For the past two weeks, L.A. city crews have worked in the parkland below Via de las Olas and along Temescal Canyon cleaning out the homeless encampments and their accompanying accumulated trash. ”Meth mountain’ is what the homeless call the area from PCH up towards the Via bluffs,’ said LAPD Senior Lead Officer Chris Ragsdale. ‘It got that name because there are a number of meth-amphetamine users who have lived there.’ ‘Quite a bit of planning was involved,’ said Chief Park Ranger Albert Torres. The effort included three park rangers, a maintenance crew, two supervisors, LAPD policemen, Department of Sanitation, and the L.A. Fire Department, along with support from Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s office and the neighborhood prosecutor. A large truck with a front loader was brought in from the Sanitation Department to hold the 15 dump-truck loads of trash that had been cleaned out with the aid of two skip loaders. ‘We located 17 encampments that we cleaned out,’ Ragsdale said. ‘Most of them were occupied by single individuals.’ Before the cleanup got under way, the Fire Department took members of the Recreation and Parks Department up in a helicopter to survey the area and spot campsites. ‘What looks like a small camp could be a very large camp with all the bulky items that a person has accumulated,’ said Torres. ‘It’s illegal to lodge and camp in the park. Even though individuals are camping illegally, we are required to notify them that a cleaning effort is taking place and the date. A week before we started we attached posters to campsites about the cleanup and made contact with all the people we saw.’ During the cleanup, eight individuals were cited for illegal camping. Three were ticketed for alcohol violations. Two individuals, once they saw the police and cleanup activity in the bluffs, darted across PCH and were given tickets for jaywalking. There was one felony arrest because an individual had two felony warrants: one for burglary and one for meth-amphetamine possession. The same individual also had three misdemeanor warrants, including petty theft and camping/alcohol violations. An additional individual was taken in for a mental evaluation because he was determined to be a danger to himself and others. ‘The main thing is to break down the camps,’ Ragsdale said. ‘It’s been a couple of years since the area was last cleaned out. We’re also planning to come back with the Forestry Department to trim trees and shrubs in the area.’ ‘We all work together,’ Torres said. ‘It’s a coordination between all the departments.’ Ragsdale is currently speaking with officials from Caltrans about a cleanup of homeless encampments behind the 16 ft. wall that was erected between Potrero and Chautauqua after the 1994 Northridge earthquake to stop debris from falling onto PCH. A fire started by a campfire behind the wall burned up the hillside towards Corona Del Mar in November. ‘Our effort is to keep the campsites from happening again, so we plan to patrol more often,’ Torres said. ‘Residents can help us by reporting any activity on parkland.’ Contact: (323) 913-7390. Asked what has happened to the homeless persons who were dislocated by the cleanup, Ragsdale told the Palisadian-Post: ‘Some have moved towards Malibu and Santa Monica, or have just remained in the area, minus their camps. I expect we’ll get a lot of calls from people wondering, ‘Where did all the homeless suddenly come from?”

Some residents of Casa Gateway at the base of the Palisades Highlands are circulating a petition this week to stop a ballot measure initiated by the board of directors of Casa Gateway Homeowners Association in January. The petition is a demand that the association immediately stop spending any more time or money on the ballot, which could potentially grant an easement to a Palisades developer. Apparently, the petition arose from a raucous meeting last Saturday when a straw vote overwhelmingly opposed granting the easement to Kaya Tuncer, who owns the land on the hillside above the affordable housing complex. While those in favor of the plan saw it as a ‘win-win’ situation for the homeowners, who stand to gain financially from the deal (a minimum of $350,000 to the association), those opposed argued that no amount of money could compensate for the potential fallout from such an agreement. They worry about the liability (‘Who’s responsible if there’s a landslide?’) to the eventual possible threat to Casa Gateway’s low-cost housing status. The straw vote came after considerable disagreement over exactly what was being asked on the ballot, which was sent to all 100 Casa Gateway residents and is due tomorrow. To pass, the ballot requires 51 percent of the vote. ‘It is not clear whether we are being asked to actually grant the easement or whether we are being asked to simply enter into negotiations to grant the easement,’ complained one resident who contacted the Palisadian-Post last week. ‘Also, the attorney’s letter we received with the ballot refers to Tuncer ‘purchasing’ the easement, which is quite different from us simply ‘granting’ him access.’ The January 20 letter also states that the board of directors has the right to accept Tuncer’s proposal without the membership’s approval, which is apparently not the case, according to the association’s CC&R’s (4.2). ‘The reason the board is coming to us now is because they don’t want the liability down the road,’ the disgruntled resident continued. ‘I do believe that if we agree to this easement, it will affect our affordable housing status. Once we give up our right to part of that land, what’s next? The attorney said he has the city’s verbal permission to grant this easement, but we haven’t seen anything in writing.’ Casa Gateway, located at the corner of Palisades Drive and Sunset, was built in 1987 as HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) low-cost housing. While there are 100 units in the complex, 68 are reserved exclusively for seniors (62 and older). These senior apartments’all one-bedroom, one-bath in approximately 500 sq. ft.’rarely come on the market. When they do, they are often sold through word-of-mouth to family and/or friends of existing owners. The remaining 32 units are reserved for families who qualify for affordable housing. The three-bedroom, two-bath condos sell for approximately $200,000 to qualified buyers’well below market value for comparable condos in the Palisades. All sales are subject to approval by the Los Angeles Housing Department. Residents at Casa Gateway, which has several landscaped common areas for recreation and socializing, pay a monthly fee of $215 to the CGHA to cover dues and general maintenance. Tuncer has been negotiating with the association on-and-off for the last five years to allow access to his property. In a meeting with residents last year, the developer indicated that he intended to built either two large single-family homes on his property, or if he can get the land re-zoned, he would build up to 30 multi-family units. While Tuncer had originally offered to buy the easement, but the association’s CC&R’s prohibit such a sale. What Tuncer is now asking for is an easement ‘in perpetuity’ which would give him permission to build a roadway in an approximately 8,000 sq. ft. rectangular plot of land between Casa Gateway and Calvary Church. The easement would not only provide vehicle access to his property but would also allow for the installation of any utilities. What the residents would get in return would be an initial $350,000 payment, plus more if the multi-family units are built. The residents are also being promised indemnity from any ensuing litigation. The board of directors, made up of six residents, initiated the ballot measure in January to finally prompt some action on the Tuncer proposal. Whether the funds would go to the individual homeowners or into the association’s general fund is not clear. The developer has let it be known that if the association does not allow the easement, he will develop Via Lucia in Paseo Miramar, currently an abandoned city road to the west of the rectangular area, which he said would provide the access he needs (but with greater topography challenges). How much such a road would cost to develop is not known.

By DIVYA SUBRAHMANYAM Palisadian-Post Intern Returning home from his nine-month deployment with the Marines in Afghanistan, Lt. Collier Gregory gave a talk speech about his experiences at Calvary Church in the Palisades Highlands last Saturday afternoon. Family and friends from as far away as Texas held the reception for Gregory, a former Eagle Scout with Palisades Troop 223, who was on a week-long leave. The walkway to the church was lined with American flags, honoring Gregory’s service, and the foyer contained tables with trays of cookies for guests. At 4 p.m., people began filing into the church, where Pastor Steve Faubian led the audience in singing ‘God Bless America,’ and then in a prayer. A personable and entertaining speaker, Gregory began his speech with background information about his service to date. After growing up in the Palisades, he attended Villanova University and joined the Marines the day he graduated. Last year he was sent to northeastern Afghanistan, where he served as the executive officer of an infantry company of 200 men’his first time in combat. Gregory’s anecdotes of his times in Afghanistan were peppered with jokes, and he emphasized important events and people with video clips or digital pictures. These visuals depicted the dangers and joys of being a Marine’military aspects like explosives and enemies were enlarged on the projection screen, but they were overshadowed by the faces of smiling schoolchildren. Gregory, 26, was careful not to polarize his audience politically, instead focusing on the more human aspects of his time in Afghanistan. He touched on firefights and violence, but his true interests lay in helping local villagers. The most metropolitan of villages, said Gregory, had cars, motorcycles, shops and American-provided electricity, but no sewage system. One village visited by Gregory’s company was so remote that it had not seen foreigners since 1978, when Russia occupied the country. A philosophy circulating among the Marines, Gregory explained, was that they had three enemies: the weather, the terrain, and the people they were fighting. The land was rocky and dry, with much fighting taking place across mountaintops. During the summer, it was 130 degrees, but during winter, it grew cold enough for snow. The enemy, of course, consisted of various Afghan insurgent groups, or ‘anti-coalition militias,’ as they were referred to. The Marines overcame the language barrier with a Pakistani man they called ‘Recon Mike,’ who became one of Gregory’s best friends. More than an interpreter, he aligned himself with the Marines’ cause and would help them gather intelligence. He could blend in and easily communicate with villagers, finding out which members of the community were suspicious. A main problem in Afghanistan, said Gregory, is that the ‘overwhelming majority are against what happened on September 11, but they allow terrorist camps.’ To remedy this, Marines have been trying to show villagers another way to survive. ‘We were not trying to impose the Western way of life,’ but rather to share an alternative, Gregory said. Marines have built bridges, roads, schools, hydroelectric plants, and set up the very beginnings of an agricultural rice and wheat economy. Villagers, it seemed, were perplexed, though not angry, about the Marines’ stay. ‘They couldn’t comprehend why we would want to leave our homes and help them,’ Gregory said. But once they understood the Marines’ mission, they were very grateful. ‘They would do anything they could do to help us, often providing us with food, donkeys, and local intelligence.’ Gregory and his Marines wanted to ensure that all non-insurgent Afghanis around whom they were stationed understood that they were ‘not an occupational force,’ but rather an improvement force, present to increase their quality of living. ‘Most are very [in favor of] this new way of life,’ said Gregory, referring to the Afghani people he interacted with. ‘They see representation in a democratic government’they have a voice for the first time ever.’ Gregory emphasized the time he spent with schoolchildren during his deployment. He was a strong believer in helping children understand from a young age that the Americans were not there to hurt, but to help. ‘They saw us with guns,’ he said, ‘and I didn’t want them to associate us with the Taliban, who walked around with the same weapons as we did. I wanted to influence [the villagers] for the rest of their lives, and the best way to start is with the younger generation.’ He would often sit and pose for pictures with the children, and enjoyed presenting them with Western paraphernalia as gifts. Items included radios, clothing, and even plastic water bottles. ‘We weren’t trying to Americanize them,’ Gregory was quick to say, ‘but anything from the U.S. was something they cherished.’ After a Palisadian-Post article appeared last October, Gregory and his men received boxes of goods from various L.A.-area companies and people, such as college T-shirts and baseball hats, which the children wore proudly. ‘They had a lot of common sense and street smarts,’ said Gregory, comparing Afghani children to American children. With regard to American reaction to his job, Gregory said: ‘A lot of people don’t support the war, but they support the troops.’ He received around 150 supportive e-mails as a result of the Post feature, which included his e-mail address. During his speech, Gregory mentioned how he and his Marines, on their way home from Afghanistan, stopped at a restaurant in Baltimore after months of poor food, and ordered huge dinners. In the end, just as they were worrying about the expense of the bill, the other diners in the restaurant paid for it, writing them a note saying: ‘Thank you for your service; this meal is on us.’ ‘I am so lucky to have served in Afghanistan,’ Gregory said. ‘It was gratifying’I was preventing people from another terrorist attack, making a difference.’ Although there are still ‘factions trying to disrupt the democratic process,’ Gregory is still hopeful about the terrorism- and poverty-wracked country. ‘It’s not that we have all the right answers,’ he admitted later in a personal interview, ‘but we can show them a democratic way of life as opposed to Taliban rule. We want to rid the country of a terrorist regime so that Afghanistan can run itself.’ On February 15, Gregory will return to his base at Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii. In June, he said, ‘I’ll either accept a job at Marine headquarters in Washington, D.C., or I’ll get out of the military and return to Los Angeles and look for work.’

At about 7:30 a.m. in early January, El Medio resident Doreen MacCuish looked out her window and saw an owl sitting by the family pool. She and her husband David went outside and discovered that it had been shot. ‘Hawks and crows were circling above the owl, just waiting for it to die,’ Doreen said, so while she went inside to call Animal Control, David stood guard over the owl by waving a broom. Doreen was told by Animal Control Officer Fredrick Jordan to cover the owl so it wouldn’t try to fly injured; this also protected the owl from predators. She and her husband put a trash can over the bird and waited for Jordan to show up. He took the owl, kept it warm and quiet, and called Brenda Varvarigos, a volunteer with the Camarillo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Varvarigos identified the bird as a male great horned owl (which can live up 50 years) and made sure it got the appropriate medical treatment. ‘This guy was very lucky,’ said Varvarigos. ‘He was hit in the body in the best place possible in order to make a recovery. The metal pellet missed the wings and any major organs.’ Back in the Palisades, the MacCuishes and their neighbors heard another owl, circling and hooting. ‘She was crying for her mate,’ Doreen said. ‘Owls mate for life,’ Varvarigas explained. ‘It’s the nesting season for the great horneds and males are important. The female probably had eggs that she needed to hatch and the male would help incubate the eggs as well as defending them from other predators.’ Females usually lay between two to four eggs that incubate in 26 to 35 days. Metal pellets fired from guns, like the one that hit this particular owl, are illegal within L.A. city limits. It is also a federal offense to harm a migratory bird and owls are considered migratory under the Migratory Treaty Act, according to Varvarigos. After the owl’s wound had healed, Varvarigos took it to the Ojai Raptor Center, where keepers could observe the owl in flight to make sure it had fully recovered. Since adult owls tend to remain around their breeding area, last Saturday evening, after being gone from the Palisades for a month, the great horned owl was released from the same site he had gone down’the MacCuishes’ backyard. As neighbors and the MacCuishes’ children, Kelsey and Ryan, looked on, Varvarigos, using a glove, took the owl out of his cardboard transport box. She held him for a few minutes. ‘The release went great,’ Varvarigas said, ‘A few flaps and then he spread his wings to almost five feet and soared up and down into Temescal Canyon. He flew beautifully.’ Although this story has a happy ending, many do not. One of the major problems Varvarigas has encountered in trying to save birds of prey is that they eat animals like rats or mice that have consumed poisons known as rodenticides, which work as an anticoagulant that prevents blood clotting and causes the animal to slowly bleed to death internally. The owl or other bird suffers the same fate as the animal that consumed the poison. Varvarigas estimated that one out of every five birds brought to her dies because of this reason. The city is currently looking at legislation that would prevent the use of these poisons in city parks, golf courses and other facilities within two miles of mountain regions. For people who insist on using rodent poison, Varvarigas suggested a new product on the market called Rampage, which kills rodents by basically giving them an overdose of Vitamin B, but leaves owls and larger mammals unharmed. The Camarillo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, which rescues birds and mammals, and the Ojai Raptor Center depend entirely on volunteers and private donations. For more information about ORC, visit www.ojairaptorcenter.org or call (805)-649-6884. The Web site for CWRC is under construction, but donations can be sent to P.O. Box 172, Somis, CA 93066. Their hotline is (805) 482-7617, and Varvarigas can be reached at (818) 346-8247.