Westside Village Civic Assn. 'does not . . . represent the interests of renters, condos, or businesses'

'It is an organization of homeowners with objectives to maintain property values . . . .'

'Homeowner groups had the organizational skills and knowledge of City procedures to lead the way' to neighborhood councils

Westside Village is 'suddenly inundated with illegally posted signs . . . later found to be the work of George Garrigues'

'What was once a harmonious working relationship with all organizations in the community has now become acrimonious due to Mr. Garrigues's untrue and twisted statements, illegal distribution and questionable motivation'

'. . . a harassment situation . . .'

The Westside Village Civic Assn. has invited all Village residents to attend its annual meeting and dinner Tuesday, Feb. 22, in St. John's Presbyterian Church Hall.

The evening will open at 5:45 with a Mexican buffet dinner served by Baja Bud's, followed by remarks from LAPD Senior Lead Officer Anthony Vasquez.

WVCA President Bobby Holliday and Treasurer Richard Saltsman will give their year-end reports at 7 p.m.

A representative from the Mar Vista Community Council will give a summary of "neighborhood improvements for Westside Village," which has been dubbed the "Concept Plan."

Officers and directors will be elected. Tracy Marsh has already been named president-elect.

Nominations have already been made for some of the positions by a nominating committee composed of Marie Wallace, Marsh and Roberta Schiller.

The nominees are Saltsman, treasurer; Wallace, past president; and Lisa Haught-Garner, secretary.

Those continuing their current two-year terms or who will be nominated for an additional term are Ken Alpern, Lisa Cahill, Brian Considine, Don Elliott, Lotti Furlan, Arnie Lifset, Roberta Schiller and Greg Severson.

Other nominees will be announced at the meeting.

The 5:45 p.m. buffet is $5 in advance, but there is no charge to attend the 7 p.m. meeting.

More information: Saltsman at 310-559-1590.

Pressure by members of the Westside Village Civic Assn. has resulted in an extensive revision to the design of a new DWP electric substation on National Blvd. just east of Sepulveda.

The new design "will have a more pleasing color format and . . . camouflaging/blending greenery," the WVCA newsletter reported in its January 2005 issue.

But the most important feature is the addition of a roof to the building. The previous design had the electrical equipment open to the sky. And that worried a lot of people in Westside Village.

"The jury is still out as to what effects the transformers may have developmentally on our children," WVCA President Bobby Holliday wrote in the newsletter.

The association also took its complaint to the Mar Vista Community Council, which named the Village's Ian Halsema to an official MVCC subcommittee to work on the DWP issue.

"The first Annual Village Festival was an amazing success," outgoing President Bobby Holliday wrote.

"There were 20 bicycles that were given away to children who otherwise would not have been able to afford them. In order to receive a bike, the children completed a safety course sponsored by the LAPD."

Tribute to Bob Woolfe

Tributes to longtime Queensland Ave. resident Bob Woolfe, who died last November, have been posted on a family Web site, here, and on the WVCA's site, here, reports Marie Wallace.

She said she and Woolfe "served alternately as president" of the civic assn. over the past 40 years.

The Editor woke me up and said I had to cover the winter Stakeholders meeting of the Mar Vista Community Council that afternoon.

Was it because I did such a great job in reporting on the fall meeting?

No.

"You have to do it because I'm just not objective enough," the Editor explained. "I'm too involved with my drive to get Westside Village out of the Mar Vista council."

Pish-tosh. I am not objective about Westside Village either. It's like a foreign land to me. I am scared by all the traffic on the freeway, as I told you last October, here.

"Will they have food?"

"Yes."

"Dog biscuits?"

"Doubtful."

"I won't go."

"I'll fire your hairy butt, and you'll never write a column in this town again."

So that's how I ended up on Jan. 23 at St. Andrew's Church in North Westdale where about 60 or 70 people sat on folding chairs and really seemed to enjoy the program. I am often accused of being sour on humans, but these folks renewed my faith in the local variety. Naturally I am somewhat prejudiced because I have been studying Mar Vistans for a little more than a year and I have come to like them.

Nancy Hoisman was the moderator.

Chris Weare of USC said that neighborhood councils in L.A. were "relatively successful" even though white homeowners were over-represented on their boards of directors while blacks, Latinos and renters were just the opposite (heck, I knew that). Somebody said Weare is a Ph.D., but he looked like he just graduated from high school.

Glen Howell told us about the history of Mar Vista, lima beans and all. The Sun has an article about that aspect of Mar Vista history here.

Katie Spitz, a landscape architect, talked about all the great trees that Mar Vista has. As an expert on trees myself, I can share her excitement; she got particularly crazy over a rare variety of something she called a Spathodea campanulata, or an African tuliptree. The Mar Vista version is rare because it bears unusual yellow or orange flowers. I am going to nose around and find out where it is.

Beth Moreno of Mar Vista Landscape Preservation (that's a nonprofit) told how her group was able to beautify Charnock and Berry avenues with flowers and shrubs and keep them growing at a cost of only $3,600 a year when the city said it would have to get $26,000 if it did the job by itself.

Heck, I would sprinkle it myself for some dog biscuits.

Kent Strumpell of Westchester showed a lot of pretty slides — no, wait, they were "Power Point images" — I gotta be accurate here — about all the neat ways that communities can improve themselves — you know, "developments tied to transit systems," a "rich variety of shops and services nearby," "walkable neighborhoods," "public spaces," "a variety of housing choices."

Really easy to do, right?

Jay Handel, president of the West L.A. Chamber of Commerce, said that Venice Blvd. needs a Business Improvement District, a Specific Plan (to override the city's general plan) and a Design Review Board. More easy stuff.

Maritza Przekop talked about the Mar Vista Concept Plan, and then everybody separated and went to different tables for discussions because Ms. Przekop said she wanted "to hear individually what you all want in your neighborhoods."

I followed the Westside Village group (eight people) into another room. Of course I remained invisible, so nobody noticed. One of them even stepped on my tail.

Some of the Westside Villagers wanted to beautify the flood control channel or make a bike path there, clear the front of residential lots so people don't have to walk in the streets (parts of the Village don't have any sidewalks), make a little shopping center with a Starbuck's, keep schools open on the weekends so people can use them, extend the library's hours until 9 p.m. and make sure that everybody gets information about the neighborhood.

This was funny: Four of the participants (from a single family) found that the reason they didn't get any information about their neighborhood was due to the fact that, as apartment dwellers, they weren't eligible for membership in the Westside Village Civic Assn., which has a newsletter and keeps its homeowner members informed.

(I guess they hadn't heard about The Editor's other Web site, The Palms-Village Sun, at www.westmarsun.info/Palms.html.) Anyway, two of them left with one of The Editor's petitions in their hands.)

And out in the hallway Ms. Przekop was asking The Editor exactly what was "going on." I forgot to tell you that he had passed out a villainous screed (or so it seemed to me) earlier in the evening calling upon Westside Village to secede from the Mar Vista Community Council and join up with Palms in an independent neighborhood council. (Read the screed here.)

The Editor was right; being so prejudiced, he couldn't have written up the Stakeholders meeting as objectively as I just did.