Exhibit seeks personal stories from those who worked for the former aviation tech giant in what is now Playa Vista

By Christina Campodonico

Hughes Aviation Co. as it looked in the early 1970s — Howard wouldn’t recognize the place today

When JoAnn Cowans was working on a book of art and personal stories to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Marina del Rey, the artist and author wasn’t expecting the research to lead her to Hughes Aircraft Co., the aerospace and technology giant where her husband worked for 12 years.

Discoveries from that search, including old copies of the company’s newspaper “Hughes News” and material from her husband’s archives, will go on display in February at the Fullerton Public Library in Orange County.

But Cowans says the exhibit is still missing an important element needed to bring the history of Hughes Aircraft Co. to life — people’s personal stories, especially stories related to the Hughes campus that is now Playa Vista.

And all of them are important.

Cowans said she didn’t realize how important her husband’s story was until delving into it.

Last year she happened upon boxes of patents that Ken Cowans had developed while working as a mechanical engineer at Hughes between 1957 and 1969. Because of the often-classified nature of work being done during the Cold War, Ken and his fellow Hughes employees didn’t often discuss what they were doing at the office.

So it was only in 2015 that Cowans discovered that her husband of 58 years had developed 16 patents while at Hughes and headed a team that developed a high-tech cryogenic cooling system.

“Hughes people don’t talk easily. They were so used to not talking,” Cowans said. “I was overwhelmed with the work my husband had done.”

When Cowans was making these discoveries she was also reading “Hughes After Howard,” which recounts how the company reorganized following the departure of its famously eccentric billionaire founder.

The book’s author, former Hughes President D. Kenneth Richardson, will speak about his time at the company on Feb. 20 as part of the exhibit’s run.

Reading Richardson’s book and discovering her husband’s patents led Cowans to drop her other project and begin assembling Hughes Aircraft memorabilia and stories for the forthcoming exhibition.

She and retired Hughes electrical engineer Larry Iboshi have solicited dozens of stories from former Hughes employees, but so far most of them are coming from those who worked at the company’s Fullerton location.

Now they’re seeking stories from those who worked at Hughes headquarters in what was then Culver City (now Playa Vista) to be part of the exhibition.

“Hughes Culver City [was] the motherland. That’s where it started,” said Cowans of the need for stories from the Westside.

She and Iboshi are accepting story submissions from former Hughes workers through Jan. 15.  These written accounts will be placed in binders for exhibition visitors to explore.

“We want the stories that people share over the dinner table,” said Cowans, who encourages would-be storytellers to not just refresh their resumes but recount meaningful memories from their time at Hughes, no matter how short or long that might be.

“A page or a paragraph will do,” she said.

As for Cowans’ story, she recalled how her world completely changed after her husband received a Hughes Fellowship to work at the company. The couple, about to be married, had plans to move from North Carolina to New York, where Ken was originally from and where Cowans planned to study art. Two weeks before the wedding, Ken told her that they’d be moving to California. He went to work at Hughes right away and pursued graduate work in theoretical physics at UCLA. She started taking arts classes at night, also at UCLA.

Yet stories like these aren’t just for posterity but to connect young people to Hughes Aircraft Co.’s legacy and its impact on the current technological landscape, Cowans said. Some technologies — such as in-flight entertainment systems, communications satellites that power XM Radio and DirecTV, and miniaturized computers that were a precursor to the smart phone —trace their lineage to Hughes.

“People tend to think of Hughes as a company of the past and something dead and gone,” said Cowans. “We are realizing how everything we have today had their beginnings at Hughes Aircraft.”

Send stories to Larry Iboshi at iboshi@pacbell.net or mail to 1668 N. Mountain View Place, Fullerton, CA, 92831 by Jan. 15. Submissions should be no longer than 1,800 words.

The Hughes Aircraft Co. exhibit runs from Feb. 1 to Feb. 29 at the Fullerton Public Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. Reach the library at (714) 738-6334.

Runway at Playa Vista
includes 217,000 square feet of retail space and
400 apartment homes
Photo by Jorge M. Vargas Jr.

The 14-acre retail and entertainment complex that took flight last year on what was once aviation mogul Howard Hughes’ private runway has changed hands in a deal that suggests the sky’s the limit for Playa Vista real estate values.

Runway at Playa Vista, the commercial keystone linking the planned community’s creative office campus and housing components, sold last week for about $475 million, sources close to the deal told the Los Angeles Times.

Runway’s 217,000 square feet of retail space includes a Whole Foods, Cinemark movie theater and nearly a dozen restaurants—
a mix soon to include Abbot Kinney Boulevard transplant Hal’s Bar & Grill.

The complex also includes 420 apartment homes above first-floor retail and in two adjacent buildings, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is building an outpatient facility in 33,000 square feet of office space.

Owners Lincoln Property Co., Phoenix Property Co. and capital partner Alcion Ventures sold Runway to Invesco Real Estate.

“Playa Vista had been an idea for decades, and the completion of Runway demonstrates that the Playa Vista community concept was smart, visionary and achievable. Lincoln is proud to have played a meaningful role,” Lincoln Property Co. Senior Executive Vice President David Binswanger said in a joint statement issued by the companies on Feb. 10.

— Joe Piasecki

Louie Cruz Beltran kicks off Playa Vista’s summer concert series to the beat of his own drum

By Evan Henerson

Louie Cruz Beltran’s percussion arrangements travel the world

Over a career that has spanned four decades, Louie Cruz Beltran has followed the beat of the conga and the timbale across the world and back again.

As a student at the Conservatory of Percussion in Paris and later as a performer, the Afro-Cuban bandleader/percussionist has journeyed to Western Europe and Scandinavia, to the Dominican Republic and Morocco.

This weekend Beltran alights in Playa Vista’s Concert Park, where he’ll take the stage on Sunday to kick off the free Concerts in the Park summer series.

Although Beltran works frequently in Los Angeles, he isn’t familiar with the newly sprouted neighborhood. But give the man an outdoor venue and an audience full of listeners who are willing to get things shaking, and he promises to take it from there.

“For these kinds of festivals, I like to get my pathos, logos and ethos together and do some really great music,” Beltran says. “I’ll being doing a crossover of different types of music, all with a layer of Afro-Cuban rhythms.”

Beltran is speaking by phone from Bakersfield, where he’s visiting his mother. The San Joaquin Valley is where the seed for Beltran’s love of music was planted. As his mother Aurelia Olgin would prepare food, Louie Cruz and his seven siblings — including future “Star Trek: Voyager” star Robert Beltran (Chakotay) — would gather around and sing.

“It was kind of like a bird in the nest, and all the little birds would chirp along with mom,” recalls Beltran, who started playing bongos at age 5. “She would teach my brothers and sisters to sing in choir, and she taught me the concept of harmony. That has helped me my entire career.”

Beltran’s interest in music deepened as he grew up and started playing in the San Francisco Bay Area. The success of Carlos Santana was influential. During his time in Paris, Beltran learned African and Middle-Eastern percussion, and he studied with Puerto Rican and Cuban drummers.

Beltran knew early on that he would rather follow his music than punch a clock. During his early years, when professional work was difficult to come by, Beltran said he followed the example of Santana — with whom he would later share the stage — who proved that even with music drawing on Afro-Cuban beats, crossover success was attainable.

“I was doing Latin rhythms and changing the rhythms and the arrangements of songs by Earth Wind and Fire, James Brown, you name it and I would always put a little Latin beat to it. Eventually I was getting more gigs,” Beltran says.

“I was very good friends with Pete Escovedo and their whole family, and I noticed how they were crossing over,” he continues. “I told myself, ‘Louie, there’s time for the folk music of Afro-Latin tradition, and there’s a time for making money.’ I was going to stick to my music — look for creative ways to make a living and still play the music in the style that I love.”

As his career blossomed, Beltran has remained creative. He is a regular on the jazz festival circuit, playing engagements up and down the state, including the Playboy Jazz Festival and the Hollywood Bowl. He mixes the higher-profile concerts and festival performances with teaching and private events.

Beltran’s appearance calendar, which already has bookings into early 2017, includes gigs from Seal Beach to Pasadena. He’ll also be meeting with a group of librarians to explore the possibility of conducting a workshop. Beltran frequently appears as a motivational speaker at inner-city high schools to talk about the power of music as a bridge between segregated populations.

“Music has been, to me, the highlight of ambassadorship and diplomacy that has always been able to break barriers,” he says. “I use that tool to bring young audiences together to understand that there’s really much more that we have in common as a society than we have as differences.”

For his 2011 album “Paint the Rhythm,” his third, Beltran assembled a bunch of old friends including Escovedo, Poncho Sanchez, Giovani Hidalgo and Hubert Laws. He is working on a new CD, and
a possible re-release of his debut album “It’s My Time.”

Beltran advises up-and-coming musicians looking to emulate a Beltran-ish career to study the ever-changing music industry. If album sales is a more immediate goal than a heavily booked touring calendar, a musician will face a completely different set of variables.

“It’s not an easy trail, and you have to be the one to carry that flame,” Beltran says. “I’m very optimistic even when I see music being ripped off every day, from the point of having your material sold for 99 cents to seeing the diligence you need just to accumulate the money you need to survive. Things are done so differently now in the industry that it becomes a little discouraging at times.

“You have got to be passionate. You have to have a real love for what you do, and then you can get through the hard times.

“The sky will open. You’ll see it. It will come along.”

Louie Cruz Beltran plays a free outdoor show from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Concert Park in Playa Vista, where Concert Park Drive terminates at West Runway Road. Visit playavista.com or louiecruzbeltran.com for more information.

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Freeway-adjacent lot will become a car dealership and more

By Joe Piasecki

[Editor’s note: The headline has been modified because the parcel was not part of the original Hughes Aircraft Company footprint, so it is not technically in Playa Vista but in Playa Vista-adjacent Del Rey.]

Following an $83-million purchase by So Cal auto sales tycoon Hooman Nissani, the long-vacant commercial lot at Jefferson Boulevard and Centinela Avenue will become a car dealership as it awaits transition into a mixed-use development.

The nine-acre parcel will be developed for Nissani by Lincoln Property Co., which completed the Whole Foods-anchored Runway at Playa Vista retail, entertainment and residential complex last year.

Lincoln Property Co. Executive Vice President David Binswanger said the property’s interim use as an auto dealership will give developers time to figure out the best long-term uses for the property.

“We’re not under traditional time pressures, and from a real estate perspective that’s a real luxury,” Binswanger said.

Nonetheless, preliminary proposals could be forthcoming in a matter of months, he said.

“Nissani recognized early on that this site has much more potential than only running a car dealership out of it,” Binswanger said. “Now that the deal is closed we’re going to be out there publicly talking to stakeholders, the councilman’s office and others in the neighborhood to see what the community would like to see, what’s economically viable and try to bring that together.”

Westside Neighborhood School is launching an experiential preschool in the heart of Silicon Beach

By Menaka Gentle

Exterior and Interior renderings of the coming WNS preschool at Beethoven Street and Coral Tree Place

Anticipating high demand for early childhood education among the young families of Silicon Beach, Westside Neighborhood School will expand its Playa Vista-adjacent campus in order to begin enrolling preschoolers next year.

The prestigious K-8 private school is converting a former industrial warehouse across the street into an indoor-outdoor classroom, and activity space designed to foster experiential learning.

The finished red-brick building will feature artificial-turf flooring, high ceilings with translucent blue skylights and large rollup doors to give the veranda-like setting a bright and airy feel. There will be a woodshop with hammers and power tools, a visual arts studio with potter’s wheels, a large gymnasium for drama, dance and physical activity, and flexible learning spaces for kinesthetic science, engineering and technology projects.

Westside Neighborhood School intends to enroll 68 kids ages 3 to 5 in September 2017. The early application process wraps up on Dec. 1, followed by an open enrollment period for any remaining spaces.

“This community is going to have a really top-tier preschool [option] that doesn’t exist currently,” said WNS Head of School Brad Zacuto.

The program will appeal to “not only families who live in this area but the equally important families who work in this area, as Silicon Beach is growing exponentially,” he said. “To have a preschool in their backyard is going to be a tremendous benefit.”

The preschool’s curriculum pairs a maker’s mindset with a Reggio Emilia-inspired learning style — in other words, putting the child in charge of his or her own education.

“Children come to school already eager to learn, already curious, already scientists,” Zacuto said.

The concept, he added, is about “putting children first and creating exciting provocations for kids that stimulate exploring, questions and inquiry — giving children the chance to be independent, and not giving them the answers to a problem but letting them solve it on their own.”

In addition to the preschool, WNS will use the space for an open-registration parent-toddler program (kids 18 to 36 months) on Saturdays, starting Sept. 10. There will be an emphasis on inquiry and exploration through group experiences that “engage children with language, literacy, music, dramatic play and social-emotional growth,” according to a program description.

The preschool program that opens next year will carry on the Westside Neighborhood School practice of encouraging mindfulness by routinely breaking from activities for moments of silence and reflection.

By combining a child’s innate curiosity with introspection and focus, the preschool program has “the same feeling and culture of WNS,” Director of Admissions Darlene Fountaine said. “It’s an extension of who we are.”

For preschool and parent-toddler program enrollment and pricing information, call (310) 574-8650 or visit wnsk8.com.

A rotten-egg smell that’s enveloped the neighborhood appears to be from decaying wetlands vegetation felled for mosquito abatement

By Gary Walker

Decomposing reeds and foliage in the Playa Vista Freshwater Marsh are causing the putrid odor that has invaded Playa Vista over the last month, according to the Ballona Conservancy.
Photo courtesy of Patti Londre

A putrid, sulfurous odor akin to rotten eggs has been blowing through the western end of Playa Vista for nearly a month, and it’s likely the result of efforts to keep mosquitos from breeding at the nearby Playa Vista Freshwater Marsh.

The Ballona Conservancy, a nonprofit created to maintain the 51.7-acre marsh in the Ballona Wetlands, thinks the recurring smell is caused by decaying vegetation that was cut down in an effort to reduce mosquito breeding in the marsh.

Last month The Argonaut reported that county health officials had identified “massive and unprecedented” mosquito breeding at the marsh due in large part to a lack of routine maintenance, according to a report by Los Angeles County West Vector and Vector-Borne Disease Control District Executive Director Dr. Robert Saviskas.

The agency ordered the Ballona Conservancy to remove vegetation that was so thick it prevented mosquito abatement efforts.

In order to comply, the conservancy cut down large amounts of reeds and foliage in the marsh and the surrounding riparian corridor in order to control the mosquito population, a Playa Vista spokesman said.

“This was done at the direction of the Los Angeles County West Vector Control District, which also requested that the water levels in the corridor be reduced to decrease the breeding areas for mosquitoes,” he said. “However, since the work was done, a strong smell began emanating from the corridor area located south of Bluff Creek Drive. It is likely that the smell is caused, in part, due to the decomposition of the cut vegetation.”

Conservancy representatives anticipate having the problem under control soon.

“The conservancy has hired more people to move more quickly to remove the vegetation, and anticipates completing that work this week. We are also confident that the smell will dissipate once the cut vegetation is cleared and water levels in the corridor resume to normal levels.”

Since the vegetation was cut back and the water levels lowered, the mosquito counts are down “dramatically,” according to the conservancy.

Residents of the upscale neighborhood have complained of acrid smells all around Bluff Creek Drive, including at Playa Vista Elementary School, Oberrieder Dog Park and the basket-ball courts.

Resident Lori Gage said the odor has been strongest in the morning when she drives down Bluff Creek Drive to get to Lincoln Boulevard.

“It smells like rotten eggs, not like rotting vegetation,” she said. “I’m really concerned because the school is right there.”

Gage said she has smelled the odor on and off for nearly a month and initially thought it might be methane.

“I’ve even smelled it late at night, as late as 11 p.m. It’s horrible,” she said.

Resident Patti Londre described the smell as “sulfurous air pollution” emanating from the marsh.

“When the wind dies down over-night, the odor wafts into our homes and chokes us awake. Nobody should have to close their windows and turn on air conditioning when we live in the breeze of the ocean,” Londre said.

Gage, who lives near the Campus at Playa Vista, isn’t absolutely convinced smell is emanating from the marsh. The pungent odor was present again over the weekend, she said, stronger than ever.

“To have smelled it all weekend and not on other days is very interesting to me. It’s very odd,” she said.

gary@argonautnews.com

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Stella Vaughan-Verk and Councilman Mike Bonin lead the way during a community bike ride she helped organize

Thanks in part to the work of one local student, more than 100 people recently joined L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin for an exploratory community bike ride around Del Rey and Playa Vista.

As part of her sixth-grade Environmental Stewards Project earlier this year, 12-year-old Westside Neighborhood School (WNS) student Stella Vaughan-Verk wrote to Bonin about challenges for bicycle and pedestrian access in the area.

The project, developed by WNS sixth-grade dean and science teacher Kaitlin Lester, has two guiding questions for students:  (1) How can I make a difference in my community? (2) What impact do my actions have on the environment?

The work offers students the opportunity to focus on environmental issues close to their hearts. From making small changes at home to participating in restoration work or beach clean-ups and writing letters to government officials, students realize they can have a direct role in improving their environment.

“Everyone was planting a tree; I wanted to do something different,” said Vaughan-Verk, who enjoys biking — when she has the time — with family, friends and her pet boxer Roxanne.

Vaughn-Verk’s letter led to a meeting with Bonin, and later she and father Jonathan Verk co-coordinated the ride, which launched from the WNS campus just south of Ballona Creek.

“We couldn’t be prouder of Stella for demonstrating great initiative to inspire and help with such a successful event,” WNS Head of School Brad Zacuto said.

Supporters included Bike Attack, the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition and L.A. Metro Bike Share as well as TOMS Shoes, Priority Bicycles, Deutsch, Wiredrive, Maser Condo Sales and CTRL Collective.

Before the ride, Bonin acknowledged the risks associated with biking on Centinela Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard, the only access points for bikers crossing Ballona Creek on their way to Playa Vista.

Community members have long been requesting a safe route connecting Playa Vista and Del Rey to the Ballona Creek bike path. Last year local architect Paul Howard proposed a pedestrian/cyclist bridge which might reuse the existing concrete supports of the former L.A. Pacific Electric Red
Car crossing.

Bonin included a bridge in Metro’s Active Transportation Strategic Plan (adopted in June 2016) so the project’s design and construction could be eligible for Metro and grant funding.

”Providing access to regional bike paths like this encourages more biking and walking, helping to take cars off the road and move Los Angeles toward a more sustainable and less-congested transportation future,” Bonin said.

— Regan Kibbe

LAUSD board members made it official last week: Come September, students aging out of Playa Vista Elementary School will be able to continue their studies at a brand new middle school program on the Manchester Avenue campus of Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets (formerly Westchester High School).

The new school is intended to continue Playa Vista Elementary’s popular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum, closing the gap in a local educational pipeline.

“The new pathway comes to complement the other science-oriented programs serving the Westchester and Del Rey communities: Orville Wright Middle School and Marina Del Rey Middle School,” LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer wrote in a letter to parents. “We fully intend that all middle school pathways will lead to WESM.”

Students currently enrolled in Playa Vista Elementary School get priority admission to the new middle school, with sixth- and seventh-grade cohorts of 100 to 150 students each launching in 2017 and eighth-grade classrooms coming online in 2018. Other students will be admitted by lottery according to various enrollment priority groups.

Responding to complaints by Westchester and Playa del Rey parents that the program could fill up before their kids have a chance to enroll, LAUSD is including residents of Westchester, Playa Vista, Playa del Rey and View Park – Windsor Hills in the Group 2 enrollment tier.

Students who do not live in the area but currently attend Cowan, Kentwood, Loyola Village, Open Charter Magnet, Paseo del Rey Magnet, Playa del Rey or Westport Heights elementary schools are in Group 3. LAUSD will take enrollment applications between Jan. 27 and Feb. 17, with letters of acceptance going
out March 6.

Playa Vista is no longer fair game for people sleeping in their cars, and guidelines won’t preempt existing restrictions elsewhere

By Gary Walker

After being inundated with calls from confused and angry Westside residents, Los Angeles city officials have made changes to a map detailing where people who live in their vehicles will and will not be allowed to park.

The updated map will continue to evolve and does not supersede existing posted parking restrictions for campers and other vehicles, according to a statement issued Monday by Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin.

“I say ‘updated’ and not ‘final’ because it is very important to note that these maps are not at all the final determining factor of where people are allowed to park when sleeping in their vehicles. Rather, posted parking restrictions and the language of the revised law (which prohibits vehicular dwelling within 500 feet of residential areas, schools, daycare centers and parks) is the final, determining factor that says where people are allowed to safely park when living in their vehicles,” reads a statement from Bonin’s office.

Short of advertising where people can sleep in RVs or cars, the maps created by city planners, the LAPD and the city attorney’s office are meant to guide enforcement of the ordinance.

The previous map had suggested that people living in vehicles could park them around the clock in residential and retail areas of Playa Vista, which existing parking restrictions prohibit. It also had RVs parking overnight on Culver Boulevard alongside the Ballona Wetlands, where no parking is allowed.

The updated map would not allow vehicle dwelling in these locations at any time.

One community that didn’t see a lot of changes, however, is Westchester.

The previous and updated maps designate Sepulveda Boulevard between Manchester Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard — the commercial heart of Westchester — as available to vehicle dwellers both day and night. But this doesn’t add up because overnight parking is already prohibited there, said Westchester Town Center Executive Director Don Duckworth.

Sepulveda Westway is also open to parking day and night, and the map shows portions of Sepulveda Eastway cleared for parking either during the day or both day and night.

“If [overnight parking] is allowed on Sepulveda Eastway, we will seek a change,” Duckworth said.

The majority of streets designated for day or night vehicle dwelling are on the neighborhood’s east side, including the horseshoe-shaped group of streets north of Century Boulevard and east of Aviation Boulevard, as well as several light-industrial areas.

“The RV map by itself does not tell the whole story,” said Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa President Cyndi Hench. “As the council office indicated, all parking references need to be taken into consideration before reaching any conclusions.”

While much of the Playa del Rey lowlands would be off-limits to vehicle dwellers day or night, the updated map designates a large number of residential streets on the tony Playa del Rey bluffs for daytime parking.

In Venice and Mar Vista, overnight parking would be still be allowed along Rose Avenue west of Lincoln and some commercial portions of Venice Boulevard — that is, if current parking restrictions don’t preempt it.

Lucy Han, a community organizer in the Playa del Rey lowlands, said Bonin’s office has been responsive to the numerous calls from her and her neighbors about the earlier map.

But Han remains concerned about some areas where overnight parking could be permitted, which still includes a few spots along Culver designated for day or night parking.

“We want things to be crystal clear so that there’s no confusion,” Han said. “We want the map to reflect what the streets signs say.”

YouTube picks Playa Vista to announce a game-changing streaming service

By Christina Campodonico

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl (above) unveil YouTube TV at YouTube Space LA in Playa Vista
Photos by Maria Martin

YouTube sent ripples through the media industry on Tuesday when the company announced the upcoming arrival of YouTube TV, a live and on-demand streaming TV subscription service that’s poised to shake up how the world watches television.

The Google-owned tech company chose Playa Vista for the announcement, holding a press conference at YouTube Space LA.

“This Playa Vista space is the perfect setting to reveal it,” said YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, citing the space’s mission to make video production more accessible to YouTube video creators. “We built this space because we believe in removing barriers to storytelling, and with YouTube TV we’re doing just that for a younger generation.”

Aiming to appeal to cord-cutting millennials who want to watch TV when, where and how they want, YouTube TV will stream more than 40 television networks on demand through desktops, mobile devices and Chromecast-enabled TVs.

The subscription service is set to launch sometime in the next few months and includes up to six accounts per household for $35 monthly fee. Service includes the four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) and a number of cable, sports and news channels, such as USA, FX, ESPN, Disney Channel, MSNBC and Spanish-language channel Telemundo.

Through YouTube TV’s app, subscribers can record programs or watch live TV from any of YouTube TV’s partners, “cast” programs from a mobile device to a TV screen, search for new shows, and access YouTube Red’s original programming as well as YouTube’s vast catalogue of online videos. Other features include unlimited DVR storage in the cloud, in-app customer support and personalized programming recommendations.

Executives also suggested that local broadcast TV channels would be available based on users’ geographical location, but did not name specific channels or markets.

“We want to get as much of the country covered as possible,” said Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s Chief Business Officer.

For now, YouTube is focused on rolling out YouTube TV only in the U.S., but Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan is excited to see how the new service emerges into the video on-demand ecosystem.

“We really do believe this is the future of media consumption,” he said. “That’s the journey I think we’re starting on today. Our long-term vision is to really reimagine how TV is watched.”

christina@argonautnews.com

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The 34th annual Holiday Home Tour keeps the spirit of the season — Halloween and Thanksgiving, too

By Stephanie Case

The five Westchester and Playa del Rey houses featured in this year’s Holiday Home Tour will be decked out as perfect examples of how to decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas

It’s Oct. 31, and Playa del Rey homeowner Molly Waggoner is prepping for a transformation.

“Tonight at midnight, Halloween is going to be banished, and it’s going to be instant Christmas at our house,” she says.

Two or three dozen mismatched Christmas trees — one made of seashells, one dripping with beads, some in green, red and silver — will scatter the house. An army of nutcrackers will stand at the ready, while handmade stockings hang from the mantle.

“I’m so obsessed with the Christmas holidays that my family, many years ago, dubbed it ‘the Mollidays,’” she says with a laugh.

This year, Waggoner’s feverish decoration is for a good cause: the 34th annual Holiday Home Tour, a fundraiser for the Airport Marina Counseling Service (AMCS), put on by the Westchester Mental Health Guild.

On this Sunday’s self-guided tour, attendees can wander through five of Westchester and Playa del Rey’s most striking homes, each embellished with their own holiday twist.

Those waxing nostalgic for Halloween can start at the Westchester bungalow: a renovated Craftsman home, full of windows and skylights, and decorated with autumnal flair.

Nearby on Naylor Avenue, a mid-century modern gem, built in 1941, sets the stage for a vintage Thanksgiving. The single-story house is full of original architectural features and splashes of ‘60s color.

Also in Westchester, an American farmhouse — designed with a marriage of rustic and modern touches — is ready for New Year’s Eve.

Over in Playa del Rey, two homes are embracing the Christmas spirit. One is a Cape Cod-style two story, packed with fine art, antiques and “features you couldn’t find anywhere else,” dishes Linda Peterson, co-chair of the tour.

“The homeowner’s father was a NASCAR racer, and she has the roof of his car mounted on the wall of her family room,” Peterson says.

The Waggoners’ place, a freshly remodeled beach cottage, is an apt location for a Christmas on the coast.

They bought it in early 2014, back when it was a small structure on an overgrown corner lot.

“[The land] looked like a giant forest, with a pool that had been built in the 1920s, and I thought, ‘We can really make this a paradise,” says Waggoner.

After two-plus years of painstaking remodeling, the finished product is exactly what you’d expect from a family of Playa del Rey surfers.

“Every little detail evokes the sea, from the bead board on the ceiling to a chandelier shaped like an anchor,” says Peterson. Roam the inside, and you’ll spot seagrass wallpaper, an array of ocean and coral tones — plus some classic red and green for Christmas.

Right outside is the “dream Southern California backyard,” with a pool, hot tub and firepit.

“You can see the blue of the pool, and the blue of the ocean on the horizon, peeking over our backyard fence,” says Waggoner. “It’s just beautiful.”

After scoping out each house, tour-goers can head to a reception at the Westchester Elks Lodge, complete with food, drinks and a pop-up holiday marketplace. There, local vendors will sell an array of ready-to-gift goods like vintage jewelry, children’s books, handbags, Christmas trees and cupcakes.

Proceeds for the tour will benefit the AMCS, a nonprofit mental health clinic that provides thousands of hours of low-cost counseling to the surrounding community each year, including youth therapy at Boys & Girls Clubs and elementary schools.

The Holiday Home Tour runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov 6. Tickets can be purchased for $30 in advance or for $35 on the day of the event at the Westchester Elks Club, 8025 W. Manchester Ave., Playa del Rey. For more information, visit westchestermhg.org.

The Arutunian Family continues a Halloween tradition in Playa del Rey

By Gary Walker

LEFT: The Arutunian and Cuneo families would serve nearly 500 pounds of potatoes by night’s end
RIGHT: This year’s 50th Halloween Mini-Mansion party was like a neighborhood reunion party

Every tradition starts with a story. How the Halloween Mini-Mansion in Playa del Rey became a 50-year destination in the season of witches and goblins begins in 1965 with Harold Arutunian.

The Delgany Avenue homeowner loved Halloween but wanted to do something for neighborhood children other than pass out candy like everyone else.

At the suggestion of his wife Vreni, Arutunian — who owned a food distribution company — decided to offer french fries and hot dogs, which proved to be a big hit with the trick-or-treaters who came to his door.

The experiment worked so well, in fact, that the hot dogs and french fries became a local tradition. Over the years, Arutunian’s house on the 8300 block of Delgany became the destination for kids and families to grab dinner before heading off into the night.

“I can remember coming here in my stroller with my parents. When I got older we’d come here for dinner first and then go out trick or treating,” Jenny Levine said during this year’s 50th Mini-Mansion celebration on Halloween night. “Sometimes I’d be really hungry and my mom would always say, ‘Just wait. You’re going to get a hot dog and french fries soon.’”

Charles Anthony “Tony” Guerra, who now lives in Playa Vista, remembers coming to the very first Halloween Mini-Mansion party when his family lived in Playa del Rey, and he’s returned every year.

What keeps Guerra and many others coming back is that it’s become a sort of reunion for those who grew up in Playa del Rey.

“It’s been the meeting place for families in Playa del Rey. I’ve brought my kids over the years, and I would see people who I hadn’t seen in 20 years. Anyone who grew up on Delgany and nearby streets comes here,” said Guerra, whose childhood home was one block west on Zitola Terrace.

Felicia Cuneo, the Arutunians’ daughter, says her mother was an equal partner in the event and worked in the family’s kitchen cooking and making sure the operation ran smoothly.

“After everything was done, she would serve pumpkin pie, coffee and tea to everyone who helped,” said Cuneo, who lives in the family home after purchasing it from her parents 20 years ago.

The only year the Halloween Mini-Mansion party didn’t happen was 1970, when Mr. Arutunian had back surgery.

Before passing away in July, Arutunian had decreed that this 50th outing would be his last. But Cuneo never considered ending the tradition, she said.

This year’s Mini-Mansion party was a festive occasion, with crowds hanging out in front of the house, where orange and black streamers dangled from trees. Childhood memories of trick-or-treating came flooding back as I saw groups of children — ghosts, superheroes, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — scamper from house to house with their parents trailing closely behind.

Cuneo greeted me warmly upon my arrival and quickly offered me a hot dog and french fries, which were delicious. She introduced me to her husband Mark, brother Todd Arutunian and aunt Harriet Kevorkian, her father’s sister.

Various family members worked the food line in an orderly and organized fashion reminiscent of the precision of an assembly line.

Cuneo said her family gave out 624 hot dogs and served 28 gallons of lemonade between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., when the announcement came that they’d run out
of food.

In those three hours, they also prepared more than seven cases of french fries with two industrial deep fryers.

“My dad told me that eight cases of french fries are equivalent to five 100-pound sacks of potatoes,” Cuneo said proudly.

She was pleased with the turnout. Just seeing the happy crowds, she said, makes keeping the tradition her parents began worthwhile.

“It was one of the bigger ones that we’ve had,” Cuneo said. “It’s a lot of work when we’re in the middle of it, but it’s so rewarding.”

Guerra was happy he could make it.

“I’m so grateful to see that the tradition is still being carried on, because that’s what this is: a great Halloween tradition,” he said.

One woman who came to the Halloween Mini-Mansion party for the first time summed up the evening after taking a turn and surveying the crowd eating and enjoying each other’s company.

“How cool is this?” she exclaimed.

gary@argonautnews.com

Playa del Rey residents battling a controversial mixed-use development planned for Culver Boulevard may have gotten an early — albeit indirect — Christmas present from L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin, who recently came out swinging against another multi-story development in the area.

Opponents of the Legado 138 project (formerly Legado Del Mar) at 138 Culver Blvd. primarily object to the 72-unit apartment complex with 14,500 square feet of commercial space on the grounds that it’s just too tall in the context of the one- and two-story buildings that surround it.

The Legado Co., meanwhile, is now requesting a density bonus waiver that would add 11 feet to the building for a total height of 56 feet.

At a Dec.15 planning hearing, Bonin sent council office planning deputy Ezra Gale to convey public opposition to a duplex on Pacific Avenue on the grounds that even this building would be too tall for the area.

Bonin further tells The Argonaut that he believes the city’s Del Rey Lagoon Specific Plan — which limits new buildings to a height of no more than 37 feet — should be the guiding blueprint for all development in immediate area.

“The project proposed for 6202 Pacific Ave. is too tall and not the right fit for Playa del Rey,” Bonin said. “I stand with the neighbors who are justifiably concerned about the height of this proposal, and I am going to make sure the Planning Department abides by the Del Rey Lagoon Specific Plan.”

Bonin’s office declined to discuss Legado 138, but there’s no question that fitting a 56-foot building into a 37-foot height limit may present some issues.

Councilman pushes to redeploy LAPD officers

By Gary Walker

For more than five years, Westchester and Playa del Rey public safety advocates and members of their business communities have been vociferously advocating for more police patrols.

A plan announced last week by City Councilman Mike Bonin to put more LAPD officers in patrol cars has given them a reason to believe their wishes may soon become reality.

“It’s been something that we’ve been paying attention to and requesting for a very long time,” said David Voss, a Playa del Rey resident and a member of the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee.

Against the backdrop of a police recruitment training center in Westchester, Bonin laid out a 10-point plan to bolster more community policing in his district and throughout the city by redeploying officers from various other positions to patrol units.

“Community policing is a cornerstone of public safety. Too often I hear from constituents that they rarely see a patrol car in their neighborhood, or that it takes LAPD too long to respond to an emergency call. Our neighborhoods deserve better. We need more patrol officers in Westside neighborhoods and in neighborhoods around the city,” Bonin said at the Jan. 19 press conference.

Both Bonin and Voss noted that since the planned community of Playa Vista was built in 2003, the LAPD’s Pacific Division — which patrols Westchester, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Del Rey, Mar Vista, Venice and other Westside neighborhoods — has not deployed any additional patrol officers.

In 2015 there was an uptick in both violent crime and property crime in the Pacific Division’s territory, according to LAPD statistics.

Through data put together during a nearly year-long effort led by council office legislative director John Gregory, Bonin learned that as the LAPD’s number of sworn officers increased from nearly 7,000 in the late 1970s to almost 10,000 today, the number of officers on patrol actually diminished.

In 1978, then-Chief Daryl Gates moved a significant number of the LAPD’s 7,016 officers away from patrol duties in favor of bolstering specialized units, according to Bonin’s office.

“Today, with more officers than at any time in the LAPD’s history, patrol deployment levels do not appear to have increased and response times do not appear to have improved,” the report states.

“The numbers paint a clear picture of where our priorities have been, and it unfortunately hasn’t been in having patrol officers in our neighborhoods,” added Bonin, who is seeking reelection in March. “We have to reevaluate, reemphasize and redeploy our officers to fit our priorities.”

On Jan. 20, Bonin submitted a motion to the City Council to instruct the LAPD and other municipal agencies to report back to the council how daily deployment and patrol staffing are determined and to return with strategies for a “more realistic and robust” patrol staffing level formula.

Elements of Bonin’s plan include redeploying sworn officers from less-essential functions and from specialized units into routine patrol support duties, creating a “constant staffing” mechanism and overtime policy to cover vacancies when officers are on leave or have retired, and prioritized hiring of essential civilian positions so that sworn officers can move to patrol.

Longtime City Hall critic Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association and one of two Venice residents running against Bonin for his council seat, accused Bonin of “stealing his proposal” for new patrols.

Ryavec noted that he has been calling on LAPD to change its operational structure for police patrols in Venice for almost four years.

“So, after three and a half years of ignoring residents’ complaints that policing levels are unsafe in Council District 11, Bonin is following my lead to change deployment protocols,” Ryavec wrote in an email.

Steven Barkan, Bonin’s campaign consultant, dismissed Ryavec as “careless with the facts” and called his claims “outlandish and inaccurate.”

Bonin’s other challenger, former Venice Neighborhood Council member Robin Rudisill, supports the proposal but also questioned its timing, calling the press conference “11th-hour posturing.”

“I don’t understand why it took him until almost the end of his term to figure this out,” Rudisill said.

Sudden hillside erosion prompts concern on the Playa del Rey bluffs

By Gary Walker

A tarp covers unstable soil on the Playa del Rey bluffs
Photo by Michael Kraxenberger

Recent rainstorms may have brought welcome relief for much of drought-stricken Southern California, but resulting mudslides on the Playa del Rey bluffs have startled locals and made it potentially unsafe for some hillside residents to enter their backyards.

Grading inspectors with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety visited on Jan. 27 to conduct an investigation of the bluffs below 8124 and 8128 Billowvista Drive, where on Feb. 1 they posted yellow warning placards.

“The dwellings can be occupied, but the yellow placards specify there is to be no access to the rear of the properties,” Building and Safety Chief Inspector Jeff Napier explained.

The north-facing hillside sits above the Ballona Wetlands, near but not directly above the Southern California Gas Co. natural gas storage field.

The slope failure, commonly referred to as a mudslide, has left the land below it in a vulnerable state after a series of sustained January and early February downpours. A rain gauge at LAX recorded a record-setting nearly three inches of rainfall on Jan. 22, according to the National Weather Service.

Napier said the city is still investigating the depth of the Playa del Rey mudslide and whether to be concerned about subsidence — i.e., the gradual sinking or caving in of an area of land.

“Based on just the visual observations without exploration data, it is more than a mudslide. At this point it is our opinion that it appears to be a fairly shallow movement of the surface material, but further investigation needs to be done,” he said.

Building and Safety workers strung yellow tape halfway down the bluffs last week below Cabora Road and adjacent to the Ballona Wetlands to provide a perimeter for the slide.

That perimeter “is not to be crossed,” Napier warned.

Nearby, underneath the tape, nature persists undaunted. Wetland birds frolicked in the pools of water left by the rains, and at night frogs serenaded motorists on Culver Boulevard and guests across the way at the Inn at Playa del Rey.

Monday brought more rain, but Napier said without further examination of the bluff his team couldn’t make a determination whether additional rainfall would change the conditions
of the hillside.

“There is always a chance that there could be more movement when rain is predicted,” he noted.

gary@argonautnews.com

How a stolen dog made it back home to Playa del Rey

Sparky investigates a welcome home gift basket from police officers at LAPD’S Pacific Division Station with owener Robert Arbogast
Photo by Maria Martin

For three weeks, Playa del Rey resident Robert Arbogast was beside himself.

Burglars stole his truck and about $100,000 worth of gold coins and watches from his home last month, but they also took his best friend: a very friendly black-and-white Boston terrier named Sparky.

But thanks to Arbogast’s own tireless search efforts, an outpouring of assistance from friends and neighbors, some detective work by the LAPD’s Pacific Division and the emergence of a Good Samaritan, Sparky is now safe at home again.

Sparky’s March 6 homecoming was extra special, said Arbogast, because it coincided with Sparky’s third birthday.

“I am so thankful to have my boy back in my life,” he said.

Arbogast’s ordeal began on Feb. 15 after he returned home from a business meeting in the San Fernando Valley. Renovations are being done on his home, and he had temporarily taken off the deadbolt above the handle on his front door.

“When I came home all the doors where open. Everything was tossed around. But the first thing I thought about was ‘Where’s Sparky?’”
recalled Arbogast, a consumer fraud attorney.

Frantic, he called the Pacific Division station and was surprised when Capt. Robert Long, who happened to be on patrol near Playa del Rey, came to his home after hearing the radio call about the burglary.

“I was really grateful that he came out,” Arbogast said.

LAPD Det. Robyn Salazar, a Pacific Division burglary investigator, says burglars rarely steal dogs.

“This was an unusual case. We listed Sparky as stolen and dedicated some of our patrol units to look for him,” she said.

Arbogast’s neighbors also sprang into action, helping him place flyers with Sparky’s image and the promise of a $1,000 reward as far east as Inglewood. They also advised him to join the social networking site NextDoor and post photos of Sparky there as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Arbogast even contacted famed animal communicator / pet psychic Joan Ranquet, who agreed to a consult.

Sparky had been Arbogast’s constant companion since his divorce four years ago, and at times he wasn’t sure he’d ever see his best friend again.

“I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to think about anything bad happening to him. The house was empty without Sparky,” Arbogast said. “I had been on pins and needles for weeks.”

On March 3 police got a break in the case when they located Arbogast’s truck in South Los Angeles. Arbogast posted more fliers of Sparky throughout the area, hoping that someone had seen his beloved friend.

Three days later, a call came in from a man who identified himself as Mario and had recognized Sparky from all those lost dog posters.

“He said, ‘I have your dog,’” Arbogast recalled.

Arbogast and a brother who was visiting raced to Broadway and Manchester Avenue, where Mario was waiting with Sparky.

“As soon as he saw me, he ran to me and jumped right into my arms,” Arbogast said.

Mario told Arbogast that he had seen Sparky with a homeless man and “bought” him for $100, knowing the dog’s rightful owner was searching for him.

Salazar gives Arbogast all the credit for bringing Sparky home.

“He did it on his own. A lot of people were looking for Sparky, but Mr. Arbogast really did this on his own,” she said.

Sparky is now something of a local celebrity. On March 9, Sparky and Arbogast visited Pacific Division Station, where a group of officers dressed in black and white in Sparky’s honor, took pictures with Sparky and gave Arbogast a basket of dog treats.

Salazar also declared Sparky the station’s “unofficial” mascot.

After the homecoming, Sparky’s veterinarian examined the pup and gave him a clean bill of health.

“He looked very good. He seemed to be in good spirits,” said Marie Bertman, chief of staff at Banfield Pet Hospital of Culver City.

For Salazar, the story continues. She said police have developed some solid leads since recovering the truck.

“I’m pretty confident that we’ll be able to identify at least one of the suspects,” she said.

Arbogast remains thankful for Salazar, her colleagues and his community for their assistance during what he described as among the worst weeks of his life.

“It was a horrible thing to go through,” he said, “but it was a beautiful ending.”

gary@argonautnews.com

After removing 230 pounds of litter from Dockweiler, volunteers head to Toes Beach and Ballona Creek

By Joe Piasecki

Bank of America volunteers scoured the sands of Dockweiler
on Earth Day

On Earth Day a team of 610 volunteers from Bank of America joined Heal the Bay to remove more than 230 pounds of trash from Dockweiler State Beach. This Saturday, Heal the Bay and Friends of the Ballona Wetlands are taking volunteers to do more of the same along Toes Beach and Ballona Creek.

Their biggest target: plastics, which item for item outrank Styrofoam and cigarette butts as the top pollutants on area beaches. Since March 1999, Heal the Bay beach cleanups have removed 138,549 plastic items, 111,532 pieces of Styrofoam and 53,102 cigarettes from just the Playa del Rey-adjacent portion of Dockweiler, according to the nonprofit’s Marine Debris Log.

“Dockweiler has historically been one of the beaches most in need of cleanups,” said Heal the Bay Donor Relations Manager Logan Doughtie, who organized the BofA cleanup.

“What makes it unique are the fire pits,” explained Senior Marketing & Communications Manager Talia Roselli. All the picnicking and partying associated create a ton of food-related waste — especially plastics, she says.

Bank of America Senior Vice President of Global Marketing & Corporate Affairs Garrett Gin experienced this firsthand as his volunteer group scoured the sand from Lifeguard Tower 54 to the fire pits.

“The group I was with found a lot of cigarette butts, plastic and Styrofoam. The group next to us found a foam mattress buried in the sand,” he said.

If picking up trash on the beach sounds like a Sisyphean task, note that these efforts do more than temporary good. Volunteers with Heal the Bay’s corporate and public cleanups populate the aforementioned Marine Debris Log with fresh data by documenting the trash they find, information that Heal the Bay aggregates and uses to inform public policy campaigns on a broader scale.

“Volunteerism is a great way to connect with people, and clean beaches are an important part of how we live and our identity as a region. This was a cause everyone could relate to,” said Gin.

The Toes Beach and Ballona Creek clean-ups are from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 20. Visit healthebay.org to register.

Activists raise safety concerns about the underground gas storage facility in Playa del Rey

By Gary Walker

A nearly 100-foot flame burst from the Southern California Gas Co. facility in Playa del Rey on Jan. 6, 2013, after gas ignited while being injected into the storage field

Invoking the memory of the disastrous October 2015 leak at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, a national corporate accountability group is joining local efforts to push for additional safety precautions at the Southern California Gas Company’s underground gas storage facility in Playa del Rey.

Food & Water Watch, a spinoff organization from the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen and the first organization to call for a national ban on fracking, is calling for tighter safety controls at the Playa del Rey facility and aims to eventually shut the facility down.

The 3,600-acre natural gas storage field between Culver Boulevard and the luxury homes that dot the Playa del Rey bluffs contains 54 active wells and supplies energy to 12,000 households per year, according to SoCal Gas.

At a June 17 town hall in Westchester, Food & Water Watch sought to put a human face to the Aliso Canyon debacle by inviting several Porter Ranch residents to address the 150 locals in attendance.

“I had aching muscles, diarrhea, nausea and migraine headaches,” said Lori Aivazian, a former Venice resident who lived in Porter Ranch during the gas leak. “I felt like a prisoner in my own home.”

While Playa del Rey has experienced nothing like Aliso Canyon, back in January 2013 the ignition of gas being injected into the storage field produced flames that shot almost 100-feet in the air, alarming locals and causing SoCal Gas to momentarily shut down operations.

“Just because it’s smaller [than Aliso Canyon] doesn’t mean it’s without risks,” Food & Water Watch senior organizer Alexandra Nagy said.

Last year there were three “minor, non-hazardous” above-ground leaks at the Playa del Rey storage facility, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.

SoCal Gas representatives say the company has installed a remote pressure monitoring system for all wells at the Playa del Rey facility, is conducting daily patrols to inspect for leaks and has configured the vast majority of wells so that natural gas only flows through newly installed steel inner-tubes.

Since the Aliso Canyon leak, state regulators have imposed emergency safety regulations that include daily inspections of gas storage well heads, measurement of gas pressure within wells, verifying the integrity of all gas storage wells, regular testing of all wells’ safety values and a risk-management plan at all facilities that evaluates and prepares for risks, including corrosion of pipes and equipment.

“Our field engineers make regular visits for routine inspections and have been out there [at the Playa del Rey facility] quite a bit recently to discuss the state’s new emergency regulations,” said Don Drysdale, a spokesman for the California Department of Conservation’s Division of Gas, Oil and Geothermal Resources.

In a statement, SoCal Gas officials said the company has worked with state agencies, industry experts and the Porter Ranch community to introduce safety enhancements, comprehensive inspections and advanced monitoring technologies at Aliso Canyon.

“Many of these new enhancements have already been introduced at our facility in Playa del Rey,” the statement reads.

Agnes Huff, who lives on the bluffs above the Playa del Rey gas storage field and runs a public relations firm, supports any new safety measures
that could help prevent leaks.

“Porter Ranch was a disaster for the residents of that community and we can’t let something like that happen here. The more prudent and careful that we are, the better off that we’ll be in the long run,” she said.

Huff recalled her anxieties after the Aliso Canyon leak: “My first thought was ‘We are sitting on a similar land mine.’”

The state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources has also proposed tougher natural gas well construction standards and daily testing of well equipment. The agency is holding a public hearing about its proposals at 9 a.m. on July 12 in the Ronald Reagan State Building at 300 S. Spring St. in downtown Los Angeles.

Food & Water Watch is backing a proposed Los Angeles city ordinance that would disallow oil- and gas-related activities associated with well production within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, hospitals, medical clinics and childcare facilities. The Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee is expected to discuss the proposal this summer.

Huff, who said she’s smelled gas coming from the facility while walking her dog in the bluffs, hopes SoCal Gas will be as proactive about safety as possible.

“It shouldn’t have to come to an ordinance,” she said. “It should be how you do business.”

For more information about the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources proposals, visit conservation.ca.gov/dog.

gary@argonautnews.com

Return of eastbound lane follows widespread commuter criticism of roadway reconfiguration in Playa del Rey

By Gary Walker

Vista Del Mar and Culver Boulevard in May, when workers began the road diet.
Photo by John McKnight

Following weeks of relentless public outcry about traffic lane reductions in Playa del Rey, L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin announced Thursday that he will order city workers to restore a second lane of eastbound traffic on Culver Boulevard.

Restriping work to restore the second eastbound lane on Culver is slated to begin Friday and continue into the weekend. Bike lanes on Culver will remain in place, and recent lane closures to Vista Del Mar, Pershing Drive and Jefferson Boulevard will not be impacted.

Bonin will also be hosting a public town hall meeting about Playa del Rey traffic concerns from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 29, at Roski Hall on the campus of Loyola Marymount University.

In May, city workers restriped Vista Del Mar, Pershing, Culver and Jefferson to reduce traffic flow to one lane in each direction. Bonin has cited 18 months of review and several traffic-related deaths as reason for the reconfiguration; South Bay commuters have launched an organized effort to undo the changes.

From the start, Bonin described the reconfiguration as a “pilot program” subject to further review at 30- and 60-day intervals.

In a note to constituents on Thursday, Bonin writes that public feedback— specifically “smart, forward-thinking suggestions we’ve received from you and neighbors like you” — impacted his decision to restore an eastbound traffic lane on Culver.

“Based on your input and the feedback of other neighbors in Playa del Rey, and on the recommendation of our traffic engineers who have vetted and analyzed the traffic data, LADOT is making an immediate change to the project that will address two of the biggest problems you have reported to us: gridlock on eastbound Culver Boulevard during the morning commute; and the abrupt and difficult transition from Nicholson Street onto Culver, which is causing additional congestion on Pershing Drive,” the letter reads.

“We’re doing this now because the feedback we received made it clear that there is widespread support for restoring a lane, and because we hope to have the improvement in place in time to make your morning drive next week easier and less stressful,” the letter continues.

gary@argonautnews.com

Conservative talk radio hosts broadcast from Playa del Rey ahead of Bonin’s traffic town hall

By Gary Walker

Editor’s Note: L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin announced Wednesday night that the city will restore traffic lanes on Vista Del Mar and move parking to the beach. Saturday’s traffic open house has been cancelled.  

KFI AM 640 radio hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of “The John and Ken Show” have roused their listeners to demand stricter supervision of registered sex offenders, oppose California Dream Act protections for undocumented students and support the recall of former Gov. Gray Davis.

On July 19 they turned their afternoon drive-time ire to the reduction of traffic lanes in Playa del Rey, broadcasting live from popular local bar The Shack to pledge solidarity with residents and com-
muters fighting to reverse the road diet.

Kobylt and Chiampou lambasted the reconfiguration of Culver and Jefferson boulevards, Pershing Drive and Vista Del Mar as government overreach and encouraged opponents to follow through on threats to wage a recall campaign against L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin.

Bonin describes his traffic-calming Playa del Rey Safe Streets Initiative, launched in May in response to local traffic fatalities and resident safety concerns, as a pilot subject to periodic review, and earlier this month he restored one eastbound traffic lane on Culver. He and city transportation officials are hosting a town hall on the subject from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 29, at Roski Hall on the campus of Loyola Marymount University.

The Wednesday afternoon broadcast from The Shack included interviews with members of “Keep L.A. Moving,” a grassroots campaign launched out of frustrations over increased traffic congestion and related concerns.

Keep L.A. Moving Director Carla Mendelson, a Playa del Rey homeowner, disagreed with Bonin’s assertion that few traffic lanes and more bike lanes would make streets and sidewalks safer.

“This is about making people miserable,” she said.

That includes Cantalini’s Salerno Beach Restaurant owner Lisa Schwab, who complained on air that traffic congestion is hurting her business.

“People are avoiding our area, and that’s not been good for our commercial district here. My delivery drivers are taking 20 extra minutes to get in and out of town,” Schwab said.

Outside The Shack, opponents of the lane changes displayed signs that read “Gives us Our Lanes Back!” and “Where Are All the Bikes?” as motorists honked and waved.

“This is the only way that we can let our elected officials know that we are unhappy with this and that we will hold them accountable,” said John Russo, a Keep L.A. Moving co-organizer and Playa del Rey resident.

Earlier this month, the Mar Vista Community Council voted in favor of continuing a test run of controversial traffic lane reductions on Venice Boulevard after hearing from a packed house of supporters and opponents.

Visit safestreetspdr.org to RSVP for Saturday’s town hall.