Heads Up From the Chair

Heads Up from the Chair
By  Janet Turner   (Editor: Barbara Marinacci)

1 . Warning about July 4th vulnerability to burglary

The LAPD's  West LA Area's Commanding Officer, Captain Evangelyn Nathan, recently sent out an e-mail asking us to assist the police force in deterring local property thefts during the all-day 4th of July festivities that go on here. Many residents participate in the celebration, and Pacific Palisades also attracts lots of out-of-towners who enjoy spending Independence Day with us.

The LAPD, of course, will assign plenty of officers to watch over the three crowd-attracting local events-the 5 /10 K run, the small-town-style parade through the Village, and the fireworks show at PaliHi. Knowing how focused the police will be and aware that the Palisades is an upscale community, burglars doubtless plan to reap benefits from people's absences from their premises. They will search for homes whose residents, clearly elsewhere, have negligently left doors unlocked and windows open.
   
The weekly crime reports that many of us see surprise and even shock us with ample evidence that people living here often fail to protect home security, and also that they and visitors to this community get careless about leaving valuables clearly visible in their unlocked vehicles.
   
So if you're going away from your house anytime on the 4th, please lock your doors and windows-and turn on your alarm system if you have one.  And whether you leave your car at home or drive and park it elsewhere, keep it locked … and hide from view anything you don't want to be stolen.
   
Although our community seems quite safe compared with most other ones in the LA area, it is often vulnerable to property crimes. And therefore so are YOU. Be extra vigilant on Monday, July the 4th!

2.  Retirement of Fire Chief

We have learned that Fire Chief Millage Peaks is retiring on July 11, after 35 years with the LAFD-including the past 22 months spent as its head administrator.  In that position, he was obliged to oversee the severe decisions, caused by ever-worsening fiscal conditions in the City of Los Angeles, that strip some $54 million from the Department's 2011-12 budget. Doubtless the widespread protests of outraged citizens, to which our Community Council and Palisades residents contributed,  vocally at meetings and in print, caused Chief Peaks unwelcome stress. He will soon be relieved of it.  However, we'll have new stresses of our own, for as of July  5-the day after our town's traditional 4th of July celebrations-Pacific Palisades' fire station in the midst of the Village will undergo drastic cuts.  Station 69, alas,  will be one of LAFD's cost-cutting targets, with 12 firefighters (a third of its accustomed personnel) departing and Engine 69 removed from dependable service here.  Despite LAFD's assurances, we will no longer feel adequately protected from fires that start up in the mountain areas just beyond our homes.  We are pleased that Councilman Bill Rosendahl ultimately voted against the proposed new LAFD budget,  and also continues to express his concerns -as he did in his Letter to the Editor published in the Palisadian-Post on June 30-over the Palisades' increased vulnerability due to its unique geographic isolation, with few traffic routes into the community.

3.  AEG's plan for a new stadium and revamped Convention Center

AEG has a proposal to the City of Los Angeles that's pending City Council approval. This ambitious entertainment company wants to construct an NFL stadium, to be called Farmers' Field and seating up to 76,000 people, in downtown Los Angeles. Planned to be operational by 2016, it would be located next to the Convention Center, where AEG would demolish an outmoded hall and build a new one, and also create new parking lots nearby. The construction work and, later, hospitality services, would generate many thousands of decidedly needed new jobs.  AEG's CEO, Tim Leiweke, recently presented the plan's specifics at a meeting of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, some of whose members expressed doubts about this ambitious project's feasibility. A much larger meeting of representatives from District 11's eight neighborhood and community councils, as well as concerned members of the public, took place in Mar Vista on June 27. Three PPCC representatives, Quentin Fleming (a USC business professor) and Jamie Schloss (Attorney),  and Jim Rea (MBA, Realtor) again questioned particular aspects of AEG's plan. For instance, what would happen if AEG couldn't persuade an AFL league team to sign a franchise deal and move to Los Angeles (which in past years lost two such teams)? And what protections would be in place to protect the City of LA, already in financial straits, from being further imperiled if the stadium, with its construction partly funded by municipal bonds, failed to generate sufficient income? Other speakers also challenged the wisdom of AEG's plans. It was also pointed out that a competitor, Ed Roski, already has a permit to build an NFL stadium in the City of Industry, which wouldn't present the traffic congestion problems that already beset downtown L.A.

We're pleased that Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who had set up the Mar Vista meeting, has asked five Palisadians to serve on his blue-ribbon panel , which will further investigate the wisdom of allowing AEG to proceed with this project-subject as it must be to City Council approval. They are Richard Cohen, Quentin Fleming, Jamie Schloss, Jim Rea all from PPCC, plus John Petrick former Chamber President.