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The Palms–Village Sun
News, opinion and features about Historic Palms,
including 'Westside Village' — Archives
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This site is not affiliated with any group. Opinions are those of the writers.
Westside Village news / December 2005
THIS IS THE WESTSIDE VILLAGE PAGE
One of only two Web pages in the entire universe that give a woof about Westside Village.
WESTSIDE VILLAGE LINKS
FEATURES
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Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch
This NONCOMMERCIAL site is a harmless hobby of George Garrigues, who has lived in the Westside Village district of Palms for a dozen years or so. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments
The kids are still all right!
Last month we showed you some children planting trees on Palms Blvd. between Sepulveda and Overland as part of a community project spearheaded by the Westside Village Civic Assn. (above).

On Dec. 10, other kids helped plant this New Zealand Christmas tree to finish the job.

Below is what the tree, Metrosideros excelsus, might look like when it is grown.
Apartment owner rejects four saplings

Four newly planted trees have been removed from in front of an apartment building on the south side of the 10700 block of Palms Blvd., leaving gaping holes in the sidewalk, which will have to be filled. A resident of the building said the owner decided the trees were too obtrusive on the property and interfered with access to cars parked on the street; another tree was planted so close to a driveway that it threatened to interfere the vision of drivers leaving the building.

The action was unusual because the street trees are not planted by the Tree People organization (co-sponsor of the project) until signed permission papers are obtained from an owner or a manager agreeing to care for them.
Elsewhere in 90034, some tree-trimming, and not the Christmas kind

A complaint to the Palms Post Office by the editor of The Sun has resulted in the trimming of a large sidewalk shrub (or a small tree) to the north of the Post Office driveway on Motor Ave. The tree (or shrub) had been blocking the view of motorists attempting to leave the office's parking garage, normally one of the busiest driveways in our Zip Code.
•
MAR VISTA'S STAKEHOLDER MEETING:
YOU WEREN'T THERE, WERE YOU?

By George Garrigues

The most telling part of the Quarterly Stakeholders Meeting of the Mar Vista Community Council on Tuesday evening, Dec. 13, was when City Council Member Bill Rosendahl, who owns his house in Mar Vista, asked how many people in the audience were homeowners.

Almost every person in the crowd of over a hundred raised a hand. Some seven or eight did not.

Interesting, when you consider that the population of the MVCC area (and of Westside Village) is more than 70% renters.

Rosendahl's point was the need for L.A. to find a way for people of limited means to be able to live on the affluent Westside within reach of the beach and all the other goodies we take for granted here.

I mentioned that overwhelming show of hands to Rosendahl when I saw him the next day at the City Hall (photo at right).

"That really said something, didn't it?" he asked rhetorically.

"It said there's been a decided lack of outreach to apartment dwellers," I replied. And he agreed with me.

The Quarterly Stakeholders Meeting drew a large crowd, in its way — between 120 and 150 people in the Mar Vista Park Community Center. But if you subtracted the members of the MVCC's Board of Directors (12 out of 13; George Chung wasn't there) and the additional speakers on the program (10), you get 99-129. Then there were the three members of the Palms Representative Assembly (visiting), one guy who accompanied Council Member Bill Rosendahl and a city employee from the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Plus some people from Venice who wanted to talk about Playa Vista.

And me.

I believe I was one of two residents of Westside Village to attend. The other fellow is an MVCC Board member and was a speaker. (Mar Vista, of course, is on the OTHER side of the 405 freeway, so you wouldn't expect a lot of Villagers to show up.)

Well, you get the idea. In other words, YOU weren't there, were you?

Rosendahl, who represents Palms southwest of the Overland-Palms Blvd. intersection, was rousing at the annual meeting, as usual. Inspiring, in fact.

I liked what he said about the need for affordable housing on the Westside, and that means apartments, like the one I live in. (Yes, I can still afford to live in it.)

(To be honest, two long-time Mar Vista Board members are also apartment dwellers. So much for the canard that apartment people don't take an interest in their communities.)

Many folks left after Rosendahl finished talking, which was too bad, because the rest of the program was informative, if not exactly of wild interest to us Westside Villagers.

Unfortunately, there were too many acts lined up, and that really hurt the audience for the late speakers like Marty Rubin (Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution), David Nelson (ad hoc committee on Santa Monica Bundy Campus) and Tony Navarro (Mar Vista Concept Plan), who pushed really hard to get through their talks before 9 p.m. struck and the few remaining spectators scattered.

That left me with just squidgen of time under Public Comment to talk about my two petitions to democratize the Board of the Mar Vista Community Council — and both are vital to Westside Village.

You can read the petitions just below. If you want to sign up as a supporter, just print them out, sign them and mail them to me at PMP 11, 3500 Overland Ave. 110, Palms-Westside Village, CA 90034-5696.

PETITION TO DEMOCRATIZE MAR VISTA COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Under Article VI of the Bylaws, we hereby petition the Board of Directors of the Mar Vista Community Council to place upon the agenda of the next meeting of the Board the following item:

PROPOSED BYLAWS CHANGE FOR MAR VISTA COMMUNITY COUNCIL

(The effect of the following resolution is to establish a Board of Directors that has virtually all representation by individual zones, with only one director being elected "at-large." Westside Village would thus get two directors, instead of one, as at present.)

RESOLUTION ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF SEATS BETWEEN 'AT LARGE' AND 'ZONE' DIRECTORS

Bylaws Article IV, Section B, is amended to read as follows:

B. Number of Directors. The Board shall have thirteen (13) Directors, including the five officers described below in Article V. Of the thirteen (13) Directors, one (1) shall be elected "At-large" and twelve (12) shall be "Zone" Directors, with two of the latter being elected by and representing the stakeholders in each of the six (6) geographic areas listed below. This section will be effective with the election of spring 2007. The terms of the Directors elected in spring 2005 will not be affected by this section.

SIGNATURE PRINT NAME / Phone No. or E-mail
__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

PETITION TO REQUIRE VACANCIES TO BE FILLED BY ELECTION

Under Article VI of the Bylaws, we hereby petition the Board of Directors of the Mar Vista Community Council to place upon the agenda of the next meeting of the Board the following item:

(The effect of the following resolution is to require an election to be held for a vacated position as quickly as possible. We haven't had an election in Westside Village for almost two years; the vacancy in our directorship was filled by the Mar Vista Board chair making the appointment.)

RESOLUTION ON THE FILLING OF VACANCIES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The last sentence of Bylaws Article IV, Section J, is amended to read as follows:

In the case of a vacancy, the Chair may appoint a stakeholder to fill that vacancy subject to approval by a two thirds (2/3) vote of the Board. The person appointed shall fill the position until the next election, when a person will be elected to fill out the remainder of the unexpired term, if any.

SIGNATURE PRINT NAME / Phone No. or E-mail
__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________