Each week, the Pali Life cover highlights a different aspect of Pacific Palisades, including noteworthy people, local events and dives into the history of what makes the Palisades so special. This year’s covers started with a reflection of 2017 from community members, ranging from Councilmember Mike Bonin to Rodolfo Barrientos of Gracias Señor, and ended with the Post’s annual Deck Your Halls Contest. Here are are few of our most memorable Pali Life covers from 2018.
With many psychological studies and think pieces on the effects of social media on teenagers popping up, the Post checked in with four students from Palisades Charter High School to discuss what they thought of it all. “[Social media] allows for easier self-expression. And that’s a thing people long for. And as for self-loathing … (laughing) I think people have always hated themselves,” Julian Speyer shared.
When Midwesterner Stephanie Smith, who sat down with the Post for an exclusive interview, moved west to find her place in the Californian dream, she never realized it would metastasize into a real-life nightmare: Her home in El Medio Bluffs, a safe place for her children, being raided by the FBI. The tall, sports-loving girl from an impeccably liberal family had abruptly found herself at the heart of a federal investigation into a cannabis farm in the Inland Empire. It propelled her into the international media under the unwelcome sobriquet of “Pot Queen Pin.”
Alphabet Streets resident Lisa Taitelman, reflecting on a dark time in her life that included the passing of her mother, had been a stay at home mom for 20 years when she decided that something had to change. She founded Finding Your Tail, a six-week program that encourages hikers to make their own well being a priority through hikes at places like Will Rogers State Historic Park, Westridge and Los Leones. “It’s about personal development and abandoning these self-limiting thoughts of ‘I can’t’ and shifting into the mindset of ‘I can’,” Taitelman explained.
“I knew I was excited about the Ring mission when my wife said, ‘This makes me feel safer,’” Palisadian Jamie Siminoff recalled about his Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbell security system. Siminoff shared about his life before inventing Ring—now keeping millions of homes, including 10 percent of Palisadians, across the country more secure—which included spending a lot of time in the basement, playing with remote control cars and airplanes.
Block party season was in full force in early fall. The Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association and The Huntington both hosted a block party of their own, with bounce houses, food, ice cream and visits from the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Staff Photographer
The Little Market founders Lauren Conrad and Hannah Skvarla shared how their Palisades Village store gives back to communities around the world. “I’m really proud of everything we carry at The Little Market because every product purchase directly impacts the lives of the artisans who made the piece,” Skvarla explained. “We focus on reaching women in marginalized communities who do not have the same opportunities as we do and seek to empower them by providing dignified employment opportunities and skill development training,” Conrad added.
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