Japanese Bosses Mull Country Club Complaints

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

Somewhere in Tokyo, Japanese business executives are studying three pages of neighborly concerns about The Riviera Country Club.

The list of woes, which range from noisy, pre-dawn deliveries to reconstructing a security gate that could worsen traffic at Paul Revere Charter Middle School, were raised at the last meeting of the Pacific Palisades Community Council.

They were noted down on a pad by Donald Emery, for the last six years general manager at the country club, who admitted that, until that meeting, he had never heard of the PPCC—but he would be relaying all the issues to his bosses at the Marukin Corporation.

This has been run by Nobura and Kanai Watanabe, the golf-loving, father-and-son bosses that bought The Riviera Country Club for $108 million in the late 1980s.

They have, in the past, promised to listen to “every whisper” that came from the two zip codes that envelop the venerable club. Now it was more like a roar.

At home, the Watanabes have had their own issues—there have been questions raised about company they have kept, such as the late politician Shin Kanemaru—but in the Palisades, the membership has been pleased with improvements lavished on the greens and tennis courts.

But, as Emery told the community council, there are still more improvements to come—internal renovations, a museum and, of more concern to the community, revamping a hitherto-low key service gate on Longworth Drive into what looks like a second entrance for guests to ease access at the main gate on Capri Drive.

Yet even this remains uncertain: When asked if more members, or maybe guests during the golfing events that have put the Palisades club on the world map, would be using a larger security-enhanced gate, Emery replied, “It is my understanding they will not.”

To which Reza Akef, the community councilmember representing the area, said that was “no answer at all.”

Akef said the two concerns were transparency—the club was applying for a series of city permits in “piece meal,” a traditional ploy to disguise changes they did not want to reveal in public—and increased traffic flow along Longworth Drive, which merges close to Paul Revere.

He said it was prompting the most concern since AT&T proposed building a cell tower in the area known as Polo Fields in 1992.

The general manager, who told the meeting he had not intended to speak at the meeting at all, said all he could do was to take notes and report concerns back to “my superiors.”

Despite requests that grew increasingly frustrated, Emery said he could not pledge to return to the community council with clarifications or blueprints.

“You have to understand where I am on the pecking order. With all due respect, I cannot speak for the owners,” he declared. “But we do not want to be adversarial.”

Neighbors stood up and expressed long-simmering grievances with the club, including big rigs passing through the Longworth service gate at 4 a.m. and sand blown around the neighborhood, suggesting that past club managers had ignored such complaints.

The club, they said, may have brought pride and prestige to the Palisades since 1926, but it does not behave in mundane everyday matters like it is part of the community.

Residents have already prepared a petition demanding more transparency to be presented to Mike Bonin, councilmember for CD11, which covers the country club in planning matters.

There were repeated calls for the city to suspend permitting the improvements until the club revealed its “bigger picture,” including changes to the once-humble service gate.

Lisa Cahill, representing Bonin, told the council that she, too, would take the issues back to her boss.