Circling The News

A CD 11 Candidate Forum will be held with an invited audience and also via Zoom, at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6.

Hosted by the Westside Current and Circling the News, the editors have some great questions and also have questions for candidates submitted by community members. If you would like to submit a question, there is still time, go to: [email protected].

To register for the Zoom presentation,  click here.

A special thanks to our sponsors, which include the American Legion Post 283 Auxiliary, Hotel Erwin, Winston House, Arbor collective, Venice Whaler, REA Security, Wallflower, Venice Ale House, Pardee Properties and Venice V Hotel.

The exterior of the 881 Alma Real building will be renovated. The Palisadian-Post signs have been taken down for the renovation.

(Editor’s note: I wrote this story in June 2017 and I’m reprinting it for people who may have not followed the sign issue, that was raised when the Palisadian-Post, which occupies one office in the 881 Alma Real Building, was allowed to put up two over-sized signs.)

At the May 25 Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, representatives for two City officials responded to community outrage regarding a Superior Court ruling that will allow two illegal Palisadian-Post signs to be placed on the building parapet at 881 Alma Real.

Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Westside Area Representative Daniel Tam and Councilman Mike Bonin’s Senior Planner Ezra Gale listened as residents and the PPCC asked them to do something about the Superior Court ruling that overturns not only the Palisades Design Review Board decision, but also a West L.A. Planning decision because of the Permit Streamlining Act.

Many residents like Donna Vaccarino, a DRB member, wanted to know why the ruling couldn’t be litigated.

Garcetti’s representative Daniel Tam said that something was in the works. The News contacted the Mayor’s public information officer George Kivork, who wrote on June 2: “Since the litigation is technically not final and conclusive, I cannot speak to any of the specific details at this time.”

PPCC President Maryam Zar acknowledged that she had been told the City Attorney wouldn’t litigate, but she wanted to know what could be done to prevent a similar situation in the future.

“As Ezra communicated at the [Community Council] meeting, Councilmember Bonin was incredibly frustrated with the process in this situation and is taking steps to address the issues raised,” the councilman’s public information officer David Graham-Caso wrote in a June 2 email to the News.

Yet, others questioned why it took the City Planning Department a year to provide the required paperwork to the Palisadian-Post, trigging the Act.

The News asked Graham-Caso that question. He responded: “Your question would be best directed to the City Attorney’s office, which was responsible for filing the appeal.”

The News contacted Rob Wilcox in L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer’s office, but had not received a response by press time.

Zar has tried to contact Palisadian-Post owner Alan Smolinisky to appeal to his civic pride and follow the Palisades Specific Plan, but he had not returned her email. At the meeting, Area 6 first alternate David Peterson said he was friends with Smolinisky and would speak with him.

Zar was asked if she had contacted the building’s owner, Eric Kroh. No, but she planned to.

The controversy started at a May 2015 hearing before the DRB. Attorney David Ruben, of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, represented the Post and the signs. Ruben said: “This isn’t the biggest proposal in the world, there isn’t a lot to say. We took care to make sure the signs are with the size [allowed by] the Specific Plan. They are the logo and service mark of the Palisadian-Post.

“One of the signs will go where a prior First Interstate sign was [located] and we’re proposing placing them on two sides, so that all of the people can see the signs,” he said. “The paper has been in existence for 87 years and it would be a nice thing for such an old paper to be recognized.”

DRB member Donna Vaccarino said the signs did not follow Palisades Specific Plan guidelines because the logo sign was 27 ft. long and the height 4’1.”  Both measurements were beyond the allowed limits.

“We think the signs are proportionate to the building and don’t dominate the building,” Ruben said.

The 89,856-sq.-ft., multi-tenant building is owned by Kroh, founder and president of Sandstone Properties. The Post occupies about 2,600 feet of space.

DRB Vice Chair David Hibbert told Ruben that section 13.B.3. of the Pacific Palisades Commercial Village Neighborhoods Specific Plan stated: “For all buildings occupied by several businesses or uses, the size of signs pertaining to each business or use is governed by the proportion of the building frontage occupied by that business or use.”

“I don’t think that is relevant,” Ruben said.

“Signs are placed immediately adjacent to the businesses they advertise,” Hibbert replied. “The Palisadian-Post has no association with this building whatsoever.”

Ruben asked if this was personal on the part of the DRB members. “Does this have to do with signs or something else?”

The six members present assured the lawyer it was strictly a signage compliance issue.

“The Specific Plan was developed in 1985 to stop the proliferation of signs [in the business district],” Hibbert noted.

Ruben argued that the proposed Post signs would be building identification signs. This was an argument the DRB also rejected.

Rick Mills, a former member of the DRB for 13 years and chair for eight, spoke against the application during the public comment period

“I’ve seen a lot of sign applications,” Mills said, noting that the Alma Real building and the First Interstate sign at the top of it predated the Specific Plan, so that particular sign was grandfathered in. “When a nonconforming sign is removed there is no right to replace it.”

“One of the goals of the Specific Plan was to get rid of signs like the Interstate sign,” Hibbert said.

When the DRB members voted to oppose the signage application, Ruben reminded them, “You have discretion to make a recommendation, but the City can overrule that.”

Actually, the City Planning Department agreed with the DRB, but then failed to release its findings in a timely manner.

Last month, DRB President Barbara Kohn told the News in an e-mail, “Reuben corresponded with city planner/planning department until 2016, bombarding the city with legal papers during which time I continually requested status.”

Reuben filed papers with the Superior Court, arguing that the City had violated the Permit Streamlining Act (65921). A hearing was held March 29. In the court document, Reuben stated that the initial application for the signage was filed on April 7, 2015 and the case heard on May 15, but that the City didn’t issue a decision until April 22, 2016, which was more than a year from the initial filing. Reuben argued that this violated the Act.

According to Court papers, L.A. City Planning had to act within 10 calendar days following the DRB’s decision. The Act states that an agency has 30 days after an application is submitted to inform the applicant whether or not the application is complete. If an agency fails to approve or disapprove the permit within the time limits, the permit is subject to being “deemed approved.”

Superior Court Judge Amy D. Hogue wrote that “Sections 11.5.7.C and 16.50E do not require the Planning Department to specifically provide notice of Project Permit Compliance process. . . and as a result, Petitioner’s Application was ‘deemed approved’ as of June 8, 2015.”

As Community Council Legal Counsel Ron Dean noted, “All systems fail at some point. But in this case, a minor failure still results in a project going forward, no matter how illegal it might be.

“The City should encourage the state to amend the Streamlining Act to provide for graduated penalties,” Dean said.

Ruby (center) has lived in the Palisades Library portico for the past few years. She is often joined by other homeless individuals (right).

Los Angeles can never take care of its homeless population unless it starts asking the correct question: how many people have mental issues?  Is there an institutional setting in which they can be helped?

Jimmy Dean, a homeless woman, who used to camp in Temescal Canyon received housing through the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness.

She was kicked out, because she threw feces at other homeless, and on the walls of an apartment. Housing was not the answer to her problems. After a two year absence, she was found back in Temescal Canyon last week, screaming obscenities at those trying to help her.

Ruby, who has been diagnosed with mental illness, continues to live by the Palisades Library and is now attracting other homeless, who stand guard by the entrance to the portico. Residents treat her like a feral cat and bring her food – and she has conversations with them. One resident, even went so far as to say, “she’s the smartest woman I know.”

I won’t dispute anyone’s IQ, but intelligence doesn’t have anything to do with mental illness. One day this editor found Ruby lying, not moving on the stone, and had trouble rousing her. She finally came to, and I asked, “Ruby are you okay?” It took her time to focus and then I realized, she had passed out. The alcohol bottles were nearby. She looked at me and started screaming obscenities – she identified me in those rants.

Now, I no longer go close to her, I no longer consider her harmless, and worry that at some point she may “snap.”

The man in front of Gelson’s was probably in his 30s. He had a small cart filled with accumulated items. His shoes were bad and beyond repair. He was standing and staring, when I walked by.

He had a deer leg poking out of the cart. It was a real deer leg, and I stopped and asked him where he got it. He told me he had found it by the Lake Shrine.

I asked him if the Palisades Task Force on Homelessness had contacted him. He didn’t respond. I asked if he needed anything because someone could help him. He didn’t respond and then started staring off in the distance, again. I could feel him watching me as I walked off.  I alerted the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness, who said they knew about him. Several readers had also contacted Circling the News, because the same man was found sleeping by Corpus Elementary School.

Last week, a woman was walking on Via de la Paz by the Palisades Elementary School during a school day. She had put zinc oxide or some grease, all over her face and was carrying an open beer bottle, taking swigs as she walked. She was talking to herself.

I recognized her as Danielle, the woman who has terrorized neighbors by pooping and urinating on their lawns, living out of her car on Albright Street for more than two years.

Her family has tried to help her. Neighbors have called the police repeatedly, but according to police there’s nothing they can do.

The police have told neighbors that she is not dangerous to self or others – and that she can care for herself. She goes to the local grocery store and buys alcohol.

There appears to be nothing that anyone can do if someone is mentally ill. And as long as they are not wielding a knife or a handgun, they are not considered gravely disabled and can not be held with a 5150.

A 5150 is an involuntary psychiatric hold. According to a speaker at a recent Task Force meeting, Dr. Roderick Shaner, there is a disagreement about whether a person fits into a 5150. “If a person is dangerous to self, to others or is gravely disabled, he/she can be detained for 72 hours,” he noted.

Shaner said, “If you take someone who is gravely disabled and take them to units, in a few days the voices stop, they get meals, sleep and medicine, and they say, ‘I don’t want to be in a hospital,’ and by the way, ‘I promise to take my meds.’ We can’t hold beyond 47 days, but antidotally if we give people proper treatment, they do well.”

Long-time resident and a former Citizen of the year, Chuck McGlothlin wrote Circling the News.

“I appreciate everything the Palisades Homeless Committee has done for our Village. I feel that Los Angeles County should start building Mental Facilities – the number of homeless people with mental problems is estimated at 50 percent.

“These poor people with mental problems need care and support immediately, and we should handle it like a FEMA disaster and start helping these unfortunate people.

“Yesterday at the front entrance to Los Angeles Community College on Vermont Avenue near Hollywood with over 20,000 students, I saw a homeless man defecate on the sidewalk.

“As a civilized society, in the wealthiest country in the world, our lack of concern for mentally ill people is unacceptable.”

We agree with McGlothlin. The question that needs to be asked and then answered is how many people have mental issues and how can they best be helped? Housing first is not the answer for this group of people.

(Editor’s note: many people in California blame Ronald Reagan for shuttering the large asylums, but the real story starts with President John F. Kennedy, and then progressed with the idea that with medication, mental illness was curable, and institutions should be closed. To read the story, visit:  https://www.circlingthenews.com/lack-of-assistan…the-mentally-ill/ ‎)

Danielle has lived in her car on Albright for the past two years. Neighbors have complained to police that she is defecating and urinating on lawns.

This man shouted profanities at the Circling the News editor, when photos were taken in the Westchester Library/Senior Center parking lot.

A Westchester senior asked Circling the News, “Why are the seniors not taken care of?”

In Los Angeles, one in four people are identified as a “senior” citizen (60+). According to an 2016 Empower La study “Purposeful Aging,” (https://empowerla.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Purposeful-Aging-6222016b.pdf), the City has 1,889,056 seniors. The study states that age-friendly environments allow people to stay active and connected.

The Department of Rec and Parks, operates 29 senior centers, two of which are on the Westside (Westchester and Felicia Mahood Center. The Venice Senior Center is shuttered.).

But, only 16 are open. Many used to have a lunch program. Now only three have a “grab and go.”

Three years ago, the Westchester Center was a vibrant hangout for seniors, but then the homeless, many of whom were mentally ill or strung out on drugs were allowed to take over Westchester Park.

One transient has junk and trash stretched across three handicapped parking areas.

“I don’t understand why they can’t clean it up,” a Westchester resident told CTN.

CTN contacted Rec and Parks, and spokesperson Rose Watson said, “The handicapped parking lot is available to seniors. The lot is managed by the Department of General Services. We’ll reach out to them and make them aware that a homeless encampment is keeping seniors from being able to park in the handicapped spots.”

This editor grew familiar with senior centers while visiting my late mother-in-law in Valentine, Nebraska. The center provided a nutritious hot lunch for $2.50, and then served as a gathering place for people to talk or play cards after eating. The social aspect was important, because many of the seniors no longer had family living nearby.

The hot lunch served, for many, was the main meal of the day – and maybe the only meal. My mother-in-law would eat oatmeal for breakfast, then the hot lunch and perhaps an apple for dinner. She, like many seniors, no longer had the desire or need to fix the “family” dinner or to do a big grocery shopping.

The Westchester Senior Center used to operate the same way, and according to one resident between 75 to 80 people were fed daily.

“Mornings were busy, there were always between 25 to 50 people,” the resident said, noting that “A lot of people came and had doughnuts and bagels. There was a group of men, eight or nine, that were here and would have coffee and sit and chat.”

The resident explained “It was a lovely place, warm and welcoming. When there were sponsored day trips, such as a bus going to casino, you might get 90 people going.”

Lunch was described as “A lot of people really looked forward to it.  It was a happy place.”

Another resident said “We used to have events that 65 to 80 people attended; and the Rotary luncheon at Christmas had 100 people. “We would have a lot of fun. People would just drop in, but that’s not happening now.”

What changed? The homeless were given priority.

“It’s such a shame. There’s a homeless person who has a dog that’s bitten some people,” a resident said.

“Give us our senior center back,” another Westchester resident said. “How do you let 10 people hold the library and the center hostage?”

Yet, another said, “We all feel uncomfortable just to go there. The parking lot doesn’t look safe and the people hanging around it are frightening.”

The residents told CTN that they called 311 and Bonin’s office, but nothing has changed. “I see all sorts of concerns about nursing homes and kids, but what about seniors?” that resident asked.

Another resident summed up the situation: “It’s about safety, it’s about common sense. It’s time to give our senior centers back to the seniors.”

One person’s belongings stretched across three-handicapped parking spaces in front of the Westchester Senior Center.

(Editor’s note: It seems that the City’s seniors have largely been neglected. CTN asked how many senior centers had WIFI or computer help, which has now become vital. Watson is checking. CTN also feels that there should also be a senior center—or place for seniors to receive hot lunches in