Canyon Home and Trees Draw Ire
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Pacific Palisades homeowners lambasted the City of L.A.’s lack of law enforcement concerning Building and Safety orders at last Thursday’s Community Council meeting. Rustic Canyon residents appeared before the council to complain that Building and Safety is not enforcing its control over a corner residence at 909 Greentree, the home of Mehr and Vickey Beglari. The house is 14 feet closer to the street than permitted by the Los Angeles Municipal Code, and last December the State Court of Appeal ordered Building and Safety to revoke the permits issued to the Beglaris for the completed addition to their home as well as their certificate of occupancy. However, while Building and Safety revoked the Beglaris’ certificate of occupancy as well as their main permits in May, neighbors argue that nobody has ordered the Beglaris to vacate their home or make their house comply with the Code. “This case has been adjudicated,” said Randy Young, a local resident and longtime community activist. “The court has said the City of Los Angeles is not doing its job.” He called the City’s unwillingness to act “cultivated ignorance” and said, “they have worked at being incompetent.” The main issue of the dispute is whether the front-yard setback was calculated correctly, and whether the Beglaris must now lop 14 feet off the entire front of their two-story house to meet the setback requirement of 27 feet. Vickey Beglari told the council, “The City throughout this whole process has said that we’ve done nothing wrong, that we’ve complied with this whole process. There have been mistakes, and we’ve responded to them.” Mehr Beglari said that “the City stopped our job three times to check and recheck all our plans, to make sure we were in compliance.” Vickey added, “Our property is large but it’s not that large compared with other homes in the Rustic Canyon area.” She noted that “the appellate court said the goal was not to tear down the home, but to make sure the City complies with the error.” By the “error,” Vickey was referring to the disputed calculation. Council member Steve Boyers expressed confusion about what the Beglaris wanted the council to do about their current situation, seeing that the case has already been adjudicated. “There are alternatives to tearing down the home,” Vickey said. “We’re still looking into other alternatives to make this right.” Asked after the meeting what some of those alternatives are, she declined to discuss that with the Palisadian-Post. Rustic Canyon resident and attorney Ronald Oster, one of the six plaintiffs in the case against the Beglaris, spoke on behalf of the group and requested that the council write letters to Building and Safety and the City Council asking them to enforce the law. “I’m asking for the support of this community,” Oster said. “You have a judgment. This is a clear-cut case. The certificate of occupancy has been revoked and the building cannot be inhabited.” After hearing from both sides, the council voted that chairman Kurt Toppel write letters “to any and all people to get the City to enforce the law.” Meanwhile, the Beglaris have started construction on a second property they purchased in early 2004 at 921 Greentree, just down the street from their disputed residence. For a year, next-door neighbor Sue Toigo has been concerned about a cluster of eucalyptus trees on the Beglari property that hang dangerously low over her own property. She has previously discussed the problem with Mehr Beglari and trimmed two of the trees over her roof at her own expense. Toigo’s concern for “the safety of my family and home” grew in recent weeks as the Beglaris began excavating their property, which compromised the roots of the trees. On Tuesday, she approached Beglari about the problem and he suggested that she call the City Street Tree Division, which she did. Jerome Washington, a supervisor with the Street Tree Division who visited the site shortly after Toigo’s call, told the Palisadian-Post that he determined that “the trees have to be removed at the owner’s expense,” and if they’re not removed, “it’s a public hazard.” Toigo wrote a letter to Beglari on Tuesday stating, “Now that the City has determined that the excavation of some of the trees in your backyard at 921 Greentree has rendered them unsafe and that they must be taken down, I hope they can be removed quickly… “As neighbor to neighbor, I respectfully ask that you not let any quarrel you might have with the City authorities delay the tree removal which could jeopardize my family’s safety.” Beglari did not answer a telephone call from the Palisadian-Post that afternoon, before our Wednesday morning deadline.
VA Advisory Panel Nixes Commercial Development
In an unusual alignment of opinion, about 700 Westsiders attended a public meeting on the future uses of the Veterans Affairs property last Thursday and voiced their opposition to recommendations that the 387-acre campus include a mixed-use residential complex or a medical research facility. Members of a advisory panel, who met for nearly three hours after the marathon public meeting in the Wadsworth Theatre on the VA campus, were nearly unanimous on their recommendations, which they hoped would be seriously considered by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. Appointed by the VA secretary, the panel is made up of state and local VA officials, a UCLA/Veterans Hospital physician, veterans service providers and Brentwood activists, including realtor Barbara Tenser and Brentwood Community Council chairman Flora Krisiloff. They adopted a set of four principles which guided their votes on each of the business plan options. The principles included: 1. Honor former Secretary Anthony Principi’s pledge that there be no commercial development on the site. 2. The land should be retained for direct benefit to veterans in perpetuity, in compliance with the deed. 3. Honor the Cranston Act, which established preserve areas totaling about 109 acres; and 4. Abide by the National Preservation Act. “Everything else followed these four guiding principles,” Krisiloff told the Palisadian-Post. “We were unanimous on every vote except the plan to establish a medical research facility on the site, which I voted against because I felt it hadn’t been vetted properly. I didn’t want to see Amgen or Genetech on the property.” Secretary Nicholson is under no obligation to accept the panel’s recommendations, Krisiloff said. “He will decide which options he wants to adopt and then send the business plan options back to the consultants for analysis.” There will be two more public meetings, and further reviews by the panel at each step of the process. The third public meeting may be called by the end of October. “I think, in the end, that our recommendations turned out to be better than I had expected because we followed the guiding principles,” Krisiloff said. “But it’s 50-50 if the secretary will accept our recommendations. I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back with more commercial options. Nor would I be surprised if he supports our proposals. “I really do hope that this secretary honors the new land-use plan,” Krisiloff added. “I would really like to see a land-use master plan that covers all the federal land in West Los Angeles, including the proposed 1 million-sq-.ft. FBI headquarters at the Federal Building, and the army reserve [at the corner of Federal and Wilshire]. We have all this federal land that is not heavily developed and the federal government is looking at ways to increase revenue. It’s the wrong time, because we’re in traffic gridlock.”
Villaraigosa, Rosendahl Visit Local Democrats
“Folks, we can’t just complain about the traffic,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told a Palisades Democratic Club gathering last Sunday. “We all have to be part of the solution.” Although the mayor realized that virtually every person in his audience of about 250 people is wedded to a car 24/7, he earnestly tried to promote his campaign for lessening that dependence. “Traffic congestion is everywhere, not just here on the Westside,” Villaraigosa said, “and the only way out is to change our patterns of living. We’ve got to get more people to carpool, to walk, to get on a bus. As you ride buses, you’ll realize, ‘Hey, this is okay, it works.’ ” Spotting County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky in the audience, the mayor said: “I see Zev as an important ally in my efforts to expand our rapid-transit system in the city, with buses and light rail.” He noted that funding is back on track for Phase I of the Expo light-rail line from downtown L.A. to Culver City, a project that will be completed “by 2009, because it already has a dedicated right of way.” Phase II will extend the line to Santa Monica. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Villaraigosa reiterated his commitment to address widespread poverty in Los Angeles. “If we had had this tragedy in Los Angeles, the world would have seen the poverty capital of the United States,” Villaraigosa said. “We have more poor people and more uninsured people than any other city. Just go downtown, to Pico Union, to South L.A., and you see the dilapidated houses, the schools where so many kids are dropping out.” “A great city, a healthy city, has to be a place where people are growing and prospering together,” the mayor said. “That’s what I’m going to be working on.” Earlier, City Councilwoman Bill Rosendahl reiterated many of the goals he outlined during this past spring’s campaign, and he praised the 22-person staff he has hired. They include Palisadians Norman Kulla, his district director and senior counsel; Laurie Sale, his arts, education and cultural deputy; and Reza Ahef, a constituent advocate. “I’m only as good as my staff, and hopefully my staff is better than me so we will have a sm smooth-functioning District,” Rosendahl said. “My number job is constituent services.” He noted that his staff is “a hybrid blend of folks’young and old, men and women, gay and straight,” and that residents should always remember: “My number one job is constituent services.” Among those attending Sunday’s event were four early candidates for Assemblywoman Fran Pavley’s termed-out seat in 2006: Julia Brownley, Barry Groveman, Kelly Hayes-Raitt and Louise Rishoff. The primary election will be held next June 6.
Mort’s Deli Is in the Spotlight
Bobbie Farberow, owner of Mort’s Deli, helped Councilman Bill Rosendahl keep a campaign promise Tuesday. Running for office last spring, Rosendahl vowed that if he were elected, he would treat the City Council to Mort’s famous chicken matzoball soup. “He loves the soup,” Faberow said, “and it brings him good luck”‘he had a bowl for lunch the day of primary (which he won) and the day of the general election two months later. On Tuesday this week, Faberow and two employees, Esperanza Caulderon and Abelino Martinez, loaded up Mort’s van with an oversized thermos that contained enough soup to feed 20 people, and drove downtown. They brought along crackers, bowls and spoons and carried a chafing dish to keep the soup hot. Bobbie had two concerns before leaving. She wanted to make sure she had directions on how to get past security, but more importantly, she hoped the council members would like the soup. “I want to tell you,” Bobbie said upon her return to the Palisades, “they were so nice and so gracious. They loved the soup, and one of them said, ‘When we come to your area, we’re going to eat at your place.'” In addition to catering to politicians on Tuesday, Mort’s Deli was the backdrop for an HBO television show last Sunday night. Fans of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the comedy show starring Palisadian Larry David, may have recognized Mort’s in the opening episode of the new season. Although the deli was called Leo’s, the show was actually filmed in the Palisades at Mort’s. In the story line, the deli owner has decided to name a sandwich after Larry David. But the sandwich consists of white fish, sable, capers, onions and cream cheese’everything that David hates. He tells the deli owner that no one is going to buy “his” sandwich, and he asks Leo to switch and name his sandwich after actor Ted Danson, whose sandwich has everything in it that people love like turkey, tomato, swiss and Russian dressing. The deli owner refuses to switch sandwiches, even after Shelly Berman, playing David’s father, orders the “Larry David” sandwich and then has a stroke, which could possibly be blamed on the sandwich. Ultimately, Leo tires of David’s whinning and cajoling, takes David’s name off the sandwich board and names the sandwich after another comedian, Richard Lewis. Arnie Wishnik, executive director of the Palisades Chamber of Commerce, and his wife Cathie thought the episode was funny but that the actor playing the deli owner was “over the top.” “If Mort was alive, he should have played this role,” Cathie said. “He would have been more believable and more fun.” Mort Farberow died three years ago tomorrow, on September 30.
Palisades Garden Club to Host Talk on Plant Propagation October 3
”The Palisades Garden Club will hold its first meeting of the club’s new year with a lecture/demonstration on plant propagation methods by horticulturalist Stephen Williams on Monday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. ”Williams, who worked as plant propagator at the Huntington Gardens, is currently an instructor in horticulture at Mt. San Antonio College. ”He will present a PowerPoint demonstration on the finer points of plant propagation by making cuttings, growing from seeds and air-layering, which is a method of producing roots on the stem of indoor landscape plants that have become “leggy” through the loss of their lower foliage. ”Air-layering has been used successfully as a mean of propagating some of the more difficult-to-root plants. In this procedure, believed to have been developed centuries ago by the Chinese, the gardener winds the stem or branch of a plant and encloses the wounded stem with moist sphagnum moss or similar rooting medium until roots develop from the wounded area. Success depends on keeping the rooting medium moist until the roots are formed and large enough to support the new plant. Since the development of polyethylene film, air-layering has become a practical method of propagation for the home gardener and amateur horticulturist. ”Refreshments will be served, and the public is invited.
Schumann’s Piano Concerto Opens St. Matthew’s Season
St. Matthew’s Music Guild kicks off its 2005/6 series at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 14, at St. Matthew’s Church in Pacific Palisades. The gala opening night concert features pianist Mark Robson performing Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, with the St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Music Director and Conductor Thomas Neenan. The concert, which initiates the Music Guild’s 21st anniversary season, will also include Mendelssohn’s “Italian” symphony and two tone poem miniatures by Frederick Delius. The theme for the November 11 concert is “Much Ado about Something” and features Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s incidental music for the Shakespeare play “Much Ado about Nothing.” The concert includes Arvo P’rt’s haunting “Fratres” (Brothers) and music of Stravinsky and Respighi. On December 2, The Choir of St. Matthew’s Parish will join the orchestra in performing a Christmas classic, Bach’s majestic Magnificat in D. Vivaldi’s Mandolin Concerto in D and Corelli’s “Christmas” Concerto will round out the program. The Annual Palisades Family Christmas Concert will be performed on Sunday December 11 at 3 p.m. This holiday favorite features the combined choirs of St. Matthew’s Parish, brass ensemble and organist Roger Daggy. Seasonal classics and an audience sing-along will highlight the program. This concert is free and open to everyone. On January 20, pianist Andrew von Oeyen returns for a solo recital. One of the most highly sought after young pianists on the international stage, von Oeyen will perform Beethoven’s “Eroica” Variations, the Piano Sonata by Leos Janacek and music of Maurice Ravel. On Feburary 10, two of this country’s finest early music vocal ensembles, the Concord Ensemble and Voxfire, come together to perform two sumptuous oratorios by Giacomo Carissimi. These seldom-heard Baroque masterpieces will be complemented by Renaissance motets for multiple choirs, organ, harpsichord and continuo ensemble. On March 24, St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra presents a perennial favorite’Concerto Night. Orchestra members David Sarachene, Jim Lasota, David Mergen and Phil Feather will be the featured soloists. The program will include Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto, the Bassoon Concerto of Mozart, a new work for saxophone and orchestra by Ross Wright and Peter Davidson’s “From My Travels” for flute and orchestra. The concertmaster of St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, Yi-Huan Zhao will be the featured soloist at the April 28 concert. Zhao will perform two works by Camille Saint-Saens, the Introduction and Rondo, and “Havanaise.” The April concert will also include music for wind ensemble and harpsichord by Alec Wilder, selections from “Nuit d’Ete” (Summer Nights), by Berlioz and Three Songs for mezzo-soprano, violin and orchestra by Benedykt Brydern. On June 2 the season will close with a nod to the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart. Included will be the Solemn Vespers, sung by the St. Matthew’s Parish Choir, and the Concerto in A Major with soloist Patricia Massey. The concert will also include Copland’s “Quiet City,” featuring trumpeter David Searfoss and English horn soloist Phil Feather. All concerts take place at St. Matthew’s Parish, 1031 Bienveneda Avenue, Pacific Palisades. A subscription to all eight concerts is $165. Single tickets may be purchased at the door for $22. Complimentary intermission refreshments are offered at all concerts and convenient free parking is available in the church lot. For information contact 573-7787 (ext.2) or visit the Music Guild’s Web site: www.stmatthews.com/musicguild.
Conservancy Illuminates Wilshire Boulevard
There is, in every great city of the world, some particularly distinguished thoroughfare beside whose glories the municipality’s other avenues seem commonplace. With Paris, one thinks of the Champs Elysee; with London, the Pall Mall; Berlin, Unter den Linden; New York’s sleek Fifth Avenue; and Chicago, the wide and windswept Michigan Avenue. It is highly significant that Wilshire Boulevard has become, throughout the world, synonymous with Los Angeles. So proclaimed Wilshire Tropics Magazine in 1930. The journal’s assessment was shared by a long line of visionaries, boosters and planners who have marked Wilshire Boulevard as the symbolic spine of the city. Indeed, few streets in any other city can boast the number of landmarks, natural wonders, museums, diversity and density that exist on the boulevard’s 16-mile stretch from downtown to the beach in Santa Monica. The Los Angeles Conservancy will spotlight the history of Wilshire Boulevard during its new “Curating the City” initiative that includes an ambitious slate of programs happening over seven weeks. It launches this Sunday, October 2 with a one-day architectural tour showcasing interior spaces in six important landmarks along Wilshire. “Wilshire Boulevard is a microcosm of the city at large,” says Catherine Gudis, the Conservancy’s director of education. “Its growth parallels the growth of the city.” Gudis goes on to say how the overarching title, “Curating the City,” deliberately takes on the museum metaphor. “Our goal is to turn the city into a living museum. By putting a frame around some place, it gives an opportunity to reflect on ideas and history. There’s no one clear story, rather many layers to the story.” It’s this kind of approach’looking at historic buildings in a much larger context than simply the embodiment of an architectural style’that the Conservancy hopes will broaden its audience. “We want to get people to think of the built environment as part of a whole urban fabric,” Gudis says. The Conservancy, established in the 1970s, grew out of the community-based effort to prevent demolition of the L.A. Central Library. The organization has grown to a membership of over 8,000 households and its mission is two-fold: advocacy and education. “We need to continue to build a preservation ethic among Los Angelenos,” says Gudis, who regards the recent lost battle to save the Roosevelt Hotel as a reminder of the need to be ever-vigilant. “We want people to think about what is lost when buildings aren’t around to tell us about our common heritage.” The Conservancy plans to offer a new “Curating the City” exhibition every few years, highlighting a distinct part of the city. Spanning three cities and countless diverse commerical and residential neighborhoods, Wilshire Boulevard provides an especially rich history lesson. Not only does it showcase all the major architectural styles of the 20th century, it also highlights patterns of migration and immigration, tells the story of L.A.’s fascination with the automobile, and unearths colorful biographies of the city’s early movers and shakers. Interestingly, Wilshire Boulevard did not evolve in a straight westward line. It actually began in 1875 in Santa Monica, as Nevada Avenue, and in the 1880s as Orange Street from downtown to Westlake (now MacArthur) Park, then grew in fits and starts in other sections. The only thing separating downtown from the rest of the Boulevard was Westlake Park. In 1934, a causeway was built over the lake, splitting the park in two but completing the final leg of the Boulevard. The Boulevard got its name from the flamboyant, socialist-millionaire Henry Gaylord Wilshire, who arrived in Los Angeles from Ohio in the late 1800s. “He was such a cool character,” says Gudis, who describes how the man’s unusual legacy includes having a monopoly on the billboard industry and promoting a pseudo-medical device in the form of a belt that promised to cure everything from baldness to cancer. Ironically, while Wilshire espoused socialism and even ran for public office under its banner, he is best known for shaping what was to become the city’s first upscale residential area near downtown. To ensure the residential character of a 35-acre tract he had purchased in 1895 (located between today’s MacArthur and Lafayette Parks), he donated to the city a four-block strip down the center of it for the establishment of a boulevard to bear his name. This came with the stipulation that railroad lines and commercial and industrial trucking be banned. True to Wilshire’s vision, the area soon became dotted with large mansions. Gudis refers to the automobile as the main character in the story of Wilshire Boulevard, serving as the major catalyst in its development. When Bullocks Wilshire opened in 1929, it was the first department store that put the car at center stage, with the main entrance to the building’and valet parking’at the rear. The commercialization of Wilshire continued farther west when the one-mile stretch between La Brea and Fairfax Avenues, dubbed “Miracle Mile,” was developed. Beginning in the 1920s, A.W. Ross envisioned the area as a commercial center to rival downtown. “He knew the automobile was going to make this place happen,” Gudis explains. At the time, it was described as “Ross’ Folly,” since the Boulevard was a dirt road surrounded by bean fields, and the only notable structures were oil derricks. “He had the last laugh,” Gudis adds. Another defining moment for the Boulevard came when the 13-story height limit was lifted in 1957. Some 22 high-rise office buildings were erected in the Wilshire Center area from 1966 to 1976, and during the 1980s, scores of high-rise and high-cost condominiums were erected along the stretch of Wilshire in Westwood. The diverse architectural gems to be opened for docent-led tours on October 2 are The Elks Club, now the Park Plaza Hotel (Curlett and Beelman, 1925), built in the elite Westlake area to host L.A.’s society set; the Art Deco Bullocks Wilshire building (John and Donald Parkinson, 1929) a restored landmark that is now part of the Southwestern University School of Law campus; and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple (A.M. Adelman, S. Tilden Norton, and David S. Allison, 1929) with its immense Byzantine dome. Also featured will be Johnie’s Coffee Shop (Armet and Davis, 1955) an icon of the “Googie” aesthetic; the Victorian-styled Wadsworth Chapel (J. Lee Burton, 1900), the oldest building on Wilshire Boulevard; and the Spanish Colonial Revival Miles Playhouse (John Byers, 1929) in Santa Monica. “The tour is going to be a blast,” says an enthusiastic Gudis. “There will be special attractions at each of the sites.” Tickets for the Sunday, October 2 one-day, self-guided architectural tour are $35 ($25 for Conservancy members and $12.50 for students under 21 with a valid I.D.). To order tickets, call (213) 623-2489 or visit www.curatingthecity.org.
Stuart F. Grant, 88; A 53-Year Resident
Surrounded by family, longtime resident Stuart Francis Grant passed away September 9. He was 88. Born in Alberta, Canada, Grant moved to the U.S. and attended high school in Seattle. He had a life-long interest in aviation, devoting 45 years to this pursuit as a supervisor for Trans World Airlines. He also loved the outdoors and regularly enjoyed hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains. A resident of Pacific Palisades for over 53 years, Grant was an active member of Corpus Christi Church. He will always be remembered as a caring, compassionate husband, father and friend’always ready and willing to help where he could. He will be greatly missed. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Dollie; his son Greg Grant (wife Julie) of Anchorage, Alaska; and his daughters, Patricia Boras (husband David) of Redondo Beach and Barbara Cook of Ventura. He also leaves behind 11 grandchildren. Funeral services were held on September 15 at Holy Cross Cemetery. Monsignor Liam Kidney of Corpus Christ Church officiated.
Rudy Orlando, 81; Longtime Palisadian
Rudolph (Rudy) T. Orlando, a longtime resident, passed away from cancer on September 19 at St. John’s Hospital. He was 81. Born on December 3, 1923 in Santa Monica, Orlando attended Santa Monica public schools and Santa Monica College, and graduated from Humboldt State. During World War II, he joined in the Merchant Marines as a radio officer and traveled the world from 1943 to 1949. From 1950 on, he went into a private family business in Santa Monica. Orlando and his wife of 49 years, Arden, raised their family in Pacific Palisades. In his spare time, he enjoyed golf, watching sports, and was a member of the Santa Monica Boys Club and the Lions Club of Santa Monica. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children Michele Warren and Denise Orlando, and grandchildren Demi, Dani and Brett Warren of Atlanta, Georgia. Memorials in Rudy Orlando’s memory may be made to the American Cancer Society or the Diabetes Society.
