Last Sunday, it was standing-room-only at the real estate auction of 16320 Akron St., where a three-bedroom, two-bath house on a coveted double lot (13,250 sq. ft.) was up for grabs. Over 100 people showed up, many of them arriving early to inspect the approximately 1,672 sq. ft. Marquez home, which was built in 1953, and features high ceilings, skylights, and new beige carpet throughout. Some said they planned to renovate the house. Others said they planned to tear it down, to take better advantage of the large, private back yard which terraces down to a stream. By 11 a.m., the seating in the living room and an extra seating area which had been set up under a canopy in the back garden to protect against the rain were full. There were 20 registered bidders, who each plunked down a $50,000 cashier’s check to obtain a bidding number. The opening bid: $1,300,000, which quickly jumped to $1,375,000, then $1,380,000, $1,385,000, $1,425,000, then the highest bid: $1,480,000. By 11:18 a.m. the auction was over. ‘The owner is delighted,’ said auctioneer Mario Piatelli. ‘Not only did she get more than the $1,250,000 million that had been suggested as a suitable listing price for the property by local realtors, but the auction guarantees a quick sale.’ Also delighted is the buyer, Sina Khodadai, 30. Raised in Rustic Canyon, he had been looking for a house for months. His real estate agent, who found out about the Akron auction through the Multiple Listing Service, brought it to his attention last week. On Friday, when Khodadai and his wife Tanaz, 26, saw the property for the first time, he said he was immediately sold after seeing with the trees and foliage in the large back yard. ‘It reminded me of growing up in the canyon,’ said Khodadai, who graduated from Palisades High in 1993. He is not yet sure if he will remodel the house or build a new one. Escrow is scheduled to close within 30 days, or sooner if Khodadai, who helps manage his family’s retail businesses (gas stations and car washes), can get the financing together. Piatelli, as the listing broker, will be paid 2.5 percent commission, as will Shahin Manavi (Coldwell Banker/Beverly Hills), who represented Khodadai. ”Piatelli, whose auction company has over 50 years’ experience selling property, including industrial and commercial, said a successful real estate auction ‘provides a maximum return for the seller and clear title for the buyer.’ He said he was ‘not surprised’ at the large turnout on Sunday, given that we had received ‘over 300 phone calls about the property,’ the auction having been advertised in the Palisadian-Post, the Los Angeles Times, and on his Web site (www.Piatelli.com). However, the property was listed on the MLS only two weeks ago, and only after the MLS relented, allowing Piatelli to list the price as ‘$0.’ ‘Yes, it is unusual to list an auction,’ he said. ‘But brokers and their clients have every right to know about this opportunity. Real estate auctions are a perfectly good way to sell homes.’ Several people left the Akron auction disappointed. A Marquez Knolls resident, who preferred not to identify himself, thought the property would go ‘for around $1 million. The house is not even livable.’ On the other hand, J.C. Champaneri, who owns the Brentwood Inn on Sunset which is currently undergoing renovations, though it would be an ideal starter house for him and his wife. Iraj Safapour, who came from San Francisco for the auction, had hoped to buy the house for his daughter, 32, an attorney, who lives in L.A. ‘It would have been perfect for her,’ he said. ‘There should be more auctions like this.’

Palisades Beautiful will soon begin planting 45 trees in two neighborhoods, the Alphabet streets and west of El Medio below Sunset, plus a few other streets. ‘Although water conditions may foil our efforts temporarily, we expect to begin planting trees on Friday (February 25) and continue through Monday,’ said Ann Fogel, the organization’s chairman. The trees will include purple orchid, coral gum, purple plum, tulip, evergreen pear and liquidambar. Each street in the Palisades has a specific tree designation approved by the City of L.A. Some of the streets gaining new trees are Sunset, Fiske, Galloway, Iliff, Kagawa, Drummond, Chautauqua, Albright, Radcliffe, Miami Way, Arbramar, Almar and Bollinger. ‘Under a program of the DWP, Trees for a Green L.A. has donated many of the trees used in this planting, and they are typically very fine specimen trees,’ Fogel said. ‘We feel fortunate indeed to have their help; this allows us to plant more trees over time.’ The road to a Palisades Beautiful parkway tree planting event is long and strewn with obstacles, Fogel explained. It includes obtaining permission slips from homeowners, determining and perhaps striving to change a city tree designation, obtaining final permits, marking exact tree location, obtaining Dig Alert inspection along with city inspection, locating a variety of trees and having city inspection and tagging of trees, obtaining a qualified planter, notifying tree recipients of impending planting and their responsibilities, overseeing of planting by Palisades Beautiful members and finally providing care instructions to homeowners. ‘Thanks to Trees for a Green L.A., we hope to complete another planting in the near future,’ Fogel said. Homeowners can request a free parkway tree or determine the city-designated tree for their block by e-mail (palisadesbeautiful@earthlink.net) or by calling 459-3432 or 459-7145.

(Editor’s note: This is the second of three profiles on the candidates running for the City Council District 11 seat in the March 8 primary. Last week: Angela Reddock. Next week: Bill Rosendahl.) Flora Gil Krisiloff, co-founder of the Brentwood Community Council, a former West L. A. Area Planning Commissioner and a longtime community advocate, is basing her campaign for Council District 11 on her record within the district. Although a first-time campaigner for the open seat, she feels confident that her public service over the last 20 years makes a run for District 11 the logical next step in her career. Her opponents in the March 8 primary election, Bill Rosendahl and Angela Reddock, are also making their first bid for elected office. ‘I want to be elected with a mandate to continue what I have been doing,’ says Krisiloff, sitting outside her unofficial headquarters at the Brentwood Country Mart. That landmark red barn complex on the corner of San Vicente and 26th Street became the rallying point for Krisiloff’s first community involvement as she fought to downsize the zoning in that commercial area, so close to a residential neighborhood. ‘Councilman Marvin Braude told me that it couldn’t be done, that it would be impossible. But we persevered and got the zoning to match the two-story precedent across the street in Santa Monica.’ While she may be known more in the northern portion of this district that encompasses the coastal area between Pacific Palisades and LAX, Krisiloff argues that her work on the Area Planning Commission and the Los Angeles Health Facilities Authority Commission has familiarized her with the issues and problems in the entire district. ‘When I served on the Planning Commission, we covered the entire district and handled a number of Venice and Westchester cases,’ she says. ‘The issues are all very similar: residents don’t want overdevelopment, zero side-yard setbacks or oversized commercial development.’ Krisiloff, 53, eschews the notion that because she is a Brentwood resident and activist, she may not be sensitive to the overall needs and priorities of the city at large. To this she offers her history. She was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese mother and Costa Rican father and raised in Taiwan until age 11, when she came to the United States with her family. They settled in Santa Fe Springs, her parents beginning their new life with little money and no English, but a tradition of valuing education. Flora excelled in high school and attended UCLA on a full scholarship. She graduated with a degree in public health nursing and moved to southern Idaho as a Vista volunteer, working from a mobile clinic to provide health care to migrant workers in the labor camps along the Snake River. After returning to L. A., she worked as a nurse at a county clinic in Compton, and at health facilities in Watts. ‘I don’t forget my roots,’ she says, adding that she is fluent in Spanish and two Chinese dialects. Krisiloff, who has an M.B.A. from UCLA, thinks of L.A.’s distinct communities as the building blocks of the city. She is adamant about the primacy of safety in our neighborhoods and supports Police Chief William Bratton’s rationale for more police officers on the streets, but she also stresses the strength of neighbors being engaged with one another. ‘It’s important for neighbors to know one another and to look out for one another’these are bite-sized pieces that we can take to protect our communities.’ Krisiloff is a founding member of the Brentwood Community Council, and has served that body as chairwoman since 1999. She points to the council’s independence and her role in helping the 18-member body become an effective forum where community issues are discussed and problems mitigated. She characterizes herself as realistic and practical as she works to ‘bring people along, looking at all the options, then justifying my rationale.’ A case in point involved safety for grocery shoppers at the Ralphs Market on Bundy in Brentwood. ‘There were many parking lot robberies occurring at the market. So the Brentwood Community Council passed a motion suggesting that I contact the grocery store supervisor to talk about the problem. He agreed to increase the night lighting, assign box boys to walk the elderly to the parking lot and add a security patrol. There have been no robberies since.’ Perhaps the most dramatic example of Krisiloff’s self-described thoroughness is her role in defeating the federal government’s plan to sell off a large portion of the VA property for a mammoth Century City-type development. Krisiloff forged a coalition of West L. A. residents, veterans and government officials on the city, county, state and federal levels in opposition. ‘I really did the research, documented everything and built such a tight case that if they forced us into litigation, we were prepared.’ As a result of her efforts, the Federal Advisory Committee was formed, on which Krisiloff serves, and the federal government has been forced to use a true public/federal process to develop a master plan for the VA site. Krisiloff is proud of her four-page resume, which includes other time-intensive involvements such as her board position on the San Vicente Scenic Corridor Design Review Board, and service as chairwoman of The Mirman School Board of Trustees. She dismisses the notion that she is stretched too thin, suggesting that her strength is being very organized, working with people and building coalitions. ‘I’m really organized and I have always been a team player. I don’t need to take credit, even if I am a leader. I helped establish the first non-family board of directors at Mirman by developing a strategic plan and keeping peace during the transition.’ All three District 11 candidates share a progressive political agenda. They are uniformly critical of overdevelopment and place a high priority on protecting the environment. But Krisiloff prides herself on understanding land-use issues and valuing process. She helped develop the San Vicente Boulevard Specific Plan, which serves as a blueprint on how to keep that four-lane highway attractive, and served on the Brentwood Community Design Review Board, which represents community, business and residential interests. ‘I’m for appropriate, responsible development. Good development can make a difference,’ she says, citing a building on San Vicente that was redesigned according to the scenic corridor ordinance to become a mix-use project with residential space on top. ‘I believe in creating a vision ahead of time and having everybody involved,’ says Krisiloff, who is most proud of the Pioneer Woman Award she received from the City of Los Angeles in 2000. ‘This is the most meaningful to me because it recognizes my whole different approach of setting precedents for future planning and changing things.’ Krisiloff and her husband Milton, a prominent urologist with a practice in Santa Monica, have three boys: Kevin, who works at Paramount; Scott, a freshman at USC, and Matthew, a seventh grader at Harvard-Westlake. Two years ago, two friends came to Krisiloff with the idea of running for Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowdki’s seat. ‘They talked to me and basically encouraged me to look into it,’ she recalls. She pursued the idea first by enrolling in the National Women’s Political Caucus campaign workshop, then joining a weekend workshop offered by the Pew Memorial Trust at UC Berkeley. ‘The workshop was co-hosted by political strategists Dan Schnur (Republican) and Darry Sragow (Democrat), who coached the aspiring candidates on running a campaign. Each of us was assigned a phantom candidate. It was an intense two days, but I was encouraged when my candidate ‘won.” It also became clear to Krisiloff just how intense campaigning was going to be. ‘I had to ask myself, ‘Do I really want this?” She talked to her family, who were ‘unconditionally supportive. ‘So, I decided to make the run. When I make a commitment, I stick to it.’ Krisiloff is candid about the challenge of building a campaign team, noting that there are very few women campaign managers. While she notes the obvious, that ‘political consultants are a male-dominated game,’ she put together a team that includes veteran strategists Rick Taylor and Kerman Maddox (Dakota Communications), whose former clients include Miscikowski, Laura Chick and Alex Padilla, but also fundraiser Charley Dobbs and treasurer Mary Ellen Padilla. Krisiloff has been endorsed by the Los Angeles Times and by Miscikowski, whose nod wasn’t automatic. As Krisiloff points out: ‘I asked for her endorsement 11 months ago, but she said that she would have to think about it. Cindy is very thorough; she scrutinized all of us on integrity and our track record. I had to earn her endorsement.’

Monday, March 7, is the deadline for joining the Palisadian-Post’s annual travel writing contest, a chance for readers to have their travel stories published in the March 24 Travel Tales and Summer Camps supplement. Please write about a memorable trip or slice of your trip, in 800 words or less. Type it up (no handwritten submissions accepted) and e-mail it to newsdesk@palipost.com. Although e-mail is preferable, you may also mail or bring your entry to the Palisadian-Post office at 839 Via de la Paz. Entries must be from Palisades residents or those who work or attend school in the Palisades. Submit a short bio (about 25 words) and include how long you’ve lived (or worked/gone to school) in the Palisades, and a bit about your profession and family. Accompanying photographs of your trip are appreciated’please attach caption information. Last year’s winner was Janet Brodie, who wrote about a trip to Southeast Asia with her family. Her piece was favored by the editorial staff out of 29 entries. The winning entry this year will win an overnight stay at the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard Bel-Air in Brentwood with breakfast at the Caf’ Bel-Air.

‘What you are charged with here is keeping the city moving forward on this project and the community informed,’ said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski in her opening remarks to the 16-member Potrero Canyon Citizens Advisory Committee. The group, headed by former Community Council chairman George Wolfberg, held its first meeting last Wednesday at the Palisades Recreation Center. About 20 residents, most of them having followed the Potrero saga for several years, showed up. Miscikowski explained how she sees the committee’s role in ‘what is now the longest-running project in the Palisades,’ a 20-year effort, so far, by both the community and the City of Los Angeles to ‘finally’ bring Potrero Canyon to completion. She explained that the major task facing the advisory committee, which was selected by Miscikowski and Community Council chairman Norm Kulla, is the completion of Potrero Park itself, a mile-long expanse which extends from the Rec Center down to PCH. Thus far, the city has spent $30 million on Potrero’$13 million to acquire 35 landslide-impaired lots on the rim, and another $17 million to buttress and fill the canyon, the councilwoman said. However, work was brought to a halt over two years ago ‘when the city lacked the $1.2 million needed to complete Phase II.’ In an effort to break the logjam, Miscikowski put forth a motion (which was approved by L.A. City Council in December) to sell two of the lots’both on Alma Real (at 615 and 623), both with houses that the city currently leases. These lots have now been declared surplus by the city, with 100 percent of the net proceeds to be deposited in a designated Potrero Canyon Trust Fund. The proceeds, expected to be as much as $4 million, ‘will be used exclusively for completion of Phases II and to begin Phase III,’ Miscikowski said. Current plans for Phase III call for a riparian habitat and a hiking trail with limited amenities (washrooms and a parking lot) to be built at the mouth of the canyon. This final part of the project is expected to cost from $7 million to $12 million. Miscikowski said that another challenge for the advisory committee will be how to handle the sale of the city-owned lots in Potrero. She noted that the city cannot offer the two lots, which will be sold at public auction, ‘without California Coastal Commission approval,’ which is not expected to come before June. When the Coastal Commission originally approved the Potrero project in 1986, it placed restrictions on the sale of the city-owned lots until all three phases of the project were complete and funding for inspections and maintenance had been identified. When it became clear last year that these conditions would be impossible to meet, Miscikowski began negotiations with Coastal Commission staff to clear the way for the immediate sale of the two Alma Real lots to finish Phase II, where work is 95 percent complete. Three landslides still need repairing and ‘there is final grading to be done,’ she said. The other 33 city-owned lots, which were condemned starting in 1964 when the canyon was first found to be too unstable because of landslides, are located on Earlham, De Pauw, and Friends. As soon as all the lots are deemed to be stable [a two-year process], they can be certified by the city and gradually sold off as funds are needed for Phase III. Miscikowski noted that there is now ‘ample opportunity to have significant input into the final design, especially the riparian habitat,’ which she suggested should be integrated into the existing natural environment ‘as much as possible.’ Miscikowski described the original proposal for the habitat, which had some artificial elements to it and has since been scrapped, as ‘a Disney waterworks.’ She said while she has applied for grants from the state to help fund Phase III, none are forthcoming at this time. And while she emphasized that the city would ‘not’ be putting any more money into Potrero, she acknowledged that funding would be needed to deal with any further landslides, which ‘are a real possibility.’ Following Miscikowski’s presentation, the committee asked her for two things: (1) a market evaluation of all the lots, and (2) a realistic assessment of what it will cost to finish Phase II. This second request came after member Rob Weber, an attorney who lives near the park, asked when the last construction estimate ($3.5 million, which includes the remaining landfill and $376,000 that is still owed the contractor for work done in 1997 and 1998) was done. He was told five years ago. ‘Five years ago!’ said Weber. He wasn’t the only one who was surprised. After the committee listened to several other presentations, which included a history of Potrero (by Randy Young); the status of the city’s motion that will go to the Coastal Commission (which Jane Adrian from the Bureau of Engineering said she is currently writing); and a description of the existing plans for the 7.4 acre riparian habitat (which was described in detail by Pam Emerson, the supervisor of regulation and planning for the Coastal Commission), it came up with an action list of its own. First will be a walking tour of Potrero set for this Sunday, February 27, ‘so that everyone can see what we are talking about,’ said Young, who will lead the tour beginning at 10 a.m. in the parking lot off Frontera by the tennis courts. The public is invited, and heavy footwear is recommended. The committee also requested aerial photos of the site from Adrian, and a copy of the approved plans for Phase III from Emerson. Committee member Ellen Travis, a Lombard resident who lives adjacent to the canyon, was more concerned about the proposed change to the Coastal Commission agreement’the sixth amendment to date’than the cost of the project. ‘Right now, the only protection residents have is the plan that exists,’ Travis said. ‘What’s going to happen if we keep changing it?’ The next meeting of the Potrero committee is scheduled for March 16.

Since Saturday morning, 8.686 inches of rain has fallen on the Palisades, bringing the total seasonal rainfall to 35.590 inches’seven inches less than the all-time high rainfall that fell on the town in 1997-1998. The pounding rain took its toll on two local slides’one in the 1200 block of Bienveneda Ave., the other on the Via de las Olas bluffs. In both cases concerned residents contacted the city, which sent out inspectors. On Monday, city engineers Craig Kunesh and Patrick Schmidt assessed the continuing slippage in the 15000 block of Via de la Olas. Neighbors first noticed a new slump along the bluffs between Friends and Lombard streets in January when an approximately 50-ft.-long fissure forced the hillside to drop two feet. It has slipped an additional four to six more feet since then. While inspecting the slump, the engineers discovered two broken water pipes situated directly beneath the railroad ties which support the street in front of 15221 Via de las Olas The 2-ft.-wide corragated pipe that carries storm runoff was also found to be in need of repair. As a result of the two damaged pipes, water had pooled at the base of the concrete support pylons that support the railroad ties, located directly below the white fence, which serves as a barrier between the street and the canyon. Then on Tuesday, while city engineer Iraj Afzali was supervising the maintenance crew working on the broken pipes, he noticed a crack in the adjacent hillside and immediately ordered the area cordoned off. He affixed yellow caution tape to a 40-ft.-long section of the street, across from the residence at 15205, as a ‘precaution, so people won’t walk with their dogs here,’ he explained. By Wednesday, the oceanside of Via de las Olas had been partially closed off. On Saturday a small section of Ardie Tavangarian’s controversial 5-acre, hillside terrace slid into neighboring resident Jules Tragarz’s back yard. Tragarz, who lives at 1227 Bienveneda, said stakes, foliage, ‘even parts of the garden’s drip system twisted my fence and filled my yard with mud. I have been assured by Mr. Tavangarian that he will clean up the mess when the mud dries. I presume he will.’ On Tuesday, Targarz’s house was green tagged by the city, indicating that the house was inspected and found safe to occupy. As of Wednesday morning, total rainfall in the Palisades was 35.590 inches’seven inches less that the all-time rainfall that fell on the town in 1997-1998