Green New Year’s Resolution
A new year is underway. Let’s each of us do our bit to help the environment and to fight climate change. Individually, and by working together, we can all make a difference. REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS: * Plant new parkway trees. You can get them from Palisades Beautiful (459-7145). You can also get up to seven shade trees from LADWP (www.ladwp.com). * Sign up for Green Power and help bring more renewable power to L.A. as a cost of just 6 percent more per month. You also get two complimentary compact fluorescent light bulbs (www.ladwp.com). * Change your driving habits. Drive less, consolidate your trips, walk or bike more, carpool, and make your next car a hybrid. * Take an energy audit to see how you use energy and get recommendations for conserving energy (www.ladwp.com). * Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and save money. * Offset the CO2 emitted when you fly or drive. You can buy a certain amount of carbon “offset units” equivalent to the carbon the activity creates, and hence become “carbon neutral” (www.nativeenergy.com, www.carbonfund.org and www.terrapass.com). * Buy local products. * Send e-cards and invitations instead of paper ones (www.bluemountain.com, www.americangreetings.com and www.evite.com). REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE: * Reduce the amount of garbage you put in the landfill by recycling more and composting. * Recycle your Christmas tree in your green bin. * Use a reusable bag when you shop. You can use a cloth bag or a polypropylene bag from a grocery store, Pharmaca (on Sunset at La Cruz) or 1bagatatime.com, or reuse a plastic or paper bag from the grocery store. * Wrap gifts in reusable packaging, e.g., scarves, boxes, bags and baskets. * Buy your food, cleaning supplies and paper goods in large quantities in order to reduce packaging. * Use reusable mugs, glasses, utensils and plates at work and home instead of paper, Styrofoam cups, plastic glasses and paper plates. * Use cloth napkins and hand towels. * Use reusable razors, pens and rechargeable batteries. * Have your child carry a zero-waste lunch to school. Use wrap-n-mat (www.wrap-n-mat.com), reusable plastic containers, and a refillable LDPE (#2) plastic bottle. * Use a reusable container for water. Polycarbonate containers leach, so avoid them; instead use stainless steel containers, available at the Santa Monica Co-op or aluminum containers available at Pharmaca. * Ask your favorite restaurant to use plastic ‘to-go’ containers or corn-based containers instead of Styrofoam containers. * Buy recycled and post-consumer paper. * Start composting. There are L.A. Dept. of Sanitation workshops on January 12 and 27 (www.lacity.org/SAN). * Recycle paper, cardboard, glass, and plastic in Dept. of Sanitation bins (www.lacity.org/SAN). * Reduce junk mail (www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing). OTHER IDEAS: * Use eco-friendly cleaning products available at Gelson’s, Pharmaca, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Smart and Final, and the Santa Monica Co-op. * If you garden, use nontoxic fertilizers and pest control, mulch to conserve water usage, plant drought-tolerant and native plants, use smart controllers for sprinklers, and compost. * Educate yourself. Some environmental Web sites include www.idealbite.com, www.greenopia.com, www.stopglobalwarming.org, and www.stopgloablwarming.com. * Take a Sustainable Works class and learn about your environmental impact and how to live more sustainably (www.sustainableworks.org). * Read! Some books for children include ‘The Lorax’ by Dr. Seuss, ‘All the Way to the Ocean’ by Joel Harper, ‘A River Ran Wild’ by Lynne Cherry, and ’50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth’ by Earth Works Group. Some adult books include ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson, ‘The Ecology of Commerce’ by Paul Hawken, and ‘Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You–An Activist’s Guide’ by Laurie David. Become an advocate for change. Join an environmental group. Educate your friends. Help green the Palisades. We can help save our earth! More information is available at www.palisadescares.org.
Early Bird Gets the Shot
Photographs by JIM KENNEY Although his early morning trips to the Malibu Lagoon have everything to do with birds, Jim Kenney makes it clear that he’s not an official birder. ‘I’ve photographed 80 or 90 species and I know all of these birds thoroughly,’ he says. ‘But I’m not in the same league as a birder, nor do I want to be. I’m primarily a photographer.’ During the past few years, Kenney, a longtime Palisadian, has trailed birds with much the same zeal he had previously devoted to documenting flora in the Santa Monica Mountains. ‘Instead of 30 years photographing wildflowers, it’s only been three years with birds,’ explains Kenney, who is renowned as an expert on local plants. Kenney, a retired dentist, turned his outdoor attentions to the Malibu Lagoon when physical problems made it difficult to continue hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains. ‘When I first started, I knew nothing about birds, I mean zero,’ says Kenney. ‘Now I’ve become obsessed. I go three or four times a week in the early morning.’ Kenney speaks with both authority and enthusiasm about the diverse array of winged creatures he spots at Malibu Lagoon. Teeming with resident shorebirds, the lagoon also attracts more than 200 species that stop during their annual migrations. The snowy egret, a small, delicate all-white heron adorned with showy plumes during breeding season, has come into Kenney’s viewfinder just twice in three years. In one photograph, Kenney captures the bird in full mating dance animation. Kenney is especially pleased with a close-up shot of a sora, lyrically composed to include the bird’s reflection in the water. Though common, the sora, a small marshbird with a yellow bill, is secretive and often hides in the reeds, making it hard to photograph. The brown pelican, always a spectacle for its ability to plunge from the air into water to catch food, has the added attraction of sporting a bright yellow head during breeding season. Double-crested cormorants, known for spreading their wings to dry them, are a common sight, as are four varieties of terns: royal, elegant, Caspian and least. ‘Although winter is the best time to see birds that are here as part of migration, the four terns are here summer and fall,’ Kenney notes. The lagoon, located off Pacific Coast Highway at Cross Creek Road, is where Malibu Creek meets the sea. It empties into the Pacific Ocean at world-famous Malibu Surfrider Beach, a destination for approximately 1.5 million visitors each year. Kenney marvels at how birds continue to thrive at the lagoon despite continued pollution issues and the impact of humans. ‘There used to be 90 percent more estuaries in California,’ he says. Malibu Lagoon has undergone many changes in recent history. Used as a dump site in the 1950s and ’60s, it later was filled in and housed two baseball fields. It was in 1983 that the California Department of Parks and Recreation initiated a restoration of the former wetlands that involved excavation of three channels to reintroduce tidal flow and seeding with salt marsh plants. ‘A lot of photography is happenstance and luck, but you have to be prepared,’ says Kenney, who arrives at the lagoon with his digital camera as early as 7:30 a.m. to take advantage of the early morning light. ‘Rarely do I see birders with a camera,’ he says, noting how there’s a certain element of trust associated with their methods. ‘What surprises me is that more of them are not photographers,’ he adds. ‘It would confirm whatever they saw.’ Reporting by Staff Writer Nancy Ganiard Smith. To contact, e-mail: smithpalipost@gmail.com
Revere Assistant Principal Is Positive Presence
In September, Ed Park was hired as assistant principal in charge of student discipline, school safety and budget at Paul Revere Middle School. Park was an assistant principal at Portola Middle School in Tarzana before coming to the Westside. Although Park is a slight man, who looks as if he could be a student at Revere, he has already garnered the respect of students. He explained that he likes to use pre-emptive measures, including early intervention and making sure that students who have been identified with problems know the code of conduct. ‘They need good guidance,’ Park said. ‘We create a place that shows we mean business, which then provides a good educational environment. Safety is one of my first concerns, and students need to know that bullying and threats are no joke.’ Although school had been in session for only a few months, Park’s style was having an impact. ‘I’ve noticed incredible changes,’ he said in the fall. ‘There are less referrals to my office.’ Park understands what it is like to grow up in a tough environment. In 1976, when he was 8, his parents emigrated from Korea, where his father had worked as a high school chemistry teacher and his mother was a stay-at-home mom. Once in Los Angeles, his dad worked as a chemist and his mom became an assembly line worker. The couple saved their money and bought a market in East L.A., where the population was close to 100-percent Latino. They worked 16 to 17 hours a day. ‘My mom still speaks Spanish better than English,’ Park said. The store was robbed numerous times and family members were held up at gunpoint. Park relayed this information in a matter-of-fact way as if it were a common growing-up experience. From East L.A., his family moved to the Crenshaw area in South L.A. and opened a clothing store. Again, it wasn’t an easy life for his parents. ‘Numerous times members of my family had a knife held to their throat,’ Park said. ‘After the Rodney King trial in 1992, the family store was burned to the ground in less than 20 minutes.’ The day-to-day violence was enough for his parents, and the family moved to the San Fernando Valley, where they bought another store. ‘I would not take back all the things that happened to me in those tough neighborhoods because it gave me a vision of wanting to succeed,’ Park said. ‘It has made me a better teacher and administrator. It helps me to understand some of the students who are living in that kind of circumstance. We lived around gang members and, at the same time, I know there are good families [in that area].’ While Park was growing up, one of the major things his parents emphasized was a good education. He attended Walter Reed Middle School for the highly gifted and North Hollywood High School. He graduated with a business degree from Biola University in Orange County. ‘My original plan was to go to law school,’ said Park, who changed his mind after teaching third- and fourth-grade Sunday school. ‘I loved it.’ He reassessed what he wanted from a job and he realized he didn’t want to be in an office, but out interacting with people. Park started teaching at Christian Way School in Woodland Hills until he was credentialed, and then taught sixth grade at Holmes Middle School. His next stop was Walter Reed, where he worked with some of his former teachers and was elected dean of students by the faculty. After that he went to Portola, and then Revere. He aspires to be a principal, and part of that process is to work in different assistant principal positions. This is the first time Park has worked on the Westside. ‘It is an interesting area in a good way because of the level of the parent organization,’ he said. ‘I am so impressed because of their ownership of the school and their willingness to make it a better place.’ After college Park taught himself how to play drums and bass, which he enjoys in his spare time. He holds a brown belt in judo, but also trains an hour and a half three times a week in Brazilian jiu jitsu, which is termed ‘submission grappling,’ but as Park said, ‘It’s a chess game. It’s not brute strength; it’s about positioning.’ Park also practices yoga daily because ‘the breathing and stretching are important for jiu jitsu.’ He competes in the featherweight division in tournaments throughout Southern California and says that when he turns 40, ‘I’m going to Brazil to train and enter the Mundial Jiu Jitsu Championships. ‘If that doesn’t work out, I’ll take up golf,’ he said jokingly. Park is also executive board member of the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture in the United States, which promotes Korean language courses in the school realm. He sees it as a starting point to try and introduce more Asian language courses. He is bilingual and is a member of the Korean Educators Association and one of only three Korean-American administrators in the LAUSD at the middle- and high-school level. Park and his wife, Hannah, live in Glendale with their two daughters, Lindsey, 9, and Abigail, 7. His wife is an assistant principal at Campbell Hall in Studio City, where his daughters attend school. When the school bell sounded the beginning of nutrition, Park excused himself to join students on the campus and said, ‘I am happy and fulfilled with what I’m doing.’
School Cop Reassigned; Report Due This Month
Los Angeles School Police Officer John Taylor, who was under investigation for using excessive force against students and adults during a September incident in Pacific Palisades, has been reassigned to ‘a computer-training job,’ according to Lieutenant Tim Anderson, the department’s public information officer. Taylor was reassigned from patrolling public schools here ‘over a month ago,’ Anderson told the Palisadian-Post. The Pacific Palisades Community Council passed a resolution in late October calling on School Police Chief Lawrence Mannion to consider reassigning Officer John Taylor based upon parent and community concerns. This week, the department would not say if the decision to reassign the officer was the direct result of that resolution. Anderson said that the chief ‘received the letter [from the council] and took it under advisement.’ He also said that the department has a new computer system, and many officers are expected to learn that system. ‘I am glad that he has been temporarily reassigned,’ said Janet Turner, the Community Council member who wrote the original resolution. ‘I hope [our] letter was one more element that was used in coming to this decision.’ The Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District also examined the Chief’s earlier decision not to reassign the officer in two closed-session meetings. The details of those meetings are not available to the public. The School Police provide security for more than 1,000 schools and administrative offices within LAUSD, which has oversight over the department. In previous interviews with the Post, Lt. Anderson said the Chief chose not to reassign the officer based upon the ‘totality of circumstances.’ The internal investigation examining Taylor’s actions is expected to be complete in mid-January, according the department. It began after a violent confrontation between the officer and local students and adults on September 19 outside the CVS loading dock. Two teenagers were arrested for disobedience to a police officer and using ‘offensive words most likely to cause an immediate and violent reaction.’ Those two teenagers as well as several other student and adult bystanders were sprayed with pepper spray. The department’s internal investigators contacted about 40 witnesses, Anderson said. Taylor’s previous record of excessive force was also a cause of concern among community members, who requested that he be reassigned pending the outcome of the department’s internal investigation. A superior officer blocked the officer’s promotion in 2002 based upon ‘a series of excessive-force incidents.’ Taylor has been the subject of three previous internal investigations for excessive-force complaints. It is unknown whether he has been found responsible or disciplined by any previous investigation. The Post’s requests for the disciplinary record of the officer were rejected by LAUSD. A former high-ranking official within the L.A. School Police Department said that the City Attorney’s office complained to the department that Taylor’s police reports lacked the ‘elements of a crime’ necessary to bring charges against alleged perpetrators and have cited subjects ‘without cause and with exaggerated circumstances.’ The officer currently faces two lawsuits charging him with an excessive use of force while he was a school policeman at Hamilton High School and Crenshaw High School. One of those lawsuits was dismissed and is currently on appeal. The family of a Paul Revere Middle School student is expected to file a lawsuit against the officer based upon the September 19 incident. According to district records, LAUSD has spent more than $152,000 in legal expenses for the two existing lawsuits in which Taylor is a defendant. The School Police could not say exactly when the officer was reassigned from patrolling public schools in Pacific Palisades. The Post tried to reach the department’s spokesperson for the past three weeks to ascertain the status of the officer’s assignment, but was not given an interview until this week. When the internal investigation is completed, the Chief will decide to discipline or not discipline the officer based upon the investigation’s findings. Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. To contact, e-mail: reporter@palipost.com
Rosendahl Deputy Aims to Paint District Green
Councilman Bill Rosendahl represents what might be L.A.’s most ecologically paradoxical district. At its southern edge in areas like Playa del Rey and Westchester, loud jets at LAX compete for airspace with herons at Ballona Creek. Large and congested streets like Lincoln and Venice Boulevard cut through dense populations in Venice, Marina del Rey and Palms. And at the district’s northern border, suburbia meets the expansive Santa Monica Mountains and Santa Monica Bay in Pacific Palisades. Enter Deborah Weinstein, Rosendahl’s new environmental deputy. Perhaps as a testament to the district’s environmental complexity, Rosendahl has chosen as his deputy a 34-year-old who has spent the past decade navigating national and international environmental politics in Washington, D.C. Although city council members have dozens of staff members, only a handful have full-time environmental deputies. Weinstein began working for Rosendahl last May after six years of work at the Department of the Interior, which manages nearly 20 percent of all U.S. land, including its environmental resources. From its policy office, she helped design environmental policies with long time frames and global implications. She analyzed the environmental impact of international trade agreements with Central America, Singapore and Australia. And she studied other countries’ enforcement of environmental laws. Although she appreciated the scope of her work at the department, the slow pace of change and the politicization of science motivated her to look for a job outside Washington. ‘My job was to present neutral policies to protect our trusts’ resources,’ Weinstein said in an interview with the Palisadian-Post in the district’s Westside office. ‘But it was incredibly frustrating to present those policies and often have them overlooked because of a political bent.’ The department’s culture during the Bush Administration meant not openly discussing major issues like climate change and often meant working to undo popular environmental protections. ‘We [civil servants] were tasked with coming up with recommendations to modify the Endangered Species Act, mostly via regulations because it’s up to Congress to do legislatively,’ she said. ‘The direction we were given was pretty clear from the political appointees.’ Raised in Southern California, Weinstein developed an appreciation of the environment hiking and camping in its mountains and swimming on its beaches. But it wasn’t until college at UC Santa Barbara that she decided to dedicate her career to the environment. ‘When I was growing up, I always thought the environment would be there,’ she said. ‘But in college, I started to realize there were real threats against the environment.’ Weinstein worked as an intern at the White House Council on Environmental Quality during the Clinton Administration. From there, she worked for an environmental law firm in D.C. and then received a master’s degree in public policy with a focus on environmental policy at UCLA. After graduating with her master’s, Weinstein won the competitive Presidential Management Fellowship, which prepares 500 future managers of government by placing them in jobs with the federal government. She began her fellowship in 2000 during the transition from the Clinton to the Bush presidency at the Department of the Interior, where she worked until May 2006. Not surprisingly, Weinstein brings the big-picture view that she cultivated at the department to Councilman Rosendahl’s district. ‘I feel lucky because Bill [Rosendahl] has empowered me to go to him with the biggest environmental issues and challenges,’ she said. In the absence of a federal approach to curb global warming, she imagines crafting a local solution to greenhouse emissions. Weinstein wants L.A.-based climate change policy to start with ‘greener’ city-owned buildings. ‘I don’t think many people realize how many emissions come from the building sector,’ she said. ‘Green buildings and sustainable designs are a great way of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.’ To that end, Weinstein has advocated redesigning LAX and city office buildings with energy-efficiency at their core. Rosendahl has recently sponsored a motion requiring the airport’s commissioners to come up with a 10-year plan to make LAX ‘the greenest airport in the world.’ In addition to her focus on climate change, Weinstein is actively focused on ways to clean up Santa Monica Bay. She staffs the councilman on the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, an independent state organization that crafts solutions to the long-term health of the bay. She is overseeing the city’s development and implementation of storm-water diversion in areas like Santa Monica Canyon and Temescal Canyon. And she wants to ‘strengthen the teeth’ of the city to prevent urban runoff from entering Santa Monica Bay. Weinstein and Rosendahl have proposed ways to decrease septic-tank leakage in areas like Mandeville Canyon. And Weinstein is working on ways to preserve the district’s naturally-flowing streams, which can help to reduce harmful urban runoff better than concrete storm drains. A new cycle of state funding for parks begins early this year, and Weinstein wants to direct those funds toward increasing open space by building more parks within the district. She would like to create greenways along Ballona Creek in Playa del Rey by acquiring land along the creek. And she would like to hear input about capital improvements in the Palisades. ‘We live in such an urban city, and we’re park poor,’ Weinstein said. ‘Hopefully, in the future, we’ll have more and more open space. I think it allows people to escape their hectic, busy lives.’ Weinstein divides her time between working at City Hall and Rosendahl’s Westchester and West L.A. offices. She encourages constituents to help shape the district’s environmental agenda. ‘I would love to hear ideas from the community,’ she said. ‘Everything is on the table to make our district more sustainable.’ Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. To contact, e-mail: reporter@palipost.com
Kathleen Milnes Tracks Jobs In the Entertainment Industry
Understanding exactly what Palisadian Kathleen Milnes does for a living seems complex until she provides an anology. “I’m like Sacagawea,’ she says, laughing. ‘I speak all the languages: government, education and industry.” Like Sacagawea, who successfully guided Lewis and Clark through the unmapped western United States with her knowledge of the terrain, customs and language, Milnes helps her clients understand employment trends in the film industry through her company, the Entertainment Economy Institute. Milnes came to her business in a roundabout way. As a student at the University of Maryland, she received a degree in American studies. “I didn’t want to major in any one thing; I wanted a degree in everything,” she says. ‘This major was a way of looking at different pieces of information and connecting them.” Her first job was in the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. When her boss joined the Secret Service as general counsel, he asked her to move into that area, which she did. Shortly after that she met her future husband, Larry Gutterridge, an attorney working in the White House. They married and moved to California in 1981 and to the Palisades in 1985, where their daughter Stephanie was born two years later. In the early 1990s, Milnes was active in the campaign to convert Palisades public schools into charter schools. Milnes worked for the California Film Commission before moving to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Later she took a job with the Los Angeles Film Office, where she was senior vice president in economic development. Two years ago, when the film office decided to focus solely on permits, Milnes, decided that the time was right to found her nonprofit business. Her clients include the California Department of Education, California Community Colleges and companies that provide training for entertainment companies. She uses her accumulated knowledge in government, education and the film industry to identify job trends in entertainment not only for workers currently employed in the field, but also for high school and college students who are thinking of entering the industry. Explaining the multidimensional nature of the entertainment industry to students, Milnes talks about new trends as well as current job opportunities, such as becoming a ventilator–the person who creates hair ‘appliances’ like goatees and mustaches. Since traditional jobs like tape operators and film processing lab technicians are disappearing because television has gone digital, a new category of employment has emerged: imaging technicians (DIT) and image capture engineers (ICE). High-definition filming is also an expanding trend for television, which means that people have to learn to operate a different kind of camera. In addition, sets that have paint chips or scratches, which aren’t picked up by a camera using tape, are noticeable with high-definition cameras, which means that the sets have to be repaired more often; this opens up more jobs. Milnes also focuses on the jobs in the film industry that are applicable in different industries. In 2005, she documented 55 industries that use multimedia artists and animators who use computers to make images move, including architecture, science (aerospace), litigation support (recreating accidents) and medicine. Her 12-year analysis of the 400,000 workers in the entertainment industry in California showed that more than 50 percent earned the majority of their income from non-entertainment sources (e.g., a set constructor might also work in residential construction). This reportwas important because it explored the concept of cross-working: using a similar sets of skills in both entertainment and non-entertainment jobs, which may expand employment opportunities. Another area of interest to Milnes is the interactive entertainment industry, in which the games have become so sophisticated that they begin to resemble films. She cites Electronic Arts, located in Playa Vista, which has developed ‘Medal of Honor,’ a game about World War II. “They made an effort to get it right,’ Milnes says. ‘The uniform, medals, everything about the game is accurate.” In addition to games, the interactive industry manufactures products for varied uses like customer service training, education and simulated training (including for the military). Using the information that she gathers, Milnes provides research that not only predicts future jobs in the entertainment industry, but also tracks how many people are employed in a particular industry. “The government doesn’t have a record,” she says. Milnes’ company, which is based in the Palisades, works closely with schools to partner with the film community, locate internships for students and enhance curriculum. She recently was one of the people chosen to develop career technology education (CTE) standards for classes in art, media and entertainment at the high school level. CTE is an updated type of vocational education. Many teenagers resist typical academic subjects like calculus and physics, asking, “Why do I need to know this?” For those kids CTE classes might be a better educational choice. As Milnes points out, “Students learn applied physics when they analyze a person falling off a chair and how it relates to film. They learn color theory when they paint a flat surface and then see it transferred to the screen. “Calculus is used in 3D animation, and students learn budgeting when they have to figure out how many feet of film they need,” she says. At one point in her life, Milnes worked for a lobbyist for the motion picture industry, but hated her job. Her husband encouraged her to quit and find something else. She thought about the work areas that gave her the most joy and pleasure and realized it was the management of the creative aspects in the entertainment industry, especially arts and music. This introspection resulted in her current company.
Village Books Owner Signs a 3-Year Lease
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Katie O’Laughlin, the owner of Village Books, has decided to plunge ahead and sign a three-year lease for her popular store on Swarthmore. “I signed the new lease and sent it off on December 22,” O’Laughlin said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m anxious as to what the future holds, but I still love doing this and I’m going to give it my best shot.” O’Laughlin’s determination to preserve an endangered species–the independent bookstore–was welcomed news to local book lovers, who speculated all through 2006 whether she would be able to afford signing a new lease on her 1,000-sq.ft. space. “I can’t imagine life in the Palisades without Village Books,” said local resident Kenny Turan, the L.A. Times film critic. “It’s such a blessing to have this kind of sophisticated and friendly store right in the heart of the Village.” Despite the store’s cramped space, he said, “they have become real experts at getting books quickly if they don’t have it on the shelf.” O’Laughlin had just finished adding up her sales figures for 2006 on Tuesday and said, “This year was a little better than 2004, but down from 2005. Our biggest competition is still the Internet, more so than Barnes & Noble and Borders. Also, you see books being sold everywhere–Target, Costco, grocery stores, speciality stores, Restoration Hardware– and they all nick away at our sales. People say, ‘Your store seems busy,” but you have to sell a lot of $10 to $30 books just to break even.” Moreover, O’Laughlin gives a 10-percent rebate to customers (paid after every 10 books purchased), knocking her income down to 30 percent of the purchase price. But she is adjusting that “frequent buyer” program this year. “Faced with the reality that we need to make some changes in order to survive,” O’Laughlin said in a letter to her customers in December, “our frequent buyer credit slips will have a six-month expiration period,” beginning on January 1. “This is a relatively minor change that we hope will encourage you to come in more frequently to use your credit slip and make enough difference in our bottom line to keep us going.” One important reason why O’Laughlin was embolded to sign a new lease is that 2007 offers several notable selling opportunities. First, the store will celebrate its 10th anniversary on July 4, and O’Laughlin is hoping to have a float in the parade while also keeping the store open all day. Second, the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”) is set to be published this year. “I hope the rumor is true that since this is the seventh book, it will be published on 7/7/07,” O’Laughlin said, knowing that this would give her a perfect opportunity to keep the store open for another Saturday night party leading up to the start of sales at midnight. The Potter books have been financial boons, with hardback sales ranging from 505 for book three to 939 for book five. At $30 retail, Village Books earns $12 a book before rebates. O’Laughlin is also confident that her store’s new Web site (www.palivillagebooks.cog) will help attract new customers while keeping her regulars happy. The site includes staff recommendations and information about upcoming events, and has an easy way to e-mail requests to order books. “People can’t purchase books online through us yet,” O’Laughlin said, “but we’ll probably eventually move into online selling and try to gain business from people who are accustomed to buying everything on the Internet.” Meanwhile, O’Laughlin’a single mom with a daughter, Elizabeth, in her senior year at Marymount’will continue working virtually seven days a week to stay on top of her business and maximize her selling opportunities (such as by selling books at off-site events and by keeping the store open late one or two nights a week for talks by visiting and hometown authors). ‘Tuesday is theoretically my day off,’ she said, ‘but in reality, I’m here every day, either ordering books, working the cash register, or handling all the business aspects.’ Yet she still makes time to read. ‘I listen to a book on tape when I walk the dog or walk to work [she lives on Sunset near Drummond], and I read hard copies at home. This week she finished ‘Lay of the Land’ by Richard Ford. ‘His writing is really something,’ she said, her eyes lighting up. ‘Every sentence is beautiful.’
County Lifeguard HQ Nears Completion
Parking Lot Repaving Lags Behind
Construction crews working at Will Rogers Beach are expected to complete construction on the L.A. County Lifeguard Headquarters and a public bathroom by the end of this month. The parking lot east of the beach’s entrance was scheduled to be repaved this month, but crews will have to rush to meet the deadline. In the next three weeks, workers will put ‘interior finishes’ on the headquarters as well as the adjacent newly redesigned and rebuilt public bathroom. The beach’s large eastern parking lot remains unleveled, with large piles of gravel. Officials and crews seemed less certain of making this month’s deadline. Community members are watching this January deadline closely for early signs of what it might mean for the public’s access to the beach this summer. The county began the nearly $13-million Will Rogers Beach refurbishment in December 2005 as a way of modernizing and redesigning the beach’s aging infrastructure. With May 2007 as the goal, the county planned to offer summer beachgoers Spanish-style concession stands, refurbished bathrooms, repaved parking lots and a reconstructed main entry at Temescal Canyon Road. But meeting that pre-summer goal has been a challenge. A county planning error caused a four-month delay in construction. While installing a natural gas line in the parking lot’s eastern parking lot, crews working for county contractor Gonzales Construction Inc. encountered a city-owned sewer main early this past summer. After four months of negotiation between the two overlapping bureaucracies and three days of construction to fortify the sewer, regular construction resumed in late September. To overcome that delay and open Will Rogers to summer beachgoers, county officials have said that they have accelerated construction. The contractor has hired more workers and began working on multiple projects simultaneously, said Gil Garcia, the project manager for the county’s Department of Public Works. Workers are constructing new restrooms, concession stands and the lifeguard headquarters concurrently with parking lot repaving. Crews demolished the decades-old concession stands early this month. They also completed laying a natural-gas line in the beach’s eastern parking lot, but the line to the county’s maintenance yard in the lot’s western end is not yet complete. In its transition toward all-natural-gas vehicles, the county is building a natural-gas pumping station at its maintenance yard. In its original plans for a pumping station, the county also said that it would offer a filling station for the public, but the details plan have not yet surfaced. According to Garcia, construction is currently within the allocated budget. When county supervisors first approved the project in 1999, they set aside $4.9 million for construction. But when they finally awarded the contract to Gonzalez Construction, they agreed to pay $8.3 million. Late plans to add a natural gas line and the sewer-main planning error are expected to cost approximately less than $600,000. There have been no major delays since September, said Garcia. Rain caused some delays in November and December. Although rain dries quickly, it has delayed work on the parking lot when it has formed in pools, he said. If the headquarters is completed by the end of the month, it is unknown when the building will begin to house lifeguard operations again. For more than a year, lifeguards have worked out of temporary trailers in a parking lot adjacent to the lifeguard headquarters. Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. To contact, e-mail: reporter@palipost.com
Top 10 Stories of 2006
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
10. Hays and Slocum Win Post Cup Award Swimmer Paris Hays and tennis player Krista Slocum were named Post Cup Award winners in June as the outstanding senior athletes at Palisades High. Hays won every individual race he swam for the Dolphins. Slocum was a senior captain of Palisades’ City championship team and took third at the Individual singles tournament. 9. Madsen Cashes in at Poker World Series Whoever said playing games gets you nowhere never met Jeff Madsen. Perhaps the most improbable success story of 2006 was when the 21-year-old Palisades High grad earned two gold bracelets and pocketed nearly $1.5 million at the World Series of Poker in July. Madsen showed the saavy of a veteran, not a college student playing the event for the first time. His feat was equivalent to a qualifier beating Tiger Woods at The Masters. 8. Pali Volleyball Club Teams Net Golds Two Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club teams won national titles at the Junior Olympics in July. Pali’s 15-1s Blue team won with Oliver Deutschman, Matthew Bagnard, Matt Hanley, Michael Hartwick, Jacob Sachse, Robert Stoeckinger and Mason Wojciechowski. Pali’s 17s Black won, led by Clark Porter, Stephen and Douglas Brown, Matthew Ricard, Brian Scilacci, Sean Dennis and Paul Peterson. 7. UCLA Hoops Youth Camp is Slam Dunk By the end of the week it was hard to tell who was having more fun–UCLA men’s basketball coach Ben Howland or the kids invited to his summer basketball camp at the Palisades High gym. Howland and his staff instructed boys and girls ages 6-12 on fundamentals like shooting, passing and dribbling. Bruins’ sophomore guard Darren Collison captivated his audience by swishing nine three-point jumpers in a row. 6. Sabbatini Wins Nissan Open at Riviera Rory Sabbatini learned the hard way that no lead is safe on a Sunday at Riviera Country Club. The South African began his final round of the Nissan Open in February four strokes ahead of Fred Couples and Craig Barlow, but by the 15th hole he was locked in a four-way tie. Sabbatini escaped with a one-shot victory and the $918,000 winner’s check. “This was the hardest round of golf I’ve ever played in my life,” he confessed. 5. Tennis Teams Repeat as City Champs In May, Palisades High’s boys team beat Granada Hills, 19 ‘-10, to win its second consecutive City title and 26th overall. In November, despite having lost seven starters from the previous year’s championship team, PaliHi’s girls team rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Taft, 4-3. It was the girls’ 19th title and further proof that the Dolphins’ storied program once again reigns supreme in the City Section. 4. PaliHi Football “Surrenders” at Venice Perhaps the most bizarre and controversial story of 2006 was the decision by Palisades High varsity football coaches Leo and Aaronn Castro to pull their team off the field with 5:35 left in a 48-13 loss to Venice in November. It occurred after Venice called timeout to present a jersey to one of its coaches. The incident is being investigated by City Section officials. 3. Mustang All-Stars Reach Regionals Head Coach Bill Elder’s squad of PPBA All-Stars advanced through the District and Sectional playoffs and became the first Palisades-based Mustang team to reach the Southern California Regionals in June. Palisades defeated Norwalk and Lynwood to earn a trip to the Regionals in Covina. “To be one of the final eight in SoCal says a lot about how hard our kids worked,” Elder said. 2. Palisades High Lacrosse Program Debuts A new spring sport was added to Palisades High’s athletic program in 2006. The school fielded boys JV and varsity and girls varsity lacrosse teams. The first game in school history took place on March 11 at Stadium by the Sea when the boys varsity lost to Loyola 15-1. Eric Rosen scored Palisades’ first goal in the second quarter. Pali notched its first win two days later. 1. ‘Racquets, Stars and Guitars” Tennis Event The Palisades Tennis Center celebrated its 10-year anniversary in style by hosting a tennis exhibition in December featuring Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the world. The event featured a celebrity doubles match pitting Mike Bryan and comedian Jon Lovitz against Bob Bryan and musician Gavin Rossdale and a rock concert in the Rec Center gym.
