Healthy and still mentally sharp, with eyes so good he could read his birthday cards without glasses, Joe Napolitano celebrated his 105th birthday last week at his home on Iliff, where he lives independently. Joined by photographer Rich Schmitt, I visited Joe on his August 19 birthday, as I have enjoyed doing ever since he turned 100. I like a guy who has lived in three centuries (he was born on a freighter off Gibraltar in 1899 as his Italian parents returned from living in Brazil) and who recently renewed his subscription to the Palisadian-Post for two years. Arriving unannounced in the late afternoon, I had to pound away on the front door and then shout through the kitchen window before catching Joe’s attention (his ears are not as genetically fortunate as his eyes). Face beaming, he welcomed us into his tidy home and led us to his kitchen, where he was cooking a large pan of homemade applesauce, made from the gala apples he had picked from the tree in his backyard. ‘I freeze it and then I have frozen applesauce every night for dinner,’ Joe said. ‘It tastes wonderful’just like apple ice cream.’ He spooned out a bowl for me to sample and said, ‘With my compliments!’ I told him, quite honestly, that it was indeed delicious. Joe continues to cook all his meals (he fixed barbecued lamb chops for his birthday) and clean his house, as he has been doing for nearly 10 years since his wife died. He also gives loving attention to an assortment of fruit trees that includes apple, orange, grapefruit, plum, apricot, peach, persimmon and fig. ‘My grandson came last week and we filled 22 shopping bags with grapefruit that we took to Venice [a food shelter run by St. Joseph’s Center]. ‘They’re big, but not sweet like the ones you buy in a store,’ Joe said apologetically. ‘They need sugar.’ I asked Joe how he felt. ‘I feel good today,’ he said, lighting up his pipe. ‘I don’t take any pills or medicine and I don’t have any aches or pains’just old-age wear. I want to die like my grandfather back in Italy. He was 97 and he smoked a pipe up until a week before he died. He wasn’t sick or anything; he just didn’t want to live anymore.’ On Sunday afternoon, Joe’s niece Tonia organized a party at his house and about 60 relatives joined the festivities. Tonia was married to one of Joe’s younger brothers, Pasquale, an artist who lived to be 101. Joe’s two children are deceased, but he has eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, including 8-month-old Kendra. ‘This is her first Olympics’and Popa’s 27th Olympics,’ observed grandson Greg Catton of Sherman Oaks. ‘He only missed the 1896 Olympics!’ Sitting at a patio table under an umbrella, Joe welcomed all the hugs and handshakes from arriving relatives, saying at one point, ‘My face is getting pink from all the kisses.’ He also greatly enjoyed receiving a can of Borkum Riff tobacco”the tobacco for rich people,’ he said. He could afford to buy his own, but it’s a luxury he can live without between birthdays. ‘I feel great; I couldn’t feel better,’ Joe told his guests. ‘The Palisades climate is helping, too. It’s a beautiful day.’

Although Gracie Jones, the new interim principal at Palisades Elementary, received only a week’s notice before the start of her current job, she quickly got down to business and is calmly getting ready for the school year, beginning September 9. ‘I went on my computer, did due diligence, and pulled up everything I could find about the school,’ says Jones, a 34-year LAUSD employee who, though retired for the past five years, has been working from time to time as an interim principal in various schools. Melissa Newman, who took the helm of the school last year, was reassigned by the district to Melrose Avenue Elementary School. ‘You want the right fit,’ says Robbi Bertz, Director of Elementary Support Services for District 3. ‘The district often reassigns principals for the best fit in the interest of both the school community and the principal.’ Over the summer, a district K (now local district 8) administrator, Colleen Crowley, was assigned to be Palisades Elementary’s new principal, but in mid-August, she decided to retire, leaving the position open. Jones was called in, and the school’s search committee, which includes parents, teachers and administrative staff, is once again preparing to search for a new principal. During her career, Jones was principal at three Westside elementary schools’Nora Sterry, Wilshire Crest and Hillcrest Drive Elementary. Prior to this she was a classroom teacher, reading specialist and assistant principal at the primary school level. She also spent 11 years in the LAUSD’s information technology department. As an administrator in that department, she worked with both business systems and instructional systems, set up the district’s Mac labs and PC labs, and oversaw district training centers to teach software. A technology buff, Jones quickly acquainted herself with the Proposition BB safety and technology project now underway at Palisades Elementary’installing T-1 lines so that every classroom will have Internet access and upgrading the public address system. The work is due to be completed about two months into the school year. Jones was previously interim principal at Brockton Avenue, 98th Street, Overland and Wonderland Avenue schools, with her stay lasting one to two months until each school finished the process of selecting a permanent principal. She generally gets about a week or two notice before her new assignment. ‘You have to learn the climate of every school you go to,’ Jones says. ‘You take ownership of certain things, which makes it challenging. My goal is to get the school opened as calmly as possible, to give the teachers what they need and the students what they need.’ A Los Angeles native, Jones graduated from Manual Arts High School, and received her B.A. from Cal State L.A. and her master’s in urban administration from UCLA. She has spent her entire career in education. ‘I can’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. I was very influenced by my teachers. Several of them helped me discover what I wanted to do and that I could do more than I thought I could do.’ Although she planned to go to college eventually, while in high school she thought she would need to get a job right after graduation. ‘I took classes to help me get a job, such as typing. But my teachers pushed me into AP-style courses. They encouraged me to go to college right away after school.’ Jones is busy this week, attending operations meetings and the Principals Institute, which sets the tone for instruction and expectations for principals this school year. Next week, staff development will take place at the school. Besides working as an interim principal during retirement, Jones has traveled and become knowledgeable about digital photography and video. She says it’s easy for the LAUSD to bring in retired principals as interim principals because they can get things done quickly thanks to their experience. ‘She’ll bring a wealth of knowledge and experience; she was a longstanding successful principal,’ says Bertz.

Scott Levy hasn’t always been called ‘Moe.’ But he has long dreamed about owning a specialty wine shop. This summer, after more than 20 years of collecting wine from travels to Napa, Italy, Spain, France and Portugal, the Palisadian opened Moe’s Fine Wines in Brentwood. ‘I wanted to live wine’taste it and sell it,’ says Levy, whose nickname ‘Moe’ comes from his college years at Carnegie Mellon University, where he signed his middle initial ‘M’ (for Martin) with a circle instead of a dot. Having earned his bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, with a minor in economics, Levy moved from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles in 1981 and started his own satellite software engineering company, Ada Gurus Incorporated. He ran the business up until a week before opening Moe’s. ‘I negotiated my own contracts for years,’ says the Baltimore native, who combined his strong business experience with his love and knowledge of wine to develop a plan for the store. He also happened to know the perfect architect to design it’his best friend and neighbor Ali Kia, who lives just four doors away on Chattanooga. ‘We have a lot of the same ideas,’ Levy says. He met Kia about 15 years ago when he and his wife, Alma, moved into one of the luxury town homes Kia had designed and built in Redondo Beach. Kia and his wife, Vesta, lived next door, and the couples soon became friends. The Kias moved to the Palisades in 1997, and six years later, when Vesta spotted a house for sale down the street, she immediately called the Levys, who moved here in January 2003. When Levy started searching for a space for his wine shop a year ago, he originally looked at the old Emerson-LeMay dry cleaners location on Swarthmore but was told the landlord wanted a restaurant to go in there. He says he also learned that it can be difficult to get a liquor license in a family-oriented community like the Palisades. Levy signed the lease for his spacious 1,050 sq.-ft. Brentwood shop last October. ‘It’s a good location because it’s on San Vicente with good visibility, restaurants and a lot of foot traffic,’ he says. Located in the plaza at 11740 San Vicente (between Montana and Barrington), Moe’s Fine Wines faces the popular La Scala restaurant. Architecturally, Moe’s was designed to feel like someone’s private cellar’homey but classy, with hard redwood for the wine racks and dark-stain cherry wood cabinets up at the front of the store where Levy greets customers. ‘The idea is to make customers feel welcomed,’ Kia says, explaining how the wine racks at the entrance curve to lead people in, and how the store’s other curved walls and niches are intended to guide people on a stroll through the shop. Riedel wine glasses hang from cabinets with granite inlays, and the limestone porcelain tile floor adds further elegance. ‘Stores like this will always evolve [based on personal taste],’ says Kia, who is originally from Stockholm, where he earned his degree in architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology. Licensed in Sweden, Kia worked for 12 years in the South Bay area and now does mainly custom homes in Beverly Hills and the Westside. Kia also points out that the design allows Levy ‘good control over the store,’ so that he can see what’s going on at the front even if he’s in the reserve room in the back. Kept at 55 degrees, this treasured room holds some of the best, older and more expensive wines, including Groth, Silver Oak, Phelps Insignia and Dominus labels. ‘Part of what I’m selling is my own expertise,’ says Levy, who enjoys sharing the wine knowledge he’s acquired over the years with beginners and connoisseurs alike. When Los Angeles winemaker Ed Valentine recently wandered in and saw that Levy was selling his 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, Levy was able to show him wines he had never seen before ‘Customers love the look of the store and the wines,’ Levy says. The shop can hold over 6,000 bottles and, eventually, Levy will hold wine tastings at the wet bar area. Levy and Alma, who married in 1992 in Manhattan Beach, invested their own money into starting Moe’s, which carries hundreds of labels from all over the world (many from smaller producers) including unique, vintage and collectible wines, ranging from $8 to $800. ‘I’ve tried almost every wine in the store,’ says Levy, who started seriously tasting in preparation for his store about three months ago. He tasted between 700 to 800 bottles, and recruited Alma as well as the Kias to help him. ‘The best way to learn is by tasting,’ Levy says. ‘The more you taste, the more educated your palette becomes.’ Among his favorites are Silver Oak and Beringer. Kia says he and Vesta enjoyed the blind tasting, in which they would taste a wine without knowing the price or rating, and then e-mail Levy with their own rating of each bottle. ‘Vesta developed a whole different palette just from doing the tasting,’ says Kia, who likes merlots. The two couples also learned that some of the wines they preferred were reasonably priced or fell into the less expensive category, such as the Hayman & Hill 2001 Napa Cabernet, which costs $15. Levy offers a bargain table near the back of the shop with a variety of wines $30 and under. ‘I never want to sell a bad bottle,’ says Levy, who worked several 100-hour weeks while starting his business. ‘This shop was a labor of love.’ In addition to wine, Moe’s Fine Wines also carries champagne, gift baskets, chocolates, stemware and wine accessories. Levy recommends customers try the Stahmanns pecans he carries from a pecan farm in New Mexico. The shop is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Contact: 826-4444 or visit www.moesfinewines.com.

Scott Levy hasn’t always been called ‘Moe.’ But he has long dreamed about owning a specialty wine shop. This summer, after more than 20 years of collecting wine from travels to Napa, Italy, Spain, France and Portugal, the Palisadian opened Moe’s Fine Wines in Brentwood. ‘I wanted to live wine’taste it and sell it,’ says Levy, whose nickname ‘Moe’ comes from his college years at Carnegie Mellon University, where he signed his middle initial ‘M’ (for Martin) with a circle instead of a dot. Having earned his bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, with a minor in economics, Levy moved from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles in 1981 and started his own satellite software engineering company, Ada Gurus Incorporated. He ran the business up until a week before opening Moe’s. ‘I negotiated my own contracts for years,’ says the Baltimore native, who combined his strong business experience with his love and knowledge of wine to develop a plan for the store. He also happened to know the perfect architect to design it’his best friend and neighbor Ali Kia, who lives just four doors away on Chattanooga. ‘We have a lot of the same ideas,’ Levy says. He met Kia about 15 years ago when he and his wife, Alma, moved into one of the luxury town homes Kia had designed and built in Redondo Beach. Kia and his wife, Vesta, lived next door, and the couples soon became friends. The Kias moved to the Palisades in 1997, and six years later, when Vesta spotted a house for sale down the street, she immediately called the Levys, who moved here in January 2003. When Levy started searching for a space for his wine shop a year ago, he originally looked at the old Emerson-LeMay dry cleaners location on Swarthmore but was told the landlord wanted a restaurant to go in there. He says he also learned that it can be difficult to get a liquor license in a family-oriented community like the Palisades. Levy signed the lease for his spacious 1,050 sq.-ft. Brentwood shop last October. ‘It’s a good location because it’s on San Vicente with good visibility, restaurants and a lot of foot traffic,’ he says. Located in the plaza at 11740 San Vicente (between Montana and Barrington), Moe’s Fine Wines faces the popular La Scala restaurant. Architecturally, Moe’s was designed to feel like someone’s private cellar’homey but classy, with hard redwood for the wine racks and dark-stain cherry wood cabinets up at the front of the store where Levy greets customers. ‘The idea is to make customers feel welcomed,’ Kia says, explaining how the wine racks at the entrance curve to lead people in, and how the store’s other curved walls and niches are intended to guide people on a stroll through the shop. Riedel wine glasses hang from cabinets with granite inlays, and the limestone porcelain tile floor adds further elegance. ‘Stores like this will always evolve [based on personal taste],’ says Kia, who is originally from Stockholm, where he earned his degree in architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology. Licensed in Sweden, Kia worked for 12 years in the South Bay area and now does mainly custom homes in Beverly Hills and the Westside. Kia also points out that the design allows Levy ‘good control over the store,’ so that he can see what’s going on at the front even if he’s in the reserve room in the back. Kept at 55 degrees, this treasured room holds some of the best, older and more expensive wines, including Groth, Silver Oak, Phelps Insignia and Dominus labels. ‘Part of what I’m selling is my own expertise,’ says Levy, who enjoys sharing the wine knowledge he’s acquired over the years with beginners and connoisseurs alike. When Los Angeles winemaker Ed Valentine recently wandered in and saw that Levy was selling his 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, Levy was able to show him wines he had never seen before ‘Customers love the look of the store and the wines,’ Levy says. The shop can hold over 6,000 bottles and, eventually, Levy will hold wine tastings at the wet bar area. Levy and Alma, who married in 1992 in Manhattan Beach, invested their own money into starting Moe’s, which carries hundreds of labels from all over the world (many from smaller producers) including unique, vintage and collectible wines, ranging from $8 to $800. ‘I’ve tried almost every wine in the store,’ says Levy, who started seriously tasting in preparation for his store about three months ago. He tasted between 700 to 800 bottles, and recruited Alma as well as the Kias to help him. ‘The best way to learn is by tasting,’ Levy says. ‘The more you taste, the more educated your palette becomes.’ Among his favorites are Silver Oak and Beringer. Kia says he and Vesta enjoyed the blind tasting, in which they would taste a wine without knowing the price or rating, and then e-mail Levy with their own rating of each bottle. ‘Vesta developed a whole different palette just from doing the tasting,’ says Kia, who likes merlots. The two couples also learned that some of the wines they preferred were reasonably priced or fell into the less expensive category, such as the Hayman & Hill 2001 Napa Cabernet, which costs $15. Levy offers a bargain table near the back of the shop with a variety of wines $30 and under. ‘I never want to sell a bad bottle,’ says Levy, who worked several 100-hour weeks while starting his business. ‘This shop was a labor of love.’ In addition to wine, Moe’s Fine Wines also carries champagne, gift baskets, chocolates, stemware and wine accessories. Levy recommends customers try the Stahmanns pecans he carries from a pecan farm in New Mexico. The shop is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Contact: 826-4444 or visit www.moesfinewines.com.

The historic Buerge home, a generous-sized spread consisting of a ranch house and farm on Haverford that became a gathering place for the Buerge family for over 60 years, is on the market for $3, 850,000. Approximately 20,000 sq.ft,, the three-lot property, aptly called The Farm, comes complete with a red barn and even a windmill. The land in the 600 block of Haverford (where Radcliffe and De Pauw intersect) was purchased in 1938 by Maurice and Helen Buerge at a time when much of the Palisades was planted in bean fields. Maurice and his father and brothers built all the structures on the three Haverford lots with logs hewed with adzes. Bill Buerge, the youngest son, purchased the authentic windmill for his mother in 1968 after reading an article about Nebraska in the National Geographic. Maurice and his oldtime farm buddies hooked up a pump and got the windmill to operate. Maurice also planted an orchard which was filled with over 60 trees, including a number of varieties of avocado and tropicals such as sapote, guava and stone fruit (peaches and plums). Son Bill recalls how he and his siblings collected bushels of macadamia nuts, which they learned to crack open with hammers. He also remembers harvesting horseradish. ‘Dad had an old grinder that he used to get out once a year to grind up the horseradish, and he would have the whole neighborhood crying.’ Maurice, who started his career as an auto mechanic and eventually became co-owner of Walker-Buerge Ford in West Los Angeles, and Helen raised their four children, Betty, John, Susan and Bill, in the ranch house. Helen loved gardening and managed to continue the farming life she had known growing up on a farm in La Junta, Colorado. She planted a big vegetable garden every year, always testing varieties of tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans and pumpkins. The pumpkin patch was a local favorite, producing award-winning specimens weighing as much as 200 pounds. The Farm grew to become a popular place for the neighbors to gather, and every Halloween, Helen opened the garden to local children and their families to enjoy an afternoon of stories, refreshments and a potluck dinner. She gave each child a small pumpkin to take home. A member of the Palisades Garden Club, Helen hosted the refreshment and plant sale for the club’s annual garden tour. One year she rented a horse, goat and some chickens for the day to give the place a little more farm flavor. In anticipation of the annual spring event, she would spruce up the garden with new annuals. Even after losing her strength in her later years, she continued to water and care for the plants from her wheelchair. The Buerges were always hospitable. The house at The Farm grew from two to five bedrooms, and although there was no ‘Bed and Breakfast’ sign hanging up, Helen ran one anyway, according to her son, Bill. ‘The door was always open, and so was the kitchen,’ he said. Helen was always gracious and made everyone feel welcome regardless of what she may have planned for the day or given the time of guest arrival. Maurice died in 1995 and Helen continued to live in the house until her death in 2000. The Buerge property is represented by Dolly Niemann of Prudential John Aaroe. Contact: 230-3706.

When the Community Council meets on August 26, Paul McGlothlin, founding director of the Renaissance Academy, will make a presentation about the new charter public high school which will open September 8 in the 881 Alma Real building. At Council Chairman Norman Kulla’s request, McGlothlin will describe the mission of the school, curriculum and faculty. He will also update the progress of creating classrooms, administrative offices and bathrooms in the 13,000-sq.-ft leased space adjacent to the Palisades Branch Library. ‘I’ll then invite questions from Council members and the community,’ said Kulla, who has already advised McGlothlin by e-mail that he should ‘be prepared to address’ parking and traffic issues. In addition, Council treasurer Patti Post posed the following in a separate e-mail to McGlothlin: ‘The [July 29] article in the Palisadian-Post about your new location indicated that students would not be allowed to park on site and that there would be a shuttle system. This could mean that some will park instead on the streets in the adjacent neighborhood. What steps are you taking to keep students, staff and faculty from parking in the neighborhood? Where would the shuttle begin and how often would it run?” According to McGlothlin, Renaissance Academy still plans to provide a shuttle system to (1) transport students to the school from several undetermined Palisades locations and (2) transport students to and from other school classroom locations (e.g., Santa Monica College and Temescal Gateway Park). ‘We’re also staggering the schedule [by starting classes at 9 a.m.] to avoid conflicts with nearby schools,’ McGlothlin told Palisades Optimist Club members on August 10. ‘It’s also important to know that 300 kids are not all going to converge on that building at one time. Many of the kids will be going straight to classes at Santa Monica College, to Pierson Playhouse, or to Stuart Hall in Temescal Canyon. We also want to make the Getty one of our classrooms.’ However, a specific morning drop-off location near the school has not yet been decided. ‘It will be the least difficult place to drop them off,’ McGlothlin told the Post this week. He wants to get community input on this issue at next Thursday’s meeting. As to the parking situation, McGlothlin said, ‘The vast majority of students will take the shuttle or ride in a parent-run van pool. Those who have to drive can pay the monthly fee to park in [the Alma Real building], but Renaissance is not offering this option. We’re providing transportation, not parking.’ The school is paying for 14 faculty parking spaces in the building. While Renaissance is expecting about 300 students on opening day (including about 150 ninth graders), ‘we’re still getting enrollments and adjustments,’ McGlothlin said. Students are currently selecting classes and meeting with advisors. Dr. Roberta Benjamin, director of the Charter Schools Office for the Los Angeles Unified School District, told the Post that an inspector from the Office of Environmental Health and Safety plans to study traffic patterns on Alma Real, La Cruz, Swarthmore and Carey prior to the Community Council meeting. ‘Also, our facilities office will do an inspection when they get a plan of the building. This is an independent charter school, and we are not responsible for the physical plant, but we do have oversight responsibility for the safety of these students.’ Benjamin added that a representative from her office will attend the Council meeting. The Renaissance Academy is chartered through the State of California, and like Palisades High School will receive its per-student funding directly from the state”about $6,000 per student,’ according to McGlothlin. There is no tuition, but ‘we will of course pass the hat just like any other school these days.’ Optimist member Curt Baer, who has an insurance agency on the third floor of the Alma Real commercial/professional building, said he worried about ‘rowdyism and hallway traffic’ between classes (although classes will be held one level below ground level) and complained, ‘It’s just going to be a zoo.’ ‘We’re going to be very good neighbors,’ McGlothlin replied, ‘and the kids will be well supervised at all times. This is different style of high school. There won’t be any bells, and we’re taking some of our classes off-site, so students won’t be traveling in big groups together inside the building.’ He also noted that the student/teacher ratio is 20 to 1, the faculty is expert and experienced, ‘and the students are motivated’this is a school of choice. If a student wants to squander this opportunity [by misbehaving], he won’t be around.’ ‘Additional reporting by BILL BRUNS

Community activism rarely takes a summer hiatus in Pacific Palisades, as reflected by the agenda for next Thursday’s Community Council meeting beginning at 7 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited to participate in the following discussions, as arranged by chairman Norman Kulla and fellow board members. 1. Paul McGlothlin, founding director of the new Renaissance Academy, will talk about his high school’s mission, faculty and enrollment prospects. He will also address community concerns about traffic and parking impacts on Alma Real and neighboring streets. The school (grades 9-12) will open September 9 at 9 a.m. in the 881 Alma Real building and is anticipating upwards of 300 students. (See story below.) 2. Kulla will given an update about the proposed creation of a preferential parking district for neighborhoods bordering the Palisades Recreation Center and the Village business district. The issue was discussed at the July 22 meeting. 3. Verizon representives will give a brief PowerPoint describing their proposal to have Pacific Palisades serve as an early ‘test community’ as Verizon begins to replace all its copper wiring with high-speed fiber optics in a $40-50 billion national project. ‘Huntington Beach is already aboard and they’re also talking with Malibu and Topanga Canyon,’ Kulla said. ‘Verizon wants the community to invite this buildout, subject to their agreeing to abide by community concerns.’ 4. Council member Patti Post and resident Steve Lantz will discuss the threatened cancellation of Commuter Express Route 430 between Pacific Palisades and downtown L.A., the Department of Transportation’s August 11 hearing on the matter, and proposed follow-up action. 5. Chamber of Commerce representatives will evaluate their inaugural four-week Movies in the Park series (which concluded at the Palisades Recreation Center last Saturday) and respond to community input. 6. Dan Hackney, executive liaison to neighborhood councils for the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation, is expected to give an update on the polluted ‘mystery pond’ at PCH and Chautauqua, and will bring someone expert on the problem. 7. Area Representative Stuart Muller will report on his Car Wash Noise Committee, based on communications with Inspector Jay Paternostro (L.A. Department of Building and Safety, South Region Noise Abatement) and Palisades Gas and Wash operations manager John Zisk (USA Petroleum Corporation). 8. Kulla will update arson coordination between LAFD and LAPD regarding the Palisades Letter Shop dumpster fire that was set by vandals on June 4. 9. Charlene Baskin of Palisades Beautiful will announce a tree-trimming fundraising proposal. For more information about the Community Council, visit www.90272.org