THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 Chamber of Commerce Mixer, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., hosted by American Legion Post 283, corner of Swarthmore and La Cruz. The public is invited to enjoy networking, refreshments, and a drawing for gifts donated by Chamber members. Elizabeth Clement, daughter of David and Alice Clement of Pacific Palisades, will discuss her new book, ‘Love for Sale: Courting, Treating and Prostitution in New York City, 1900-1945’ (University of North Carolina Press), 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16 Trail to the Stars, a moderate hike during which hikers will learn facts and myths about outer space, 7 to 9 p.m. in Temescal Gateway Park. Bring water, a jacket and a flashlight. Rain will cancel the hike. Meet in the front parking lot, where parking is $5. Contact: (310) 454-1395, ext. 106 or visit www.LAMountains.com. Marni Kamins and Janice Macleod sign ‘The Dating Repair Kit: How to Have a Fabulous Love Life,’ 7:30 p.m., Village Books on Swarthmore. This book, say the authors, is for women who think that all they need to have a good love life is a good boyfriend. Or that they’ll be different when they meet the right guy. But really what everybody needs to do to have a good love life is simple: love your own life first. Theatre Palisades production of Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie,’ featuring local resident Martha Hunter as Amanda, plays at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Haverford. The show runs Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. and ends Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: (310) 454-1970. Palisades Beautiful meets at 10 a.m. in the community room at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real. (See story, page 11.) MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 Jewish Women’s Circle of Discovery host ‘Behind the Mask,’ an evening of discussion, journal writing and visualization about the upcoming holiday of Purim, 7:30 p.m. at Chabad Palisades, 15207 Sunset Blvd. The evening is open to all women regardless of affiliation or denomination. (See story, page 11.) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association board meeting, 7 p.m., Rustic Canyon Recreation Center. Public invited. The Chautauqua series program, ‘Fandango Frontera: The History and Evolution of Musical Taste in the Santa Monica Mountains,’ 7:30 p.m. in the dining hall in Temescal Gateway Park, 15601 Sunset Blvd. Admission is free. Parking is $5. (See story, page 11.) The Malibu Orchid Society explores the origin of orchid names with featured speaker Dr. Joseph Arditti, 7 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. (See story, page 11.) WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee meeting, 7:30 p.m. in the old gym at the Palisades Recreation Center, 851 Alma Real. Public invited. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, 7 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 851 Alma Real. Public invited. Michael Graham signs ‘Snow Angel,’ a gripping first novel of crime and redemption based on a true story about the brutal kidnapping of a young boy the week before Christmas and the three detectives who lead the investigation, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore.

Visitors to Bill and Cindy Simon’s house last Thursday night were greeted by a ‘takeoff’ mark in the entryway and the phrase ‘personal best’ taped across the floor some 29 feet, two inches away. The significance of that number was not lost on any of the attendees, including 10-time Olympic medalist Carl Lewis, whose foundation is backing the Palisades High stadium renovation project, now scheduled to begin this summer. In fact, the new all-weather track will be named in his honor. The only other track in the world with his name on it is the one at his old high school in New Jersey. ‘I got in touch with Carl through Kym Begel, the director of his foundation, we met one day at Starbucks and it went from there,’ said Palisadian Bob Jeffers, who has partnered with Brentwood’s Jim Bailey to spearhead the stadium project, which will also include a new football field with artificial turf. ‘We’re so proud to have the greatest track and field athlete of all time on our team. We marked all of his winning jumps on the floor and, as you see, 29-2 was his personal best.’ Ever since Jeffers and Bailey updated the Palisades High board of directors in March about their $1.3-million project, they have been raising funds to make their vision a reality. At last Thursday’s gathering, they announced that, thanks to the generous donations of community residents and organizations, construction scheduled to break ground right after graduation in June. So far, $1 million has been raised. ‘We’re here to celebrate a worthy project and many wonderful people who are making it possible,’ Jeffers said to an audience that included novelist Carolyn See (whose second husband, Tom Sturak, was a long distance runner); former high school long jumper and sprinter Pam Bruns; PaliHi Principal Gloria Martinez, Executive Director Amy Held, Chief Business Officer Greg Wood and Bud Kling, head of the school’s governing board. ‘Our goal is to make Palisades High the first choice of local families.’ Lewis, who lives in the Palisades Highlands, won nine gold medals in four Olympiads, including the long jump four times. He was voted “Sportsman of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee and named “Olympian of the Century” by Sports Illustrated. He started the Carl Lewis Foundation in 2001 in an effort to help inner-city and neglected youth feel good about themselves through fitness and educational programs. ‘I just got back from China and the Super Bowl two days ago,’ Lewis said. ‘My equilibrium is still out of control.’ He was in Beijing to work on a television documentary to air before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, flew home February 1, then left for Miami four hours later for Super Bowl weekend. ‘We hope to see [Carl] out there on the new track jogging and running sprints,’ Jeffers said. ‘And he has generously volunteered to help coach the PaliHi track team from time to time.’ Jeffers acknowledged that members of the Palisades Optimist Club, Lions Club, Palisades-Malibu YMCA and the Junior Women’s Club were all there in support of the project. He thanked Cindy Simon and other early donors, including an anonymous PaliHi graduate who pledged $250,000 but is still requesting anonymity. In addition, Jeffers thanked Mike Skinner and AYSO Region 69, headed by Commissioner Debbie Held. ‘Mike was instrumental in the Field of Dreams makeover at the Rec Center and he stepped up and donated $10,000 to us for early architectural renderings. And Debbie runs a great organization. She’s been squirreling away a fabulous war chest for a rainy day and that day has come. She’s giving us 40 percent of what we need for this project.’ Held, whose daughter Amber played soccer at PaliHi, described the football/soccer field at Pali as ‘severely overused. By early October every year, it’s basically dirt. It really needs an artificial surface so that we can have it available throughout the year for AYSO and other groups.’ Also present were Ali Mansouri and Rudy Bianchi, who run the L.A. Blues Soccer Academy and are making a major donation in advance for field time. The Academy will be open to players of all ages and abilities and will include semi-pro games on Saturday evenings. ‘I moved to the Palisades in 1997,’ Mansouri said. ‘I love the area and the people–and I love soccer. We want to keep our Academy close to home and I think we’re onto something very successful.’ Bellinger Foster Steinmetz, a Monterey firm, is the architect on the project, which will be modeled after the stadium built several years ago at Granada Hills Charter High. The same contractor will be used by PaliHi, with construction set to begin right after graduation ceremonies in late June, and completition promised by late September. The existing playing surface will be replaced by a soft synthetic called Field Turf, and the dirt running track will be replaced with a rubberized all-weather surface. ‘Our students are excited about having this track and the new field,’ Gloria Martinez said. ‘With this and the new swimming pool, our kids are going to have many more opportunities.’ Anyone wishing to donate should call Jeffers at (310) 230-8914 or email forcopy@aol.com.

With applications flooding the enrollment office before its March 1 deadline, administrators at Palisades Charter High School fear there might not be enough seats for all fall applicants, including students from Paul Revere Charter Middle School. ‘I have over 1,000 applications right now,’ said Margaret Evans, an assistant principal at PaliHi, who oversees enrollment. ‘And they’re coming in daily. We got 15 yesterday alone’even one from Hawaii.’ Boosted by high test scores, a good reputation and severely overcrowded inner-city schools, applications to PaliHi exceed the number of available seats for the second year in a row. Having grown by more than 1,000 students since the 1990s and by 400 since 2002, school enrollment has been capped by administrators at 2,780. They say that increasing this enrollment would harm instruction by necessarily expanding student-teacher ratios and exacerbating teacher traveling (when teachers must move from one classroom to another). In November, the PaliHi Board voted to formalize the school’s admissions policy in response to the continued growth in demand for seats. According to the board’s vote, first priority for filling next school year’s anticipated 784 empty seats will be given to applicants from PaliHi’s historical attendance area, including residents of Pacific Palisades, Topanga and areas of Brentwood. Also included are traveling students from PaliHi’s 13 sending high school areas who currently attend Paul Revere. These 13 areas include Belmont, Crenshaw, Dorsey, Fairfax, Fremont, Hamilton, Hollywood, Jefferson, Los Angeles, Manual Arts, Van Nuys, Washington and Santee. But current Revere students who live outside the Palisades and these 13 sending areas, in places like Venice and Santa Monica, will be given second priority in admission. Third priority will be given to all other applicants. Although no applicant from Revere has ever been rejected before, that might change, say school administrators. In November the school predicted that a lottery would not be needed for Revere students applying to PaliHi, but now administrators say that a lottery might be necessary. ‘We were hoping we wouldn’t need a lottery for Revere,’ Evans said. ‘But this year we have to make changes. Every day the number of applications changes, and the number is not getting smaller.’ More than 200 Revere parents attended a meeting at PaliHi last week, and administrators urged parents to submit their applications before the March 1 deadline. ‘If parents aren’t Palisades residents or from the sending areas, they need a backup plan,’ Evans said. ‘They need to check out their neighborhood schools,’ The uncertainty of admission affects only Revere students who live outside the traditional sending area or who have not sent in their application on time. Administrators also say that magnet students at Revere are not guaranteed admission to PaliHi. Parents of Revere students who live in areas like Venice and Santa Monica reacted angrily to the board’s vote in November. They said that they enrolled their children at Revere with the expectation of sending their children to PaliHi. Because Revere has also grown rapidly in recent years, PaliHi administrators expect future enrollment problems. ‘Revere has 2,200 students spread out over three grades,’ said Amy Held, executive director of PaliHi. ‘And we have 2,760 spread over four grades. That’s a bottleneck.’ In addition to Revere’s large student population, the two schools have incompatible admission policies. For example, students from areas like Venice are guaranteed admission to Revere, but not PaliHi. Revere and Pali administrators met with LAUSD officials last week to discuss ways of aligning the school’s sending areas and controlling growth at Revere. A lottery will be held on March 15 to distribute remaining seats at PaliHi. An application must be received from all students planning to attend the high school, including local residents. Applications can be sent through the school’s Web site (www.palihigh.org). Evans said that she cannot confirm a student’s enrollment until after March 1. ————- Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. E-mail: reporter@palipost.com Phone: (310) 985-1607 ext. 28.

Palisades resident and 2002 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon has joined the leadership of Rudolph Giuliani’s Presidential Exploratory Committee, where he will direct the former New York City mayor’s California political and fundraising campaign as well as direct his national political platform. Giuliani formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President last weekend at the state GOP convention in Sacramento, and he has been spending much of his time fundraising and campaigning throughout the state. ‘I’ve been on the road for 11 days,’ said Simon, who spoke to the Palisadian-Post from his San Diego hotel Tuesday afternoon, near the end of a statewide tour. ‘We’ve been working around the clock, and I would say I’m a little tired.’ Since his announcement in Sacramento on Saturday, Giuliani and his California staff have crisscrossed the state. They traveled west to San Francisco, south to Stanford and Silicon Valley and east to Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley. By Tuesday, the campaign had landed in San Diego. Simon began working for then-U.S. Attorney Giuliani in 1985 in New York City, and the two have been friends ever since. ‘We’ve spent nearly every waking moment together on the campaign,’ Simon said. ‘He’s a great guy. And in many ways it’s been like coming home.’ In late January, Simon and his wife, Cindy, held a fundraiser for Giuliani at their Huntington home that attracted Hollywood supporters like actor Adam Sandler and Paramount Chairman Brad Grey. Political observers say that Giuliani will have to overcome his socially moderate’or even liberal’image to win the Republican nomination. States like California with socially moderate voters and large pools of campaign funds could play a decisive role for Giuliani’s bid. But California’s late caucus date has historically diminished its power over picking presidential nominees. There is currently legislation pending to move the state primary from June to February, which would place it among the first primaries. Simon says that an earlier primary date for California would help Giuliani’s campaign, but he’s not going to count on it. ‘Rudy is a well-known individual,’ Simon said. ‘His name I.D. is as good as you can get. And I think he can win.’ In the coming months, Simon’s job will be to distinguish Giuliani from a competitive Republican field that includes Arizona Senator John McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. And the self-described policy wonk is relishing his new role as campaign staffer, rather than candidate. ‘I’m enjoying working for somebody else,’ said Simon, who lost the governor’s race in 2002 to then-Governor Gray Davis. ‘When you run for public office, you have to constantly ask people for support. It’s been refreshing to ask for support for someone else.’ ————— Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. E-mail: reporter@palipost.com Phone: (310) 985-1607 ext. 28.

At last Thursday?s meeting, the Pacific Palisades Community Council honored outgoing Councilmember Patti Post for her nearly 10 years of service. Post, a transportation expert, recently served as a co-representative for the Temescal Canyon Association and will continue to volunteer on the boards of several other organizations. The Bienveneda resident joined the Council in 1997 and served in a variety of roles, including as Area 3 (Marquez Knolls to Bienveneda) alternate and representative and treasurer. ?Patti has been an invaluable leader on the Community Council,? Councilman Bill Rosendahl said. ?She played an active role with transportation, finance, parks and many other important community projects. Patti is a wonderful example of a true community leader.? Rosendahl?s office will present a certificate of appreciation to Post at the next Community Council meeting on February 22. Post owns Patti Post and Associates, which consults many California municipalities on transportation. She brought her expertise to the Council, where she advocated traffic safety and transportation solutions for Pacific Palisades. Many Council members credit Post with helping to save LADOT Commuter Express Line 430 in Pacific Palisades despite significant political opposition. The line was declared cost-ineffective by LADOT, and then-Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski approved the cancellation of the line, which is the only direct bus route from the Palisades to downtown. But after successfully rallying incoming-Councilman Rosendahl and gaining the support of then-Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, the line was spared. As chairperson of the Council?s traffic committee, Post lobbied for the ability of civilians to deploy speed trailers in the Palisades and West L.A. In previous years, only L.A.P.D. officers were able to set up the trailers, but the department?s chronic shortage of officers meant infrequent trailer use. ?Patti was instrumental in that program,? said Norm Kulla, former chairman of the Community Council and current district director for Rosendahl. ?That couldn?t have been done without a lot of bureaucratic wrangling.? Council chairman Steve Boyers, who awarded Post a plaque, credited her with bringing calm to often emotionally charged issues. ?Patti was always helpful in reducing emotional issues to a level that we could rationally deal with,? Boyers said. ?It?s been an extreme pleasure to work with such an intelligent and focused individual.? In 1984 after a career in international diplomacy, Post worked for the L.A. Olympic Committee, where she crafted and organized transportation solutions for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Although she will no longer be an official member of the Community Council, Post plans to remain its transportation advisor. She also hopes to improve transportation for local seniors. A city program allows seniors to buy reduced-fare taxi rides, but the program is limited to city-licensed cabs. The Palisades? remoteness from the main areas of the city coupled with the short trips requested by seniors has meant limited interest from taxi operators. But Post is working to expand the supply of available cabs for seniors by allowing county-licensed cabs, which frequently operate in Malibu and Santa Monica, into the program. She will continue to be a board member of the Temescal Canyon Association, the Pacific Palisades Library Association, the Traffic Committee of the West L.A. Community Police Advisory Board, and the Transportation Committee of Council District 11 Neighborhood Empowerment Congress. Post received her master?s degree in urban planning from Harvard University and her bachelor?s degree in urban studies from UCLA. Her husband, Richard Cohen, will continue to serve as vice chairman of the Community Council. ————– Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. E-mail: reporter@palipost.com Phone: (310) 985-1607 ext. 28.