Parallel Universe Palisades: Other Palisades Worldwide

We Are Not Alone! Pacific Palisades Sites Are Around the World

‘FIRE THREATENS HOMES IN PACIFIC PALISADES!’ ‘When flames shot up from the steep valley below Eric Beal’s house and surrounded his back yard yesterday, his Pacific Palisades neighbors came running with their garden hoses. Five fire companies responded, and 20 firefighters dragged hoses through Beal’s and his neighbors’ back yards” Okay, stop! Before you wonder why you never heard about this fire, be aware that the above breaking news is an excerpt from a 2003 article in the Star Bulletin, which does not cover Pacific Palisades, California, but Pacific Palisades, Hawaii. That’s right: Hawaii! We we are not alone in the universe. There are other Pacific Palisades out there (you might call them ‘Pacific Parallel-sades’), and several are them are not even located in the United States. For example, Pacific Palisades is also the name of a 17-section apartment block found in one of the finest parts of Hong Kong. The complex contains 809 units, and the 1,000- to 3,829-sq. ft. flats range in monthly rent between $TK and $TK. This Pacific Palisades, a Sino Group luxury property located at the mid-levels of Hong Kong Island east, is home to senior executives longing for panoramic sea views and tranquility. It’s close to the vast Choo Sai Woo Park and, just like our Pacific Palisades, is near the ocean, dead center between North Point and Quarry Bay. The buildings are sandwiched between Tin Hau Temple Road and Braemar Hill Road. Incidentally, the 18th-century Tin Hau Temple, standing west of the Palisades complex in Causeway Bay, is named after Tin Hua, goddess of the sea (a loose analogy might be if we erected a shrine to ‘Splash’ star Darryl Hannah, which, this being Southern California, might happen one day if she has another hit movie). According to Sino Group, about 60 percent of Pacific Palisades’ tenants are expatriates, most of whom are Japanese. To help the Japanese feel right at home and to promote their culture to their neighbors, the Palisades complex celebrates the traditional Sakura Festival, from mid-March to mid-April, by staging various cultural performances, including a drum show, flower arranging, a karate demonstration, and a sword performance. The Palisades property also has a clubhouse that serves Japanese cuisine. ‘Pacific Palisades is a big international family’home to people from South Korea, the U.S.A., United Kingdom, and other destinations,’ said Victor Tin, Sino Group’s assistant general manager of leasing, in a press release. ‘We plan to introduce more overseas cultural events in the near future to further enhance the multiculturalism of Pacific Palisades.’ [DROPCAP] Located on the northern part of Pearl City, north of the 1 Freeway (a.k.a. Queen Liliuokalani Freeway) and Pearl Harbor, you’ll find the aforementioned Pacific Palisades, Hawaii. Komo Mai Drive is the main drag bisecting this island town, and it spans several residential streets with exotic names such as Aamomi Street, Akaikai Loop, Aaniu Loop, and Aamanu Street. According to Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, a single-family home in Pacific Palisades, Hawaii, currently falls in the low to high $600,000 range (considerably more affordable than our Pacific Palisades). ‘It is a nice middle-class area,’ Chris Cuyno, a Coldwell agent from the Leeward office, told the Palisadian-Post. ‘One of the reasons it’s not as sought after as it could be is because it’s located on a ridge and getting to it means going up a windy road. It’s a little isolated.’ Cuyno noted that the neighborhood is ‘completely residential,’ and even the main drag does not offer much in terms of commercial activity. ‘It’s not a main thoroughfare,’ he said of Komo Mai. ‘It goes from houses to houses. It’s important though because it’s the only road that goes to the Palisades.’ Pacific Palisades is one of the larger communities in this region, and its proximity to the various army and naval bases has helped shape its populace. ‘It’s become so diverse that it’s hard to put a cultural stamp on it,’ Cuyno said of the mix of military and local families. Unlike our Palisades, Hawaii’s Palisades does not border the ocean, but ‘you get beautiful nighttime views of the Leeward coast,’ Cuyno said. ‘You can see all the way down, depending on the weather.’ [DROPCAP] For a scenic destination of the non-tropical variety, travel up to Canada, where you’ll find the Pacific Palisades Hotel, a swanky five-star pair of towers in downtown Vancouver. A participant in the Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants Group’s EarthCare program, the Palisades Hotel has won numerous awards for its environmental leadership (e.g., using nontoxic cleaning products, installing energy-efficient light bulbs and low-flow toilets, and printing on recycled paper with soy ink). Hotel guests who drive a hybrid car get overnight parking for half-price. According to a Pure Canada magazine article, Pacific Palisades Hotel saved 521,000 kilowatts of electricity in 2007 by retrofitting its lighting system. ‘Fun and fabulous’ is the motto, according to Lydia Miller, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. ‘We’re not big, stuffy and corporate.’ Built by the Mel Zajac family, the hotel originally opened as four towers in 1968 and 1969. Top-floor suites offer glorious views of Stanley Park and the Northshore Mountains, and later this year the guest rooms will have flat-screen TVs and clock radios equipped with iPod docking stations. Like our Palisades, this Palisades knows something about catering to movie stars, dating back to when members of the Rat Pack stayed in the hotel in the its earliest days. ‘We have been a long-established upscale property that has hosted many celebrities,’ Miller told the Post. ‘We keep it low key, and they keep coming back.’ Of course, if a trip to Vancouver is not likely this summer, travel about 90 minutes south of here to Carlsbad, where you’ll find the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort & Hotel, located close to the beach and to Legoland. Of course, prepare to spend a few bucks: summer rates begin at $TK for a double. [DROPCAP] It’s only fitting that Hawaii’s Pacific Palisades is located on the main island of Oahu, a name that literally translates to ‘sheltered bay’ or ‘safe haven.’ The common thread running through all versions of Pacific Palisades appears to be that each one is located in a spectacular locale. Could it be that the very moniker ‘Pacific Palisades’ has become synonymous with ‘paradise’? When a Post reporter pressed Arnie Wishnick, executive director of our Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, for comment on those other Palisades locations, he admitted that he had not heard about the Hawaiian Pacific Palisades, but he did visit British Columbia’s. ‘It’s a very beautiful hotel and it does our name proud,’ Wishnick said. ‘And I have a bar of soap from the hotel sitting in our office that I didn’t steal.’ (For information on Vancouver’s Pacific Palisades Hotel, visit www.PacificPalisadesHotel.com. To learn more about the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort in Carlsbad, visit www.GrandPacificPalisades.com.)