Ex-Pali High Coach Juliano Writes
The Palisadian-Post has been covering the story of my firing from Palisades Charter High School as wrestling coach. I gave the Post all the emails I got from (angry parent) Dan Hansen and the school, and spent a lot of time on the phone with your reporter telling him my side of the story.
Yet, every headline and story made me look like the one in the wrong, the maniac, the one with the problem. I am very disappointed.
You have told the story of Dan Hansen from his side, making him sound like the victim of what I said in the heat of the moment.
But this (altercation that resulted in the dismissal) came after being badgered for more than six months, during which time he spread rumors and false stories about me all over town and the wrestling community.
The school knew and did nothing to protect me or stop his aggressive behavior or do anything about him breaking the rules of the school.
He said I lied, cheated and stole from him, yet has no proof of any of that.
And he had a hand in a teacher being fired and two other coaches, including Steve Cifonelli, last year’s wrestling coach.
Also, you never asked all the girls on the softball team who said Cifonelli did not throw a bat at anyone.
Your paper talked to just one parent, Dan Hansen.
You have not talked to all the other parents who not only are only on my side but love me and support me.
You never talked to the parent who Dan Hansen not only told how to threaten a teacher with suing to help her daughter’s grades but that it was his goal to have me fired this year!
(Many people) have complained their voices were not heard.
I have been with the school, coaching the wrestling team for seven years, but I was fired before the parents could stand up and talk for me.
It has not been mentioned I raised the money for the new mats in the wrestling room. I put them all up on the walls, as well as pull-up bars, ropes and a peg board. I dumped a lot of my own money into building a beautiful room that the kids would be proud of.
The school has not spent a dime on doing any of the work.
I feel this story has not been told to the best of the ability of your paper!
Aldo Juliano
Dining Out
As a 20-year Pacific Palisades resident, foodie and former restaurateur, I’ve long lamented that restaurants on our gorgeous California shore are so often both expensive and terrible—the first goes along with the rent, but the second is just lamentable. (Don’t get me started on Perry’s vs. nearly any beach restaurant in Spain or Italy.)
So, I was excited to hear that Wolfgang Puck might be instrumental in the redevelopment of the Gladstones site.
The Austrian-gone-Californian is still, 36 years after opening Spago, a maniac for quality. He not only keeps his standards high, but evolves with the times—and in the restaurant business, trends shift nearly as fast as women’s fashion.
I enjoyed a couple of meals recently at Spago, and it’s still a fabulous, vibrant, relevant place while so many of its contemporaries are long gone or hopelessly dated.
And just last week, I dined at Rogue, Puck’s new modernist experimental kitchen in the Pacific Design Center. The menu changes every week but nearly every dish was amazing—and superbly modern.
So, there is every reason to hope that he and his team can “do it right” down where Sunset meets the Pacific. And I think a new building is the way to go.
Nobu Malibu has proved that if you have good food and great atmosphere by the beach, people will pack in even at exorbitant prices, but for many years, Gladstones has had neither.
I lived for the better part of a decade walking distance from the place and I probably went two or three times.
It wasn’t because it was expensive, either. It just didn’t impress.
That location needs a space that takes advantage of the view, that allows you to feel the breeze and hear the sea on a nice day and to just see it on a colder (or windy) one.
It needs great contemporary cocktails and wine, amazing food, seamless hospitality, and most importantly, that LA je ne sais quoi of being one of those places you have to be and be seen at.
Puck has proven he intuitively understands those things, so there is every reason to believe he can deliver on them … albeit after several years of hearings, permits and construction.
Andy Gavin | Castellammare
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