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THIS IS THE MAIN NEWS PAGE
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MIDVALE: 'THE WORST STREET IN PALMS'
Midvale Ave. between Venice Blvd. and Charnock is the 'worst street in Palms' from the viewpoint of paving, Representative Ingeborg Prochazka told the Palms Neighborhood Council on June 7.
She said repaving has been held up by the city's waste-water division, which wants to put in a new drain.
Her Transportation Committee will keep an eye on the situation, she said.
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IN THIS SITE
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Some links on these archived pages are not operative.
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This NONCOMMERCIAL site is a harmless hobby of George Garrigues, who has lived in the Westside Village district of Palms for 12 years. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments.
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| Questions about widening the Overland Ave. bridge across the Rosa Parks Freeway Story below |
| Plan to rename Palms-Rancho Park branch library in honor of Ray Bradbury may be blocked Story below |
| Adjustment of Palms's northeast boundary is presented to the Westside Neighborhood Council Story below |
| Disgraced former Councilman Ludlow will have to cough up some dough to stay out of the clink Story below |
Report: Old Palms Blvd. house will be razed for a five-story apartment building Story opens on our Feature page
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| Len Nguyen — the only elected Palms president — helps seat new and returning Assembly members Story below |
ONE YEAR AGO
Neighbors fight for green space on Cardiff Ave. You go back in time to June 2005 |
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A Sun beam
Palms will weigh in on widening of Overland bridge across the I-10 Freeway
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The traffic mess on Overland Ave. at the I-10 Rosa Parks Freeway is going to get worse before it gets better.
Reason: The city and the state are making plans to widen the bridge, and of course that will mean construction delays and confusion for a long time.
Now that Palms has a functioning neighborhood council, we have the opportunity to make our feelings known about this project. Up to now, the homeowners assns. north of the freeway have been carrying the brunt of public concern about the traffic snarls morning and evening.
Barbara Broidie is the president of the Westwood South of Santa Monica Blvd. Homeowners Assn. (and also the head of the public safety and traffic committee of the Westside Neighborhood Council, which serves the area north of the I-10). She has shared a letter she sent to James JingWen Jaw, Ph.D, P.E., S.E., project manager/structural engineer, Bureau of Engineering - bridge program, City of Los Angeles.
(My goodness, don't those people have a lot of titles!)
She asks good, pertinent questions, and here they are. When she gets the answers, we hope she will share them as well.
| 1) Where will funding be obtained to close the shortfall between budget available and expenses anticipated?
2) Are there any property takes on approaches (right turn from SB Overland to WB National, at Jiffy Lube, or elsewhere)?
3) Are there any "fixes" to the interchange itself and how it functions?
4) What is the projected improvement (what are the projected improvements) after the 18 month construction period?
5) May we see the plans?
6) May we see the environmental documents?
7) We understand that a new northbound lane on Overland across the bridge is to be added. Will traffic flow on southbound Overland be improved to any degree and if so, how? (The traffic waiting to go onto the freeway onramps (both the eastbound and westbound I-10 onramps) often back up into the number 1 traffic lanes on Overland resulting in bottlenecks on Overland during afternoon peak hour traffic often back to Pico Blvd.) Will the project recongfigure any of the southbound lanes to improve flow so through traffic can traverse past the first and /or second set of onramps?
8) Where will construction trucks be staged?
9) What will be the impact(s) on traffic during construction?
10) Is the timeline as listed on the fact sheet correct?
11) Is there a possibility to incorporate into this plan a new right turn lane from southbound Overland to westbound National Blvd.? How can this best be pursued?
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THE WESTSIDE CHRONICLES
Renaming of Palms-Rancho Park Library in honor of author Ray Bradbury may not lift off
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The board of the Westside Neighborhood Council has approved a motion to honor longtime Cheviot Hills resident Ray Bradbury, the prolific author of imaginative novels and short stories, in renaming the Palms-Rancho Park branch library.
But regulations of the Board of Library Commissioners, revised in June 2005, state flatly that:
Branch libraries are neighborhood libraries identified and located by the names of their respective communities. In meetings and forums throughout the city, people have expressed their desires for branch libraries to be named for the community. . . . There is an important continuity and community identification with the name of each library that provides a sense of place, stability and pride. . . .
Existing branch libraries shall retain their current names and will not be subject to change.
Westside Board member Richard Harmetz submitted a motion that the library be renamed after Bradbury, but the motion as adopted stated only that the name should "honor" the writer.
Harmetz said that the 85-year-old Bradbury "has not been in good health" so the renaming — which he said has been suggested for the past 20 years — should be done quickly
Paul Backstrom, field deputy for City Council Member Jack Weiss, warned that renaming the library should be done only with full input from all areas of the community.
The Palms Neighborhood Council may take up the proposal at its July 5 meeting.
The final decision will be up to the city's Board of Library Commissioners.
The Library Board's policy states that it may dedicate a branch library in memory of an individual and approve the design and placement of a plaque within the library in an individual's name.
Such a step must be publicized and considered by the community for t least three months before the Library Board could approve the idea.
Sun photo: Palms-Rancho Park Branch librarian Maggie Johnson (left) and Bradbury (seated) at a book-signing party in the library on March 31, 2004. Bradbury was fond of walking to the library to do his research. Other photos of the event are here. |
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Representatives adopt preliminary resolutions to adjust Palms's northeast boundary
Stakeholders would be surveyed to find out what they want |
A The area above National Blvd. (red line) is part of the Westside Neighborhood Council, even though it has historically been considered Palms. A blue-and-white municipal Palms sign on Motor Ave. is marked with an arrow. The former Palms train station, now a historic monument which was moved to the Arroyo Seco, is also marked.
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B Palms Park and the Palms-Rancho Park Library were separated from the rest of Palms when the 10 Freeway was constructed in the 1960s. The library was in Woodbine Park in Palms until 1964. The Palms Neighborhood Council wants to share Palms Park with the Westside Council.
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The Palms Representative Assembly on June 7 unanimously adopted four preliminary resolutions aimed at shifting the boundary between the Palms and the Westside neighborhood councils.
The Assembly is the governing body of the Palms Neighborhood Council.
The first resolution divided the area into two districts — A, between National Blvd. and the 10 Freeway, which would be switched from the Westside Council to the Palms Council, and B, Palms Park and a corridor across the freeway to the rest of Palms, which would be shared with the Westside Council.
The next two resolutions, which included maps and photos, described the two districts and explained how the proposed line follows "historical and contemporary neighborhood borders."
The final resolution authorized President Pauline Stout and Secretary George Garrigues to develop a detailed outreach procedure to determine the wishes of the stakeholders in the two areas.
Garrigues presented the four resolutions to the Board of the Westside Neighborhood Council at its meeting the following night, on June 8.
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Well-dressed crook who betrayed his trust
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Former City Council Member Martin Ludlow, shown here on Nov. 4, 2004, when he spoke at a meeting of the Palms Neighborhood Council, has been sentenced to five years' probation and 2,000 hours of community service.
He was ordered by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real to return $36,400 which Ludlow diverted from a school employees union to his 2003 election campaign.
He previously was fined $105,000 by the L.A. Ethics Commission and he also had to pay $45,000 on a state charge.
Clearly, here was a man who could afford that nice suit.
But at least he won't be wearing prison stripes. |
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RESULTS OF THE
PALMS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL ELECTION, MAY 21, 2006
Todd Robinson, 25 votes, vice president
June I. LaMoy, 20 votes, treasurer
Billie Silvey, 20 votes, nonprofit organization representative
Mate (Matt) Gaspar, 5 votes, Overland residential representative
John Riordan, 2 votes, Pacific Electric business representative
Neal James Anderberg, 2 votes, Palms Depot business representative
No candidate, Studio residential representative
Click here for maps of the districts.
ONLY ONE ELECTED PALMS PRESIDENT
— SO FAR
Len Nguyen of Palms welcomed the new and re-elected Assembly members at the Neighborhood Council meeting of June 7.
Nguyen himself was introduced by President Pauline Stout as "the only elected President of the Palms Neighborhood Council, so far."
Which is true. Nguyen was elected in a stakeholders' vote on May 22, 2005. He resigned a week later to join City Councilman Bill Rosendahl's staff and was succeeded by Vice President Todd Robinson. Robinson resigned on March 1, 2006, and was succeeded by Stout.
The second stakeholders' election for President will be in May 2007.
Stout announced that she is seeking members for an Election Committee for the next vote.
Assembly Member Billie Silvey said some stakeholders were confused by the fact that the Palms Council election was held so close to the general statewide voting in June, to which Stout replied that the Palms Council may have to make bylaws changes — perhaps including a shift to an every-other-year election cycle. Stout requested volunteers for such a committee.
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