In the aftermath of the January 31 accident on Palisades Drive that claimed the life of 18-year-old Nicholas Rosser, the community has pulled together to examine ways to prevent future driving tragedies.   As reported in the Palisadian-Post, more than 100 residents and city officials attended a meeting in Rustic Canyon on February 2 to explore ways to curb dangerous speeding on Palisades Drive and engineer a safer roadway.   Last Thursday, Highlands resident David Eagle held a meeting for teens to begin a dialogue for finding ways to emphasize safety and good sense among the town’s youngest drivers.   Eagle and Highlands teenager Eric Bollens (a sophomore at UCLA) have organized the Pali Safety/Westside Safety Committee and are looking for a second youth, preferably a high school junior or sophomore, to co-chair the committee.   Last night, a second public meeting was held at Rustic Canyon, with Councilman Bill Rosendahl scheduled to attend. The meeting’s agenda included discussing residents’ suggestions for improving safety on Palisades Drive, as well as hearing recommendations for the road from L.A. Department of Transportation engineers.   This past week, the Post received numerous letters and e-mails from residents regarding Palisades Drive, which included recommendations for improvements to the road and cautionary reminders such as ‘Roads cannot be engineered to prevent accidents caused by speeding. Palisades Drive is a safe road if you drive the speed limit.’   Other readers suggested that warning signs be installed to remind drivers to slow down, especially as they enter the S-curves in the canyon, and that there be memorials to all the drivers, pedestrians and bike riders who have died on Palisades Drive.   In December, Highlands resident and USC engineering student James Carcich prepared a report on Palisades Drive and wrote a paper with the engineering remedies that include (1) center-road dividers with reflective markings placed between the four highway lanes, and (2) signs that warn drivers of the downhill gradient and of the impending S-curves. Meanwhile, as part of ongoing fundraising for Sgt. Curt Massey’s family, California Pizza Kitchen is donating 20 percent of customer tabs and take-out orders to his memorial fund this week. Palisades Elementary organized a student pizza day for 400 students and, at Calvary Christian School, parents provided students, teachers and staff with CPK lunches in honor of Massey. Pinocchio’s, located on Monument, is also donating 20 percent of its receipts (dine in, take-out and catering) to the Massey Memorial Fund for the week of February 9 through 15. Simply mention Massey when ordering and reference this article. Massey, a Palisades resident and Culver City police officer, was killed in a head-on collision on the Santa Monica freeway on January 28. He is survived by his wife and three small children. Checks made payable to the Sgt. Curt Massey Memorial Fund can be sent to the Culver City Employees Federal Credit Union, 9770 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232.

Members of Palisades American Legion Post 283 received a round of applause during a dedication ceremony last Friday for having donated $2.15 million toward the newly constructed Fisher House on the Veterans Administration’s property in West L.A. ‘Thank you for what you did; these are the heroes today,’ said City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, while standing behind a podium in front of the Fisher House, located adjacent to the 405 freeway at Sawtelle Boulevard. The two-story, $6-million house will offer families a place to stay for free while their loved ones are hospitalized at the VA. Along with 21 private suites, there’s a communal kitchen, living room and dining room to give families a chance to interact and support one another. ‘Part of the treatment of people is not just those that are sick or injured, but to their families,’ said Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County supervisor for the 3rd District, during his speech. ‘This is a wonderful thing; you are bringing families together when families are most vulnerable and most need each other.’ In 1990, Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher established the Fisher House Foundation, which has built 43 Fisher Houses on the grounds of military and VA medical centers around the world. Once the houses are constructed, they are given to the U.S government as a gift. The military and VA medical centers are then in charge of maintenance and operation, which is largely provided by volunteers. In 2005, the Fisher House Foundation offered to build a house on the VA Greater L.A. Healthcare System campus, and the West Los Angeles Fisher House Foundation was formed to fundraise. Former Legion Post 283 Commander Louis Cozolino, also a foundation member, said the group was having difficulty raising funds, so in 2007, he approached the executive board of Post 283 about donating $2.15 million. The board unanimously voted in favor of the idea and afterward, ‘we all stood and applauded each other,’ Cozolino said. Post 283 was able to make such a significant contribution because of the buildings it leases to the U.S. Postal Service (15243 La Cruz Dr.) and CVS (864 Swarthmore Ave.). ‘This was a meaningful gift,’ Cozolino told the Palisadian-Post. ‘It was not something that was going to disappear.’ The West L.A. Fisher House Foundation raised a total of nearly $3 million for the house, and the national Fisher House Foundation provided matching funds. The West L.A. Foundation, led by Executive Director Tim Byk, still hopes to raise an additional $500,000 for any remaining construction costs and to start an endowment to help with maintenance and operation. On Friday, Donna Beiter, director of the VA Greater L.A. Healthcare System, thanked Post 283. ‘This Post has donated to us every year and has been a wonderful support for our medical facility,’ she said, adding that the VA is striving to provide a homelike atmosphere for its patients and families. ‘This beautiful house helps us on this journey.’ The West L.A. Foundation now has plans to build a second Fisher House on the West Los Angeles campus. ‘This mission must continue until vets get what they deserve: a system that cares for them; a nation that honors them,’ said Ken Fisher, grandnephew of Zachary Fisher and CEO of the Fisher House Foundation. Other keynote speakers included CNN television host Larry King, Master Sgt. Richard Pittman (recipient of the Medal of Honor) and Thomas Johnson, secretary of California Department of Veterans Affairs. After a ribbon-cutting, the approximate 500 attendees had a chance to tour the house. Scott Erickson, a Post 283 member and West L.A. Foundation board member, said he enjoyed viewing the home after four years of working to get it built. ‘It was tremendously rewarding,’ he said, adding that he looks forward to seeing families use it. To donate to the West L.A. Fisher House Foundation, mail to 11301 Wilshire Blvd. Building 512, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Contact: (310) 440-8400.

Following a fatal car accident that occurred about 6 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, the Los Angeles Police Department closed Palisades Drive in both directions, leaving drivers with only one way to exit or enter the Highlands: The Highlands Fire Road. There are no detour signs in the Highlands, so many residents and visitors drove around aimlessly trying to find the paved fire road, located off Palisades Drive at the end of Piedra Morada Drive and connecting to Lachman Lane in Marquez Knolls. Meanwhile, Highlands residents and visitors who were trying to reach the Highlands did not know where the fire road started off Lachman Lane. Haldis Toppel, secretary of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, was visiting with friends in the Highlands that evening with plans to head to Santa Monica for dinner around 7 p.m. She and her friend drove down Palisades Drive and were stopped with about 100 other cars. Shortly thereafter, a Palisades Patrol vehicle led a line of cars via a U-turn to the fire road. However, many vehicles lost sight of the lead patrol car and ‘ended up lost, cruising through the Highlands by following cars ahead of them that did not intend to exit,’ Toppel said. Fortunately, Toppel’s friend knew where the fire road was located. The gates, which are on both ends of the road, were opened when they arrived. The police and fire departments have keys to open the gates when an alternate route is needed. Once Toppel and her friend started traveling down the road, they discovered it was one-way and overgrown with vegetation. Toppel is concerned that if Palisades Drive were to become impassable, the fire road would not provide speedy evacuation, especially at night. Moreover, Lachman Lane could become congested easily because it is narrow, steep and winding. It would also be difficult to move emergency equipment into the Highlands along the road at the same time as evacuating vehicles. In addition, Toppel was unable to get cell-phone reception. Steve Nuccio, chair of the Highlands Presidents Council, has already taken some action and has spoken with Bel-Air Patrol. He plans to print maps for the private patrol service to distribute to whoever is handling traffic control on Palisades Drive. Nuccio and the Bel-Air Patrol also intend to purchase detour signs for various locations along Palisades Drive. Captain Dan Thompson, Fire Station 23, said Palisades Drive (which has four lanes) is the primary evacuation route for the Highlands, and he believes it can be used in the majority of emergency situations. ‘If there was going to be an evacuation, we would let the residents know several hours in advance,’ Thompson said, in case of a brush fire, for example.

Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., a nationally recognized authority on preventive cardiology and women’s heart health, will receive the inaugural Dr. Carolyn McCue Woman Cardiologist of the Year Award on February 26 in Richmond, Virginia. The award, which includes national publicity and a $10,000 prize, will be presented by the Virginia Commonwealth University Pauley Heart Center. Merz, who lives in the Palisades Highlands, is director of the Women’s Heart Center and the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. In addition, she holds the Women’s Guild Endowed Chair in women’s health and is a professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai. The McCue Award, which honors the memory of one of the few cardiologists of her time and a pioneer in the field of pediatric cardiology, is meant ‘to encourage and inspire other young women to pursue careers in cardiology,’ said the McCue family.   ’Dr. Bairey Merz has devoted her professional life to improving women’s health,’ said Eduardo Marb’n, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. ‘Through her research, we now have a much better understanding of the unique nature of heart disease in women.’ ‘Heart disease is the leading killer in women,’ Merz told the Palisadian-Post in a 2006 interview. ‘As a proportion, there are more strokes in women than in men.’ Every year since 1984, more women than men have died of heart disease in the United States. Both sexes suffer large-artery blockage, which means the artery lining becomes hardened and swollen with plaque (calcium and fatty deposits and abnormal inflammatory cells), minimizing or stopping blood flow. An angiography is used to diagnosis this condition. In women’s arteries, the plaque lining is smooth and even, unlike their male counterparts, which means the condition isn’t diagnosed through an angiogram and, quite often, is misdiagnosed because the symptoms for heart attacks in women are different from those in men. ‘Symptoms in women can include persistent chest pain or pressure,’ Merz said. ‘Patients describe it as a constricting band or ‘elephant on my chest’. They have fatigue and shortness of breath. Often the women have already had an angiogram and were told that nothing is wrong.’ Why do more women have small-artery disease? Women have smaller arteries than men and although size might be part of it, more probably it’s sex-related. ‘If you take a male donor and transplant that heart into a female, the arteries will not change, they will stay large,’ Merz said. ‘If you take a female heart and transplant it into a male, the arteries get larger.’ Available tests over the years have been geared towards the male and large-artery blockage. ‘Dr. Merz has made significant contributions to our understanding of how women’s hearts and arteries differ from men’s, and this award is a recognition of her body of work in this field,’ said P.K. Shah, M.D., a long-time colleague and former mentor of Merz, and director of the Division of Cardiology at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. Merz has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed research papers and has been an invited presenter at more than 300 scientific meetings. ‘Merz truly exemplifies the qualities of McCue,’ said George Vetrovec, M.D., chair of the VCU School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology. ‘She is a trailblazer, a prolific researcher, an inspiring educator and mentor, and a very fine cardiologist. Her groundbreaking work in both preventive cardiology and women’s heart health has advanced our knowledge base and given serious momentum to these critically important areas of our field.’ Merz and her husband Rob, also a cardiologist, have three daughters: Alexa, a triathlete and senior at Stanford; Caroline, a fencer at Princeton; and Allison, a junior at Harvard-Westlake.=

Here’s a Valentine’s Day story of sorts. For almost nine years, Scott Mischel’s business, Marc Michel Eyewear Studio, had been located at 15314 Antioch. Last December, he relocated his business to 15320 Antioch, on the north side of Salon Ca’ Pello, which his wife, Tiffany D’Nunzio, has owned since 2002. Got that? ‘It was time to upgrade,’ Mischel told the Palisadian-Post. ‘We took three months and we completely redid the store,’ while also adding about 400 square feet by taking over the former Teraine space. Despite the economy’s punishing downturn last summer and fall, Mischel felt the time was right to grow his business. ‘I had the opportunity to obtain a larger space from my landlord, instead of redoing the old store, and I felt this was a positive direction to go in,’ he said. ‘My business has always done well in this community.’   His hunch proved right, because customers have been reacting positively to the move, according to Mischel. Step into the new Marc Michel store (the name is a simplification of the owner’s full name: Scott Marc Mischel), and the place looks inviting: high ceilings, vibrant green-and-white walls, large windows and gallery lighting brightening up the interior. Up on one wall is a mural of three pairs of glasses, two of them shades, in a pop-art design that Mischel himself imagined. He also designed an elegant iron fixture of a pair of retro glasses embedded into one of the counters. An island of wooden boards peeks out in the middle of the store, as if the floor has been ripped open to expose its old bones. The overall effect of this new location: hip, bright, clear, simple, elegant. Mischel sells name-brands”Chanel, Salt, Oliver Peeples, Rayban”as well as harder-to-find designer specs, such as Oliver Goldsmith and Face a Face. But he also takes pride in the fact that he also crafts glasses by hand. ‘I do my own lab work. I try to get a pair that suits a customer’s whole image,’ Mischel was telling the Palisadian-Post, when in walked Gil Grant, a writer/ producer with credits on ’24,’ ‘NCIS,’ and ‘Painkiller Jane.’ ‘Scott is the best,’ Grant tells the Post. ‘Scot and his staff know me, they know the product. I mean, look around. Look at how hip this place is!’ A lean and handsome man of middle-age, Grant picks up his specs’horizontal wire-frames, which Mischel has just finished creating by hand. Sure enough, they fit Grant perfectly, and he’s one happy customer. Mischel and Grant banter for a bit like old friends. In fact, Grant has been patronizing Marc Michel for about 5 years. Thin and hip-looking himself in a casual dark-blue paisley dress shirt and jeans, the store’s owner has been working in the eyewear business for about 30 years. After growing up around Tarzana and Woodland Hills, Mischel began his career in the Valley and learned the ropes by managing various eyewear stores. He discovered Pacific Palisades while dating D’Nunzio, who at the time styled hair at the Hilites studio on Antioch. Upon visiting the town, Mischel knew instantly that he had found the location where he would one day hang his own shingle. He opened his store in July 2000. D’Nunzio herself has been working since she was 13 years old. She grew up in the South Bay and attended the now-defunct Sassoon Hair Academy at the Santa Monica Promenade before working in the Palisades. In 2002, she bought her salon, the year she and Mischel moved from Marina del Rey to the Highlands. ‘It’s very comforting having him right next door,’ D’Nunzio says of working side-by-side with her hubby, though it’s not as convenient as one might think: they don’t carpool to Antioch since they keep different schedules. But have no fear, their collective carbon footprint is relatively minimal: while they may drive to work in separate cars, they reside less than 10 minutes away. On their down time, the couple enjoys walking their Alaskan Malamuts, Oliver and Katie, around the Highlands, and frequenting restaurants on the Westside. But work is where the heart is. ‘He really enjoys people,’ D’Nunzio says of her husband. ‘He enjoys his work and he works long hours.’ Well, you don’t need a pair of glasses to see that. Marc Michel Eyewear Salon is open six days a week from 10 to 6 p.m.; Sundays by appointment. Contact: (310) 230-4569.