By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor

Palisadian Frank Renfro spoke at the latest Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting on April 11 regarding security issues in town and the possibility of implementing mobile security trailers.

Camera installation has been previously discussed by PPCC and the Park Advisory Board to boost security in public spaces in Pacific Palisades and assist Los Angeles Police Department with enforcement. PPCC and its partners researched different cameras: Their discussion leaned favorable to Flock’s Safety Condor Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera, which is ideal for open areas, like intersections and parks, according to the company.

At the April 11 meeting, President Maryam Zar reported that Recreation and Parks told PPCC that particular camera installation could not be done, and the Flock cameras would be “prohibitively expensive.”

While community-wide cameras no longer seemed possible, PPCC considered foot patrols, while Renfro reached out and suggested a third option: mobile security trailers.

“Mobile trailers are something that [LAPD Senior Lead Officer for Pacific Palisades] Brian Espin and others at LAPD … have long told me they would really like,” Zar said. “I thought I would bring Frank because … he’s very well informed about the tools there are available to the entire landscape of security, and also because he’s a Palisadian. He has been following what has been going on at the park and … he has cared enough to reach out at every turn.”

Renfro said during the meeting he works in the security business, and is invested and interested in the security and safety of the Palisades. He explained that mobile security trailers have become more popular in the last decade or so, as technology has advanced, and wanted to introduce the idea as a potential resource or solution.

“What they are meant to do is deter crime,” Renfro said during the meeting.

Renfro explained that mobile security trailers run off of 4G, a cellular communication, and do not need to be wired or connected to wireless internet. The trailer would also be solar-powered, so it would not need to be connected to electricity—alleviating a number of challenges.

“You can set them up and have them operational in about 30 minutes,” he said.

The trailer would be equipped with surveillance cameras and provide advanced monitoring solutions that can be adjusted to the needs of the community.

“You can automate it, you create the rules for [it],” Renfro explained. “For example … if a person crosses this line at the edge of a property … at 10 p.m., that will trigger a response or whatever we tell it to do.”

This can look like an automated response, a flashing light or direct communication with a remote guard.

“There are different levels that it can escalate to, depending on whatever the rules you want,” Renfro said.

Privileges can be granted to different entities—for example, LAPD or PPCC could be granted access to the livestream or previously recorded footage of the surveillance cameras.

Renfro recommended working with LiveView Technologies, which he said offers “the top mobile security trailer in the country.” Depending on a number of variables, the price of LVT mobile security trailers can range from $2,500 to $4,000 per month. Renfro said there are less expensive options that he could provide information for, if needed.

“There is a fundraising component to all of this and … I think at the next meeting, we’ll talk about all of the options we have on the table and figure out what we want to fundraise for,” Zar said.

The next PPCC meeting is slated for Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m. via Zoom.

The Store and Brand are Partnering to Host the Palisades Pickle Social on April 28

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Pickleball players in Pacific Palisades have two things to celebrate this month.

Rally Club pickleball clothes are now being sold at Paliskates on Swarthmore Avenue, and the brand and store are partnering to host the Paliskates Pickle Social on Sunday, April 28.

Founded in 2023, Rally Club is the creation of Alphabet Streets resident Jewlz Fahn, Stephen Soller and Jonny Saven.

“Being a partner in Rally Club, thinking about where we fit in and living in the Palisades, I’ve passed through Paliskates so many times and thought, ‘We really would be great in this store,’” Fahn explained to the Palisadian-Post.

She said she went in one day with her mom and sister, and while chatting with store owner Erica Simpson, Fahn showed her a linesheet of Rally Club’s clothes, noting that Simpson later “fell in love with our sample line and decided that she wanted to sell” the clothes in her store.

“Our line is kind of where country club meets pickleball,” Fahn described. “So it’s very cozy, comfy, cute. It’s really gotten great feedback. We are currently in Fred Segal and Bloomingdale’s. We’re in some country clubs.”

Rally Club’s creative inspiration is “Harry Club,” a blonde caricature that is featured on some items who is “a pickleball aficionado.” The line features mens, womens and unisex items, as well as accessories. Recent additions include activewear, including tennis skirts, and short- and long-sleeve button down shirts.

To help celebrate the launch, Paliskates and Rally Club have also partnered to host the Paliskates Pickle Social on Sunday, April 28, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We thought it would be really fun to do a big community event at the end of April,” Fahn said, “do something splashy, get everyone in the community involved and put on one of our Pickle Socials.”

The event—which will take place in the U.S. Bank parking lot at 15305 Sunset Boulevard—will include pickleball lessons and games, a booth by This Girl Walks Into A Bar, pizza by Flour, a raffle, and music.

“We’ll have a pro that’ll be dinking with people and teaching people different pickleball moves, and letting people have some open play,” Fahn said. “We encourage all ages. Rally Club’s whole motto is everyone is welcome in our club … we don’t care if you’re 4 years old or 94 years old.”

 The raffle will include prizes from area businesses, including Elizabeth Lamont, Jaimie Geller Jewelry, BOCA, Robin Terman Jewelry, Toppings, Cafe Vida, DELIzioso Cinque, David Tishbi, Loomey’s, Blundstone and more. WOW BAKES, a gluten-free bakery, will be giving away pickleball cookies.

“We’re really trying to make this all about community and bringing everyone together, and doing a fun event celebrating Paliskates selling Rally Club clothing in their store,” Fahn said.

Looking to the future, Rally Club is doing a Pickle Social tour with Fred Segal at all five of their locations—beginning with Malibu Country Mart on June 15.  Palisadian-founded This Girl Walks Into A Bar will join Rally Club on the tour.

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The Pacific Palisades Recreation Center Park Advisory Board met on Thursday evening, April 18, to discuss a number of items on its agenda, including updates on safety concerns, park improvements and pickleball.

PAB Board Member Maryam Zar spoke about ongoing safety concerns at the park, including fights, fireworks, riding of e-bikes and incidents of vandalism, which she cited have improved in recent weeks, but are still being closely monitored, with plans in the works to bring additional security measures to the rec center.

Zar, on behalf of the advisory board and as president of Pacific Palisades Community Council, has been working alongside city officials, including Recreation and Parks staff, to bring security cameras to and around Palisades Recreation Center.

The latest update the community relayed to Recreation and Parks is that it is not seeking the $1 million-plus in infrastructure updates it would take to power security cameras throughout the park, but instead requesting “hot-spot” coverage from cameras stationed on park buildings via existing infrastructure.

Later in the meeting, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and West Los Angeles Field Deputy for Council District 11 Michael Amster reported that Recreation and Parks was working on an estimate for cameras to be placed on the buildings.

Zar also said she is working with Recreation and Parks to get weekend foot patrol to help mitigate incidents, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings. This cost would be around $4,000 per month.

Another avenue of support Zar spoke on is Council District 11, which can provide discretionary funds to Los Angeles Police Department to allow for additional patrols in the area. Zar said that LAPD has been at the park on weekend nights in recent months, with LAPD motor and Beach Detail being diverted to the area to assist.

PAB Board Member Bob Benton reported that parents that are part of Pacific Palisades Baseball Association’s Pony League—which meets later in the evenings—have expressed that incidents seem to be occurring less, with PAB President Andy Starrels agreeing, as he has received fewer emails from community members reporting incidents.

When it comes to two projects PAB has been working on getting at Palisades Recreation Center—an updated, ADA-compliant restroom and playground—Starrels reported that the city has crafted three concept drawings of an accessible playground that are being reviewed, two of which he said “look terrific.”

For the restroom, PAB Board Member Rick McGeagh reported the board asked for a line item budget for updated restrooms, which were previously reported to be estimated to cost $550,000. The request had not been answered at the time of the meeting.

“It’s important to note, plumbing is already there,” McGeagh said about the project, so even though the restrooms would need to be updated, the project would not be starting from scratch.

Amster reported that it has been approved with Recreation and Parks to move forward with the design/cost-estimate for the restrooms.

Starrels later introduced an agenda item regarding pickleball, with Palisadian Polly Badt providing updates on a proposed plan to bring the sport to tennis court #5.

The proposal draft, which was not ready for public consumption, has a set of rules and regulations laid out, which Badt said would be a work in progress, able to be amended as time goes on if issues arise.

The proposal, as is, stated that one court would be striped for both pickleball and tennis, offer more hours than are currently available for pickleball players at the tennis courts, and limit the number of participants on a court at any one time.

As written, the proposed plan would go into effect for a one-year pilot program to see if it is viable. Starrels encouraged Badt to continue working with Recreation and Parks officials for guidance and feedback before the plan is implemented.

The next regularly scheduled meetings of the Park Advisory Board are slated for Thursday, July 18, and Thursday, October 18.

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor

Longtime Palisadian and world-renowned poetry scholar Marjorie Perloff died on March 24 in her home in Pacific Palisades, her family shared with the Palisadian-Post.

“My grandmother seemed to have the life-force of 10 people in one,” her grandson, Benjamin Lempert, wrote in remembrance. “In conversation, she overflowed with exuberance, ideas, stories, opinions. It could be hard to get a word in, even when she was in her 90s. She related to the things she was thinking about with intuition and joy.”

Born Gabriele Schüller Mintz in Vienna, Austria, she fled when she was 6 years old—two days after Nazi Germany annexed Austria—on March 15, 1938. Marjorie and her family were exiled briefly in Switzerland, before moving to Riverdale in the Bronx and settling there. When she was 14, she changed her name to Marjorie.

Marjorie went on to attend Oberlin and Barnard colleges, and met Joseph Perloff in 1953—who she would later marry and have two children with, Nancy and Carey Perloff.

“As children, my sister Carey and I remember frequent, very festive dinner parties with elegant food and beautiful people,” Nancy said to the Post. “My mother received her Ph.D. in English from the Catholic University in 1965 and embarked upon a life-long career in teaching and scholarship.

“In her later years, she was an incredible mentor for me as I curated exhibitions on fields related to her line of research. She was a true critic, always honest in her appraisals of my work.”

Marjorie became a professor at Catholic University, where she taught from 1966 to 1971. Later, she taught at the University of Maryland and University of Southern California, and joined the Stanford faculty as a professor of English and comparative literature in 1986.

“No one who spent an hour in Marjorie’s company could ever forget her,” Robert Pogue Harrison, professor of French and Italian at Stanford, said in a statement. “In addition to being the best scholar of modern poetry of her generation, she was multilingual, immensely articulate, and a tour de force of wit and storytelling. She gave greatly more to Stanford than she took from it.”

Marjorie became widely recognized as a world-renowned scholar of poetry. She avidly attended concerts, lectures, symposia at the Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House in the Palisades.

“She was moreover a great fan of Los Angeles—enjoying going to Disney Hall for the symphony—and was a proud proponent of the city to any and all critics,” Nancy said. “She was also the one who discovered their house on Amalfi, despite an initial concern on my father’s part that it was too far from his Adult Center for Congenital Heart Disease at UCLA.”

Nancy said her mother loved the Palisades, and all it has to offer.

“She loved the natural beauty, especially a view of the ocean through Will Rogers [State Historic] Park, which she could see from her balcony,” she said. “During the pandemic, she carefully observed a lone palm tree visible from her porch. She became so enamored and found it so comforting that she wrote about it in a short column for the Times Literary Supplement.

“Such a multi-talented person is sorely missed by her family and her network of several hundred friends,” Nancy said to the Post. “But her life will live on in her 16 books, hundreds of articles, and a passion for topics, ranging from Frank O’Hara to the TV series ‘Le Bureau.’”