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Volume 25 No. 16
Serving the West Hollywood, Hancock Park and Wilshire Communities
April 16, 2015
Rec and Parks votes to go it Mid-City West nixes museum’s sphere
alone to operate The Greek
n Academy project
n Commission’s decision angers neighbors
goes to planning
commission in May
By jonathan van dyke
By jonathan van dyke
The Los Angeles Recreation and
Parks
(RAP)
Commission
approved on Wednesday preliminary plans for the city to operate the
Greek Theatre.
RAP staff recommended the
motion after plans to choose a private operator fell through during a
drawn out process that began May
2014.
The historic music venue, located at 2700 Vermont Ave. in Griffith
Park, was officially dedicated in
1929. In 2014, the Greek Theatre
generated $27.270 million in gross
receipts and $1.977 million in revenue-sharing payments to the city.
“This report is presented in direct
response to city council and comSee Commission page 21
photo by Edwin Folven
The Greek Theatre may operate as an open venue under a decision
made by the RAP Commission on Wednesday.
The Mid-City West Community
Council (MCWCC) voted in favor
of the proposed Academy
Museum on Tuesday, but without
a major component of the project
— the spherical theatre.
The proposed development
would rehabilitate and adaptively
reuse the exterior of the May
Company Wilshire building at the
intersection of Wilshire Boulevard
and Fairfax Avenue, which is classified as a city historic-cultural
monument.
According to the Academy, the
museum ould be dedicated to
films and filmmaking. It would
include permanent and changing
exhibition spaces and three theatres with a combined seating
capacity of up to 1,350 people.
Plans include a banquet and conference space with a maximum
occupancy of 1,200 people. An
approximately 4,000-square-foot
café with seating for 150 people
and an approximately 5,000-
photo courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The spherical theatre in the Academy Museum plan is opposed by
Mid-City West. Others in the community support it.
square-foot store are also planned.
However, plans also call for the
demolition of a 1946 addition. In
its place, the Academy is proposing a state-of-the-art theatre
housed in a spherical structure
with seating for up to 1,000 people, which could be used for special events and occasional
exhibits.
“After months of study and
deliberation on the project, the
board voted to support a scaledback museum alternative that also
would implement a full range of
mitigation measures addressing
parking, transit demand, expanded
See Museum page 22
Council approves reward system for hit and runs Ryu vows to reform council
district ‘slush fund’ policies
n Advocate Damian Kevitt pushes for
new laws with Finish the Ride
n Ramsay campaign
By edwin folven
The Los Angeles City Council unanimously
approved a new tiered reward system for hit and runs
on Wednesday that will provide monetary incentives
for people to report drivers who fail to stop after collisions.
The decision was spurred by the nearly 20,000 hitand-run collisions that were reported last year citywide,
which resulted in 150 deaths and serious injuries,
according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Councilman Joe Buscaino, 15th District, authored the
motion and hopes it will change peoples’ viewpoints
about hit-and-run collisions.
“This standing reward ordinance is meant to change
the culture of hit-and-run crimes in Los Angeles by
incentivizing eyewitnesses to come forth with information leading to the arrest and conviction of morally
deficient drivers,” Buscaino said.
The new system will provide a $50,000 reward for
hit-and-run collisions resulting in a fatality; $25,000 for
collisions that result in permanent serious injuries, as
defined in the vehicle code; 5,000 for less serious
injuries; and $1,000 for collisions resulting in property
damage. The motion will go into effect in approximately one month.
Individuals who provide information leading to a
conviction in hit-and-run cases would be eligible for
the rewards. The city council will consider each reward
on a case-by case basis.
The motion was prompted by a hit-and-run collision
W G
NO SIN
A
LE
calls announcement
a ‘political stunt’
By jonathan van dyke
photo courtesy of Finish the Ride
Thousands of people are expected to join Damian
Kevitt (in red) for Finish the Ride on April 19.
that seriously injured Hollywood resident Damian
Kevitt, who was struck by a driver while riding his
bicycle on Feb. 17, 2013 in Griffith Park. Kevitt was
pinned under the driver’s minivan and dragged nearly
a quarter-mile down an onramp to the Golden State (5)
Freeway. He suffered 30 broken bones and one of his
See Council page 21
A week after declaring he
would no longer accept developer campaign contributions, 4th
District city council candidate
David Ryu pledged to reform the
district’s discretionary funds system.
Ryu, a community health
director, sent out letters to 4th
District neighborhood council
presidents and community leaders announcing that if he won the
May 19 election, he would establish a CD4 Discretionary Funds
Task Force consisting of neighborhood council and community
leaders.
He said that as he spoke with
voters across the district, many
had questioned termed-out
Councilman Tom LaBonge’s discretionary funding uses. Ryu’s
opponent in the May 19 general
election, Carolyn Ramsay, was
chief of staff to LaBonge before
leaving to run her campaign
approximately one year ago.
Discretionary money comes
from a variety of sources, including AB 1290 funds (property
taxes collected in redevelopment
areas), sales of public property,
franchising fees for oil pipelines
and ads placed on city bus shelters.
“I want to be absolutely clear
and delineate what I feel transparency is,” Ryu said. “I’m going
to shine a light in my office and
on my budget. I’m going to have
a council from the community
that I have to be responsible to.
This is an actionable first step.”
Last week, Ryu announced he
would refuse political contributions from any developers with
current or upcoming projects in
Los Angeles. He said his campaign gave back nine donations
totaling $4,300.
Ramsay’s campaign strategist
Doug Herman called the
announcement “hypocrisy” and a
“political stunt.” He pointed out
that Ryu bought a house in 2009
on Wilton Place for $400,000 and
See Candidate page 22
YOUR NEW HOME
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Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
2 April 16, 2015
Calendar
16 Observatory Talk
L
earn about the history of the
Griffith Observatory during a free
lecture
by
author
Arnold
Schwartzman on Thursday, April 16
from 6:45 to 7:45 p.m. at the Los Feliz
branch library. Schwartzman will discuss his book, “Griffith Observatory:
A Celebration of its Architectural
Splendor”. 1874 Hillhurst Ave.
(323)913-4710.
ests to repair and restore the American
West during a discussion titled
“Repairing the Western Landscape” on
Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. at The Autry
National Center. Panelists include Bill
McDonald, of Malpai Borderlands
Group; Stephen Reynolds, of the
California Geological Survey; and
remedial environmental artists Dan
McCormick and Mary O’Brien, of
Watershed Sculpture. Tickets are $10.
4700 Western Heritage Way. (323)6672000, www.theautry.org.
17 Comedy Play
T
heatre Planners present actor
Perry Lambert in “Loopholes: A
Pain in the I.R.S.” running from
Friday, April 17 through Sunday, May
17 at the Hudson Main Stage Theatre.
The comedy play follows the story of
a man who, despite having his entire
net worth threatened, uncovered loopholes allowing him to have the last
laugh at the IRS. Showtimes are at 8
p.m., Friday and Saturday; 3 and 7
p.m., Sunday. Tickets are $30. 6539
Santa Monica Blvd. (323)960-7735,
www.LoopholesTheMusical.com.
18 ‘Dorothy’s
Adventures in Oz’
F
amilies are invited to a production
titled “Dorothy’s Adventures in
Oz” running from Saturday, April 18
through Sunday, June 28 at the Santa
Monica Playhouse. The musical comedy follows a grown-up Dorothy on a
quest to return to Oz. Showtimes are
at 2 p.m., Saturday; 12:30 p.m.,
Sunday. Tickets are $15; $12.50 for
children 12 and under. 1211 4th St.,
Santa Monica. (310)394-9779 ext. 2,
www.Santa-MonicaPlayhouse.com.
‘Resonance’
C
outurier
Gallery
presents
“Resonance”, an exhibit by
Alison
Keogh
and
Maritta
Tapanainen, running from Saturday,
April 18 through Saturday, May 30.
Calligraphic works by Keogh and
binary collages by Tapanainen will be
displayed. An opening reception with
the artists will be held on April 18
from 6 to 8 p.m. at the gallery. 166 N.
La Brea Ave. (323)933-5557,
www.couturiergallery.com.
Chamber Orchestra
T
wo young classical music artists
will make their Los Angeles
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E
photo by Felix Broede
Pianist Igor Levit will perform during an evening of classical music on
Tuesday, April 21 at 8 p.m. in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Works by Bach, Beethoven,
Stevenson and Prokofiev will be performed. Tickets start at $39. 9390 N.
Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310)746-4000, www.thewallis.org.
Chamber Orchestra debuts during
concerts on Saturday, April 18 at 8
p.m. at the Alex Theatre, and Sunday,
April 19 at 7 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce
Hall. New York Philharmonic assistant conductor Joshua Weilerstein will
lead the orchestra in performances of
works by Saint-Saëns, Mozart and
Hallman. International Tchaikovsky
Competition winner, cellist Narek
Hakhnazaryan, will also join the
orchestra for the performances.
Tickets start at $26. Alex Theatre, 216
N. Brand Blvd., Glendale; Royce
Hall,
340 Royce Drive, UCLA.
(213)622-7001, www.laco.org.
Barbara Morrison
J
azz legend Barbara Morrison will
perform on April 18 at 8:30 p.m. at
the Catalina Bar & Grill. Morrison
performs a wide range of music
including songs originally performed
by Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday,
Al Green and Smokey Robinson.
Tickets are $25. 6725 W. Sunset Blvd.
We Specialize in
Spring Cleaning!
$
&
!
!
Chamber Music
(323)466-2211, www. catalinajazzclub.com.
19 Game Day
F
ans of bingo, mahjong and board
games are invited to Jewish
Family Services and the National
Council of Jewish Women/Los
Angeles’ (NCJW/LA) “Game Day”
on Sunday, April 19 from 2 to 5 p.m.
at the NCJW/LA Council House.
Participants will enjoy an afternoon of
friendly competition and fun. The
event benefits the Tools for School
Back 2 School programs. Admission
is $25. 543 N. Fairfax Ave. RSVP
requested to Sherri Kadovitz at
(213)260-7925, email [email protected], or visit www.jfsla.org/gameday.
Western Conservation
M
eet representatives of organizations that are working with
industry, government and private inter-
njoy an afternoon of chamber
music at Le Salon de Musiques’
“Master Rediscovered” series on
Sunday, April 19 at 4 p.m. at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 5th Floor.
Works by Mozart, Poulenc, Hahn,
Duparc, Satie and Smit will be performed in a program titled “When
Wind, Voice & Piano Mingle”.
Musicologist Julius Reder Carlson will
introduce each performance and the
concert will be followed by a discussion with the artists. Guests will also
enjoy French champagne and a buffet
catered by Patina. Tickets are $75. 135
N. Grand Ave. www.lesalondemusiques.com.
School”, Joanna Miles’ “Lunch” and
Deborah Pearl’s “Invaluable” will be
staged. Showtime on April 19 is 7 p.m.
Regular showtimes are at 8 p.m.,
Fridays and Saturday; 2 p.m., Sunday.
Tickets are $20. (323)960-7724,
www.plays411.com/wotime.
21 Art Exhibit
V
iew works by artist Grear
Patterson in an exhibit tiled “Seek
and Destroy” running from Tuesday,
April 21 through Saturday, May 30 at
the Depart Foundation on Sunset
Boulevard. An opening reception will
be held on April 21 from 6 to 9 p.m.
9105 Sunset Blvd. RSVP requested via
email
to
[email protected].
Classic French Film
F
ilm lovers are invited to a screening
of “The Rules of the Game” (1939)
on Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s
(LACMA) Bing Theatre. Jean Renoir ‘s
“The Rules of the Game” is considered
one the most influential French films.
Renoir was the first filmmaker to have
his work presented at LACMA. General
admission tickets are $10. 5905
Wilshire
Blvd.
(323)857-6000,
www.lacma.org.
22 B.H. Tomorrow
SF JAZZ Collective
J
azz lovers won’t want to miss a performance by the SF JAZZ
Collective on Sunday, April 19 at 7
p.m. in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at
the Wallis Annenberg Center for the
Performing Arts. The group will perform music by Joe Henderson and
original compositions. Tickets start at
$39. 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd.,
Beverly
Hills.
(310)746-4000,
www.thewallis.org.
oin the Beverly Hills Chamber of
Commerce for “Beverly Hills
Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future” on
Wednesday, April 22 at 5 p.m. at the
Wallis Annenberg Center for the
Performing Arts. Professionals representing numerous business and community interests will present information at
the event hosted by Emmy and Peabody
Award-winner Larry King. Tickets start
at $100 for chamber members; $150 for
non-members. 9390 N. Santa Monica
Blvd. (310)248-1000, www.beverlyhillschamber.com.
Woman Playwrights
Classic Broadway
J
W
orking Stage Theater presents
“Women on Time”, a series of
seven original short plays by women
playwrights, running from Sunday,
April 19 through May 17 in
Hollywood.
Susanna
Styron’s
“Suffrage”, Lorin Howard’s “Defining
Moments”, Nikki McCauley’s “To Bra
or Not to Bra”, Bonnie Garvin’s “Flight
“A
n
Evening
of
Classic
Broadway”
returns
on
Wednesday, April 22 at 8 p.m. at
Rockwell Table & Stage. Producer
Dianne Fraser created the show with
songs from classic Broadway musicals.
Tickets start at $10. 1714 N. Vermont
Ave.
www.rockwell-la.inticketing.com.
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Read Us Online
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
3 April 16, 2015
Yom HaShoah ceremony unites generations
n Numerous Holocaust
commemorations to be
held in community
By luis Rivas
Los Angeles will commemorate
the Holocaust throughout the week
and weekend as part of the 62nd
annual Yom HaShoah, Holocaust
Remembrance Day.
On Sunday, thousands will gather at Pan Pacific Park at the Los
Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
(LAMOTH) for the museum’s 23rd
annual “Yom HaShoah Day of
Holocaust Commemoration”.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
and Israeli Consul General David
Siegal will be featured speakers,
with a special performance by
actor/musician Theodore Bikel.
Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR will
give the invocation.
Leora Raikin will speak and lead
a tour of LAMOTH’s newest
exhibit, “The Art of Life of David
Labkovski”. Raikin is the greatniece of Lithuanian-Israeli artist
Labkovski. Additionally, Dr.
Steven Teitelbaum will speak on
his Polish great-grandparents’
experience during the Holocaust
and lead a tour of the exhibit
“Return to Wielopole: The
Teitelbaum Family Journey”.
Grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, known as the 3G at
LAMOTH, will lead a discussion
on the Holocaust in the reflective
space of the Children’s Memorial.
Connecting stories and messages
of the Holocaust to a younger generation is something that the museum does intentionally with its programming, according to LAMOTH
executive director Samara Hutman.
“In this last decade we have seen
young people connecting with
Holocaust survivors, listening to
their life stories and carrying forward these narratives,” Hutman
said.
LAMOTH, the oldest Holocaust
museum in the country, traces its
origin to 1961 when Holocaust survivors discussed the need to preserve the memories and artifacts,
such as photographs, concentration
camp uniforms and other objects, in
Los Angeles. The museum opened
its doors in Pan Pacific Park in
2010.
“These intergenerational connections inspire us and are at the heart
of our work at Los Angeles
Museum of the Holocaust,”
Hutman said.
The Yom HaShoah Day of
Holocaust Commemoration begins
at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The ninth
annual Walk to End Genocide starts
at 9 a.m. through 1 p.m. The Walk
to End Genocide is a project of
Jewish World Watch, a national
Jewish organization founded in
2004 that works to aid communities
affected by genocide, particularly
in Sudan and Congo.
The common experience and
condemnation of genocide brings
people together, said Jewish World
Watch president and co-founder
Janice Kamenir-Reznik.
“Communities that have survived genocides have a great deal
in common. We share an empathy
about what it means to have been
targeted for death and annihilation
while the majority of the world
stood idly by and did little or nothing to help. By definition, for a
genocide to happen it means that
the world allowed it to happen,”
she said.
The walk, which is just under
three miles, supports the organiza-
Tentative settlement reached
in WeHo Sheriffs shooting
By edwin folven
An attorney for a man mistakenly
shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies
in West Hollywood last April has
announced that a tentative settlement has been reached with the
county of Los Angeles.
Attorney Sim Osborn, who represents the family of the victim, John
Winkler, said he could not provide
the monetary amount of the settlement because it is pending review
by the Los Angeles County Board
of Supervisors. Osborn said the
agreement was reached last week
during a mediation hearing, and the
board has 60 days to make a decision on whether to approve the settlement.
Winkler, 30, was shot and killed
on April 7 at an apartment building
at 939 Palm Ave. Sheriff’s deputies
responded to the building after a
female tenant called 911 and told
authorities that a resident of another
apartment, who was armed with a
knife was acting erratically.
When deputies arrived, they were
directed by witnesses to an apartment where the suspect lived. As
they gathered outside the apartment,
the door suddenly swung open and
man who was bleeding profusely
from his neck ran out, followed by a
second man later identified as
Winkler. Deputies believed Winkler
was the attacker, and fired their
weapons, striking and injuring the
first man. Winkler was also shot,
and later died.
Seconds later, deputies realized
the attacker was still in the apartment and rushed inside. They subdued the armed suspect, identified
as
29-year-old
Alexander
McDonald, who is currently facing
multiple felony charges.
Osborn, who is based in Seattle
where the victim’s family lives, filed
a $25 million claim last year against
the sheriff’s department, West
Hollywood deputies Michael
Fairbank, Byron Holloway and
Gerardo Baldivia, and 50 unnamed
deputies. When the county, which
represents the department, did not
respond, a civil lawsuit alleging
negligence was filed on Dec. 9 in
federal court. The lawsuit did not
specify damages being sought,
which is standard for a civil suit.
Winkler had moved to Los
Angeles from Seattle and was working as a production assistant on the
show “Tosh.0” at the time of his
death.
“It’s been very hard on the family,” Osborn added. “Every time they
go through this they relive it. They
are hoping to have it over. It’s just a
horrible situation for the family.”
Representatives for County of
Los Angeles Offices of the County
Counsel, which represents the
department in civil cases, could not
be reached for comment. A Los
Angeles
County
Sheriff’s
Department spokeswoman declined
to comment pending the Los
Angeles County Board of
Supervisors’ review.
tion’s projects and campaigns.
Registration for adults is $20, $15
for students ages 12 to 22, $10 for
children ages 5 to 11, and toddlers
participate for free.
This year, the organization is
expecting approximately 4,000
people to attend the Yom HaShoah
ceremony and participate in the
walk.
In addition to Sunday’s
Holocaust remembrance events, the
city of Los Angeles hosted a commemoration of Yom HaShoah in
the City Hall Rotunda and a city
council presentation in council
chambers, featuring Holocaust survivors Helen Freeman and Maurice
Polar. Representatives of the
Jewish community as well as council members Bob Blumenfield, 3rd
District; Mitchell Englander, 12th
District; and Paul Koretz, 5th
District; were in attendance.
On Saturday at noon, Hollywood
Temple Beth El and the Iranian
American Jewish Federation are
hosting a joint service at the temple
photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Thousands of people are expected at the annual Yom HaShoah
Holocaust commemoration in Pan Pacific Park.
titled, “From Darkness to a Great
Light: Commemorating the 70th
Year of the End of the Holocaust
and the Shattering of the Nazi
Death Camps”.
Allied forces liberated the concentration camps in the months
leading up to the end of World War
II in Europe on May 8, 1945. The
soldiers were shocked to discover
the camps. Jewish people, Gypsies,
the disabled, gay and lesbian individuals and political dissidents
were exterminated.
Rabbi Norbert Weinberg, author
of “Courage of the Spirit”, will
speak on “The Nazi War against
See Yom HaShoah page 22
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
4 April 16, 2015
Suspect poses as worker in job site burglary
By edwin folven
photo courtesy of the LAPD
An image of two of the suspects was released by investigators.
Seven suspects sought for
break-in at pot dispensary
n Police release video
showing members of
burglary crew
By edwin folven
Detectives with the Los Angeles
Police Department’s Wilshire
Division are searching for seven
male suspects who attempted to
burglarize a medical marijuana dispensary on March 6 in the 5100
bock of Venice Boulevard.
Police have also released a surveillance camera image of some of
the suspects, and are asking anyone
who recognizes the men to call.
The incident occurred at approximately 4:30 a.m. at the Hollyweed
dispensary, which is one of the dispensaries that qualifies for limited
immunity under Prop. D. The suspects pried open a front door to
gain access and searched through
multiple rooms inside the building.
One of the suspects can be seen on
surveillance camera video unsuccessfully attempting to remove an
automated teller machine. At least
two others attempted to remove a
safe.
“It’s a good video. Hopefully we
get some leads,” said Det. D.
Nolan, with the Wilshire Division’s
Burglary Unit. “They pushed a safe
outside the door and tried to load it
up, but took off.”
Investigators believe the susSee Police page 21
Police in Beverly Hills are searching for a suspect who posed as a
construction worker and burglarized
a job site at the Beverly Wilshire
Hotel.
The burglary occurred on April 7
between 5:30 and 8 p.m. The suspect allegedly entered a construction
site near the intersection of Santa
Monica and Wilshire boulevards,
according to Lt. Lincoln Hoshino,
with the Beverly Hills Police
Department. Hoshino said the construction site is large, which enabled
the suspect to go unnoticed.
“He entered through a construction door that was closed to the public,” Hoshino said. “He created a
disguise there. He put on a safety
vest. It was after hours.“
The suspect stole tools and copper
wiring, and also broke into an office
and stole computer printers. The loss
was valued at approximately
$10,000.
“It was anything he could pick up
and sell,” Hoshino added.
The suspect was captured on surveillance camera video, and police
have released an image with the
hope someone will turn him in to
police. He is described as Hispanic,
in his mid-20s, and 5 feet 10 inches
to 6 feet tall. The suspect can be seen
on video loading the stolen items
into an older model, white Ford
Taurus that was parked on Santa
Monica Boulevard. Anyone with
information about the incident is
urged to contact detectives with the
Beverly Hills Police Department at
(310)285-2150.
photo courtesy of the BHPD
Detectives hope a surveillance
camera image will help identify the
suspect.
Hit-and-run driver crashes through garage
By edwin folven
An unidentified motorist crashed
through a garage at a residence at
the corner of South Mullen Avenue
and 8th Street last Friday before
fleeing the scene on foot. The vehicle, a Chevrolet Tahoe, was left at
the scene, and police are in the
process of determining who was
behind the wheel when the collision occurred.
The incident was reported at
approximately 10:30 p.m. in a
neighborhood just south of
Wilshire Boulevard. The owner of
the residence, who declined to pro-
vide his name, said he felt his house
vibrate and thought it was an earthquake.
The Tahoe was traveling eastbound on 8th Street and veered into
the structure, crashing through a
garage door and a wall before coming to rest against the house. No
one was injured inside the residence.
Det. Olin Osborne, with the Los
Angeles Police Department’s West
Traffic Division, said the vehicle
was registered to a man in his mid60s with an address in South Los
Angeles. When officers went to the
man’s residence after the collision,
he was not there, but they spoke to
his wife, Osborne said. The man
later showed up at the LAPD’s
West Traffic Division on Venice
Boulevard and provided police
with a statement. According to the
detective, the man is disputing that
he was driving, and now police
must complete an investigation
before charges are considered, or
an arrest can be made. He said it is
not clear, based on a police report,
whether alcohol or drugs were
involved.
Detectives are asking for anyone
who witnessed the collision to call
(213)473-0234.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
5 April 16, 2015
Tar Pits folk singer strikes a chord with visitors
By Luis Rivas
A crowd of elementary school
children on a field trip at the La
Brea Tar Pits gathers around
Charlie Cox, who is standing near
the mammoths, playing his banjo.
A growing circle of jumping
children dance along to Cox’s rendition of the “Virginia Reel”.
Parents and teachers wait seated
and resting on the stone benches in
front of the museum’s entrance,
where Cox commands the attention
of the school children like a passionate teacher.
“The kids love it. The most I’ve
ever gotten was about 80 kids at
one time. Nowadays, I get about six
to 10 kids,” Cox said.
Cox, donning a typical cowboy
hat, striped vest, long-sleeved
white dress shirt, beige slacks and
soft leather shoes, is a renaissance
man.
He has done everything, essentially. Cox sold Christmas trees in
New York City for 14 years, served
his country in the U.S. Coast Guard
for four years, sold art prints at
Costco, painted houses, traveled
around the U.S., learned Russian at
the behest of his father, joined the
Church of Scientology and eventually settled in Los Angeles where
he found himself playing guitar and
banjo for tips at the La Brea Tar Pits
— or what he calls “busking.”
“Busking basically means to
make things ready, to make audiences ready by singing or doing
things,” Cox said.
Cox became familiar with busking when he saw people miming
and playing music in front of the
Los Angeles County Museum of
Art in 1975.
Street closures
announced for
Sunset Strip
Half Marathon
West Hollywood will welcome
runners participating in the inaugural House of Blues Music
Forward Foundation Sunset Strip
Half Marathon & 5K on Sunday.
The event, produced by
RaceForce, LLC, is a 13.1-mile
road
route
through
West
Hollywood and the world-famous
Sunset Strip. The half marathon
will begin at 7 a.m. and the 5K will
begin at 7:30 a.m. Organizers estimate that thousands of runners
from across Southern California
will participate in the event.
The Sunset Strip Half Marathon
& 5K will start and finish at West
Hollywood Park, located at 647 N.
San Vicente Blvd. The route will
guide runners into four distinct
sectors. To ensure the safety of
large numbers of runners, there
will be several street closures in
the city at various times ranging
from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. — a full road
closure map is available at sunsetstriphalf.com/ssstrip/road-closures.
San Vicente Boulevard will be
closed between Melrose Avenue
and Santa Monica Boulevard from
2 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Parking will be strictly prohibited along the Sunset Strip Half
Marathon & 5K route. “No
Parking” signs will be posted prior
to the event.
Cox has been playing guitar,
banjo and his most recently added
instrument, a mandolin — which
was donated to him by a visitor to
the La Brea Tar Pits several years
ago — on-and-off for 40 years at
the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art and the George C. Page
Museum. He plays in front of the
museum at the La Brea Tar Pits five
to six days a week.
“I entertain folks. That’s my job.
I take it seriously with a light
heart,” Cox said.
Originally
from
northern
Florida, Cox has been on the move
since he was a young child. His
father, James T. Cox, was in the
U.S. Air Force. They moved to
North Carolina and Iowa before
settling in Tallahassee, Fla., where
his father taught English and creative writing at Florida State
University.
Cox leaves his instruments with
the staff at the George C. Page
Museum, which welcomes him as
an unofficial extension of the
museum and park experience,
according to the museum’s manager of interpretation and education
initiatives Dan Keeffe.
Keeffe has watched Cox play in
front of the museum for approximately eight years — ever since
Keeffe started working for the
museum.
“Everyone here knows him. At
the start of our tours through the
park, people see him play and they
love him. The first experience they
have is seeing Charlie playing the
banjo,” Keeffe said.
Cox’s music is not only available at the La Brea Tar Pits — he
has an album available for purchase, “Songs from the Tar Pits”,
which at one point was available
for purchase at the George C. Page
Museum shop. The album is available for purchase online at
www.cdbaby.com/cd/charliecox.
Cox makes approximately $400
to $500 per week in tips from playing his instruments in front of the
museum. Tourists tend to provide
most of the money but some weeks
vary, he said.
“The first week of March, I made
$190. It varies unbelievably,” he
said.
For Cox, this isn’t a side job or a
photo by Luis Rivas
Musician Charlie Cox has been entertaining guests outside the George
C. Page Museum for nearly 40 years.
supplemental way of making
money. Cox treats it as a serious
job, starting in the morning and
playing from 10:30 a.m. until 4:30
p.m.
“I like playing for folks bright
enough to enjoy my music,” he
said.
Visitors can find Cox in front of
the George C. Page Museum generally from Tuesday through Saturday
from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
6 April 16, 2015
At the Pacific Design Center, 40 is the new 30
n Project’s scope has
expanded over the
decades
By jonathan van dyke
Now 40 years old, the Pacific
Design Center (PDC) in West
Hollywood has woven its way into
the fabric of the Los Angeles interior design community.
“It’s a big milestone,” said
Donna Livingston, who has been a
designer for more than three
decades. “By having the Pacific
Design Center in our neighborhood, it added a sophistication element and a central heart for the
design community here.”
Livingston said she has used the
“one-stop-shop” PDC for the
majority of her career — a stark
change from her predecessors, who
often had to visit New York or
scour the scattered mom and pop
shops across Los Angeles.
“The Pacific
Design Center is
not restricted in
access. We are an
open facility. We’ll
have 1,500 to
1,800 people who
come through our
building every
week...”
-Jeff Sampson
PDC marketing manager
“In the beginning, [the PDC] was
just this big blue building with a big
skylight,” she said. “I don’t think
we knew what to expect. It helped
bring in the carpet lines and fabric
lines [to the area] and you could see
[design in L.A.] in a much bigger
scope.”
The PDC, located at 750 N. San
Vicente Blvd., was conceived in
1971 by Gruen Associates and
designed by internationally known
Argentine-American
architect
Cesar Pelli. The first of three buildings was finished in 1975, affectionately known as the “Blue
Whale”. It houses more than
770,000 square feet of interior
design showroom space. At the
time, Pelli said it was purposely out
of scale for the area.
“The building was conceived as
an extruded form cut off at both
ends, an architectural fragment sitting on the ground in a very bright,
unusual color to make it unique,”
he said.
The neighborhood was drastically different than what it is today,
said Jeff Sampson, director of marketing for the PDC.
“This was a rail yard,” he said.
“It was kind of Pottersville and then
the PDC kind of transformed that. It
was developed in response to the
need of the design community here
in Los Angeles, to really galvanize
the industry. [Designers and showrooms] existed in pockets in the
community along Robertson,
Beverly and La Cienega, but at the
time, there was a need to really
bring it together under one roof and
create the opportunity to attract
larger brands and manufacturers
who were looking for a presence
here on the West Coast. It was an
opportunity to really define this district and this community as a design
district and that was part of the
nature of the architectural design of
the building.”
The Green Building opened in
1988 with 450,000 additional
square feet. At the time, the Blue
Whale was at capacity, and the
Green Building was created to add
showrooms. Then the economy
soured.
“We had room to grow, but as
things work, the pendulum swings
one way and then the other,”
Sampson said. “We ended up having to deal with a recession and
business began to level off. And so
the success of the Green Building
as envisioned didn’t really materialize as anticipated.”
To adjust to economic realities,
the Green Building was converted
to mostly office space. The PDC’s
current owner, Charles Cohen,
bought the PDC in 1999. The New
York real estate mogul, who owns a
portfolio of design centers across
the country, has overseen many
changes.
“He saw this property and its
potential, actually expanding it
beyond just the idea of the design
center,” Sampson said. “His ideas
were in terms of being more community driven, expanding the purpose, creating a great campus environment and adding not only to the
showroom business model, but
adding a particular type of office
tenant.”
The PDC’s Red Building was
completed in 2013 with 400,000
additional square feet and 16 stories. Cohen has emphasized partnerships with creative professions
for the new building — film, entertainment, fashion and technology.
Tenants will begin to move into the
Red Building this year.
The PDC campus also includes
the MOCA Pacific Design Center,
Red Seven and WP Restaurant
(operated by Wolfgang Puck), The
Silverscreen Theatre, a conference
center and a fitness center.
“It’s become more of a campus
and gone somewhat beyond the
trade,” Sampson said.
Overall, the campus still includes
more than 85 showrooms and 2,200
product lines including furnishings,
fabrics, floor coverings, architectural products, wall coverings,
lighting, kitchen products, bath
products and other accessories.
Showroom brands include Thomas
Lavin, Reagan Hayes, PERFEC
Floors, Holly Hunt and DEDON.
See Designers page 11
photo by Jonathan Van Dyke
The Pacific Design Center’s “Blue Whale” was opened in 1975.
Cathedral Chapel School
85 YEARS
OF CHAPEL PRIDE
April 25, 2015
All Class Reunion
5:00 pm - Mass at Cathedral Chapel Church
6:00-7:00 pm - Social Hour - No Host Bar
7:00 - 8:30 pm - Dinner
$40 per person, $10 per child (12 & Under)
Casual Attire
Cathedral Chapel School Auditorium
755 S. Cochran Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
RSVP by April 17
323.938.9976
www.cathedralchapelschool.org
Email: [email protected]
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
7 April 16, 2015
Treatment programs reform bill introduced
rendering courtesy of JFS
A rendering of a new expansion of the Freda Mohr Multipurpose
Center includes plans for a new three-story building.
JFS announces expansion
plans for senior center
By edwin folven
Senior citizens have a reason to
jump up and cheer. An expansion
of the Freda Mohr Multipurpose
Center, operated by Jewish
Family Services of Los Angeles
(JFS), has been announced.
The plan calls for a new threestory building that would consolidate services and JFS administration in one location. JFS representatives stressed that services
would remain in place for the
thousands of seniors and others
who use the facility while construction occurs. JFS recently
presented the project to the city,
and it will likely take months to
go through the approval process.
Representatives have raised
approximately $15 million of the
project’s estimated $36 million
cost, and are eager to continue
fundraising and begin the project
as soon as possible, said Dena
Schechter, JFS Board member
and co-chair of its capital campaign.
“We are connected to the
Fairfax community and are committed to ensuring that members
of the community are able to live
independently as much as possible in a friendly environment,
and that is what goes on at the
center on Fairfax,” Schechter
said. “We have been a presence
in the community for so long.
When we realized we needed a
headquarters, we needed something better for our clients, we
felt it was best to do it in a place
where we have roots in the community.”
The Freda Mohr Multipurpose
Center has been located on
Fairfax Avenue since the early
1950s — first on the west side of
the street, and later where it is
currently located at 330 N.
Fairfax Ave. It is named after the
first executive director of JFS.
Schechter said the center provides a plethora of services for
seniors, as well as families and
people with disabilities. Although
the organization has Jewish roots,
it is open to people of all backgrounds. Services include a fitness and exercise center, computer classes, counseling, support
groups and referral services. The
center also serves as a headquarters for services for homebound
seniors in the community.
The new center would enable
JFS to expand its programs, and
would provide space for the
administration, which currently
leases office space in a building
near Wilshire Boulevard and
Normandie Avenue. The Hirsch
Family Kitchen, which is located
next to the existing Freda Mohr
Multipurpose Center and provides meals for seniors, will also
be consolidated into the new project.
The center is an important
resource for thousands of people
in the community. Detroit Street
resident George Epstein, 88, said
it helped him recover from open
heart surgery approximately one
year ago.
“That’s the most organized
senior center in the city,” said
Epstein, who added that he exercises in the fitness center up to
five times a week. “The programs
they offer are wonderful. They
have some excellent equipment.
They also provide transportation.”
Los Angeles City Councilman
Paul Koretz, 5th District, said he
supports the project, and has not
heard any opposition.
“I don’t see a downside,”
Koretz said. “I have only heard
good things.”
Schechter added that the new
center would provide additional
community benefits, such as
parking for businesses in the area
when the center is closed. She
said the next step is to continue
raising funds for the project.
“It’s really important for
[seniors] to have socialization.
We give people a fullness and
richness and companionship,”
Schechter said. “It will be an
environment that is uplifting and
comforting.”
Beverly Hills OKs bike share plan
The Beverly Hills City Council
agreed to purchase 50 “smart” bicycles with the goal of launching
bicycle sharing by this fall.
At the April 7 study session, the
city council approved the $327,000
purchase, which includes 50 bicycles equipped with a GPS tracking
system, docking stations, information and sales kiosks — and one
year of operating expenses.
Beverly Hills will be the second
city in the region to implement a
bicycle share program following
Santa Monica. Although Beverly
Hills’ bicycle sharing program will
be branded separately, it will use
the same bicycle manufacturer,
CycleHop, and be compatible with
Santa Monica’s program. Other
nearby cities, including Los
Angeles, are also developing bicycle share programs.
The city council had earlier commissioned a bicycle share feasibility study to determine the locations
of the docking stations, ridership
forecast and the ideal size of the
program. The study will be completed in June.
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (DCalif.) announced on Monday that
he would be introducing legislation next month to reform residential treatment programs nationwide.
The introduction of a bill is all
the more timely after President
Barack Obama’s announcement
that his administration supports
ending therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender
youth, also known as gay conversion therapy, since some residential treatment programs employ
such discredited methods, Schiff
said.
Schiff plans to introduce the legislation by the end of May, and is
working with advocacy groups
and other lawmakers to build
bipartisan support.
Last week, Rep. Ted Lieu, (DCalif.) called for a federal ban on
gay conversion therapy. While
serving on the California State
Senate, Lieu was the author of a
bill that forbade gay conversion
for minors. Gov. Jerry Brown
signed the bill into law in 2012.
“So-called gay conversion ther-
apy, which seeks to change an
individual’s sexual orientation or
gender identity, is a dangerous but
often overlooked form of discrimination against LGBT Americans,”
Lieu said. “I was elated to hear of
President Obama’s support for a
permanent ban. Conversion therapy has critical medical and ethical
flaws that can be seriously damaging to the physical and mental
health of those who are compelled
to undergo it. Minors, who may
not be empowered to make their
own health decisions, are especially at risk.”
Many residential treatment programs have been successful in
helping kids with severe behavioral problems and have truly
helped rehabilitate them from a
traumatic experience or a drug and
alcohol addiction, Schiff said, but
a 2008 U.S. Government
Accountability Office report documented widespread reports of
abuse and death at these programs
which included the use of physical
restraints, severe methods of
intimidation, starvation, neglectful
medical practices, physical abuse
and much more. LGBT youth are
particularly at risk for abusive residential treatment programs,
which may advertise their services
to parents as “curing” them of
their sexual orientation, Schiff
added.
“We cannot ignore reports that
young people have died and suffered abuse at the hands of those
who run and work at residential
treatment programs under the
guise of providing critical therapy
and rehabilitation services,” Schiff
said. The legislation would hold
all youth residential treatment programs accountable to a set of minimum federal standards including
prohibiting all residential treatment programs that purport to provide youth with mental health and
behavioral treatment from any
form of child abuse and depriving
children of water, food, or medical
care; requiring that all children
have reasonable access to their
families and a hotline to report
instances of abuse; and requiring
all staff members to be properly
trained to identify instances of
child abuse.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
8 April 16, 2015
Mayor unveils new Sustainable
City Plan for Los Angeles
Los Angeles Mayor Eric
Garcetti last week released the
city’s first-ever Sustainable
City Plan, a comprehensive and
actionable policy roadmap to
prepare Los Angeles for an
environmentally healthy, economically prosperous, equitable future in the context of an
expected population growth of
500,000 people over the next
20 years.
The plan lays out short (by
2017) and long term (by 2025
and 2035) targets in 14 categories related to the environment, the economy and equity
encompassing water conservation, clean energy, waste, green
jobs, transportation, housing
and neighborhood livability.
After announcing the plan,
Garcetti signed an executive
directive incorporating the plan
into city management, including appointing departmentlevel chief sustainability officers who will work with the
city’s chief sustainability officer within the mayor’s administration to achieve the plan’s
goals.
“Los Angeles grew into one
of the world’s great cities
because its residents and leaders dreamed, planned and then
took action to build the metropolis we enjoy today. Now, it’s
our turn to lay a foundation to
secure a brighter future for
L.A. We expect at least
500,000 additional people to
call our city home by 2035.
Our first ever sustainability
plan details actions we must
take in the coming months and
years to secure a future for L.A.
that is environmentally healthy,
economically prosperous and
equitable in opportunity for us
all,” Garcetti said. “My back to
basics approach is about making sure our city has the strong
foundation it needs to soar to
new heights.”
The plan’s targets would
make L.A. the national leader
in solar, electric vehicle infrastructure, water conservation
and green jobs.
The plan also creates the
city’s first-ever commitments
in zero emissions goods movement at the Port of Los
Angeles, the first-ever commitment to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 80 percent by
2050 and the first-ever commitment to reduce per capita
vehicle miles traveled.
Progress made toward the
goals laid out in the plan can be
tracked by Angelenos on a special Sustainability segment of
the mayor’s performance metrics dashboard at the website
performance.lacity.org/sustainability.
The plan is the product of a
year-long process undertaken
by the city’s first chief sustainability officer, Matt Petersen.
Appointed by Garcetti at the
start of his administration,
Petersen and the office of sustainability have been tasked
with instilling sustainability as
a core value across city departments, working with all 37 of
the city’s different department
heads to incorporate sustainability goals into their annual
budgets and performance
review metrics.
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Vinyl is back in style for Record Store Day
n Local outlets prepare
for limited edition
music releases
By Luis Rivas
In the age of mp3s and iTunes,
vinyl records are not simply surviving — they’re thriving, according to
representatives of Record Store Day.
This Saturday is the eight annual
Record Store Day — a record enthusiast’s dream come true, —which
takes place annually on the third
Saturday of April.
Record Store Day was created by
the Department of Record Stores and
is organized in partnership with the
Alliance of Independent Media
Stores and the Coalition of
Independent Music Stores.
Over the last eight years, Record
Store Day has increased in popularity, according to Carrie Colliton, cofounder of Record Store Day.
“The number of stores participating has grown each year. This year,
there are about 1,200 stores who’ve
photo by Luis Rivas
An Amoeba Music customer skims through the store’s large collection of
vinyl records.
signed up to fully participate in the
United States. It’s definitely celebrated worldwide — we have organizers
in many countries, and there are participating stores on almost every continent,” Colliton said.
In the age of music downloads,
records — or vinyl as they are affectionately called — continue to be relevant in today’s music, according to
Colliton.
“Records are very relevant in
today’s music. A look at the continuing sales growth of vinyl over the
past few years is the proof of that.
More and more artists are choosing
to release their records on vinyl, and
more artists are being vocal about
how happy they are to see their art
See Records page 11
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
9 April 16, 2015
Melrose BID celebrates
Earth Day
Feuer announces 500 pot shops have closed
By edwin folven
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike
Feuer proclaimed on April 9 that
503 illegal medical marijuana dispensaries have been shut down since
he took office in July 2013.
Dozens of the illegal dispensaries
were located in the Hollywood and
Wilshire areas. Twenty-nine illegal
dispensaries have closed in
Hollywood during the past two
years, and 13 dispensaries have been
forced
to
close
in
the
Melrose/Fairfax
community,
according to statistics provided by
Feuer’s office.
Feuer said although the number of
closures is significant, there is more
work to be done. He estimated that
there are still a few hundred illegal
dispensaries operating in Los
Angeles, and he emphasized that
closing them will require a team
effort involving his office, the police
department and members of the
community.
Feuer vowed to continue enforcing regulations created under Prop.
D, a law approved by voters in 2013
regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. He encouraged anyone
who knows about a dispensary operating illegally to notify prosecutors
by emailing [email protected].
“There were too many dispensaries, they were too close together
and they were too close schools and
sensitive sites,” Feuer said. “We’ve
been making remarkable strides
since [Prop. D was approved by voters]. We have succeeded in closing
more than 500 illegal medical marijuana businesses in the city of Los
Angeles. In addition, we have filed
245 criminal cases against 1,000
defendants.”
Operators of hundreds of illegal
dispensaries have been identified
and warned to close, and in situations in which they were non-compliant, Feuer said his office has filed
lawsuits to force closures.
He added that landlords who rent
to dispensaries have also been targeted and notified that they face
fines and potential property seizures
if they allow an illegal dispensary to
continue operating on their property.
Feuer said he has also targeted
medical marijuana delivery services
— which are all illegal under Prop.
D — including the creator of an app
that facilitated the delivery of medical marijuana. Additionally, he said
he successfully shut down a medical
marijuana “farmers’ market” that
had begun operation in Boyle
Heights.
Prop. D allows a limited number
of dispensaries that had filed with
the city prior to a 2007 moratorium
to potentially qualify for immunity
from prosecution. Feuer said
approximately 125 such dispensaries are currently open in Los
Angeles.
He stressed, however, that Prop.
D does not legalize dispensaries,
and those that potentially qualify for
immunity must comply with regulations such as being 1,000 feet away
from schools, parks, libraries, community centers and other “sensitive”
locations.
All-girls STEM school approved
by LAUSD Board of Education
photo courtesy of the Melrose BID
In honor of Earth Day, Melrose Business Improvement District (BID)
executive director Donald Duckworth and board members Deny
Weintraub and Isack Fadlon showed off one of 10 new trees, planted near the corner of Melrose and Highland avenues, to City
Councilman Paul Koretz, 5th District.
Carolyn Ramsay visits
leadership breakfast
The Los Angeles Unified School
District Board of Education voted
unanimously on April 14 to establish the Girls Academic Leadership
Academy, Los Angeles, an all-girls
science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM) school that will
be located on the campus of Los
Angeles High School.
“It is clear that within our district,
our female student population is
underserved in the areas of science,
technology, engineering and mathematics,” LAUSD superintendent
Ramon C. Cortines said. “Not only
will this new school help our students discover their potential, think
critically and develop important
intellectual skills, it will also prepare them for college and beyond.”
The school’s mission is predicated on research that shows that an
all-girls school focusing on STEM
has a significant impact on the academic achievement of young
women. Particularly, data demonstrates that there is an achievement
and participation gap between male
and female students in STEM areas.
The school’s single gender admissions policy is designed to reduce
the achievement and participation
gap between male and female students.
“As we continue the national discussion on equal pay for equal
work, I stand in support of our
youth because our girls matter,”
LAUSD Board member Mónica
García said. “We push the envelope
for parent choice and for the
schools our students deserve. A
diverse district requires an equally
impressive diverse portfolio of educational options to get all our students to 100 percent graduation.”
The school’s highly rigorous college preparatory curriculum will
provide girls with a clear pathway
to college in the STEM fields, with
the expectation that female students
will graduate with a strong, confident and independent voice; collaborative leadership skills; and with a
sense of self and community.
The school will start with grades
six and nine in the 2016-17 school
year, growing one grade level per
year. It will cover each grade level
by the time its first class graduates
in 2020. The school will be funded
by bond and general funds.
CHNC looking to fill board vacancy
photo courtesy of Andrew Friedman
Attorney Andrew Friedman and his wife Chanie recently hosted CD4
candidate Carolyn Ramsay at their home for a breakfast with leading members of the Jewish and Hungarian communities. Pictured
from left are Chanie Friedman, Ramsay, Andrew Friedman, and rabbis Yoel Gold and Yuval Noiff. Ramsay is facing candidate David
Ryu in a runoff election on May 19.
“She is a problem solver with steep roots in the community,”
Friedman said. “She will make a great council person representing
all the residents of the 4th District in the John Ferraro tradition.”
The
Central
Hollywood
Neighborhood Council (CHNC) is
looking to fill a vacancy on its
board.
The CHNC is a self-governed, self-directed and independent organization empowered by
the Los Angeles City Charter. The
charter offers neighborhood councils a role in the city’s decisionmaking process, by staying
involved with developments in the
area that affect stakeholders.
The neighborhood council’s
boundaries are loosely Hollywood
Boulevard to the north, La Brea
Avenue to the west, Centro
Avenue to the east and parts of
Willoughby and Melrose avenues
to the south.
Interested candidates can contact CHNC at [email protected] or visit the
website at www.chnc.org.
“There is lots of activity on multiple fronts,” Feuer added. “When
Prop. D was passed, I was asked
immediately upon being elected if I
thought it would withstand judicial
scrutiny because there were many
challenges to Proposition D contemplated, and again and again and
again those challenges have been
brought [against] the lawfulness of
the action the voters put in place. In
each and every instance, dozens of
times, we succeeded in fending off
those challenges, and continue to
enforce Proposition D.”
Los Angeles Police Department
Cmdr. Andrew Smith added that
illegal dispensaries continue to be a
priority for law enforcement. Patrol
officers routinely look for new dispensaries that are opening, and forward the information to investigators to initiate enforcement.
“They are not hard to spot,”
Smith said. “Our gang and narcotics
division officers are in charge of
checking out the locations. They
check with the city attorney’s office
to see if they are legal, and if not, we
will take the steps to close them
down.”
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Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
10 April 16, 2015
‘100 Walkers’ hit the sidewalks in WeHo this weekend
Los Angeles-based artist
Richard Kraft’s unique timebased performance piece “100
Walkers, West Hollywood” will
stride through the city on
Saturday, April 18, beginning at
2:30 p.m.
Each volunteer walker will
wear a suit and bowler hat, and a
sandwich board with thoughtprovoking visuals and messages.
The walkers will follow a predetermined route through the city,
returning to their point of origin
at 5:30 p.m.
The project will launch from
West Hollywood Library, located at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
Walkers will meet at the El Tovar
parking lot, beneath Shepard
Fairey’s “Peace Elephant”
mural. At 2 p.m., poetry scholar
and art critic Marjorie Perloff,
the walk’s honorary “starter”,
will release each of the 100
walkers by calling out a singular
phrase to each one. The walkers
will move throughout the city,
but not speak. They will, however, have “calling cards” to pass
out to curious observers.
Images and text on the walkers’ sandwich boards have been
specifically tailored to be in conversation
with
West
Hollywood’s history and communities, officials said. The
boards will not feature advertising but, instead, will be detailed
with aphorisms, portraits, animals, painted hand gestures,
imagery from children’s books
and photographs of war and
See WeHo Walkers page 20
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Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
11 April 16, 2015
Letters to the Editor
Designers flock to PDC
From page 6
LaBonge, Ramsay did
not help with tour bus
issues
[Re: “Hollywood Hills residents fed up with illegal tour
buses”, April 2 issue], tour van
operators and their drivers have
been violating the commercial
weight law in the Hollywood
Hills
since
2011,
when
[Councilman Tom] LaBonge illegally developed a scenic vista
under the Hollywood Sign.
LaBonge and [CD4 candidate
Carolyn] Ramsay, as his chief of
staff, made half-hearted promises
to help us, and never delivered in
assuring SEC 80.36.1 was
enforced. Don’t believe any
promises he makes, and do not
count on Ramsay to do anything
more than LaBonge If elected.
She failed over a two-year period
to do so serving as chief of staff.
We residents pushed LAPD’s
commercial unit to get new portables scales, pressured LAPD West
Traffic Division to train more officers to help enforcement, and we
are currently pressing the city
attorney to issue stay away orders
to repeat offender tour operators.
We had to do what LaBonge
and Ramsay would not, including
pushing LADOT to place additional signage to allow the unit to
cite operators. We are doing
CD4’s job for whatever reason,
you pick them! LaBonge would
not lead a long-term plan to assure
our public safety and traffic mitigation, nor will he sincerely push
for a tour operator solution. It is
his legacy. If we do not elect Ryu,
expect more of the same from
Ramsay because tigers do not
change their stripes, especially if
they are city hall insiders supported by other insiders.
Tony Fisch
Los Angeles
Supportive of bicycle
infrastructure plans
[Re: “Mid-City West hopes for
Metro support on major bicycle
plan”, April 9 issue], I support this
idea of using secondary streets for
more biking. I ride my bike to
work, a distance of 10 miles, and I
use Rosewood Avenue further
east of Highland Avenue, from
Wilcox. Then I take Arden
Boulevard south. Arden has sharrows and signage for bikes sharing the road. The speed limit is
supposed to be 15 mph, but only
bikes do that. Past Wilshire
Boulevard, I use Lucerne
Boulevard to 8th Street, and eventually get onto 4th Avenue, which
has a nice bike lane. I feel pretty
safe on this route and it is far more
pleasant than riding on busy
streets with traffic going 45 mph,
or being stopped in gridlock.
According to the Los Angeles
Times, California leads the nation
in bicyclist injuries and deaths.
Sharing the road with automobiles
is inherently dangerous. It only
takes a moment of diversion on
the part of the driver.
My solution: allow bicyclists to
use one sidewalk on select streets
— those with fewer pedestrians
— and teach them to ride at a low
speeds and to be alert for pedestrians, especially those walking with
a cane, walker or wheelchair.
Just as motorists are required to
learn proper safety measures, so
should the bicyclists.
Cathy Des Lauriers
Los Angeles
George Epstein
Detroit Street
Los Angeles uses
flawed data
in mobility plan
Posada on the money
regarding ‘It Follows’
[Re: “Mobility plan doesn’t
make sense to residents”, April 9
issue], the mobility plan makes no
sense for the reasons Judge
Goodman mentioned in January
2014. The city uses fatally flawed
data and wishful thinking rather
than facts. Everything is devoted
to giving as much money to the
mega developers. The city has
passed the point of no return.
Scott Zwartz
Los Angeles
Bicycle accidents still
a concern in the city
[Re: “Mid-City West hopes for
Metro support on major bicycle
plan”, April 9 issue], by all means,
we should encourage greater use
of bicycles.
It seems to me, though, that we
need to be more concerned about
accidents with bicyclists. They
face a higher risk of crash-related
injury and deaths than occupants
of motor vehicles. In 2010 in the
U.S., there were an estimated
515,000 emergency department
visits due to bicycle-related
injuries. Data from 2005 show
fatal and non-fatal crash-related
injuries to bicyclists resulted in
lifetime medical costs and productivity losses of $5 billion.
[Re: “’It Follows’ is the first
amazing film of the year”, April 2
issue], an absolutely incredible,
unsettling and disturbing film, in
the best way. [Tim Posada’s]
description is perfection. The
score completely matches the
beautiful and haunting scenery
and camerawork, and there really
is no other horror movie like it.
Not just a must-see, but a mustbuy when it’s available to own.
Vines could be the key
to Melrose Avenue
[RE: Melrose may become canvas for street art museum”, March
26 issue], why do we so often
overlook obvious solutions?
Graffiti on Melrose is non-existent at Fred Segal’s and The
Village Idiot. How? They have
vines covering their walls.
The drought tolerant vines not
only stop the hate paint, they cool
the buildings, provide oxygen and
are very pleasant to the eye. It also
has the look of being established.
And what business, especially on
Melrose, doesn’t want to look
established?
David Reid
Vista Street
From page 8
best days of the year for Amoeba,
she said.
“It’s crazy. It’s just packed.
Customers sleep on the sidewalk for
the door to open. It’s a huge deal for
us,” Barg said.
The store is offering hundreds of
limited and special edition record
releases,
including
Paul
McCartney’s “Family Lost”, The
Animals’ “We’re Gonna Howl
Tonight” and Johnny Cash’s
“Koncert v Praze (In Prague-Live)”
printed on “Soviet red” vinyl.
Several other record stores will
also participate in Record Store Day,
such as Vacation Vinyl on Sunset
Boulevard, Midnight Records on
South Robertson Boulevard as well
as dozens of other independent
record stores in Los Angeles. For a
list of record stores, visit
www.recordstoreday.com/venues.
Headline Records on Melrose
Avenue is one of the area’s premier
“The Pacific Design Center is not
restricted in access,” he said. “We
are an open facility. We’ll have
1,500 to 1,800 people who come
through our building every week,
and those are a variety of individuals. We want to embrace anyone
who is interested in design and has
the wherewithal to make purchases.”
Sampson said the PDC has a program called Designer on Call for
instant purchases and it also
employs a designer referral system
for any style or budget. Beyond
that, the PDC hosts public art
exhibits through its designLAb and
features several art gallery showrooms. The PDC has advanced
beyond any thoughts of exclusivity,
Sampson said.
“There’s always something new,
and there is always something I’ve
missed,” May added. “I use the
PDC as a starting point for inspiration.”
Brittany Cone
Naperville, IL
Records remain popular in the digital age
(musical and visual) come out on
vinyl, their preferred format,” she
said.
Records are still sought after,
especially in today’s trendy music
culture, according to Colliton.
One of the biggest record stores in
the country, Amoeba Music, has
been a regular participant in Record
Store Day. According to Ilene Barg,
head of marketing and special projects at Amoeba Music in Los
Angeles, the day has increased in
popularity.
Barg has been working at Amoeba
Music for 13 years — nearly the
same time the store opened in Los
Angeles.
“Records are probably our top
sellers. They do very well for us.
Last year for Record Store Day, we
had over 15,000 people in the store,”
Barg said.
Next to Christmas season shopping, Record Store Day is one of the
Livingston said she takes her
international clients to the PDC for
two or three days as a shopping
excursion, and she has welcomed
the expansion of scope.
“They offer continuous lectures
and state of the art panels,” she
said. We are able to talk about our
fields across the board to all sorts of
people who are interested in learning.”
Interior designer Christian May
said he has been a happy customer
for approximately 20 years.
“The Pacific Design Center is the
elephant in the decorator’s room,”
he said. “You can’t miss it. It’s a
landmark and it’s the source if you
want fabric, trimmings, furnishings
— it’s all there. For a designer, it’s
one stop shopping. If I’m starting a
project, I can knock out a good portion at the PDC. It’s so big, I still
get lost.”
Sampson said the public shouldn’t be intimidated.
punk rock record stores. It has been
open for 14 years near Fairfax High
School.
For Headline Records owner, Jean
Luc Gaudry, vinyl records, with or
without Record Store Day, will
never go away.
“Vinyl record sales have gone up
because it’s a trend right now, but I
don’t think that vinyl is ever really
going to disappear. It’s very special,”
Gaudry said.
Gaudry added that people tend to
think of music as a commodity, but
the fragility of vinyl makes people
care more about it.
“It was a big mistake of the music
industry to move away from vinyl
when they did CDs. They treated
music as a product instead of an art,”
Gaudry said.
Headline Records will be giving
away tote bags with a store purchase
as well as other Record Store Day
discounts.
photo by Jonathan Van Dyke
Public art installations and interior design showrooms mingle inside the
Blue Whale building of the Pacific Design Center.
National Park Service releases
Rim of the Valley report
The National Park Service (NPS)
released its draft report on Tuesday
on the Rim of the Valley Study,
which examined the possibility of
expanding the boundary of Santa
Monica Mountains National
Recreation Area (SMMNRA) to
include the Rim of the Valley. The
draft report recommends a significant expansion of the existing
recreation area and now awaits
public comment.
In their report, the park service
recommended Alternative C,
which significantly expands the
existing SMMNRA boundary to
include portions of the study area
that are densely populated.
“In the 1970s when the Santa
Monica Mountains Recreation was
created, Congress had the foresight
to see that the Los Angeles population would grow and thrive, and it
was necessary to act to preserve the
open space and natural wonders
around us,” U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff
(D-Calif.) said. “Over the past two
years, the park service has worked
to complete their draft report and
has now recommended a major
expansion of the park, as reflected
in Alternative C, to better serve and
connect this growing urban population to nature. While I am grateful
that the park service has shown the
foresight of recommending a substantial enlargement of the existing
recreation area by embracing
Alternative C, I am disappointed
that it did not also adopt
Alternative D, which would provide the greatest resource protection possible.
In 2008, Congress passed
Schiff’s bill directing the Park
Service to conduct a special
resource study to determine the
possibility of providing federal
protection to the Rim of the Valley
— an area which stretches from the
existing Santa Monica Mountains
National Recreation Area, through
the Simi Hills and Santa Susannas,
Verdugos, and on to the San
Gabriel Mountains. The study
explored whether any portion of
the Rim of the Valley study area
was eligible to become a unit of a
national park system or added to an
existing one, and how the resources
could be protected and best utilized
by the public. In the fall of 2012,
the U.S. National Park Service
released its preliminary findings,
and offered four initial alternatives
— Alternatives A through D — and
opened up the conversation for
public comment.
Schiff will host a town hall for
interested constituents and community members to discuss the new
draft report and offer feedback and
concerns to the U.S. National Park
Service on April 27 at 6:30 p.m. at
Descanso Gardens-Van de Kamp
Hall, 1418 Descanso Dr., La
Cañada Flintridge. Those interested in attending should RSVP to
Schiff’s district office at (818)4502900 or (323)315-5555.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
12 April 16, 2015
R ESTAU R ANT NEW S
By Jill Weinlein
Ray’s & Stark Bar &
Park La Brea Residents
R
ay’s & Stark Bar at LACMA is
offering a special promotion
for its neighbors at Park La Brea.
Diners can pick up a Ray’s & Stark
Bar frequent dining card at the Park
La Brea leasing office at 6200 W.
3rd St. Park La Brea residents will
receive 10 percent off main courses
each time they visit the restaurant.
The card will be stamped, and after
10 visits, residents will receive $30
off their bill. 5905 Wilshire Blvd.
(323)857-6180.
Eat. Drink.
Be An Angel.
P
roject Angel Food presents a
culinary
fundraiser
on
Wednesday, April 22 that will help
the organization continue its support for critically ill individuals in
Los Angeles County. Participating
restaurants, residents and visitors
can help generate funds needed for
Project Angel Food’s meal delivery
program. Guests who dine at partner restaurants will support Project
Angel Food, as each restaurant has
pledged to donate a minimum of 20
percent of food sales profits on
April 22. Participating restaurants
include Asa Meza, Aventine
Hollywood, Barrel & Ashes BelAir Bar & Grill, Cleo, Connie &
Ted’s, JAR, Katsuya Brentwood,
Katsuya Hollywood, Katsuya LA
Live, Katsuya Glendale, Kitchen
24 Hollywood, Kitchen 24 West
Hollywood, Meals by Genet, Mr.
Chow, Off-Vine, The Oinkster in
Hollywood, Pizzeria IL Fico, Pie
Hole in downtown L.A., Porta Via,
Rockwell, SUR, Tortilla Republic,
Taste at the Palisades, Taste on
Melrose, Tavern Restaurant and
Village Pizzeria in Larchmont
Village. For information, visit
www.angelfood.org.
Le Grand Cercle
des Vins de
Bordeaux
T
he Peninsula Beverly Hills is
hosting a tasting session on
Thursday, April 23 at 7 p.m. at which
guests will learn about Bordeaux
wines, meet winemakers and taste
selections from Bordeaux’s Left and
Right banks. Guests will enjoy a buffet and a silent auction will also be
held. Tickets are $75; $150 for VIP
admission. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the TJ Martell
Foundation. 9882 S. Santa Monica
Blvd.
(310)551-2888,
http://bordeauxinLA.eventbrite.com.
Hollywood Charity
Horse Show
A
ctor
William
Shatner,
Priceline.com and Wells Fargo
have announced that REO
Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin, and
band mates Bryan Hitt and Dave
Amato, will perform on Saturday,
April 25 at the “Hollywood Charity
Horse Show” at the Los Angeles
Equestrian Center. Guests will
enjoy an arena show and worldclass reining competition, followed
by a western dinner catered by
Stonefire Grill and a live concert.
Proceeds will benefit special-needs
children’s charities including
AHEAD With Horses, Children’s
Hospital Los Angeles, the
Hollenbeck Police Activities
League, St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital, The Painted
Turtle and others. 480 Riverside
Drive, Burbank. (818)509-2290,
www.horseshow.org.
Hard Rock Cafe
Hollywood
R
ock legend Carlos Santana’s
limited-edition cocktails may
cast a spell on guests at the Hard
Rock Café. The cocktails, named
Black Magic Press and Maria Maria
Coronita, are made with Santana’s
Casa Noble Crystal Tequila. The
Black Magic Press is served in a
coffee-press style vessel that infuses
fruit into the cocktail. They are
available through Tuesday, May 5 at
the Hard Rock Café’s Hollywood
and Highland and Universal
Citywalk locations. Proceeds benefit the Milagro Foundation, a charity created by Santana promoting art,
education and health programs for
families. 6801 Hollywood Blvd.,
Ste. 105. (323)464-7625; 1000
Universal Studios Blvd., Ste. 99.
(818)622-7625.
‘Mad Men’ at
Tom Bergin’s
T
om Bergin’s Public House is
celebrating the last season of
AMC’s “Mad Men” with a classic
cocktail menu inspired by characters from the iconic show. Guests
can enjoy nine libations priced at
$10 that are available through
Sunday, May 17. The Draper is a
straightforward and classic Old
Fashioned; The Campbell cocktail
is a “sour to the core” whiskey
sour; and The Sally is a bright, citrusy and refreshing version of a
Tom Collins. Additionally, Tom
Bergin’s will be showing “Mad
Men” every Sunday night in its
East Coast time slot at 7 p.m., and
the West Coast time slot at 10 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to dress in
1950s, 1960s and 1970s attire. A
special “Mad Men” gift will be
given away during the season finale
on May 17, on a first-come, firstserve basis. Tom Bergin’s is also
offering wood-fired pork chops
with braised cabbage slaw, bacon
jam and brandy butter, and a wedge
salad with smoked bacon, egg,
Stella blue cheese, scallion, tomato
and housemade buttermilk ranch
dressing. 840 S. Fairfax Ave.
(323)936-7151.
Movie and Dinner
E
very month, iPic Theaters in
Westwood and Pasadena provide patrons with a special food and
cocktail pairing, in addition to the
regular menu by chef Sherry Yard,
to enjoy while watching the latest
movie releases. For the next few
monthly promotions, Yard has
enlisted talented chef friends to create special dishes. Throughout April,
Chef Antonia Lofaso is offering
ricotta crostini with homemade
Italian sausage, ricotta, braised kale
and parmesan reggiano. It can be
paired with The Blockbuster, a
house-infused lemon zest vodka
cocktail with passion fruit, pomegranate, blood orange and slapped
basil. In May, chef Jet Tila will offer
tuna on crispy rice cake with spicy
tuna, sriracha, scallions and daikon
sprouts. The drink of the month will
be Tokyo iced tea made with jasmine tea-infused vodka, balsam,
riesling and honey-pineapple-yuzulychee salsa. During June, chef Ben
Ford will serve pulled pork grilled
cheese sandwiches with barbecue
pork, gouda cheese and pickled peppers on Texas toast. The sandwiches
pair well with firewood margaritas
made with bourbon barrel rested
tequila, smoked tea and homemade
sour mix. 10840 Wilshire Blvd.
(310)307-7003; 42 Miller Alley,
Pasadena. (626)639-2260.
New Lemonade
Café
L
emonade Café, a new comfort
food, cafeteria-style eatery,
recently opened in the Japantown
area of Sawtelle Boulevard in West
Los Angeles. A rotating daily menu
of marketplace salads, braises and
prepared sandwiches for lunch are
available, as well as “grab and go”
dinner selections. Lemonade has
also unveiled its new neighborhood
plate collection designed by Ilan
Dei. The limited edition neighborhood inspired plates depict
Southern California communities
that Lemonade calls home, and feature original artwork and photography of iconic landmarks.
“The plates give locals something that was made just for their
community to take home and share
with friends and family,”
Lemonade Café chef and founder
Alan Jackson said. Each plate in the
series will be available at its corresponding Lemonade location. The
Griffith Observatory plate is available at the Toluca Lake Lemonade
Café and the Walt Disney Concert
Hall plate is available at the downtown Lemonade Café. They are
dishwasher safe and are $26 for one
plate, $44 for a collector’s set of
two. 2047 Sawtelle Blvd.
(310)478-0900.
Railfest
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Pr e m u i m P o s i t i o n s
Ba c k C o v e r :
$1 5 00
Inside Front Cover: $ 1 35 0
I ns i de B a ck C o ver : $ 13 50
M od u l ar S i zes
Fu l l p ag e :
3/ 4 pa ge :
Ha l f p a ge :
1/ 4 pa ge :
$1 1 00
$9 0 0
$7 0 0
$4 0 0
Publishing in June 2015!
An all-new edition of the
ENTERTAINMENT
& DINING GUIDE 2015
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
13 April 16, 2015
Not Your Average Chinese Restaurant
Contemporary Cantonese Cuisine at
Hakkasan Beverly Hills
C
including a popular Buddha’s Palm
made with Buffalo Trace bourbon,
Velvet Falernum, yuzu marmalade
and juice, white balsamic vinegar,
black grapes and mint. I chose a
frothy strawberry-ginger bellini
made with Prosecco and served in a
glass that was shorter and narrower
than a typical champagne flute.
Other guests at our table ordered
drinks like Eastern Elixir, Dark &
Stormy and smoky Negroni, made
with Rusty Blade aged gin, Antica
Formula vermouth, Campari and
Grand Marnier. A lid on the glass is
lifted at the table, releasing a dramatic smoky vapor that rises from
an extra large ice cube.
Our server, Beau, was charming
and professional in delivering our
multi-course dinner. The first
course was pan-seared mango scallops, with four scallops served in a
fresh mango sauce with Asian pear
and Thai sweet chili sauce. It’s garnished with purple radish, and was
more of a sweet than spicy dish.
It was suggested that I try the
crispy duck salad, one of the most
popular dishes on the menu,
stacked high with crispy duck meat,
bright red pomegranate seeds, flash
fried pine nuts, lettuce and shallots
— a bowl of crunchy, chewy and
silky delectable delights. The dish
is addictively good.
Next, the royal lobster soup
arrived with lobster meat still in its
flavorful shell, and lots of long and
thin smoked enoki mushrooms.
The chef splashes Bourbon on the
soup to round out the flavors.
I really enjoyed the truffle lupin
wrap, made with a gluten free flour
antonese cuisine was the
first regional Chinese food
to come to America. Over
the years, it has developed a reputation of being bland or overly sweet.
Hakkasan, on Beverly Drive, has
reintroduced Cantonese dining with
an intriguing club-like atmosphere
and big, bold flavors.
The first thing diners will notice
when walking into the restaurant is
the air perfumed with incense. A
beautiful stonewall entrance leads
to dimly blue-lit dining rooms.
Techno music is pulsating, and low
hanging lights illuminate the tables.
The original Hakkasan restaurant
was founded in London in 2001.
Since then, Hakkasan has become a
distinguished global restaurant with
locations in Mumbai, Bengaluru,
New Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
Doha, Shanghai, Miami, New
York, San Francisco, Las Vegas and
Beverly Hills.
We sat near the lounge area created by general manager Jordan
Ogron, who came to Hakkasan
after working at Rivera, Fig &
Olive, Short Order and Bestia. He
supervised interior improvements
and worked closely with the chefs
to create new seafood dishes exclusively served in Hakkasan’s
Beverly Hills restaurant.
Hakkasan’s international executive chef Ho Chee Boon, a
Michelin-starred chef with more
than 24 years of experience, was at
the restaurant the night we dined.
The chef’s Cantonese menu offers
contemporary and exotic dishes
that are steamed and wok-fried.
We ordered innovative cocktails
photo courtesy of Hakkasan
Truffle lupin wrap is now offered on the menu. Above, spicy lamb lupin
wrap is typically served for Chinese New Year’s.
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high in protein and rich in dietary
fiber and minerals. The dish was
wrapped with legumes, carrots and
Japanese yams and drizzled with
black housemade hoisin sauce.
Black truffle shavings on top
enhance the savoriness.
By Jill Weinlein
Chef Ho’s team also makes stir
fried squid served with a mix of
cloud ear fungus, onion, carrots,
scallion, bird’s-eye chilies and
cashew nuts. The pleasing dish
appealed to everyone at the table.
The braised royal abalone looked
like a large mushroom cap with
white lace mushrooms. Abalone is
the escargot of the sea, and the
smooth delicacy paired well with
snow ear and cloud ear mushrooms, baby bok choy and royal
supreme stock made with chicken,
duck, dried scallop, ginger, carrot
and chicken feet.
Another appetizing wok-fried
vegetarian dish was exotic Chinese
mushrooms with yam bean, sugar
snap peas and macadamia nuts. I
really enjoyed the delicate lily bulb
mushrooms and cloud ear fungus.
The most dramatic dishes in
appearance were stir-fried Brazilian
lobster with Chinese chive sauce,
and wok-fried lamb chop with preserved bean curd and ginger. The
Mongolian-style beef tenderloin
photo by Jill Weinlein
The wok fried lamb chop with preserved bean curd and ginger tastes as
delicious as it visually appealing.
was very tender and flavorful. The
dish, was served in a lovely buttercolored custard basket. The beef is
wok-fried with a sweet sauce, milk,
maitake mushrooms and crispy ginger with an edible flower.
We also enjoyed abalone fried
rice cooked in abalone stock with
fresh abalone, chopped prawns and
dried scallops. We finished with
tapioca-style banana pearl pudding.
DJ Aaron Colbert offers entertainment on Tuesday and Wednesday
evenings starting at 7 p.m. Rotating
DJs spin music every Thursday
through Saturday at 8 p.m.
Hours are from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.,
Tuesday through Saturday; the bar
and lounge is open from 5:30 p.m.
to closing. The restaurant is closed
Sunday and Monday. $$$ 233 N.
Beverly Dr. (310)888-8661.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
14 April 16, 2015
Police Blotter
The following crimes occurred in West Hollywood and the areas patrolled
by the LAPD’s Wilshire and Hollywood divisions between April 6 and April
12, and were compiled from www.crimemapping.com. To report a crime,
the telephone numbers of local law enforcement agencies are: Los Angeles
Police Department, Wilshire Division (213)473-0489 and Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s Department West Hollywood Station (310)855-8850.
April 6
cle parked in the 900 block of
Gardner at 10 p.m.
petty theft in the 7100 block of
Santa Monica at 10:02 p.m.
April 10
At 12:20 a.m., an unknown suspect robbed a victim in the 4800
block of Elmwood.
An attempted robbery was reported in the 200 block of Gramercy at
1:10 a.m.
At 10:14 a.m., an unknown suspect assaulted a victim in the 7200
block of Santa Monica.
block of 3rd.
burglarized a vehicle parked in the
5900 block of Wilshire.
A suspect assaulted a victim during a domestic violence incident in
the 1800 block of Outpost at 8
p.m.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft in the 100 block of S. La
Brea at 4 p.m.
An unknown suspect committed a
theft in the 8400 block of Beverly
at 8:40 p.m.
At 8:50 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a theft in the 8400 block
of Beverly.
At 11:11 p.m., an unknown suspect committed a residential burglary in the 7500 block of
Hampton.
An unknown suspect burglarized a
vehicle parked in the 1300 block of
N. Curson at 9 p.m.
April 11
At 9:40 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft in the 7100
block of Santa Monica. A second
petty theft was reported in the
same area at approximately 10:30
p.m.
April 8
An unknown suspect committed a
burglary in the 1400 block of
Queens at 12:15 p.m.
At 12:33 a.m., an unknown suspect robbed a victim in the 8600
block of Santa Monica.
At 2:45 p.m., an unknown suspect
burglarized a vehicle parked in the
500 block of S. Lucerne.
At 9:40 a.m., a theft was reported
in the 6700 block of Hollywood.
An unknown suspect robbed a victim in the 7900 block of Sunset at
4 a.m.
An unknown suspect committed a
theft in the 8500 block of Beverly
at 2:50 p.m.
An unknown suspect burglarized a
vehicle parked in the 1300 block of
Gordon at noon.
At 8 a.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft in the 5600
block of Lexington.
At 5:24 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft in the 6300
At 12:40 p.m., an attempted residential burglary was reported in
the 8300 block of Fountain.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft in the 6100 block of
Wilshire at 10 a.m.
City attorney takes aim at gang apartments
An unknown suspect assaulted a
victim in the 300 block of Fairfax at
1:30 p.m.
At 2 p.m., an unknown suspect
stole a vehicle parked near the
corner of Melrose and Sierra
Bonita.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike
Feuer announced last week that his
office has filed a narcotics abatement
lawsuit against the owners and operators of an alleged gang controlled
apartment complex known as a
haven for illegal drugs and guns
located across the street from Locke
High School. Feuer also filed suit
against the owners of a nearby gang
controlled single family home.
The lawsuits are part of a continued crackdown by Feuer and law
enforcement on narcotics and crime
magnet properties across Los
Angeles including four recent abatement lawsuits filed against properties
in Hollywood, South Los Angeles,
Venice and Del Rey.
“Gangs, drugs and guns are a
lethal combination and corrosive to
our
neighborhoods—especially
across the street from a school,”
Feuer said. “My office will continue
to fight aggressively to rid our communities of these epicenters of
crime.”
Narcotics and public nuisance
abatement lawsuits have been filed
against Michael Hayden and
At 6 a.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft near the
corner of Sunset and La Brea.
An unknown suspect committed a
burglary in the 700 block of
Longwood at 9:30 a.m.
At 3 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft in the 800
block of N. La Brea.
An unknown suspect committed a
theft in the 900 block of N. Western
at 3:15 p.m.
At 3:30 p.m., an unknown suspect
burglarized a vehicle parked in the
400 block of S. Orange.
An unknown suspect committed a
grand theft in the 8500 block of
Beverly at 4:10 p.m.
At 5:30 p.m., an unknown suspect
assaulted a victim near the corner
of Oakwood and Martel.
An unknown suspect assaulted a
victim in the 6200 block of
Hollywood at 5:50 p.m.
At 6:30 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a theft in the 5400 block
of Wilshire.
An unknown suspect burglarized a
vehicle parked in the 700 block of
S. Curson at 7 p.m.
An unknown suspect burglarized a
vehicle parked in the 900 block of
Larrabee at 4 p.m.
At 4:10 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft near the
corner of June and 1st.
An unknown suspect committed a
theft in the 900 block of N. Western
at 4:40 p.m.
At 11 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a burglary in the 1400
block of N. Las Palmas.
April 9
At 3 a.m., an unknown suspect
committed a petty theft in the 6700
block of Hollywood.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft in the 6500 block of
Wilshire at 8:45 a.m.
At 9:15 a.m., an unknown suspect
assaulted a victim near the corner
of Lexington and Vine.
At 1 a.m., an unknown suspect
committed a theft in the 1400 block
of N. Ivar.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft near the corner of 3rd
and Gardner at 9:30 a.m.
At 10 a.m., an unknown suspect
stole a vehicle parked in the 7500
block of DeLongpre.
At 1:50 p.m., an unknown suspect
Michelle Wilson, the owners of an
apartment building located at 605 E.
109th Place and Tamara BrownSiemu and Charlene Davis, the operators of a property at 8704
Wadsworth Ave.
The 109th Place property is a twostory, eight-unit apartment complex
located one block away from 109th
Street Elementary School and across
the street from Alain LeRoy Locke
College Preparatory Academy. For at
least the past four years, the property
has allegedly been used as, and currently is, a stronghold for members
of the Back Street Crips gang to conduct narcotics sales as well as to store
narcotics and firearms, officials said.
Since 2011 there have been at least
18 arrests at or directly related to the
property and since 2012, LAPD has
recovered seven firearms there.
The civil abatement action seeks
an injunction restricting criminal
activity on the property including
selling or storing controlled substances. The abatement also seeks
physical and managerial improvements to the property including an
internet-connected video monitoring
April 12
At 1:55 a.m., an unknown suspect
assaulted a victim near the corner
of Robertson and Santa Monica.
A suspect stole a bicycle in the
300 block of N. La Brea at approximately 4 p.m.
system accessible by LAPD;
improved lighting; screening of tenants; armed and licensed security
guards; and the prohibition of known
gang members from accessing the
property.
The defendants will also face civil
penalties and may be ordered by the
court to reside in the property until
the nuisance is abated.
The Wadsworth Avenue property
is a 1,300 square foot single-family
residence in a neighborhood located
within 700 feet of five places of worship. The property is allegedly used
by the Swan Bloods street gang for
the sale, storage and use of rock
cocaine on an open and continuous
basis. Since January 2013, LAPD
has conducted two search warrants at
the property and made 13 arrests.
The civil abatement action is seeking an injunction prohibiting the sale
and storage of narcotics at the property. The city attorney is also seeking
a court order requiring any member
or associates of the Swan Bloods
gang to move out of the property and
be prohibited from returning 1,000
feet from the home.
At 8 p.m., a theft was reported in
the 600 block of N. Gramercy.
An unknown suspect robbed a victim in the 8700 block of Beverly at
11:30 a.m.
Suspect pirated ‘The Expendables 3’ among others
An unknown suspect burglarized a
vehicle parked in the 5600 block of
W. 8th at 8:30 p.m.
At 12:05 p.m., a theft was reported
in the 900 block of N. Western.
April 7
An unknown suspect stole a vehicle parked in the 7900 block of
Selma at 2 p.m.
Special agents with U.S.
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland
Security Investigations (HSI)
teamed with London police detectives last Thursday to arrest a man in
northern England suspected of pirating television series and pre-release
movies,
including
“The
Expendables 3”, and posting them
on the Internet.
The 26-year-old suspect was
detained at his workplace in Leeds
by detectives from the City of
London’s
Police
Intellectual
Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) and
taken to a local police station for
At 12:30 a.m., an unknown suspect burglarized a vehicle parked
in the 400 block of Westmount.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft in the 7800 block of
Melrose at 1:55 a.m.
At 2:49 a.m., an unknown suspect
assaulted a victim in the 7900
block of Santa Monica.
At 2:20 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a theft in the 8400 block
of Santa Monica.
An unknown suspect committed a
theft in the 8400 block of Beverly at
2:30 p.m.
At 2:50 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a burglary in the 5400
block of Hollywood.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft in the 8500 block of
Beverly at 3:30 p.m.
A theft was reported in the 8400
block of Beverly at 4:05 p.m.
At 6:15 a.m., an unknown suspect
committed a burglary in the 300
block of S. Sycamore.
At 7 p.m., an unknown suspect
burglarized a vehicle parked in the
1000 block of Larrabee.
An unknown suspect committed a
burglary in the 6500 block of
Franklin at 3 p.m.
An unknown suspect committed a
petty theft in the 1600 block of N.
El Centro at 8:25 p.m.
At 8 p.m., an unknown suspect
committed a burglary in the 800
block of N. La Jolla.
At 8:30 p.m., an unknown suspect
stole a vehicle parked near the
corner of Hayworth and Oakwood.
An unknown suspect stole a vehi-
An unknown suspect committed a
questioning. Investigators from
PIPCU and HSI searched the man’s
home in Halifax where they seized
several computers and mobile
devices.
“The theft of creative content
costs the entertainment industry
untold millions,” said Claude
Arnold, special agent in charge of
HSI Los Angeles. “Preventing piracy comes down to protecting people’s livelihoods — from the grips
and gaffers, to the screenwriters and
costume designers. As for online
pirates who think they can steal
movies and TV shows with impunity, they’re finding out there’s a plot
twist in this script they didn’t anticipate.”
Thursday’s arrest is the latest
development in a probe initiated last
year by HSI special agents in Los
Angeles after the agency received a
tip from film industry representatives about possible pre-release
movie leaks. The ensuing investigation, which is being conducted in
close collaboration with the Motion
Picture Association of America
(MPAA) and HSI’s attaché office in
London, allegedly revealed the
Halifax man obtained high-quality
films and unfinished, unreleased
movies, which he posted online.
Man found guilty of killing friend with a sledgehammer
A 21-year-old man has been
found guilty of murdering a longtime friend at a construction site last
year, the Los Angeles County
District
Attorney’s
Office
announced.
Jurors deliberated on April 8 for
less than two hours before finding
Christian Valdez guilty of seconddegree murder. Valdez is scheduled
for sentencing on May 4 when he
faces up to 15 years to life in state
prison.
Deputy district attorney Saeed
Teymouri said Valdez worked with
victim Juan Sanchez at a construction site on the 4200 block of Burns
Avenue in Silver Lake. Valdez
showed up to work drunk last May
and was ordered to go home. He
then borrowed the victim’s car and
crashed into a parked vehicle.
Sanchez hoped that Valdez would
pay for the damage to the vehicle.
On May 22, Valdez returned to
work and bludgeoned Sanchez to
death with a sledgehammer and a
hammer, the prosecutor said.
Valdez fled the scene but was
arrested shortly thereafter.
15 April 16, 2015
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
L.A. Zoo celebrates
Earth Day
LACMA celebrates 50 years this Saturday
The Los Angeles County
Museum of Art (LACMA) is holding its 50th Anniversary Gala on
Saturday, April 18 at 6 p.m.
Museum representatives will
announce eight promised gifts of
art from benefactors Jane and Marc
Nathanson that will be displayed
during the museum’s “50 for 50:
Gifts on the Occasion of LACMA’s
50th Anniversary” exhibit.
The exhibit runs from Sunday,
April 26 through Sept. 7.
“I hope these gifts will inspire
others to make significant contributions in the form of artwork as we
look forward not only to the 50th
anniversary of the museum, but to
the next 50 years,” Jane Nathanson
said.
“I can’t wait for this spring, when
these and other gifts will be on view
in a special anniversary exhibition
at the museum, which we’ll celebrate in high style at the
Anniversary Gala on April 18.”
“As we reach the
milestone of our
50th anniversary,
it is truly inspiring
to see generous
patrons thinking
about the future
generations of
visitors who will
enjoy these great
works of art for
years and decades
to come.”
-Michael Govan,
LACMA CEO and
Wallis Annenberg director
The Nathansons’ gift of eight
works of contemporary art includes
seminal pieces by Damien Hirst,
Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella,
Andy Warhol and others.
The gifts kick off a campaign,
chaired by LACMA trustees Jane
Nathanson and Lynda Resnick, to
encourage additional promised gifts
of art for the museum’s anniversary.
“What do you give a museum for
its birthday? Art,” LACMA CEO
and Wallis Annenberg director
Michael Govan said.
“As we reach the milestone of
our 50th anniversary, it is truly
inspiring to see generous patrons
thinking about the future generations of visitors who will enjoy
these great works of art for years
and decades to come. Jane and
Marc Nathanson have kicked off
our anniversary year in grand fashion.”
LACMA is located at 5905
Wilshire Blvd.
For information, call (323)8576000, or visit www.lacma.org.
Film festival showcases diverse LGBTQ stories
photo by Jamie Pham
The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens are taking part in the
45th anniversary of Earth Day by hosting “Party for the Planet: An
Earth Day Celebration”. Guests will be provided with information
about animal conservation and preservation, sustainable living for
humans, recycling and how to make Earth a better place to live this
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Among the opportunities to explore and learn are a California condor
station which illustrates the zoo’s critical efforts to bring the largest
bird in North America back from the brink of extinction and how we
can help by cleaning up microtrash; a “Backyard Safari,” where visitors discover the range of critters living in their own backyards; an
opportunity to get up close to a desert tortoise, California’s state reptile, and an interactive puzzle explaining how it has survived for so
long as well as what challenges it faces today; “Plant It and They Will
Come,” showing how to plant native vegetation that encourages
native wildlife; an interactive diorama by Enviroscape, which
explains what happens to water, fluids, or chemicals we dump on the
ground and where they end up as they travel from homes to the
ocean; and a Bat Station, which highlights the different species of
bats that visit the zoo.
Other “discovery” stations spotlight exceptional survival adaptations
by asking guests to compare their own abilities and senses to those
of animals. For example, how does an American black bear’s sense
of smell, which is seven times greater than a bloodhound’s, match up
to a human’s? And what kind of adaptations would humans need in
order to succeed in the big-horn sheep’s rocky environment? All
Earth Day Expo activities are included with paid admission to the Los
Angeles Zoo, which is $19 for general admission (ages 13 to 61);
$16 for seniors (ages 62+), and $14 for children (ages 2 to 12). No
ticket is required for children under 2. Admission for Greater Los
Angeles Zoo Association members is free.
The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is located in Griffith
Park at the junction of the Ventura (134) and Golden State (5) freeways at 5333 Zoo Drive. Free parking is available. For information,
contact (323)644-4200 or visit www.lazoo.org.
Earth Day celebrated
by Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills officials are
encouraging citizens to “take the
lead” on environmental sustainability at the 2015 Earth Day, set for
Sunday, April 19.
The special event will take place
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Beverly
Hills Farmers’ Market located on
Civic Center Drive, with free parking available at the Civic Center
parking garage. Information on
eco-friendly urban living will be
available, including water conservation and rainwater harvesting.A
children’s booth hosted by the
Beverly Hills Library will have
recycling-themed crafts and books.
A mobile earthquake simulator will
be on display to promote emergency preparedness. For information, call (310)285-2467 or go to
www.beverlyhills.org/earthday.
The 2nd Annual Latin@ Queer
Arts & Film Festival (LQAFF),
presented by the Los Angeles
LGBT Center, will take place
Thursday, April 16, through
Sunday, April 19, at the Center’s
Renberg Theatre and The Village at
Ed Gould Plaza located at 1125 N.
McCadden Place in Hollywood.
This year’s program includes a
short-films program, feature-length
films, digital media, art installations
and musical performances that represent the intersections and complexities of Latina/o queerness
through arts and culture.
Additionally, workshops will be
offered by various organizations,
including Self-Help Graphics,
GLADD and HatchFund.org.
The four-day celebration will
include red carpet events, receptions, music, Q&As with filmmakers and featured cast members and
workshops.
Films selected to screen at the
LQAFF will be shown out of competition.
LQAFF is dedicated to showcasing the stories of queer, trans, twospirited, Latina/o identities through
film and the visual arts in a space
that builds on our rich and diverse
cultural history. The festival is
made possible by support from
Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, 13th
District, and contributions from
GLAAD and Self-Help Graphics.
Festival passes are $45, which
includes admission to all films and
special musical performances.
Individual tickets for films and special musical performances are $12.
Tickets for seniors and students are
$8.
Some of the films to be featured
include, the Mexican feature film
“Cuatro Lunas” and the Cuban feature film “Vestido de Novia”.
“Cuatro Lunas” features four stories of love and disgust between
men of different generations facing
their conflicts and fears. In attendance will be associate producer
Fernando Licon and Alejandro
Belmonte, which also plays the
lead role in the film. A Q&A and a
reception will follow the screening,
which will take place April 17 at 8
p.m.
“Vestido de Novia” focuses on
the experiences of the first transgender person in Cuba. Director
Marilyn Solaya reflects on Cuba
during the economic collapse in the
1990s and the true story of a
woman who is not free to disclose
her sex reassignment surgery even
to her husband. The screening will
take place closing night, April 19 at
4 p.m.
Musical performances will
include DJ Joyful, Carolina Hoyos,
Magaly “La Voz de Oro”, Cat
Mendez of ¡Aparato!, Viento
Callejero, Candi Sosa and Victor
Cegarra. For information, visit
www.lqaff.com.
Superheroes gather at Hollywood and Highland
This Saturday, Los Angeles will
be the final city in an attempt to set
a Guinness World Record for the
largest gathering of people dressed
as DC Comics super heroes around
the world within a 24-hour period.
The event will be held at
Hollywood and Highland where
fans dressed as DC Comics super
heroes will gather to celebrate with
interactive games and activities
inspired by DC Comics before formally attempting to set the world
record. The DC Comics super hero
Guinness World Record event will
kick off Saturday, April 18 in
Queensland, Australia and will culminate in Los Angeles.
Additional events will take place,
within a 24-hour period, around the
world in the Philippines, Taiwan,
Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom,
Brazil, France and Mexico.
Fans will join Warner Bros., DC
Entertainment and Hot Topic in Los
Angeles for the final global event to
set a new Guinness World Record
for the largest gathering of people
dressed as DC Comics super heroes
within a 24-hour period.
The event will begin on at 10
a.m. through 12 p.m. on Saturday at
Hollywood and Highland.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
16 April 16, 2015
Crossword Puzzle by Myles Mellor
12. Hart Trophy winner, 1970-72
13. Fraternity letters
18. Not moving
19. Disinfectant brand
23. Ruin
24. “Potemkin” setting
25. Determined to
26. Aim
27. Oliver’s family
28. Boss
29. Became used to
30. Family man
31. Groovy
32. Zeta follower
37. Capitol V.I.P.: abbr.
38. Suffix with pamphlet
40. Took place
43. Stray calf
45. Consider
48. For the most part
49. Least interesting
50. Emissary
54. Emphatic no
55. “Terrible” czar
57. Completed
58. Look like a wolf
59. Sole
60. Glass of public radio
61. A Bobbsey twin
62. Canine command
63. Bit of business attire
64. Chop down
See Page 22
The ultimate ‘car guy’ Bruce Meyer honored
Across
1. State in NE India
6. Sombrero, e.g.
9. Table part
14. Part of an act
15. Bar stock
16. Pacific island
17. Flowering tropical shrubs
20. Leader born in Georgia
21. Boston suburb
22. Four quarters
23. Taboos
24. Kimono tie
27. First place?
33. Took
34. Scottish cap
35. Hidden
36. Become accustomed (to)
39. Drops on blades
41. Butter up?
42. Harangue
44. Adage
46. Junior, e.g.
47. Bible location
51. Landscaper’s need
52. Kind of pedal
53. Ill temper
54. Number following a Henry
56. Lounge lizard
60. Ecstatic
65. New Delhi salad
66. Sprawl
67. Pittsburgh product
68. Composer Bruckner
69. Bow wood
70. Robe material
Down
1. Egyptian snakes
2. “Beat it!”
3. Word repeated after “Que,” in
song
4. Kind of recording
5. City north of Mecca
6. Mins. and mins.
7. Sailor’s affirmative
8. Non-stick material
9. Before long
10. Instrument
11. French way
Jewish community remembers
the Holocaust
Bruce Meyer was recently
named Enthusiast of the Year by the
Concours d’Elegance of America at
St. John’s in Michigan.
The event’s board members are
recognizing Meyer for his decades
of automotive enthusiasm, which
include being a “founding father”
of the Petersen Automotive
Museum.
He served as The Petersen’s first
chairman of the board and is currently vice chairman.
Bruce also sits on the boards of
the Mullin Automotive Museum
and Nethercutt Collection and is on
the steering committees at the
LeMay Museum and Pebble Beach
Concours d’Elegance.
“If the dictionary had an entry for
‘car guy,’ Bruce Meyer’s picture
would be next to the definition,”
said Concours chairman Larry
Moss. “Bruce is one of the car
hobby’s premier goodwill ambassadors.
Few have done more to raise the
profile of car-collecting over the
years than Bruce Meyer.
The Concours d’Elegance of
America has a long history of celebrating some of the most iconic
automobiles ever produced.
Bruce certainly represents that
same storied history through his
photo courtesy of the Petersen Automotive Museum
Bruce Meyer, who served as The Petersen’s first chairman of the board,
was named Enthusiast of the Year for his dedication to car culture.
passion for all things automotive.”
“Enthusiast of the Year” is the
latest of many honors for Meyer.
These include induction into the
Dry Lakes Hall of Fame and the
Grand National Roadster Show
Hall of Fame.
Other organizations that have
recognized his contributions to carcollecting and preservation include
the Petersen Automotive Museum
(Automotive Icon Award recipient),
Dana Point Concours d’Elegance
(“Automotive Icon”), Meguiar’s
Car Hobby’s Person of the Year and
City of Hope Car Collector of the
Year.
As a driver, Meyer has competed
at the Italian Mille Miglia,
Goodwood Festival of Speed,
Copperstate 1000, and Bonneville
Salt Flats among others. Meyer will
be honored at the 37th Concours
d’Elegance of America at the Inn at
St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan,
July 24-26.
For information, visit www.concoursusa.org.
Dog and cat kills decreasing in shelters
Driven by Best Friend Animal
Society’s NKLA (No-Kill Los
Angeles) initiative, efforts to make
Los Angeles a no-kill city continue
to surge forward, according to statistics from Los Angeles Animal
Services (LAAS).
In 2012, when Best Friends
Animal Society launched NKLA in
conjunction with LAAS and a
coalition of local animal welfare
organizations, the number of LAAS
dogs and cats being killed was
more than 18,000. In 2014, that
number dropped to approximately
7,900, a decrease of 56 percent in
just three years.
“This is exciting progress for
everyone in the NKLA coalition, as
we strive to transform L.A. into the
nation’s largest no-kill city and create a model for the rest of the country to emulate,” said Francis
Battista, co-founder of Best Friends
Animal Society.
As part of a public/private part-
nership with the city of Los
Angeles, Best Friends Animal
Society, the only national animal
welfare organization focused on
ending the killing of shelter pets,
operates a Pet Adoption &
Spay/Neuter Center at a city-owned
facility in Mission Hills at its own
expense. Best Friends also runs the
NKLA Pet Adoption Center in West
L.A., which includes pets for adoption from coalition partners. In
2014, both of the Best Friends
Animal Society-operated adoption
centers found homes 4,902 LAAS
dogs and cats. The overall save rate
for LAAS is currently 73.4 percent.
Dogs have reached an 84.7 percent
save rate, which is closing in on the
90 percent no-kill threshold.
However, for cats, the save rate is
just 56.7 percent. As such, Best
Friends is continuing to provide
large-scale spay/neuter grants for
cat-focused NKLA coalition members such as Stray Cat Alliance.
“Spaying and neutering is huge,
because it means fewer cats will be
born on the streets, and fewer cats
will end up in the shelter,” said
Christi Metropole, founder of Stray
Cat Alliance.
“Spaying and
neutering is huge,
because it means
fewer cats will be
born on the
streets, and fewer
cats will end up in
the shelter.”
-Christi Metropole,
founder of Stray Cat Alliance
For
information,
http://la.bestfriends.org
www.nkla.org.
visit
or
Walk Now for Autism Speaks attracts thousands
A photograph in the April 15, 1999 issue of the Park Labrea News
and Beverly Press showed students from the Kadima Hebrew
Academy at the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument in Pan Pacific
Park during an observance of Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust
Remembrance Day. Yom HaShoah ceremonies are held every April
throughout the local community, and include a large ceremony held by
the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust near the monument in Pan
Pacific Park. This year, the museum’s ceremony will be held on
Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. For information on Yom HaShoah observances, see page 3.
More than 55,000 people are
expected to unite for the 13th annual Los Angeles Walk Now for
Autism Speaks at the Rose Bowl in
Pasadena on Saturday, April 18
from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Walk Now for Autism Speaks is
North America’s largest grassroots
autism walk and was named the
highest fundraising autism walk in
the country for 2014. Organized
and led by volunteers and families
with loved ones on the autism spectrum, this fundraising effort generates funds for autism research, family programs and services, and raises awareness about the increasing
prevalence of autism, the fastestgrowing serious developmental disorder in the U.S., and the need for
increased research funding to combat this complex disorder.
For the 12th year, ABC7
Eyewitness News anchor Phillip
Palmer will serve as the Master of
Ceremonies. Univision anchor
Gabriela Teissier will also be participating. Many notable attendees
feted to attend include Max
Burkholder (Parenthood) and
Cousin Sal (Jimmy Kimmel Live),
among others.
The Walk Now for Autism events
are the signature fundraising events
for Autism Speaks and have attracted hundreds of thousands of walkers worldwide who have raised tens
of millions of dollars for autism
research. Last year’s L.A. Autism
Walk hosted 55,000 people and
raised $1.88 million.
Registration, entertainment and
stage programs begin at 8 a.m. The
Walk starts at 9 a.m. and will continue on a rolling basis every ten
minutes through 11:00 a.m.
Autism is a complex condition
that affects a person’s ability to
communicate and develop social
relationships and is often accompanied by behavioral challenges.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
17 April 16, 2015
Plan ahead: your guide to a blockbusting summer
For many, April marks the start
of another season of “Game of
Thrones”.
But for me, April just reminds me
how close we are to all those overthe-top films that are less than a
month away.
Brace yourselves my brothers
and sisters — summer is coming.
Sure, you might witness the
occasional indie breakout and even
a solid drama, but this is the season
for the usual suspects: superheroes,
sequels and reboots.
And why not?
Every season has its purpose, and
L.A. heat just doesn’t lend itself to
much serious cinema.
We just need grandiose suspension of disbelief lest we remember
how hot it really is outside.
And in the midst of the box
office’s current dry spell, I suggest
planning ahead for the overloaded
options about to head your way.
May, in particular, is filled to the
brim.
The Hits
I believe in Joss Whedon. From
“Buffy” and “Firefly” to “Dr.
Horrible” and “Much Ado About
Nothing”, he’s the man, and
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” (May 1)
is sure to be just as good, if not bet-
photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Hugh Jackman stars as Capt. Blackbeard in “Pan”, a reimagining of the
classic Peter Pan tale scheduled for release on July 24.
Filmmakers honored for focus
on gas leak in Bhopal, India
ter, than its 2012 predecessor that
became the third highest grossing
film of all time.
Just for the fun of it, here’s the
character list we know of: Black
Widow,
Iron
Man,
Thor,
Quicksilver, Peggy Carter, Captain
America, Scarlet Witch, Ultron,
Maria Hill, Loki, Heimdall, Nick
Fury, Hulk, Hawkeye, Vision,
Ulysses Klaw, Falcon, Baron
Wolfgang von Strucker and War
Machine.
Was it good for you?
Don’t throw a pitch a fit, your
favorite a cappella crew, the Barden
Bellas, return in “Pitch Perfect 2”
(May 15).
Now, with Elizabeth Banks
directing and the returning cast, it’s
near impossible to imagine this one
going flat.
“Inside Out” (June 19) should
help Pixar rise from the mediocrity
it sunk to only a few years ago.
With Amy Poehler as the leading
voice and an original storyline —
the first truly original one since
“Up” — I believe in second
chances.
Honorable mention: “Mad Max:
Fury
Road”
(May
15);
“Tomorrowland”
(May
22);
“Jurassic World” (June 12); and
“Mission: Impossible — Rogue
Nation” (July 31)
Hmm …
“Straight Outta Compton” (Aug.
14), a biopic about NWA’s rise to
prominence, could be an engaging
story of L.A. culture, race and the
fight for freedom of speech.
And with F. Gary Gray (“Law
Abiding Citizen”, “The Italian
Job”) at the helm, things should
come together nicely.
Alas, biopics tend to suffer from
the same old boring problem: you
know, they’re often boring.
I want to believe “Ant-Man”
(July 17) will continue the Marvel
hot streak.
If you’ve seen Netflix’s new
“Daredevil” series you’ll know
they’ve got many more tricks up
photo courtesy of Marvel Studios
Chris Evans stars as Captain America and Chris Hemsworth appears as
Thor in the upcoming blockbuster, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”.
their sleeves for the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, but “AntMan” is a difficult sell.
It started well with Edgar Wright
attached as director until creative
differences led to an odd replacement by the “Bring It On” director.
And those trailers — just so
bland.
If for no other reason, see
“Southpaw” (July 24) to bear witness to Jake Gyllenhaal’s most
physical transformation to date.
It might be a straightforward
boxing story (highly doubtful with
the “Training Day” director behind
it), but the former “Donnie Darko”
star is as cut as Tom Hardy was
huge as Bane.
Honorable mention: “Fantastic
4” (Aug. 7); “The Little Death”
(June 2015); “Minions” (July 10);
“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”
(Aug. 14); and “Paper Towns” (July
24)
Umm …
Reimagining the classic Peter
Pan tale seems natural, but that wig
on Hugh Jackman, as Capt.
Blackbeard, is just too much, even
if Joe Wright (“Atonement”,
“Hanna”) is sure to take “Pan”
(July 24) in an unknown direction.
And really? A whitewashed Tiger
Lily? We love Rooney Mara, but
she’s not Native American. Just
cowardly casting.
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A screening and panel discussion about the film “Bhopal: A Prayer
of Rain” kicked off the 7th annual “ Kat Kramer’s Films That Change
The World Cinema Series” on April 10 at Canon U.S.A., Inc. in
Hollywood.
The film’s stars Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton; director and cowriter Ravi Kumar and others associated with the movie also
attended.
Legendary actress and social activist Marsha Hunt received the
series’ inaugural Hunt For Humanity Award at the event.
Kramer (left) is pictured at the event with Ken Howard, president of
SAG-AFTRA, who presented the award to Hunt.
“It was a great honor to have Ken Howard bestow upon Marsha
Hunt my cinema series’ first annual ‘Hunt For Humanity Award’ to
publicly acknowledge Ms. Hunt for her personal commitment to
standing up for doing what is right, regardless of the repercussions,
and for being one of the first high profile role models to use her
celebrity for the benefit of helping others,” Kramer said.
The film chronicles the Union Carbide Corporation gas leak disaster in 1984 in Bhopal, India. For information, visit www.katkramersfilmsthatchangetheworld.com.
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You might have missed this one,
but our former California governor
is about to star in his own zombie
film, “Maggie” (May 8 on
demand).
After Mags becomes infected,
slowly transitioning into the
undead, her father (Arnold
Schwarzenegger) takes her home
before all her humanity disappears.
He also finds a way to become a
nurturing robot in “Terminator
Genisys” (July 1), in which the previous timeline of the franchise vanishes and somehow John Connor is
a robot now?
No clue. Honorable mention:
“Ted 2” (June 26); “Magic Mike
XXL” (July 1); and “Entourage”
(June 5).
Run Away, Far Away
To start, apparently Steven
Seagal has a film coming out called
“Absolution” (May 15). Run, just
run. Also, a film about a bunch of
aliens who intercept 1980s arcade
games, view them as a threat and
attack Earth in the shape of the
game characters sounds promising.
Pac-Man eating cars in New York
looks funny.
But Adam Sandler and Kevin
James are in the lead roles. Sorry
“Pixels” (July 24), I’m out.
Dishonorable mention: “San
Andreas” (May 29) and “Spy”
(June 5).
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
18 April 16, 2015
SUMMER SCHOOL & CAMPS
Workshop for foster youth will
teach business etiquette
Fifty emancipated foster youth in
the Guardian Scholars Program at
Los Angeles City College (LACC)
will attend a new workshop on
Wednesday, April 22 at the
Hollywood Hotel, 116 N. Vermont
Ave.
Guardian Scholars will learn
skills such as business introductions, how to hand out a business
card, and proper dining etiquette in
a formal setting. The students have
often been in multiple foster and
group homes, which rarely provide
opportunities to learn basic life
lessons.
“Our students participate in a
number of activities to help prepare
them for the workforce,” Guardian
Scholars program director Veronica
Garcia said. “Scholars participate in
workshops throughout the school
year where they write resumes,
write and critique cover letters, and
participate in mock interviews. We
provide substantial support so they
can succeed academically, but it is
also important that we help them
succeed professionally. We provide
a calm and structured environment
where they can study and also practice skills that will help them find
and keep a job.”
Studies have shown that fewer
than half of foster youth enroll in
college, and estimates of those
earning either a two- or four-year
degree are between one to five percent. Since the Guardian Scholars
Program began at LACC in 2009,
26 students have graduated and/or
transferred to four-year colleges.
Eleven students plan to graduate
and/or transfer in June.
For information on the LACC
Guardian Scholars Program, visit
www.lacitycollege.edu/services/gu
ardianscholars.
photo courtesy of Guardian Scholars Program
The Guardian Scholars Program at LACC mentors foster youth.
WeHo scholarships
announced
West Hollywood announced its
annual call for applications for its
youth scholarship program.
The program is open to all city residents who are graduating from high
school or receiving their GED and
who plan to pursue post-secondary
education. The West Hollywood
Youth Scholarship Program was
established in 2007 to encourage and
support students to pursue education
beyond high school.
The program requires that recipients perform at least 150 hours of
community service prior to receiving scholarship funds. The scholarships are awarded in the amount of
$1,500 each and may be used for
any expenses incurred in the pursuit
of post-secondary education
(including college or accredited
trade/vocational school).
The program is sponsored by the
city, but scholarship funds come
entirely from individual and community donations.
Applications, program information and guidelines are available
online at www.weho.org/youthscholarship and at West Hollywood
City Hall, 8300 Santa Monica Blvd.
Completed applications are due by
Thursday, April 30. For information, contact Corey Roskin at
(323)848-6403
or
email
[email protected].
Proposed law will regulate day camps
The Senate Health Committee
recently approved SB 476, authored
by Senator Tony Mendoza (DArtesia), which would protect the
well being of California’s children
by ensuring that day camps in the
state are held to the same high standards as resident camps where children stay overnight.
“Every year, thousands of children throughout California attend
day camps. It is astonishing that day
camps operate with almost no oversight,” Mendoza said. “It is critical
that these camps adhere to the same
health and safety standards as
overnight camps. SB 476 protects
the well-being of children who
attend day camps by requiring that
they follow the same regulations as
overnight camps.”
Day camps are programs that
typically serve children who are
unable to attend resident camp program. Many day camps operate in
parks, churches, boys and girls
clubs, YMCAs and other youth
organization sites. A day camp must
focus on summer learning, recreational activities and outdoor experiences to not be considered a childcare program.
Current law only covers the
health and safety requirements for
resident camps. As a result, there
has been confusion as to who has
jurisdiction over the operation of
day camps, and what health and
safety requirements they must follow. SB 476 will define “day
camps” in the statute by adding
them to the organized camp section
of the Health and Safety Code; provide a definition of day camps and
specify requirements for registering
and operating a day camp; and clarify policies related to field trips and
staffing, and require approval of
operational plans unless a camp is
accredited by the American Camp
Association.
The bill next goes to the Senate
Appropriations Committee for consideration.
5th graders set a world record for ribbon dancing
More than 2,500 fifth grade students from all over Los Angeles
County joined together on The
Music Center Plaza to successfully
set a record for the world’s largest
ribbon dance as part of the 45th
Annual Blue Ribbon Children’s
Festival on April 9. The students’
Guinness World Record’s achievement marked the culmination of the
three-day festival, during which
more than 16,000 students attended
a live performance for free and then
performed a dance specially choreographed for them.
Students prepared for this
moment for weeks in advance in
their classrooms. Presented by The
Blue Ribbon of The Music Center,
an independent charitable group of
women leaders in the Los Angeles
community, The Blue Ribbon
Children’s Festival is California’s
longest-continuing free arts education program.
photo courtesy of The Music Center
The students danced on the plaza
by classroom in two large circles, a
smaller one on the inside and a larger one on the outside, using bright
blue ribbons as props.
Witnessed by specially assigned
stewards, the students’ record-set-
ting dance was officially verified by
a Guinness World Records adjudicator, who acknowledged the
record with a presentation to The
Blue Ribbon and The Music Center
of a Guinness World Records certificate.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
Summer School & campS
19 April 16, 2015
Disabled students use robots to
maintain presence on campus
n VGo keeps kids connected, both socially and academically
By luis rivas
Thanks to new technology, students with health issues and disabilities are able to continue a presence on their school campuses —
with the aid of robots.
The Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD) announced the
program before a board meeting on
Tuesday, April 14, where three students who have used the technology were present via their remotecontrolled mobile units with audio
and visual capabilities, known as
telepresence robots.
One of the participating students,
Destiny, is a junior at Fairfax High
School. Destiny is a wheelchairbound student with classes on both
the first and second floor of the
school. Early in this year’s spring
semester, the school’s elevator
broke down and she was unable to
get to her classes on the second
floor.
That’s when school administra-
tors offered Destiny the opportunity to use a telepresence robot,
called a VGo, for her class on the
second floor. Destiny was able to
attend the class while she remained
on the first floor by remotely using
a VGo.
“I was using it for just a few
days, maybe around one week. It’s
a pretty cool robot. It’s easy. It’s
kind of like video gaming,”
Destiny said.
The New Hampshire-based
company that manufactures the
robots, VGo Communications,
Inc., was founded in 2007. VGos
were first released in 2011.
LAUSD has been using three units
since fall 2014 in a pilot project.
The VGo units have been used in
the healthcare industry by doctors,
nurses and patients. In businesses,
disabled or remote employees are
using VGo units to maintain a virtual presence at work. Additionally,
home-bound and hospital-bound
students are using VGos to go to
school, attend class and interact
with fellow students on campus.
“We currently have three students using the VGo robotic telepresence technology. One of the students (Destiny) was a short-term
test pilot at Fairfax High School.
These units are brand new,” said
Kari Tapie, specialist with occupational and physical therapy and
assistive technology at LAUSD.
Elijah, a freshman at John F.
“I was using it for
just a few days,
maybe around one
week. It’s a pretty
cool robot.
It’s easy.
It’s kind of like
video gaming.”
Destiny
Junior
Fairfax High School
Kennedy High School, was not
able to physically attend school
during the 6th grade due to a medical condition.
“I’ve been using the VGo since
January 10. I’m going to use it for
my four years of high school,”
Elijah said.
photo by Luis Rivas
Destiny, a junior at Fairfax High School, uses a wheelchair. When the
elevators broke down, the VGo transported her to the second floor classroom.
Monkeying around at El Capitan
photo ©Disney
The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood presents a special engagement of Disneynature’s new film “Monkey Kingdom” running from
Friday, April 17 through Thursday, April 30. Set among the ancient
ruins and jungles of South Asia, “Monkey Kingdom” focuses a smart
monkey named Maya, who will do anything for her newborn son, Kip.
Before every screening of the movie, the Wildlife Learning Center
will showcase exotic animals from around the world. The El Capitan
Theatre is located at 6838 Hollywood Blvd. For information, call
(800)DISNEY6, or visit www.elcapitantickets.com.
photo by Luis Rivas
Currently, three VGo robots are being utilized by LAUSD in a pilot program.
Elijah is able to move the VGo
360 degrees, while also tilting the
built-in camera up or down and
turn on lights to signal to a teacher
in the classroom. VGo users communicate with their units through a
VGo app, available for Mac or PC,
which is continually connected to a
VGo-only network, VGoNet.
Eugene Spiritus, chief medical
officer at VGo Communications,
Inc., said that the company first
developed the VGo units for industry usage, such as high-end auto
mechanics and business. But soon
they found a demand in the healthcare industry, where many of the
units are currently used.
“They’re used in healthcare for
doctors to go into intensive care
unit and for people in nursing
homes,” Spiritus said.
There are approximately 300 to
400 units currently being used in
schools throughout the country,
according to Spiritus.
“The VGos are great for kids
who can’t go to school. Some of
the kids are disabled, some of
them are being treated for cancer
and are out for several months,
and so this allows them to be in
school and to actually socialize,”
Spiritus said. “Rather than being
at home, they’re actually in the
classroom.”
Although there was no proposal
made at the board meeting to
increase the number of VGos
available to students, LAUSD
will continue to offer the technology to students who display a
need and match for the technology through the Assistive
Technology Lending Library,
according to Tapie.
Summer School & campS
20 April 16, 2015
Wilshire Warriors weekend round-up
12U Warriors
On Easter weekend, the 12U
Warriors team placed second in a
one-day tournament in which they
won two games to advance to the
championship, and then lost by one
run. Aiden Khare, Boon Fay
Wheeler, Shawn Joo and Kai
Moran each hit home runs, and the
entire team contributed with key
hits, solid fielding and stellar pitching.
During the championship,
Teagan Disharoon pitched a complete game, holding the Wolves
scoreless through five and one-third
innings, but the Warriors lost by a
1-0 decision. Disharoon struck out
six batters and only gave up two
hits. He received defensive help
from
centerfielder
Jackson
Benattar, who made back-to-back
diving catches in the third inning.
An error in the bottom of the sixth
inning, however, was all the
Wolves needed to win.
11U Warriors Blue
The Warriors 11U Blue team (62-1) beat the Toluca Thunder by a
score of 5-1 in MidValley League
play in their second no-hitter of the
season, which was marred by 11
walks given up by the Warriors
pitching staff. It was a rocky start
for Warriors pitcher Boon Fay, who
gave the Thunder four walks and
one run in the first inning. But
inspired by Coach Matt Magallon’s
steadfast refusal to remove the
pitcher from the mound, he
bounced back in the second inning
and struck out the side, and kept the
Thunder hitless and scoreless again
in the third inning. Kai Moran
received the win in relief pitching
in hitless fourth and fifth innings.
Connor Rice received the save, taking the mound with the bases
loaded in the sixth inning and striking out two batters with six pitches.
Offensively, Rice singled in the
third inning, advanced on shortstop
Aidan Forte’s grounder, and scored
when outfielder Daniel DiMaggio
hit the ball to the right side of the
field on the ground. In the fourth
inning, third baseman Joey
Wetherbee knocked in utility player
Daniel Tovar for the go ahead run,
and Moran knocked in Wetherbee
on a fielder’s choice. Both Rice and
Forte scored in the fifth inning with
aggressive base running that produced run-scoring balks.
10U Warriors Blue
The Warrior’s 10U Blue team
jumped out to an early lead against
the Wild Dogs and captured a 13-4
victory last Sunday in Mid-Valley
League play. The Warriors scored
eight runs in the first three innings,
and Colin Kneafsey stole home
plate. A two-run triple by Gabe
Williams, an error, a wild pitch,
another error and an RBI single by
Jonah Henry in the second inning
fueled the Warriors’ offense early in
the game. Williams also placed
himself in scoring position with
two extra-base hits for the Warriors.
Diego Marin held Wild Dogs hitless through one inning, allowing
no earned runs or walks, and striking out three batters. Henry
Boylston got the win, allowing one
run and no hits over two innings,
and recording a strikeout. Tanner
Mahon, Colin Kneafsey, Owen
West and Williams combined for
six hits and three RBIs.
9U Warriors Blue
The Warriors 9U Blue team (3-2)
rallied in late innings to defeat the
ASAP Baseball Academy team by a
score of 11-9 in Mid-Valley League
play. Starting pitcher Luther
Tostrud gave up only two runs in
two innings, with great defensive
support from Graham Turner and
Owen Bukasta. The Warriors gave
up seven runs in the third and fourth
innings and trailed 9-8 going into
the sixth inning. When the pressure
was on, the team received some big
hits from Joseph Norris, Owen
Duffelmier and Alex Idolor, and
took an 11-9 lead. Benji Fernandez
closed the game with great pitching
and a solid catching performance
by Oscar Noxon.
9U Warriors Orange
Untimely errors and tepid hitting
continue to plague the 9U Warriors
Orange Team (0-5), which was
pounded by Encino’s Team Terror
by a score of 15-1 in Mid-Valley
League play. Bright spots for the
Warriors included an unassisted
first-inning double play by shortstop Luca Ruggiero, who also had
one of the Warriors’ two hits. Upand-comer Samuel Hahn also had a
solid throw-out at third base for the
Warriors.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
New standardized test being used
California Superintendent of
Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
announced that more than
360,000 students in 468 local education agencies have taken at least
one test with the state’s new
online system.
“We are at the one-month mark
[last Friday], and I am pleased at
how smoothly these new assessments are going,” Torlakson said.
“Our students are still getting used
to these new tests, but we are off
to a great start, thanks to the hard
work of district administrators,
school principals and teachers,
parents and the students themselves. They are proving they are
up to the challenge of shifting to
the more complex skills today’s
colleges and careers require.”
Students in grades three
through eight and 11 are beginning to take the new California
Assessment
of
Student
Performance
and
Progress
(CAASPP) in the first statewide
administration of online testing
that is replacing the paper-based,
multiple-choice
Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR)
program.
The new tests allow students to
demonstrate their ability to write
analytically, think critically and
solve problems along with their
knowledge of facts, officials said.
The state’s new assessment system represents the next step in
California’s plan for providing
high-quality teaching and learning
in every school, including higher
academic standards, more decision-making in the hands of
schools and communities and
more resources dedicated to
schools and to students with the
greatest needs, Torlakson said.
Matthew Hoegee used aggressive
base running to give the Warriors
an early lead, and Maxam pitched a
lights-out closing inning to keep the
score close. Centerfielder Oliver
Block also threw out a runner at
second, with Declan O’Malley
making a great spinning tag.
submitted by Chad Saul
WeHo Weekend Walkers
from page 10
8U Warriors
The 8U Warriors team (0-4) lost
to the California Krushers by a
score of 8-2 in a Mid-Valley
League game last Sunday. Jackson
Eisenhauer pitched two solid early
innings for the Warriors, getting
support from Wyatt Kline, who
made a diving play to block the
plate, prevent a run and momentarily preserve a 2-1 lead. Beckett
Hutchens, Edward Maxam and
resistance, and dissidents and activists.
Artist Richard Kraft was born and raised in London, but now lives in
Los Angeles. He said “100 Walkers, West Hollywood” was influenced
by non-conformist Stanley Green, a “human billboard” who walked
Oxford Street in London for 25 years.
“100 Walkers, West Hollywood” (#100walkersweho) is presented
with the support of the city through its arts and cultural affairs commission. It is part of WeHo@30, a series of arts and culture projects for West
Hollywood’s 30th anniversary of cityhood, and is part of the Art on the
Outside program that brings art into the public realm and celebrates the
city’s pedestrian-friendly culture.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
21 April 16, 2015
Commission votes for open venue
From page 1
munity concerns regarding maximizing the Greek Theatre’s annual
revenue,” the department’s staff
report read. “The department of
recreation and parks recommends
operating the Greek Theatre as an
open venue for a minimum of two
years to evaluate and analyze projected increased annual revenues
while providing sufficient time to
receive ample and meaningful community input should a decision be
made to issue a new request for proposals (RFP).”
Nederlander Concerts currently
operates the Greek Theatre, and has
done so for decades. Its contract
with the city expires on Oct. 31.
Two bids emerged from an initial
RFP process: one from Live Nation
and one from a partnership between
Nederlander and AEG. The two
bids were weighed by a third party
consultant, which ranked the Live
Nation bid the highest. The bids
were for a 10-year contact, with the
possibility of two five-year extensions.
In October 2014, the RAP
Commission chose the Live Nation
bid. In January, the Los Angeles
City Council’s Arts, Parks, Health,
Aging and River Committee rejected the recommendation of Live
Nation due to community outcry. In
February, the full city council concurred with the committee’s decision.
With the Nederlander contract
finishing Oct. 31, the RAP staff
began to push for an open venue
model, similar to how Red Rocks
Amphitheatre is run in Denver,
Colo.
Promoters would work to secure
event dates through the RAP department, and a user agreement would
denote the responsibilities of both
parties. The promoter would generally be responsible for paying talent,
advertising, promoting the concert,
hiring stagehands, equipment loading, paying for security and hiring
ushers.
“In the open venue model, the
department will not take the risk of
the success of a concert or event, but
will be paid a fee for the rights to
use the venue,” the staff report read.
By cutting out the professional
venue operator, RAP staff estimated
the profit to the city in 2016 could
total approximately $3 million for
50 events or $4.8 million for 70
events. Some of the profit would be
put into a capital improvements
fund for maintenance and needed
renovations.
The department would examine
creating staff positions including
Greek Theatre manager, operations
manager and booking manager, and
it would evaluate companies to provide “as needed” labor services.
“RAP is committed to ensuring
that a strong relationship exists with
the community and will dedicate a
staff member to the management
team as the Greek Theatre
Community Liaison,” the staff
report read. “This department will
always be the caretaker for the
Greek Theatre, and RAP takes this
responsibility seriously.”
Community members and current
operator Nederlander expressed
their concern about the direction the
department has taken on the issue.
“Nederlander is disappointed that
the board of recreation and parks
has accepted the recommendation to
self-operate the Greek Theatre,”
Nederlander CEO Alex Hodges said
in a statement. “Nederlander has
successfully operated the iconic
Greek Theatre for four decades,
with a proven track record of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our
fans, community and the city. If this
plan is to be implemented, it would
require several more steps by the
department. We urge the department
to reconsider today’s action and
instead amend and extend
Nederlander’s existing Greek
Theatre operating agreement with
an increased annual minimum rent
guarantee to the city of $3.5 million
for 2016, with zero expense or risk
to the city. This is the most fiscally
responsible and seamless option for
the city, backed by an operator with
expertise in concert booking, management, promotion and community relations. Nederlander is committed to the legacy we have built with
the department as a loyal tenant that
works in partnership with its community and delivers guaranteed
returns to the city.”
Residents of the Los Feliz
Improvement Association also
rejected the notion of the parks
department running the Greek
Theatre.
“We’re opposing it officially,”
said Chris Laib, president of the Los
Feliz Improvement Association.
“It’s really too bad that this Greek
photo Juan Ocampo
Nederlander has been the operator of the Greek Theatre for decades.
issue has pitted us against one of our
long time partners in the parks
department.”
Laib said residents were angry
that the parks department might hire
new people to help operate the open
venue, when neighbors have been
asking for funding for more park
rangers for years.
While the city council previously
had the opportunity to reject Live
Nation’s bid to become the Greek
Theatre’s operator, it may not be
able to intervene this time.
“I care a great deal for Griffith
Park and all park facilities from the
Los Angeles Zoo, the Griffith
Observatory, to the Greek Theatre,”
said Councilman Tom LaBonge, 4th
District, in a statement. “The department of recreation and parks main-
tains and operates more than 400
sites for recreational use which
include swimming pools, recreation
centers, public golf courses and programs for youth and senior citizens.
I want to be certain that the department will be able to serve these
existing facilities, as well as run a
theatre. Therefore, I will be asking
the city administrative officer
(CAO) to provide recommendations
to fully assess this decision.”
“Today’s action, which is a proposal to self-operate the Greek
Theatre under an open venue model
is not a contract, so it would not
require council approval like the
potential 20-year RFP that was
recently issued,” said Frank
Mateljan, spokesman for the Los
Angeles City Attorney’s Office.
Council approves tiered rewards
From page 1
legs was amputated. The driver fled
and was never identified.
Kevitt said shortly after the collision, while he was lying in a hospital bed, he resolved to finish the
ride he started that day — something he accomplished last year.
Kevitt formed the nonprofit Finish
the Ride, which is preparing for the
second annual “Finish the Ride”
event on Sunday, April 19, beginning in Hollywood and ending in
Griffith Park. Kevitt also advocates
for stricter laws pertaining to hit
and runs, and said the reward system approved on Wednesday is a
step toward reducing the number of
people hurt or killed each year.
“[It makes] it well known this is
a subject of concern for the people
of this city,” Kevitt said. “While
Finish the Ride is going to be a
great event, the purpose is to raise
awareness and attention about the
issue. The message is really a message of civility and decency on the
roads. If you hit someone, stop the
car.”
Kevitt said he expects more than
1,000 people to participate in this
year’s Finish the Ride, which will
begin in the parking lot of the
Church of Scientology building
near Sunset Boulevard and
Vermont Avenue, and will end at
the Autry National Center in
Griffith Park. The six-mile primary route runs along Fountain,
Hyperion and Rowena Avenues,
Glendale
Boulevard,
and
Riverside and Crystal Springs drives.
Cyclists can also participate in
extended 22-, 27- and 50-mile
rides throughout Griffith Park.
Kevitt said he opened the event to
pedestrians, runners and “people
on scooters and skateboards” this
year to make it more inclusive.
Participants can begin gathering at
6:30 a.m., and the event starts at
7:30 a.m. Advance fees range from
$30 to $60, depending on whether
additional routes are selected, and
go up by $10 on the day of the
event.
“There is going to be music,
food, dancing, a barbecue, ice
cream, a raffle and entertainment
after the ride,” Kevitt said. “The
end expo opens at 8:30 a.m. [at the
Autry National Center] and it’s
open to the public whether they
participate in the ride or not.”
Kevitt said although he suffered
serious injuries in the hit and run in
2013, it changed his life for the
better in many ways. He plans to
continue hosting Finish the Ride,
and will build on work conducted
by his other nonprofit, Streets Are
For Everyone, which is referred to
as SAFE.
“The tiered reward system is one
of several steps that are needed,”
Kevitt added. “The plan that is
starting to take shape is really
encouraging.”
LAUSD tech taskforce addresses strategic plan
The newly formed Los Angeles
Unified School District’s (LAUSD)
Instructional Technology Initiative
Task Force met for the first time
last Thursday at the Los Angeles
School of Global Studies.
The task force — which includes
principals, teachers, administrators,
parents, students, community
members and special resource
experts from various local organizations, colleges and businesses —
heard
from
LAUSD
Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines.
“Thank you for contributing
your time and expertise to this
important task force,” Cortines
said. “You have a monumental job
ahead of you. We have spent more
than $100 million on this project
and it is now time to regroup and
develop a solid plan that allows us
to move forward and leverage
technology as a tool to improve
teaching and learning for our students. We also need our teachers
and parents to be users of technology and involved and engaged in
this entire process. I look forward
to receiving a technology plan that
can be implemented across the
entire district.”
The task force will provide recommendations for a three-year
strategic plan to guide instructional
technology integration throughout
the district. Recommendations will
be reviewed and synthesized into a
formal draft, which will be submitted to Cortines. After his review,
the plan will be formally presented
to the LAUSD Board of Education.
The plan will be completed by
early next year.
Task force members will meet as
a whole group and also break off
into smaller working groups from
April to November.
photo courtesy of the LAPD
Police released a surveillance camera photo of the vehicle believed
to have been used in the burglary.
Police seek burglary suspects
From page 4
pects may have fled after seeing a
patrol car pass by the building.
The officer noticed a vehicle
leaving from a side street, and
circled back to check it out, but
could not locate the vehicle. The
safe was left at the scene, and it is
unclear whether anything was
stolen.
The same suspects were also
observed attempting to break into
the location the previous night.
Three of the individuals wore
masks during the burglary. Some
of the suspects are believed to
have been traveling in a newer
model white Mercedes Benz
GLK that can be seen pulling up
in front of the dispensary while
the burglary occurred.
Anyone with information
about the incident is urged to call
Wilshire Division burglary detectives at (323)922-8255.
WeHo to swear-in new mayor
West Hollywood is hosting its
official 2015 City Council
Reorganization on April 20 at 6
p.m.
The event, which will install
Lindsey Horvath as mayor and
Lauren Meister as mayor pro tempore, will take place at council
chambers at the West Hollywood
Library, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
There will be free parking at the
structure entered from Robertson
Boulevard at El Tovar Place and a
reception will follow.
West Hollywood Councilman
John D’Amico served as the most
recent mayor and former city
councilman John Heilman served
as the most recent mayor pro tempore.
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
22 April 16, 2015
Museum plan elicits differing opinions
From page 1
DASH or trolley service,
streetscape improvements and
traffic mitigation steps,” said
Carey Brazemen, MCWCC planning and land use committee chair.
“I understand the board’s decision
to take this approach. Concerns
about the proposed event center,
also known as the sphere, were
overarching. The view that
emerged from the board was that
the impacts of the proposed event
center could not be mitigated, and
that it would be character-changing in a negative way for the community.”
The MCWCC joint committee
of planning and land use and transportation, parking and streetscape
had passed the Academy Museum
plans with the sphere the week
prior on a 9-3 vote, with one
recusal.
On Tuesday night, board member Rosalie Wayne introduced a
substitute motion to leave out the
sphere, a view deck and associated
pedestrian bridges — essentially
Alternative 3 in the project’s final
environmental impact report
(FEIR). The motion passed 16-8,
with three recusals.
The substitute motion also had
key mitigations developed by the
joint committee, which included a
request for a parking covenant that
would tie parking space requirements to actual vehicle demand,
rather than allowing reductions in
parking due to the project’s historic nature and proximity to transit.
“I think there were multiple concerns with the project all along,”
MCWCC chair Scott Epstein said.
“And I think many members of the
community and the board were
concerned about the traffic impacts
and the parking impacts of the project, particularly of the theatre. In
the traffic studies there were additional impacts from the theatre.”
Alternative 3 calls for the retention of the 1946 addition, while the
Academy’s preferred proposal
would demolish the addition to
make way for the sphere.
Members of the Miracle Mile
Residential Association (MMRA),
Carthay Circle Homeowners
Association and Beverly Wilshire
Homes Association have voiced
concerns about the Academy
Museum for months — particularly about traffic impacts.
MMRA vice president Ken
Hixon said his group was most
concerned about the museum turning the area into something akin to
the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live in
downtown Los Angeles, and therefore they had been calling for the
removal of the sphere.
“That’s where the crux of our
traffic, noise, parking and all those
problems stem from,” he said. “I
know they maintain that it is not
going to be that way, but it defies
expectation that you would spend
millions on an event center that is
going to remain dormant. [The
sphere] is not just going to sit, it
has to be rented out.”
Any motion by the MCWCC is
non-binding, but members said
they hope that city officials take
into account their concerns. The
Academy Museum will go before
the Los Angeles Planning
Commission on May 14.
“The Academy appreciates the
feedback we received from the
Mid-City
West
Community
Council and looks forward to continuing our collaborative relationship as we move toward anticipated construction this year,” the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences said in a statement.
Other residents expressed disappointment in the MCWCC’s decision.
“I’m saddened by the lack of
vision a vocal minority of the community has taken,” Mid-City resi-
Candidate targets district discretionary funds
From page 1
sold it last year to a developer, FCE
Wilton, LLC, for $787,000. Ryu
has invested thousands of dollars of
his own money into the campaign,
money Herman said is therefore
tainted with developer ties. Ryu is
renting back the house as a campaign headquarters.
“Another day, another gimmick
from David Ryu — the guy who
said he wouldn’t take developer
money after putting $387,000 in his
pocket when he sold his home to a
developer and still has nearly
$60,000 in developer-linked contributions fueling his campaign, is trying to use another gimmick to trick
people into thinking he is a neighborhood advocate,” Herman said in
a statement. “Carolyn Ramsay
stands by her commitment to make
discretionary funding completely
transparent and help residents hold
city hall accountable by posting on
the council website when and how
those funds are being used.”
Ryu’s campaign countered that
they are paying fair market value to
lease the campaign headquarters.
He said the house was bought during the recession as a “major fixerupper,” adding that he invested
many hours of labor into it and
approximately $100,000 of his own
money.
Ryu said he had no prior relationship with the developer before selling the house. He added that the
developer had actually contributed
twice to Ramsay’s campaign.
“This was a completely normal
real estate transaction,” Ryu said.
The importance of the announcements, Ryu said, was to show people he was serious about changing
the way the district’s council member operates.
“I am showing you with actionable first steps on how I’ll be different than my opponent,” Ryu said.
The amount of discretionary
money coming into the district fluctuates year-to-year and is often used
for smaller items, but Ryu said it
was important nonetheless.
“It might not impact the city of
L.A. or CD4 as a whole, but if you
live in front of that pothole, or that
intersection that doesn’t have a
crosswalk, it’s a matter of life and
death for you,” he said.
Ryu cited a discontinued program at Van Nuys City Hall that
allowed residents to remotely participate in downtown city hall
meetings. He said the former program, which had cost $15,000 a
year, is an example of spending
small but making a large impact.
“For too long discretionary funds
have been treated as a council
member’s personal slush fund with
their uses closely guarded and protected by city hall insiders,” Ryu
said. “Instead of being used to pad
staff salaries or bankroll personal
projects, they should be used for the
benefit of the community. Under
the leadership and guidance of my
District 4 Discretionary Funds Task
Force, I want to follow the example
of the council districts that use their
discretionary funds more appropriately and effectively: to fix streets,
not throw parties and finance photo
ops.”
Ryu was alluding to public concerns over how LaBonge has spent
his discretionary funds, including
on his staff.
“My priority from the beginning
has always been to support our
local nonprofits and schools —
helping them fill funding gaps and
empowering their good work,”
LaBonge said in a statement.
“Transparency is very important to
me which is why I have followed
all rules and procedures, to the letter of the law, without exception.
Funds used within city council
offices must be approved by the
city clerk and controller’s office.
All of this information is public
record and I welcome the conversation about how council offices play
a key role in supporting the nonprofit and public school communities across our great city. Staffing a
council office is also crucial to
doing work for the people of Los
Angeles. As city services were
slashed during the Great Recession,
I made the decision to create a
beautification team that included
beautification deputies and safety
ambassadors to fill the service gap
left by cuts in city staffing — many
council offices have since created
similar teams.”
WeHo expands taxi fare subsidy program
West Hollywood recently implemented several enhancements to its
taxi subsidy program.
The city’s newly reorganized Taxi
Assistance Program is designed to
provide freedom and mobility to
seniors and people with disabilities
for a minimal cost. Program
enhancements took effect on April 1.
At the core of the city’s Taxi
Assistance Program is an enhanced
subsidy for participants, which provides critical assistance to program
users, officials said. For every $8 an
individual pays, he or she receives
$50 in taxi fare — users have the
option of purchasing up to two increments (which equals $100 in taxi
fare for $16 in payments) per month.
In addition, the maximum “per-trip
fare” has been increased to $25 to
ensure that participants can travel the
distance they need to travel for medical appointments, family visits and
other excursions. Participants utilize
a debit-style card for taxi trips.
The new program will also implement a new Taxi Driver Recognition
Program. For information, visit
www.weho.org/taxi.
photo by Jonathan Van Dyke
The Academy Museum is proposed at the site of the former May
Company Wilshire building at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.
dent Sheldon Bond said. “A movie
museum without a place to show
movies? That’s like supporting a
restaurant but prohibiting it from
serving food.”
The Miracle Mile Chamber of
Commerce said it would remain in
support of the original proposal
that includes the sphere.
“It’s a great adaptive reuse project of an iconic building in Los
Angeles, a brilliant adaptive
reuse,” said Stephen Kramer, board
president of the Miracle Mile
Chamber of Commerce. “It would
be a major institution added to
Museum Row. With the revamping
of The Petersen also, it’s a very
exciting time.”
Kramer noted that the Miracle
Mile has a positive reputation
because of its museums along
Wilshire Boulevard, and that his
own clients often take the day to
enjoy the area.
“Anything that enhances this
neighborhood is good for business,” Kramer added.
Yom HaShoah ceremonies
held in community
From page 3
Judaism and the Jews: What My
Father Learned in a Prison in
Nazi Berlin.” Rabbi Weinberg’s
father was imprisoned twice by
the Nazis and escaped to the
Soviet Union; his mother survived under false identity in
Warsaw.
“On Sunday, we loudly
declare, as a growing movement, that we will not be silent
as people are targeted for
destruction due to their race,
religion, ethnicity or other characteristic, as is happening in
Darfur as the Black African
Muslims have been targeted by
the Sudanese regime,” KamenirReznik said.
LAMOTH is located at 100 S.
The Grove Drive, in Pan Pacific
Park. For information, visit
www.lamoth.org.
For information about the
Walk to End Genocide, visit
www.la.walktoendgenocide.org.
Details of Kuehl’s ‘Food for
the Soul’ program announced
Los Angeles County Supervisor
Sheila Kuehl, 3rd District,
released the details and online
application for the 3rd District
Food for the Soul Program.
The program was established to
improve the physical, social and
emotional well being of people
who have experienced homelessness by sponsoring community
cultivation, distribution and preparation of fruits and vegetables,
Kuehl said. The program awards
grants in amounts between $5,000
and $20,000 to nonprofit organizations in the 3rd District that
engage people who have experienced homelessness in local food
movements and community agriculture, including gardening,
nutrition and cooking activities.
An ideal program would both
improve food security and
strengthen community connections, she added.
Qualifying nonprofits can apply
for grants of $5,000 to $20,000 to
support the creation and on-going
operation of fruit and vegetable
cultivation programs. These programs can be sited at homeless
shelters, transitional housing sites,
supportive housing sites or other
places where individuals and families who have experienced homelessness reside or seek services.
The funds may be used for personnel, program operations, volunteer coordination, supplies and
up to 10 percent for administration. Successful proposals will
demonstrate how the program
both increases food security and
strengthens community connections, officials said.
Nonprofits interested in applying should visit supervisorkuehl.com/foodforthesoul.
Answers From Page 16
23 April 16, 2015
Park Labrea News/Beverly Press
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Park Labrea News/Beverly Press