily and more efficiently in advance of the meetings.

But this semi-weekly talkathon is only part of a larger problem. As the vile warden said to Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is failure to communicate.”