If you are just an average reader and do not want your name used, please mark your submission 'NFA,' or 'NOT FOR ATTRIBUTION,' and your wishes will be respected.

On the other hand — correspondence to and from public officials like President Bush, Mayor Villaraigosa, City Council members and people serving on the governing boards of neighborhood councils are considered public records and may be posted in full or in part if the editor feels like it.

This goes also for people asking for donations or grants from the public or who have sought or received public funds, like school-booster organizations (PTSA and FOP), the Westside Village homeowners' assn. and others.

WHY DOES THE SUN HATE MAR VISTA SO MUCH?

I am a resident of Mar Vista whose children attend Clover Avenue School. The majority of my grocery shopping is done at Albertson's, Trader Joe's and Vons. I personally think that having my home, my kids' school and my neighborhood stores in the same community council is a wonderful thing.

Why do you hate Mar Vista so much???

GINA LEVY
March 27, 2007

COMPLAINANT'S TACTICS ARE NOTHING SHORT OF INTIMIDATION

You dare call this "News about Mar Vista"? Call it what it is, "Gossip about Rick Selan's intimidation tactics".

Of course he lives in Venice, so why no mention of the what, 20 or so intimidation grievances he's filed against the good people of the Venice Neighborhood Council? As I think you know, the City Attorney's ruling against the MVCC paying for the Ven-Mar newsletter had very little to do with Rick's grievance, but rather with the appearance of city funds supporting political opinions voiced in a newsletter under private control.

Might I suggest instead a more meaningful story about what a legitimate grievance really is, as compared to how a glayfly can use mixed up facts and misrepresentations about what someone said and then call it a grievance to try to further his own agenda.

How about a discussion regarding what honest community volunteers can do to stop that type of intimidation tactics?

TOM PONTON
March 27, 2007

[Editor's note: The author is a member of the Mar Vista Community Council board and of a city commission studying the neighborhood council system. He is referring to this story on our Westside Village page.]

GRIEVANCES ARE FILED TO PROMOTE POSITIVE CHANGE

HELP THE POLICE CATCH CAR THIEVES

If you are in the West Los Angeles Police Station area, I would like to refer you to an article in the California Section of the L.A. Times where a group of neighborhood councils have donated license-plate readers to the police in the San Fernando Valley. I would like to do the same here.

We need to get Venice involved as well as Mar Vista and any othes including Brentwood and Palisades (non-certified). The readers are extremely effective in finding stolen cars, sometimes with the criminals within.

STEVE TWINING
March 17, 2007

[Editor's note: The author is president of the Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council.]

TOO MANY E-MAILS TO KEEP UP WITH

Greetings to the person who sends Palms e-mails.

There are usually so many emails that I do not have the chance to open them. I would have loved to know about this party, so near my house. [The Woodbine Street car and doggie wash held on March 10.]

However, I just opened this e-mail and did so because the subject heading told me what was inside.

A request: Would you please do this regularly when sending emails, include the contents in
the subject heading. Also fewer emails would be highly appreciated, with more info in each.

It saves my time as a reader, and subject headings let me know what I am missing if I do not open the e-mail.

PATRISHA THOMSON
March 10, 2007

[Editor's note: The author lives on Greenfield Ave.]

'THIS EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN MORE DEVASTATING THAN I CAN EVEN WRITE'

Thank you very much for sending out the crime reports. I only wish I would have paid more attention to them.

I was walking to a local business around 7 p.m. recently and was accosted by a man who was armed and demanded my purse. I ended up punched very hard in the face and with a concussion.

I have lived in Palms for several years and never had any problems with the neighborhood. I have never thought that Palms was a terrific neighborhood, but it seems that in the past few months, there has been a dramatic increase in gang activity here. During this time, I've noticed new graffiti in this area in several places around the neighborhood. (Did anyone notice the very prominent graffiti on the old Blockbuster building recently?)

And when I drive around in the neighborhood, I am noticing people (mainly younger people in their late teens and early twenties) who don't seem to belong here. They are walking around with "attitude" and seem like they are up to no good. I suspect they are gang members.

Since last December, the crime reports show double the numbers of burglaries of homes, businesses and vehicles as well as muggings. There has also been an increase in "bodily force." I never thought this would happen to me. This experience has been more devastating to me than I can even write.

Would you please print this letter (with my name withheld). And let people know that they need to be extra aware right now of their surroundings, lock their doors and windows, arm their security systems, and not to walk around alone after dark in Palms.

They may even want to carry some mace, pepper spray, personal sirens, etc. to protect themselves. If they notice any suspicious-looking people who don't seem to belong here, they can also call the police.

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST
Feb. 28, 2007

[Editor's note: In a subsequent letter, the author reported that she has been "in constant pain since that day." She wrote that police helicopters searched for her assailant but were not successful.

[The crime reports are sent out by Palms-Westside Village LAPD Senior Lead Officer Anthony Vasquez, above. You can get them e-mailed direct to you by sending a request to Officer Vasquez at 30019@lapd.lacity.org.] He is available for consultation at meetings of the Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch at 6:30 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month in the IMAN Center at 3376 Motor Ave. He is also available to talk to your condo association or he will help you organize a block watch or check out your building for security problems.]

NOT IMPRESSED WITH ROSENDAHL'S GRAFFITI RESPONSE

Hope you are well. I am engaged and will be moving out of Palms after almost 10 years here. The move will not be for a few more months, so keep me on the list. You deserve a medal for the work you do.
 
I see a room [at the Palms-Rancho Park Library] may be named for Mr. [Ray] Bradbury. I am going on record as favoring the naming of the entire library for him.
 
I saw [L.A. City Council Member] Bill Rosendahl on Sunday and asked him about graffiti removal. I was not impressed or in agreement with his reply. I understand now why the murals have become so defaced on the 10 with his indifference. If the graffiti was in his neighborhood, I am sure it would be removed long ago.

STEVEN D. KLEIN
Feb. 15, 2007

THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS

I received the e-mail from DONE [the city's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment] on bylaws and on election procedures.  I couldn't believe you got 20 pages of changes to the two documents!

That, more than anything else, was the reason I resigned my office.  How can you be a volunteer, representative body and serve your community when you have to spend all your time submitting documents and then changing the documents you submitted?

When I'm at work, I submit material all the time that has to be changed.  The person who tells me to change it is called my Supervisor.  I am called An Employee.  But even my supervisor and I discuss the pros and cons of particular changes. Sometimes he gives in and sometimes I do.
 
Think about it, and feel free to forward my comments on to DONE.  They're not going to have representative assemblies if this is what happens in other neighborhood councils as well.

BILLIE SILVEY
Feb. 15, 2007

[Editor's note: Billie Silvey resigned from the Representative Assembly in October 2006. She is referring above to changes in bylaws and election procedures suggested in two letters from DONE dated Feb. 14 and signed by Donyale Hall of that department.]

OPEN SPACE MUST BE PRESERVED IN OUR AREA

Palms/Mar Vista/Westside Village area is a jewel on the Westside.