A developer’s plan to build four homes on property off Via Santa Ynez in Marquez Knolls, where slides occurred in 1959 and again in 1966, has made neighbors uneasy. ‘I’m concerned as a homeowner and as a citizen,’ said Steve Miller, who lives on the Donna Ynez Lane cul-de-sac off Via Santa Ynez and across the street from the proposed subdivision. He and 43 other residents sent a petition to the city expressing their reservations. Houses have not been built on the 700 block of Via Santa Ynez since the 1966 slide, which destroyed two houses on Enchanted Way (the street on the hill above Via Santa Ynez) and severely damaged one other home. The slide tore up a huge segment of Via Santa Ynez, blocking in residents living on that street and Donna Ynez Lane. The slide was apparently caused by rain and poor geology, the Palisadian-Post reported in its February 10, 1966 issue. Miller and his neighbors are worried the hill could slide again under the weight of the new houses or as a result of the new homeowners irrigating their lawns. There is a significant amount of groundwater in the neighborhood, and many residents have sump-pumps in their basements. ‘The main goal is to work with the neighbors and with the city to make sure the hill is safe,’ said Regina Minor, representative for the developer, Reza Savebauwa and his family, The RS Family Partnership. Minor, principal of ARC Land Surveying and Engineering, said the RS Family Partnership doesn’t want the new homes to slide down the hillside either. Many residents would be trapped if a slide happens because the streets are one way. The partnership hired Sassan Geosciences to conduct a geological study and has since submitted a 1,000-page geology report for the city to review as part of its tentative parcel map application. ‘The whole hill is being studied, not just the four parcels,’ Minor said. RS Family Partnership is asking to create a subdivision by taking two large parcels and dividing them into four. Minor would not give specifics for how the hill would be stabilized, but said that the improvements would make the hill more secure than it is now. ‘There are different ways to go about stabilizing the hill, and I am not sure which one will be chosen,’ she said, adding the city will make the final decision. The entire application process could take a year or more. The neighbors, however, are asking for an independent geological report, encompassing the entire hillside. ‘We believe that an independent and unbiased geological study is an absolute necessity to protect the physical safety of those residing in the neighborhood,’ the residents wrote in their petition. At a L.A. Department of City Planning hearing on August 13, residents pointed out that RS Family Partnership also owns another adjacent lot on Via Santa Ynez. ‘It would be short-sighted and dangerous not to consider the totality of the project in terms of soil stability, impact of water tables, impact on traffic and impact on the character of the neighborhood,’ they wrote. Minor said that RS Family Partnership does not have plans to develop the additional lot right now and has decided to continue with the parcel map application process for the four lots rather than submit a tract map application, which is needed for the development of five or more. Nate Kaplan, communications deputy for Councilman Bill Rosendahl, said the city does not conduct its own geology report, but asks developers to hire a third-party engineer to do a report, which the city reviews. It is the developer’s responsibility to prove to the city that the site is sound for construction, he said. ‘The only way they can build on the site is if the City is satisfied with the report, and all conditions to ensure safety are implemented in the approval,’ Kaplan said. RS Family Partnership has also asked the city for the right to include the north fork of Via Santa Ynez (a dedicated public road that was never created) as part of the property. The partnership purchased the two small islands between the north fork and south fork of Santa Ynez. The neighbors do not want the city to turn over the north fork road to RS Family Partnership because it would make the parcels larger with different setback requirements, Miller said. The lots would be the largest in the neighborhood ‘ all of them greater than 12,000 square feet and two of them in excess of 15,000 square feet, Miller said. ‘[Homeowners] are afraid there will be mansions going in,’ said Haldis Toppel, president of the Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association. ‘They would like to have some distance between themselves and the new development.’ The north fork road has also become a meadow, where children play and deer graze. ‘People would like to see that land remain public parkland for all the neighbors to enjoy,’ Miller said. Minor responded that the developer asked for the public road in order to widen Via Santa Ynez to the required 36 feet and add a sidewalk. ‘Nobody is trying to move the property line,’ she said. After the 1966 slide, the city paved over part of the slide to re-create the south fork of Via Santa Ynez without disturbing the toe. As a result, the road is 20 feet wide with no sidewalk. ‘If the map is approved, then the developer will be required to comply with the Bureau of Engineering recommendation for street widening and improvements,’ Kaplan said. The neighbors have asked that the widening be done on the northeast side so as not to impinge on the existing properties and before construction begins. The main concern regarding the entire development, however, is safety. ‘We are not anti-development, but we want the development to be safe,’ Toppel said.

Whether Pacific Palisades resident George Wolfberg is refereeing a soccer game or calling a meeting to order, he’s always busy helping out in the community. For that dedication, the City Attorney’s Office has chosen him for the L.A. Pearls Senior Citizens of the Year Award, representing the West Los Angeles Division. One senior citizen is chosen from each of the 19 neighborhood prosecutor divisions. ‘The selection committee, consisting of community members, selected George for his contribution to improving Los Angeles residents’ quality of life and promoting a positive and productive image of senior citizens,’ said Frank Mateljan, press deputy for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. Wolfberg will be honored at a 10 a.m. reception on September 9 at the Pico House in the Olvera Street Plaza in downtown. This is the fifth year the City Attorney’s Office has presented the award to deserving seniors. The Pacific Palisades Community Council nominated Wolfberg at its July 10 meeting and Palisadian-Post publisher Roberta Donohue wrote a letter of recommendation, reiterating that the newspaper had honored Wolfberg with a Civic Leadership Award in 2005. There were eight nominees from the West Los Angeles Division. ‘I think there could be no better candidate for this type of award in all of L.A. than George, given everything he has done for both the Palisades and the larger community,’ Council Vice Chair Susan Nash wrote to the Post. ‘It was very gracious and nice,’ Wolfberg, 70, said of the nomination. He worked for more than 35 years in the Los Angeles City administrative office before retiring in 1996. He first became involved in the community in 1972, when he moved to the Palisades with his wife, Diane. He joined the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association, and has served as president for more than 30 years. Tuesday night, Wolfberg led the association’s monthly meeting at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center and received congratulations from many of the members. Wolfberg said he enjoys leading the meetings because ‘It’s rewarding to come to a consensus outcome, and it’s team building. I don’t think you can accomplish much with conflict.’ Wolfberg has also volunteered for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) for close to 30 years. During that time, he has served as the Region 69 registrar, regional commissioner, area director and a member of the National Board of Directors. He now referees year-round and is on the Region 69 board. ‘He’s just the best,’ said Debbie Held, AYSO regional commissioner. ‘He’s reliable, and he’s a top-level referee.’ ‘He’s the ultimate in volunteerism,’ she continued. ‘His children [Anya, David and Michael] have been gone from AYSO for years, but he is still involved and totally committed.’ Since 2000, Wolfberg has also been active in the Community Council, serving as chair from 2002-04 and chair emeritus from 2004-06. ‘It’s a wonderful opportunity to have an impact on government and other actions that could impact the quality of life in the community,’ said Wolfberg, who is now the at-large representative. In 2004, former City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski appointed him chair of the Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee in order to devise a plan that will guide the creation of Potrero Canyon Park. He worked with citizens, Los Angeles City and County agencies, California Department of Transportation and the California Coastal Commission to bring about this plan. As the committee leader, Wolfberg said he tried to facilitate fair discussions. ‘I have my personal ideas of what I’d like to see in the canyon ‘none of which ended up in the plan,’ Wolfberg said, chuckling. ‘I took it upon myself to let others give their input.’ The committee adopted a plan by a vote of 14-0 with one abstention in January 2008. ‘George was an incredible leader on that committee,’ said David Card, the vice chair. ‘He’s very collegial and open to ideas ‘ He’s an inclusive kind of leader.’ With his son’s help, Wolfberg also volunteered to create and maintain a Web site with information about the canyon and the park’s progress. The city is now using the plan as a guide, said Norm Kulla, northern district director and senior counsel for Councilman Bill Rosendahl. The Coastal Commission has granted a permit that allows the city to sell two city-owned properties on Alma Real Drive by the end of the calendar year. The money from those lots will be used to resume work on the park. ‘George is a treasure,’ Kulla said. ‘He never stops bringing stuff to our attention and working with us to find solutions. He’s a remarkable citizen.’

Forget about easily finding a parking space in the business district or quickly navigating through town next week because classes begin again at two high schools, a middle school and nine private and public elementary schools’all located within a five-mile radius of the Village. All schools start on Wednesday morning, with the exception of Corpus Christi (which starts Tuesday) and Seven Arrows (which starts on Thursday). By Thursday, more than 8,000 students will be back in school’and that doesn’t include hundreds of students in 10 local preschools. Drivers are warned to allow extra time to account for near-gridlock conditions on Temescal Canyon Road and Sunset Boulevard near Temescal and Palisades Highs, which enroll a combine 2,885 students, many of whom are bused. Other congested areas include (l) Sunset and Allenford by Paul Revere Middle School (mornings and mid-afternoons alike), with an estimated 2,100 students, and (2) the six-block section bordered by Carey Street and Via de la Paz, where four elementary schools’Corpus Christi, Seven Arrows, Village School and Palisades Elementary’have a combined enrollment of about 1,100 students. Meanwhile, Chris Alexakis, a.k.a. Mr. Palisades, has waved good-bye to Palisades High, his alma mater, and is now a freshman at Cal State Channel Islands, an hour drive up the coast in Camarillo. ‘I will be majoring in communications with a minor in art,’ said Alexakis, a budding animator who will continue to fulfill his duties as Mr. Palisades, attending various Chamber of Commerce functions through year’s end. But as he prepared for the start of classes August 22, the teenager’s mind was on the grand new chapter in his life. ‘I look forward to attending college and living on campus,’ Alexakis said. ‘I can’t wait to meet people with similar and different interests. However, I am also terrified! I don’t know if I will be able to handle sharing a room with a complete stranger without a kitchen. I am still up for the challenge and experience. I just hope he is as clean as I am. If not, then cleaner!’

Anna Sorotzkin remembers meeting Raoul Wallenberg, the legendary Swede who saved approximately 100,000 Hungarian Jews, including herself, from extinction at the hands of the Nazis. Rachel Schwartz recalls living in the Warsaw Ghetto and being forced, at 14, on a death march that caused her to hallucinate from food and clothing deprivation. Sorotzkin and Schwartz will be among the dozen Holocaust survivors residing in the community to be honored at Chabad of Pacific Palisades’ ‘Survivors’ Honorary Evening’ on Tuesday, September 9 at the Riviera Country Club. The public event will feature guest speaker Leon Leyson, the youngest survivor on Oskar Schindler’s list. The subject of Thomas Keneally’s 1982 book ‘Schindler’s Ark’ and a 1993 Steven Spielberg movie, Schindler, an industrialist and a Nazi party member, became the unlikely savior of 1,100 Jews by having them work at his factory. Today, Sorotzkin, a retired agriculturist, and Schwartz, a sales associate at Coldwell Banker’s Westwood office, are both Highlands residents. But during World War II, they were mere children when the Nazis invaded various European nations and rounded up Jewish citizens for a mass extermination of some six million Jews by war’s end. Born in Budapest in 1932, Sorotzkin remembered an idyllic existence with her large extended family, living in an apartment overlooking the Danube, and enjoying summers at a rented villa at Lake Balaton. Her first awareness of the impending Nazi danger came when she overheard a German-Jewish woman question her mother as to how she could live in such comfort: ‘Don’t you know what is happening to the Jews in Germany?’ By 1941, two of Sorotzkin’s uncles, and her 20-year-old cousin, were taken as slave laborers. The only survivor, an uncle, was killed at the Mauthausen concentration camp. In 1942, Sorotzkin became ostracized at school for her ethnicity, and in April 1944, Jews were singled out in Hungarian society, their clothes and houses branded with yellow stars. Sorotzkin was fortunate enough to be reunited with her immediate family after the war. Sorotzkin’s father and brother had also ended up in Mauthausen, but they were among those in the camp liberated by the Americans. As for Sorotzkin and her mother, they were on the list to be transported to Auschwitz when they were personally saved from certain doom by one of the most legendary of ‘righteous gentiles,’ Wallenberg, who essentially blackmailed German Army commander Gen. Gerhard Schmidhuber into relinquishing them. ‘He was very, very brave,’ Sorotzkin said. ‘A no-nonsense man who, in my opinion, is the greatest hero of the time.’ Originally intending to become a physician, Sorotzkin suffered a series of political complications that led her to study agriculture instead. In November 1956, following the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution, Sorotzkin emigrated to America, where she worked at menial labor in Miami and Detroit before attending Penn State on a scholarship and landing a job with the Burpee Seed Company in Santa Paula. ‘I always wanted to come to California,’ Sorotzkin told the Palisadian-Post. It was here that she met her Israeli-born husband Joshua, who worked for Ventura-based Shell Oil as a chemical engineer. In Ventura, the Sorotzkins raised their daughters, Ruth, and twins Aliza and Dalia. The former, a Palisades physician, led Sorotzkin to become a ‘professional grandma’ to Rachel, Jordan and Ava in the Palisades. Schwartz told the Post a similar story of upheaval. Born Rachel Gastfreind in 1931, she lived in Warsaw with her parents, two brothers and a sister. Before the war, Schwartz’s father made a comfortable living as owner of a spring mattress factory and the Gastfreind family vacationed at a summer cottage. Things changed dramatically with the September 1939 invasion of Poland by the Germans. The Nazis rounded up, segregated and relocated Jews. The Gastfreinds wound up living in the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. On the first night of Passover 1943, the Germans separated the female Gastfreinds from the males, and that was the last time 12-year-old Rachel saw her father and brothers alive. Schwartz and her sister were sent to Majdanek, where they were separated from their mother, never to see her again. After the war, the siblings learned she had perished in the gas chamber. By chance, the Gastfreind sisters escaped death at Majdanek, as Germans began liquidating Jews in anticipation of the approaching Russian army. A few relocations later, the Gastfreind girls were forced on a death march during which nearly all the participants died. The girls gained their freedom on the Elbe River when the Russians arrived. After the war, the Gastfreind sisters were united with a pair of American aunts in Detroit, where Schwartz married Ed Schwartz. ‘We came to California in 1960,’ said Schwartz, a longtime West L.A. resident. ‘We wanted to get away from the winter.’ Today, Schwartz’s two sons, Bruce and Jeffrey, live in L.A. and Murphys respectively. After her first husband passed away in 1968, Schwartz remarried and moved to the Palisades in 1997. Her second husband passed away in 2000, but Schwartz remains a proud Palisadian. To be sure, there is a fine line to respect when centering a festive occasion such as Chabad’s around Holocaust survivors without the event seeming too solemn or, worst, exploitative. But education and, most significantly, the awareness that comes from communicating the horrors and genocide of World War II to young generations less connected to history, is this Chabad event’s raison d”tre, said ‘Survivors” organizer Rabbi Shloimie Zacks. According to Zacks, 26, the evening is not a Chabad fundraiser but an awareness event for the general Palisades community and Chabad is charging admission only to recoup the cost of renting the facility. The subtext of such an event is to impart this facet of history as the number of Holocaust survivors alive to recount their stories steadily dwindles. Both Sorotzkin and Schwartz, incidentally, have participated in filmed interviews with the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the organization launched in 1994 by Spielberg, following his filming of ‘Schindler’s List,’ to archive Holocaust history via videotaped interviews with survivors. Tickets are $36, regular admission; $126, preferred seating with the opportunity to meet Leyson and other honorees. Reservations (by September 3): (310) 454-7783 or visit www.chabadpalisades.org.

  The Village Green will gain greater attention during maintenance and clean-up, thanks to new signs made by Temescal High School students.   In May, volunteers who garden the small triangular area between Sunset Boulevard, Swarthmore Avenue and Antioch Street decided they needed new signs to alert residents that work was being done.   ’One Saturday during a Village Green work party we looked at the signs that we put out and realized that they were boring and shabby,’ said Marge Gold, who started volunteering three years ago and is now on the governing committee. ‘In talking about how we could replace them, we decided to ask the kids at Temescal if they wanted to help out.’ The school is located just south of Palisades High.   The Committee had been looking at ways to involve high school-aged students to help protect the fragile Village Green and thought this might be a first step.   ’I simply walked onto their immaculate little campus and spoke to Principal Allan Tamshen and told him what we needed,’ Gold said. ‘He got me in touch with Lorene Sosa, the art teacher.   ’Roger Wood and I had a meeting with Sosa and the next thing we knew we had five volunteer artists who presented us with preliminary designs for six signs: each had personality and was unique.’   Gold was impressed that although the students were busy getting ready for graduation and had many other year-end activities, they were willing to help out. ‘This is the kind of grass’roots effort that our Village Green is made of,’ said Gold, who has lived in Pacific Palisades since 1978.   The four graduating seniors who made signs were Leslie Parada, Marla Reyes, Taylor Ash and Jack Potts. A fifth, junior Alex Emrick, will finish his sign this fall.   ’Mr. T. and Ms. Sosa were a pleasure to work with,’ Gold said. ‘All the kids need a pat on the back for a job well done. Look for the signs to appear every month at our work parties. We intend to have them for a very long time.’