WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE OF COMMUNICATION

Why should we be separated from our neighborhood assns.?

I have patiently waded through your e-mails of late and have only one question: Why do you care so about whether we are joined in with other associations for more power, rather than separating us from our neighborhood associations?

BARBARA SPIELBERG
Sept. 20, 2005
[Spielberg is a block captain in the Westside Village Civic Assn.]

I truly don't understand your question

I am not sure that I understand your question. What "neighborhood associations" are you referring to? And what do you mean by "separating"? I have never written about "separating" neighborhood associations, only about separating Palms from Mar Vista so far as neighborhood councils go.

The Mar Vista Community Council and the Palms Neighborhood Councils are not "neighborhood associations"; they are part of the city government and are supposed to be formed in accordance with the City Charter. The charter specifies that the neighborhood councils are to be composed of homeowners, renters and business people and that they are to follow recognized neighborhood boundaries, which wasn't done in the case of Mar Vista.

Westside Village was joined with Mar Vista on the signatures of only 15 people in WV [the reader can count them on the map to the left] and with no notice posted anywhere in the Village and with no notice given to any local organization except the Westside Village Civic Assn. (Oh, and the Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park Library, which is composed of about 20 or 25 people, about half of them from Rancho Park.)

Does "we" refer to the Westside Village Civic Assn., which is a homeowners' association? Nothing keeps the WVCA from joining with other such homeowners' groups. The information sent you in the WVCA bulletins is really inaccurate; the WVCA didn't "join" the Mar Vista Community Council. It didn't have that authority to do so.

I wish I could answer your question better, but I truly don't understand it.

GEORGE GARRIGUES
Sept. 20, 2005
[Garrigues is the editor and owner of The Palms-Village Sun]

But why does it have so much significance?

My query has to do with why this has such significance to you and why it should be important to WV homeowners.

BARBARA SPIELBERG
Sept. 20, 2005

It's something we learned in elementary school

To me, I guess because I believe in democracy and the rule of law. I think the WV homeowners who signed the petitions — more than a hundred, as I remember — feel the same way. We learn about this in the fifth grade.

I hope this helps your understanding of the situation.

GEORGE GARRIGUES
Sept. 20, 2005

DEVELOPERS PROPOSE MOVING AN APARTMENT BUILDING ONTO REGENT STREET

Moving homes is no big concern

I don't see this as a huge problem.  I have lived in Los Angeles all my life and grew up near Beverly Glen and Pico.

During the formation of Marina del Rey, homes were moved (rather than destroyed) to make way for the building of the Marina.  On many late nights you could see houses moving one after another on large over-sized trucks eastward on Pico.  I don't know where the homes eventually were resettled but with housing prices what they are, I personally think it is better to move homes than to just knock them down.

Good luck with other issues but this one doesn't seem to require community concern,
 
RGS
Sept. 5, 2005

Opposes policy of long-distance decision-making

This is exactly the sort of thing that make neighborhood councils so long overdue and vital in representing the interests of neighborhoods affected by decisions made far, far away by people who aren't focusing on the impacts of these decisions on these neighborhoods.
 
I hope that the Palms Neighborhood Council takes action and articulates its opposition to this policy.
 
I imagine that, given the right traffic conditions, the drive is a whole lot longer than 18 minutes!

KEN ALPERN
Sept. 5, 2005
[Alpern is a director of both the Mar Vista Community Council and the Westside Village Civic Assn.]

Hearings about Palms properties should be held in Palms

I sent a motion last month that we insist that hearings pertaining to property in Palms be held in Palms.  I don't remember voting on it, but I sent it in conjuction with the garage conversion.  They came with their high-powered presenter and talked us out of complaining, but the motion was still supposed to be a motion.

Until we do this (and that hearing was just up in Beverly Hills or something) we will have no control over what happens in our community.

BILLIE SILVEY
Sept. 5, 2005
[Silvey is a residential representative of the Palms Neighborhood Council.]

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO NATIONAL-OVERLAND BUS STOP?

I ride the LADOT 431 Commuter Express bus, and use the bus stop on that corner [of National and Overland, where plans are being made to build a mixed-use apartment project]. I found out about the plans for the property by accident while talking to a member of the Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park Library.

The developer did absolutely no outreach to the bus riders before demolishing the [Arco gas station] building. Neither was there any warning of the possibility of contact with airborne hazardous/toxic waste while the property was being dug up by earth-moving equipment.
 
I'd like to find out what will happen to the bus stop if the development goes forward (nothing has been happening for several weeks), and if the L.A. Dept. of Transportation and the Culver CityBus agency have been contacted.
 
JOYCE PURCELL
Aug. 25, 2005

NATIONAL BLVD. GUY JOINS SUN READERS

Please add me to your subscription list for The Palms-Village Sun. I moved onto National Blvd a few years ago, and this is the first time that I've seen any local news for this part of the city.

Thank you!

HORACE KAN
Aug. 7, 2005

SHOULD MEETINGS BE MOVED FROM MOTOR AVE. COMPLEX?

Unprejudiced, but still not comfortable at a Muslim center

I'm posting this e-mail in order to see if there is anyone else who feels this way. In light of the recent events in the world, I don't feel secure in providing my name at this time regarding this subject.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

PALMS RESIDENT
July 13, 2005

Editor's note: It's too bad the author of this letter was not in attendance at a joint Christian-Jewish-Muslim conference in the IMAN Center last year entitled "Children of the Book," in which clerics from the three religions talked about the tenets of their faiths and explained their rituals. He could have spoken with IMAN Center officials about his concerns at that time.

He could also have chatted with Sheriff Lee Baca (pictured), who showed up to shake hands and talk about brotherhood and the needs of Los Angeles County police officials.

We must not forget that the vast majority of IMAN Center members are refugees or the children of refugees who have escaped a repressive, theocratic regime in Iran and who add luster to our community. (IMAN stands for Iranian Muslim Assn. of North America.)

The topic of moving the Watch/Council meetings was introduced at a joint meeting some 12 months ago, and the vote was in favor of remaining at the Center.

If the reader has any opinion about changing the location of the meeting place, send e-mail here.

It's not likely that Islamofascists would open up their community centers to the public

Although I suspect that the writer of this letter [at top] is likely not the only one harboring the sentiments he/she describes, there are three vital issues he/she is overlooking:
 
1) Those who harbor Islamofascist sentiments are not going to open their meeting venue to the general public as we see at the IMAN Cultural Center — they'll likely keep more to themselves.
 
2) Just as Europeans and Latinos can't all be clumped together, neither can Muslims — as the editor of The Sun noted, the IMAN Cultural Center is comprised mainly of an Iranian expatriate community that escaped a theocratic dictatorship and are therefore likely more opposed to Islamofascism than the rest of us realize.
 
3) The United States will need those Muslims with insights to Islamofascism — and yet who are loyal to the U.S. and to Western principles — more than ever, in that Americans will not understand and defeat potential terrorists at home and abroad without the cooperation and support of institutions such as the IMAN Cultural Center.

KEN ALPERN
July 17, 2005
[Alpern is on the governing boards of both the Westside Village Civic Assn. and the Mar Vista Community Council.]

Reasons to move from the supportive and generous IMAN Center are based on racial profiling; they are wrong

There are those, however, who want to remain at the IMAN Center, which has the largest, most comfortable space with the largest amount of parking available to us.  They are correct.

We have previously received complaints from the shadows — perhaps from the same anonymous complainant — that they are unwilling to come to a Muslim house of worship out of fear the IMAN Center is a hotbed for terrorists. 

I disagree with the anonymous complainant, for his reasoning is based on racial profiling. 

The IMAN Center has been supportive and generous — not only does it host our Neighborhood Council, but it is also has been used as a regional training site by the L.A. Dept. of Neighborhood Empowerment.  If the anonymous writer has verifiable evidence to the contrary, I am sure the Editor, LAPD and FBI would be interested in that evidence. 

Until then, this writer's innuendo is without fact. 

The fact is that the IMAN Center was itself a victim of a hate incident by a Christian extremist in 2004.  And not far from our border, the King Fahd mosque on Washington Blvd. was the target of a failed bombing plot by Irv Rubin, the former Jewish Defense League president.  It is letters like this anonymous one that lay groundwork to encourage racial profiling, if not to incite violence against members of marginalized groups.  Since the writer of the complaint chooses to hide his identity and has ignored actual cases of Christian and Jewish hate crimes, we cannot be sure he is not associated with the aforementioned criminal behavior. 

Palms in 2005 is the most diverse neighborhood in L.A., and the most dense neighborhood on the Westside.  The center of the Muslim, Arab, Indian, Pakistani and Brazilian communities is here in Palms.  Those choosing to move here, as the anonymous writer said he did  only five years ago when diversity was well the fact in Palms, choose the wrong place if they want to live in a white-majority neighborhood.  Most of those of us choosing to live in Palms want to live in friendship with ALL of our neighbors without regard to what identity groups they belong to. 

The hope for a "neutral" meeting place in Palms is a fantasy.  The writer appears to mean "neutral" as any place which is to the liking of his religion and politics.  We had a meeting this year at a Christian church: It was under-attended.

I propose the Neighborhood Council adopt a resolution affirming the patriotism of our friends at the IMAN center and condemn racial profiling.  It is unacceptable, and possibly illegal, for a public advisory body such as a neighborhood council to move its meeting location solely because of racial bias against the host institution. 

CLIFF CHENG
July 19, 2005

[Cheng is a former City Human Relations commissioner, was co-chair of the Asian Hate Crime Task Force and belonged to the Police Commission's Hate Crime Task Force.  As a professor he has published and taught extensively on the subject of diversity management and discrimination. Cheng also serves as consultant and expert witness on these issues.  He blogs on issues pertaining to Palms at http://palmsblog.blogspot.com.]

PALMS MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL HAS MOVED TO CRENSHAW

Thank you for keeping me informed about the issues facing the Palms area. I want you to know that I am no longer the principal at Palms Middle School, I am now at Crenshaw High School.

I hope you will get to know the new principal and support that person and keep him or her involved in community issues.

Good luck and keep up the good work. Communities really need involved people like you. Thanks again.

CHUCK DIDINGER
July 18, 2005

KRISHNA MEMBERS WILL SEEK WATSEKA SPEED HUMPS

I have a question. Our block of Watseka Ave off Venice would like to get speed humps on our street, but I have heard that previous attempts have met with resistance because the next block over [Delmas Terrace] is a cul-de-sac and fire engines prefer going down our block on the east rather than up the next street over on the west [Hughes Ave.].

We have a small school/day care, a church, gift shop and restaurant [Govinda's], which all bring a constant flow of pedestrian traffic, and we have had several children already hospitalized by car accidents over the last 15 years.

We are going to submit an application again, and I was wondering if your group has any resources or contacts that may make out case more solid. Anything you can offer would be of great assistance. Our last accident involving a child of a patron was as recent as last July, and we have had a near-miss this week.

JAMES
July 17, 2005
[Editor's note: The block in question is occupied in its southern reaches by several buildings of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.)

POSTERS AT SEPULVEDA AND PALMS BLVDS. ARE COOL

I just want to say I don't think the ads on the southwest side of Palms and Sepulveda are disgusting or trash — it's better then a blank wall or old abandoned wood boards. I think it's been cool — hip bands, not hard gang albums or tagging.

West L.A. and Mar Vista have had lots of great popular/alternative bands that have come out of our neighborhood — maybe just due to luck, timing and breeding cycles; anyway, don?'t shut out the music billboards and leave our kids with nothing to do or look forward to but boredom and drugs.

Not to be a pessimist, but we are blocking kids' and young adults' creativity already with lack of teen and preteen events, and Big Brother makes it hard, too. I heard the kids can't even ride the bus with their surfboards anymore: There goes outdoor activities in a big way!

DEADRA KIARA
July 11, 2005

Editor's note: For another side to this issue, read Those Ugly Signs at Sepulveda and Palms Have Popped Up Again, here