Like many designers, Palisades businesswoman Laura Geller started out creating jewelry for herself, having gained ample practice making baubles for her beloved Barbie dolls. Then after becoming a mother, she found herself working from home, filling orders for friends who admired her designs. In 1989 she turned her hobby into a business when she rented 100 sq. ft. inside the original Whispers, a high-end women’s boutique on Swarthmore (where BOCA is now located). ”’There, I sold my first lines from a single display case,’ Geller recalled. ”Within a year, the fledgling designer opened her own store a block away at 15310 Antioch, where she leased 800 sq. ft. of Colvey’s, replacing the men’s suit department. She shared the space with a partner who sold gifts and accessories, and then with Jane De Lys, who left last July to open her own store in Brentwood. ”’When we first opened up on Antioch, we didn’t want a jewelry store where you had to press the buzzer to get in,’ said Laura’s husband, Mark Geller, an attorney, who at the time worked as an investment banker and now runs the family business full time. ”’We wanted the store to be a place where people would feel free to walk in and browse. That’s why we were happy to share the space. Then when Jane left we decided it was a good time to take over the whole store.’ ”Five years after opening the Palisades store, the Gellers opened a second store on trendy Robertson Boulevard (since closed), then a third location in Malibu’s Country Mart in 1998. In 2004, the couple added a by-appointment-only boutique (Atelier Prive) and wholesale showroom in Beverly Hills. Last year the company celebrated its 15th anniversary with the national launch of its jewelry line, which included a woven wrist cuff made of 18-carat gold. The soft mesh design is available in three colors, including black gold. ”Laura M. Fine Jewelry, which also does repairs, is known ‘for our ring settings,’ said Mark. ‘We set about a 100 rings a week, some for other jewelers and diamond merchants.’ ”Even though the Gellers work together, their roles are separate. While Laura does the designs, Mark works out the technical aspects of how the pieces will actually be put together. ”’Laura is known for her ethereal designs’jewels that are delicate, refined,’ Mark explained. ”The designer works in gold, platinum, diamonds, colored stones and Old World enameling. A portion of her business is devoted to custom pieces and the remodeling of vintage jewelry. Right now, she said her designs have ‘some Indian influence, as well as Southwest. But my real passion is working with diamonds.’ ”The company’s slogan is: ‘Nobody does dazzle like Laura M.’ Over the years, the designer has quietly developed a celebrity clientele. ‘We don’t loan for the Oscars, we just sell,’ Mark said. ‘Our jewelry is at a price point that sells well. The only way we can afford to charge the prices we do is because we do our own manufacturing. We do that in downtown L.A., which has the castings, moulds, waxes and chemicals needed. In fact, I believe we are the only family-owned and operated, fully integrated jewelry operation on the Westside.’ ”Asked to describe Laura M.’s style (the ‘M’ stands for Marie, his wife’s middle name), Mark said: ‘Soft, sparkly, very feminine. While we draw from nature and geometric forms, we don’t do contemporary designs or jewelry for men, other than custom work. However, we do some men’s cufflinks and, of course, wedding bands.’ ”Laura, 52, said she has designed ‘many’ wedding bands for herself, and three for Mark. ‘One is white gold, one is pink gold and the other yellow,’ she said. ‘He wears all three together.’ ”While Mark, 58, insists he’s not really ‘someone who wears jewelry,’ he has a large watch collection. He said his favorite is usually ‘the last watch I bought, which would be a Jaeger with a master compass and double time zones.’ Married 32 years, the couple met when Mark, who had just graduated from the University of Miami law school, was looking for a job. ”’The first law office I walked into, there she was,’ he said of Laura, who worked as a legal secretary. The Gellers lived for 20 years in the Palisades before moving to Westwood after their children, who attended local schools (Palisades Elementary, Paul Revere and Palisades High), left home. ”Damon, 35, sells precious metals, including platinum and gold; Michael, 30, oversees all Laura M. production and is manager of retail operations; and daughter Kathryn, 22, a senior at UC San Diego, is spending the year in France, where she is doing an internship in asset management with Societe Generale. ”The Gellers, who also own the Newsroom Cafes (one in Santa Monica, the other on Robertson), recently paid their daughter a visit. Mark said he found inspiration at the Monet Museum. The artist’s ‘use of light’ resonated with him as did Monet’s ‘use of nature in his paintings’flowers, teardrops’things that Laura often integrates into her designs.’ ”What does a husband give his wife, a jewelry designer, for their 25th wedding anniversary? ”’A 10-carat, natural, olive-green diamond,’ Laura said. ‘It took me a month to decide what to do with it.’ ”The result? The precious stone is surrounded by ‘three hundred and forty micro-pave diamonds [under 1/2 carat],’ Mark said. ‘You can’t see any of the prongs in the platinum setting, just the beauty of all the diamonds.’

Kehillat Israel will honor Cathie Wishnick and David Rosenstein at its annual Social Action Shabbat on Friday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in the temple, 16019 Sunset Boulevard. ‘The public is invited to join us as we present our Tikun Olam (Healing the World) awards to two members who have worked tirelessly to make a difference in the world,’ said Gili Wolf, KI’s communications manager. ”Cathie Wishnick has been an active volunteer with KI’s Turning Point Shelter Task Force and concluded her seven-year chairmanship of this 150-person outreach group in 2005. She assembled numerous teams, consisting of 11 households each, to prepare and serve dinner to the 55 residents at the Turning Point Transitional Housing Shelter in Santa Monica twice a month. She planned the menus and delegated the cooking responsibilities. ”KI family task force members treated the shelter residents to special international-themed dinners including ‘Persian Night,’ ‘All-American Barbeque,’ ‘Tostada Buffet,’ and ‘Traditional Jewish Holiday Dinner.’ The task force also provided an elegant Thanksgiving dinner for the residents each year. ”Participating on the task force gave an excellent opportunity to KI families and young people to meet the shelter’s formerly homeless residents in a friendly and safe setting. Task force members provided the residents with encouragement and caring in addition to delicious meals. ”Wishnick also introduced other churches and synagogues on the Westside to the Turning Point Shelter, and they have started their own outreach programs to assist shelter residents. ”’I loved my role as chairman,’ she said, ‘because I love cooking and I love bossing people around!’ ”Wishnick, whose husband Arnie is executive director of the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, also founded the KI ‘Handi-Corp’ Task Force to assist low-income senior citizens with minor household repairs and was co-chair of the KI Women’s Club for three years. In addition, Wishnick served as president of the 1,800-person Los Angeles Chapter of the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee for the past three years. ”David Rosenstein is the founder and president of Intex Solutions, Inc., a commercial carpet and textile care company that is a model of environmentally and socially responsible practices. He is the former executive director of The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life of Southern California (COEJL SC) and a co-founder of New West Charter Middle School. He currently does volunteer work for a variety of organizations, including those concentrating on environmental issues (Natural Resources Defense Council and Rainforest Action Network), literacy (Access Books), homelessness (The Giving Spirit) and education (New West and Canyon Charter Schools). ”Rosenstein and his wife, Tori Nourafchan, have three children: Gabriel, Theo and Isabel. They live in Santa Monica.

Gary Garcia, an assistant principal at Paul Revere Middle School, has been serving on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s ambitious Advisory Council on Education since late July. ”The 30-member committee, along with 30 support advisors, is charged with providing recommendations on how to improve the performance of the Los Angeles Unified School District as well as studying the feasibility of the Mayor taking over as the superintendent of school. ”The group has held six meetings and continues to gather information to present to Villaraigosa, who took office last July. ”Garcia graduated from Whittier High and Loyola Marymount University and received his master’s in administration from Cal State Northridge. He taught for seven years at Hamilton High, then became the school’s magnet coordinator. Some years, 100 percent of the magnet students were accepted to college. During that time Garcia also taught an after-school studies class for the low-performing freshmen at Hamilton. ”About 11 years ago, Garcia started teaching and still teaches an Upward Bound course in literature and history at Occidental College. Upward Bound is a federal program that takes high school students with potential and place them in a college situation. ” ‘It’s a fabulous program,’ Garcia said in an interview. ‘Many of the students that are brought in may not have graduated or wouldn’t go to college, without a program like this one, which gives them mentors and other students to model after.’ He regrets that the funding for this program is being cut, because he understands the importance of such support; he was one of the first of his family to go to college. ”After his fourth year of teaching, Garcia ran for the L.A. school board in 1988 and then withdrew from the race to lend his support to another candidate. Even though he dropped out, his name was left on the ballot and he received 10 percent of the vote, which threw the race into a runoff. ”Garcia knew Villaraigosa when he was employed as a union representative for the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). After Villaraigosa was elected, the mayor announced he wanted a blue ribbon education panel. Garcia sent his resume and was instantly called. ”’I’m excited to be a part of what the mayor is doing,’ said Garcia, who is in his fifth year at Paul Revere. ‘He’s committed to improving the schools. This is not a political move on his part; it’s a real passion of his. Maybe some of his motivation comes because he was a dropout.’ ”The education panel has been split into a variety of subcommittees. Garcia is on the strategic long-term planning committee, which meant they contacted cities like Boston and Memphis’plus Chicago and New York, where the mayors have become head of the school districts. ”According to Garcia, New York and Chicago’s schools were low-performing and equated to L.A.’s schools before Roy Romer took over as LAUSD superintendent. Garcia thinks that based on test scores, L.A.’s schools are ahead of where New York and Chicago were when they were taken over by their respective mayors. Those schools made some initial gains, but have now hit a wall. ‘For those schools to reach the next level it’s going to be much harder to get the results they want,’ Garcia said. ”He also questions how Villaraigosa could take over on the level where LAUSD currently is and get the results he desires without more money for education. The State of California spends $7,000 to $8,000 per student, which is half of what many East Coast states spend. The counter argument is that the failing schools in Washington, D.C., receive more money than any school district in the country. ” ‘If money’s not the answer, why is Harvard-Westlake charging $25,000 a year per student?’ Garcia asked. ‘If you took the entire student body attending Harvard-Westlake and put them in an inner city school, they wouldn’t fail.’ ”’It illustrates the complexity in school reform,’ he continued. ‘Education is a triangle and in order for it to be successful all three corners of the triangle’the student, the parents and the school’have to participate.’ ”Garcia feels that the teacher and administrator unions are misinterpreting what the mayor is trying to do. ”He’s saying, ‘You’re working hard, how can we help you? Let’s push education to the forefront, let’s move it, get it going. I don’t want to wait.” ”Garcia uses the analogy of a salesman and his boss. The salesman tells his boss that he made 30 calls today, but the boss asks, ‘How many sales?’ That’s the boss’s bottom line. Garcia feels the same should be true in education. There are people working hard in many of the low-performing schools and they shouldn’t be faulted for that, but if something isn’t working it’s time to change. Garcia’s mantra is ‘Whatever it takes.’ ”When Romer took charge of the LAUSD, he emphasized starting with the elementary schools and making substantial changes, but that same effort wasn’t given to the high schools. Villaraigosa is now focusing on an area that Garcia says hasn’t been given a lot of attention: dropout rates. LAUSD is now trying to track them, but even on the state and federal level there are no accepted, coordinated ways of reporting on the problem. ”The mayor is already working on several issues. One is ensuring that students don’t come to school hungry, by implementing a state health-care program (although it’s not fully funded). Another is the safe passage program to help kids get home from school safely. Designated stores or homes will let children know they can go there if they feel threatened. A third issue is joint-use facilities planning, so that LAUSD and the city have better coordination. And finally, helping to mentor students. ”Another problem that needs to be addressed, according to Garcia, is the school board. ‘Many people don’t realize that the school board is a part-time entity’the salary is just $24,000 a year’and yet they work on a larger budget than most cities. Then if something goes wrong, they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.’ ”Would Garcia like to see the mayor take over the school district? ‘I would worry because of the succession,’ he said. ‘Who would be the next mayor be? People didn’t force this passion for education on Antonio. It’s his own passion.’

‘When it rains, it pours.’ This foreboding saying has become a metaphor for the residents of the Asilomar bluffs in Pacific Palisades, who are urging the City of Los Angeles to repair the storm-damaged hillside that threatens their safety and property. Asilomar Boulevard, above PCH and west of Temescal Canyon Road, was damaged during the heavy rains in January and February of 2005, which caused the federal government to declare disasters in the City of L.A. and surrounding areas. The damage to Asilomar, between El Medio and Almar, includes slippage and substantial fissures in the street. At last Thursday’s Community Council meeting, Asilomar residents expressed deep concern and frustration over the city’s response to repairing the area. The city’s plan focuses on repairing the street but not the 200-ft. slope directly below Asilomar, which caused the destabilization of the street. Why not fix the root of the problem? The city argues that the majority of the slope is under the control of private owners. Puerto del Mar, a privately owned street, traverses the slope approximately 30 ft. below Asilomar, and two mobile home parks, Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace, lie at the bottom of the hillside. These mobile home parks are regulated by the state. Last February, the Palisadian-Post reported on the safety concerns of residents at the Palisades Bowl, who were evacuated from 12 units at the bottom of the slope when persistent rains caused the hillside to move and the streets within the park to buckle. The city owns the property along the top of the slope, including Asilomar’a two-lane asphalt concrete road’and a small grass parkway adjacent to the street’one at approximately 35 ft. below the ground surface (bgs) and the other at 85 ft. bgs. Now, a dewatering system is necessary to intercept and remove groundwater from the slope, which has accumulated between 63 ft. bgs and 77 ft. bgs and is ‘adversely affecting’ the lower plane, according to the report. However, the city proposes a system that ‘would have to be connected to the city’s storm drain or sewer system for the groundwater to be taken away.’ The city’s proposed repair project also includes a ‘side-hill bridge’ over the street, which would maintain the street by bridging over the landslide. The preliminary estimated cost of the project is $4.4 million. ‘The repair of Asilomar would depend on the available funding,’ said Cora Jackson Fossett, director of public affairs for the Department of Public Works, in an e-mail to the Palisadian-Post on Tuesday. Because Asilomar is a designated federal highway, the city has submitted a request for funding to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) asking for approval and designation of the road as an Emergency Relief. ‘We expect to hear from the FHWA by April,’ Jackson Fossett said. However, there was a question at the council meeting as to whether the FHWA had even received the geotechnical report sent to them on January 24. ‘I received a call from [Congressman Henry] Waxman’s office yesterday saying the FHWA never received the report,’ said Andrea Epstein, deputy to Councilman Bill Rosendahl. ‘We’ve had full discussions with the FHWA. I don’t know why they’re telling the Congressional district they haven’t received it.’ ‘This is a city problem,’ said Asilomar resident Jason Sloane. The FHWA ‘will only fund the damage from the rain, not what is the pre-existing slide. If the FHWA denies it [the city’s request] or only supplies a certain amount of funds, it still doesn’t negate the city’s responsibility. ‘Where we are with the city is short of a lawsuit,’ said Sloane, who added that he and some neighbors have hired an attorney. Another Asilomar resident commented that ‘a chief cause of the problem is inadequate sewage [drainage]’ and that ‘it’s not merely an Asilomar problem; it’s affecting the whole slope.’ The residents and the city seem to be working on different deadlines. For the city, the project would need to advance to the ‘construction obligation’ stage by the end of September 2007 or risk losing Emergency Relief eligibility. In a letter to Rosendahl dated March 14, the Community Council wrote, ‘There is no disagreement as to the seriousness of the street condition. Immediate allocation of funds from FHWA is required in order to begin remediation. We urge your office to make the securing of these funds a priority. ”’This is a safety issue that concerns not only the residents who live on Asilomar but also the residents of two mobile home parks, who live directly below the slippage.’

City Councilman Bill Rosendahl joined community leaders Kurt Toppel and Bob Jeffers for a street beautification ceremony last Thursday at the newly landscaped triangle on Marquez Avenue at Sunset. Also in attendance were landscape contractor William Ranselaar and Ron Olive, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Street Services. ”The ceremony celebrated the joint effort by Palisades PRIDE and L.A. Street Services to plant five trees, install five benches and provide trash cans as part of the Marquez business block revival. The project was spearheaded by Jeffers, a local resident and PRIDE member. ”At last Thursday night’s Community Council meeting (chaired by Toppel), Jeffers talked about the progress made as a result of the $89,000 in discretionary funds the city allocated for the Marquez project on January 4, 2005. The first improvement was to remove three rooftop signs at a cost of $1,600. The next step was adding a stop sign at the corner of Bollinger and Marquez. Although Jeffers would like to see a crosswalk painted there, it has not been done yet. ”The hillside area across from the business block was cleared of trash and planted with new foliage. Last October, Ranselaar and his crew planted five golden medallion trees in front of the shops, while also installing iron grates similar to the ones on Swarthmore. Just recently, the triangular island on Marquez was planted with blue sedge, lavender, germander, and dwarf blue rye grass. ”Although the project is 10 percent over budget, Jeffers is hopeful that several more improvements can be made, primarily the installation of four antique lamposts like the ones on Swarthmore and a sign that says ‘Marquez Knolls shops.’ ”He noted that in addition to city-contributed funds, $16,000 has been raised from local residents and merchants, along with a $5,000 donation from the Junior Women’s Club.