In a video released Wednesday night, L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin announced that the L.A. Department of Transportation will soon restore traffic lanes on Vista Del Mar and apologized for gridlock caused by reducing traffic to one lane in each direction.

Bonin credited L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn for allowing the city to relocate street parking to a beach lot, making the traffic lane restorations possible while still addressing safety concerns that prompted the lane reductions.

Bonin will also convene a Playa del Rey Road Safety task force to address the recent reconfiguration of Pershing Drive and portions of Culver and Jefferson Boulevards.

A town hall meeting on traffic issues scheduled for this Saturday has been cancelled.

–Joe Piasecki

Al Gore visits Playa Vista to praise technology’s transformative power

By Shanee Edwards

The YouTube Space LA panel focused on reasons to be hopeful
Photo by Maria Martin

There was no politicking as Al Gore and the directors of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” spoke before a live audience at YouTube Space LA in Playa Vista on July 28, the day of the film’s release.

Instead, the former vice president turned climate change crusader spoke calmly and firmly about truth and hope.

It’s been 11 years since “An Inconvenient Truth” set off alarm bells around the world with its call for immediate action to put the brakes on global warming. Since then, “climate-related extreme weather events are a lot more numerous and more destructive,” said Gore — but there’s also good news.

“We have the solutions now. Solar and wind electricity have come down incredibly fast in price. Electric cars are becoming more available — the new consumer version of Tesla is about to come out, and all the major [car] manufacturers are about to introduce them. Batteries are coming down [in price], so we have the ability to solve this now,” Gore said. “I think it’s important to convey that message. It’s one of the reasons why people come away from watching Bonni [Cohen] and Jon [Shenk]’s film feeling hopeful but also feeling a great sense of urgency.”

Billed as a “fireside chat,” the panel also included Joe Hanson, founder of the science-focused YouTube channel “It’s Okay to Be Smart,” and was moderated by Kate Brandt, head of Google’s global sustainability program.

YouTube has its own role to play in increasing global awareness of climate change, panelists said. For one, people being able to capture video evidence of extreme weather and instantly share it with the world puts a giant wrench in the agenda of climate change deniers.

“People are noticing the climate is changing very quickly. People are looking on the computer in their daily lives and are seeing evidence of something they are being told doesn’t exist. The two things aren’t jiving. It’s becoming clearer to people … that now is the time to act, especially since the solutions are here,” Shenk said.

But there’s another, more obvious connection between YouTube and “An Inconvenient Sequel.” In the first film, Gore takes audiences through a slideshow of mostly still photos and graphs. But the new film relies heavily on dramatic video footage, much of it generated from YouTube videos.

“Some of it, from a visual perspective, looks like computer-generated material,” said Cohen. “The best example came from a helicopter pilot in Greenland who is flying over the Jakobshavn Glacier. … He noticed that not only was it extremely hotter than normal, but the glaciers were exploding and just falling down in all these different places. So he pulled out his iPhone and he just recorded it out the window. You’ll see it in the film. … It looks like something out of the most beautifully directed sci-fi film you’ve ever seen, and it’s actually our world.”

While this footage of exploding glaciers stands as a frightening example of the accelerating impacts of climate change, Gore said they are not cause for despair.

“I have come to the conclusion, and others have as well, that we are in the early stages of a global sustainability revolution. This has the magnitude of the industrial revolution, but the speed of the digital revolution,” he said. “And, instead of starting in a little corner of England in a world with 1.5 billion people and slowly spreading outward, this Sustainability Revolution is being jumpstarted in rich and poor countries alike in every part of the world.”

Gore argued that digital tools are not only enhancing productivity, but also giving mankind the ability to treat atoms and molecules like data.

“We’re seeing incredible improvements in efficiency of all kinds,” he said. “Global warming pollution has actually stabilized and has come down a little bit over the last three years. It’s coming down in the U.S., in Europe and China. In India, they’ve done a U-turn since the Paris Agreement. … They’re expanding solar, closing lots of coal plants, and they just announced that in only 13 years 100% of cars and trucks sold in India are going to have to be electric vehicles.

“We ought to make a commitment like that here.”

Shanee Edwards is managing editor of Playa Vista Direct, a sister publication of The Argonaut, where a version of this story also appears.

Neighborhood leaders support continued operation of natural gas facility

By Gary Walker

SoCal Gas Co. may close up to a third of the gas monitoring wells at its Playa del Rey storage field
Google Photo by Andrew Mass

As Los Angeles County leaders and Porter Ranch residents fought tooth-and-nail to keep the Southern California Gas Co. from reopening its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa members were getting ready to show the company some local love.

On Aug. 1 — just three days after a state appeals court ruled that SoCal Gas could resume natural gas injections at the site of what’s widely regarded as the worst natural gas leak in U.S. history — Westchester-Playa leaders sought to pass a resolution to “fully endorse the Gas Company’s continued safe and efficient operation of its Playa del Rey storage location.”

Instead, a parade of local residents and a couple of board members who weren’t sold on the timing of the resolution convinced the council to host an informational community meeting with SoCal Gas representatives sometime later this year.

More than a dozen speakers lobbied for the council to defer voting until Los Angeles City Council committees complete an analysis of local oil and gas regulations and decide whether SoCal Gas should build a 2,500-foot buffer between its Playa del Rey gas facility and homes in the bluffs overlooking Culver Boulevard.

“This [motion] seems very premature,” said Stephanie Tatro, a social worker and Playa del Rey resident among those who argued that it would be more responsible for the neighborhood council to let policymakers finish their work.

Neighborhood council member Michele Cooley-Strickland said a community meeting, possibly even coupled with a tour of the facility, would allow residents to directly interact with SoCal Gas staff and ask pointed questions.

“As a homeowner and parent who can see the plant from my windows, I had concerns about potential accidents affecting local homes and wetlands until I became much more knowledgeable about this specific facility, its history, operations, and the role it serves in energy supply for California,” Cooley- Strickland said. “The public would be better served by firsthand education and dialog with SoCal Gas experts than a letter from the board endorsing the Gas Co.’s operations in Playa del Rey, particularly as the letter was written.”

Playa del Rey residents have expressed growing concerns about gas leaks since the October 2015 leak at Aliso Canyon, with a grassroots campaign to close the facility picking up steam earlier this summer.

The Playa del Rey storage facility is much smaller and much less active than the Aliso Canyon facility, however. There are 114 gas wells in Aliso Canyon, compared to 54 in Playa del Rey.

SoCal Gas has already convened community advisory councils and activated a community telephone, text and email notification system for neighbors of both the Playa del Rey and Aliso Canyon facilities.

Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa President Cyndi Hench said she was happy the council will set up a community meeting with SoCal Gas.

When activists campaigning to shutter the Playa del Rey facility held a town hall meeting in June, Hench circulated a letter warning locals not to fall for “misinformation” about the Playa del Rey gas storage facility.

“The community needs to understand the facility and its operations better. That was clear from the misinformation that was shared in public comment and the comments from the board,” Hench said last week. “No one benefits from misinformation.”

Deutsch Good’s Lena Khouri pairs millennial values with agency talent

By Shanee Edwards

Khouri and Deutsch Good team member Lukas Miller have helped to renovate a homeless services center in Venice, clean up the beach in Santa Monica and find homes for rescue dogs
Photo by Maria Martin

After Lena Khouri graduated from college, she was excited to begin a career in entertainment. But after nearly two years at Creative Artists Agency, she was yearning to rely less on her thick skin and more on her creativity.

Luckily, Khouri found her dream job at Deutsch L.A., the Playa Vista-adjacent advertising agency widely known for the Volkswagen commercial that features a little boy dressed as Darth Vader, attempting to use “The Force” to start the car. But after just four months at Deutsch, Khouri discovered she had a new yearning — to use her creativity to make the world a better place.

“I knew Deutsch did some big things, like Habitat for Humanity, but I just felt there could be an initiative to bring people together within the agency because we’re kind of separated by accounts. It could also be a really cool opportunity to use our creativity to give back to the community. So I ran the idea by my mentor [former Deutsch colleague Andrew Dubois],” Khouri recalls.

Liking what he heard, Dubois suggested bringing the idea to Deutsch President Kim Getty. Armed with a PowerPoint presentation and very little advertising experience under her belt, Khouri did just that. And hit it out of
the park.

“She loved it. She partnered me with Karen Costello, who’s one of our creative execs who had a similar idea,” says Khouri. “Together, we co-founded Deutsch Good.”

For the past three years, Deutsch Good has been holding monthly events focused on giving back to the community. The entire agency votes on at least one cause (like water conservation or childhood hunger), but anyone can pitch a project they feel passionately about.

The program has been so popular, it’s expanded to the New York office.

But Deutsch’s decision to add a philanthropy arm isn’t just about the warm and fuzzy feelings that come from helping people, it’s also a smart way to attract and keep millennial talent.

Deutsch Executive VP and Director of Communications Theresa Collins says that’s a trend happening everywhere.

“Young talent in all industries want to work for purpose-driven companies. Deutsch Good is an opportunity to give them an outlet for something very important to them,” Collins explains.

So who exactly is benefitting from all this altruism? The environment, homeless youth and school children in need, just to name a few.

For Earth Day, a team of “Deutschers” donned plastic gloves and cleaned up the beach in Santa Monica.

Before that, they gave a makeover to the new the homeless youth drop-in center in Venice, operated by local nonprofit Safe Place for Youth.

“The building was very plain looking,” says Khouri, “so we made it look more alive by painting murals on four walls. We did all the planning at the agency beforehand, involving our Target team and their art directors. We also spent time talking with the homeless youth and brainstormed ideas with them.”

For Khouri, volunteering with the homeless kids was an eye-opening experience: “Sometimes I couldn’t tell who was youth just there to volunteer and who was youth that was actually homeless. It made me really think about the people walking down the street around Venice. Sometimes, you can’t tell they are homeless.”

But the experience that impacted Khouri most came when Deutsch Good wanted to help foster kids.

“Most of these kids, when they go into the foster home they just get a trash bag to put all their stuff in. We purchased duffle bags and decorated them, then we wrote handwritten notes to each recipient. The duffle bag also comes with a blanket, books and other things we put in there,” she says.

Inspired by the duffle event, many people at Deutsch revealed to Khouri that either they were adopted or that they had adopted a child. This is just one of the ways Khouri thinks Deutsch Good can bring the agency together.

And it’s not just people and the environment benefiting from Deutsch Good.

“I’m a sucker for dogs,” says Khouri, who, last December, coordinated an event called “Santa’s Good Shop.” Not only did it benefit children who needed books, there was also a canine component. “We worked with Kombucha Dog, a company that puts photos of shelter dogs on their bottle labels to encourage people to rescue a dog. They brought in a shelter partner, and they brought five dogs who needed to be adopted.”

One of the dogs had been severely abused and had grim prospects. Much to Khouri’s delight, the dog was adopted by a friend of a Deutsch employee.

Khouri says her time at Deutsch has been a tremendous growth experience.

“To go from knowing nothing about advertising to running this initiative — it’s been pretty awesome.”

A version of this story appeared in the June/July issue of Playa Vista Direct, a sister publication of The Argonaut. Explore a digital version of the publication at playavistadirect.com.

Despite Vista Del Mar reversal, residents sue the city and neighborhood council calls for restoring lanes

A week after a group of residents made good on their threat to sue the city over traffic lane reductions in Playa del Rey, the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa officially called for restoring Culver and Jefferson boulevards to their former traffic patterns.

On Tuesday the neighborhood council voted 15-2 to ask L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin in writing that the lanes be restored — the rebuke coming despite Bonin’s intention to form a task force of residents, business owners and other stakeholders to hold public hearings on the lane closures.

The letter’s final draft excluded changes to Pershing Drive after several residents spoke in support of traffic-calming measures on that street, citing safety improvements and less congestion than when the lane reductions fist took effect in May.

At least 150 people turned out for the meeting, 80 of them contributing public comment. More than half the speakers opposed the lane reductions, many of them complaining about traffic congestion and negative impacts on local businesses.

“In the history of our neighborhood council, no single issue has energized members of our community to become active and involved in such significant numbers. Although perhaps a well-intentioned effort to increase safety, it is impossible to overstate the frustration currently experienced by the majority of residents and stakeholders in Playa del Rey,” reads the letter introduced by council member David Voss.

The city has already reversed highly unpopular lane reductions on Vista Del Mar, striking a deal with L.A. County to move street parking to the beach in order to resolve liability concerns that stemmed from fatal vehicle-pedestrian collisions.

The Safe Streets for Playa del Rey Initiative that impacted Culver, Jefferson and Pershing grew out of local traffic safety concerns.

“This did not come out of left field. This happened with a lot of community input,” Playa del Rey resident Susan Bowling, who participated in several of those discussions, told neighborhood council members during public comment.

Bonin has publicly apologized for inconveniences caused by the Safe Streets for Playa del Rey Initiative and promised regular re-evaluations of the project’s impacts, especially now via the forthcoming neighborhood task force.

But that doesn’t satisfy Keep L.A. Moving, the grassroots committee that filed suit last week alleging the misuse of county Measure M funds to implement traffic calming measures rather than repair streets.

“Measure M was sold to the public as a promise to fix our roads, not make them worse,” Keep L.A. Moving Director Karla Mendelson said.

— Gary Walker

Teen Vogue taps Hillary Clinton and Ava DuVernay to blaze a trail for youth empowerment in Playa Vista

By Christina Campodonico

Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth paired Hillary Clinton and “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi for a conversation about empowering young women
Photos by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Teen Vogue

Can fashion and politics coexist on a glossy teen magazine platform?

It was a foreign concept in legacy media before Teen Vogue rocked the Twitterverse last December with a bold op-ed on how President-elect Donald Trump was “gaslighting America.”

A year later, Teen Vogue continues to incisively pair political commentary with fashion-forwardness — (why wouldn’t they?) — and brought that sensibility to its first-ever Teen Vogue Summit, which concluded in Playa Vista on Saturday.

A political thread ran through the day of panels, workshops and keynotes as seamlessly as the flourish of faux white fur that peppered giant bean bags, outdoor lounges and butterfly chairs on 72andSunny’s airy corporate campus.

The morning began with a call to action as “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi interviewed former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. HRC urged a crowd of hundreds — mostly millennial and Gen Z women and girls — to vote in upcoming midterm elections and hold their representatives accountable for their recent actions in Congress.

“This is a burning house,” Clinton said. “Now, hopefully, the fire isn’t that big yet, and there’s still a lot of time to put it out. But it will only be put out by people standing up and claiming their rights, claiming their values again, and voting. In 2018, we have a chance to stop this mean-spirited effort to undermine our rights and set our progress back, but it will only happen if people can get out and vote.”

Clinton also advised young and future voters to not “look for the perfect campaign and the perfect candidate,” she said, “because there’s no such thing as a perfect human being. Look for people who generally agree with you.”

Film director Ava DuVernay encouraged young women to earn the respect of potential mentors

Later in the day Rep. Maxine Waters, whose district includes Playa del Rey and Westchester, did not disappoint the young progressives who’ve taken to calling
the outspoken Trump critic “Auntie Maxine.” She led the crowd in chanting “Impeach 45” after an eviscerating condemnation: “Donald Trump does not deserve to be president of the United States of America. … This man is deplorable and he’s dangerous. You cannot depend on anything he says.”

But it was 14-year-old actress Storm Reid, the star of the much-anticipated spring film “A Wrinkle in Time,” who made perhaps the most profound if not out-rightly political statement of the day.

“I have a really strong belief that we have the ‘IT’ in the book and the movie, and then we have an ‘IT’ right now, in our world,” said Reid, referencing the evil villain of the novel and film and perhaps some contemporary force. “In order for real change we all have to come together and be one to basically save the universe, because it’s ugly right now. It’s real ugly.”

When politics took a back seat, the gathering was buoyed by attendees’ eagerness to connect with each other and learn from the summit’s speakers, workshop leaders and panelists — among them YouTube entertainer Lilly Singh, who participated in a panel on content creation,  and ground-breaking film director Ava DuVernay. She spoke about “A Wrinkle in Time” with Reid and co-star Rowan Blanchard as well as mentoring women and people of color in the film industry.

“It’s important that we pass the knowledge along, pass the love along, and pass along the idea that we could lead in any moment,” said DuVernay.

Between keynotes, stylishly-dressed teens and twentysomethings, even thirthysomethings and moms accompanying their preteen daughters — many sporting white PB Teen backpacks stuffed with swag — excitedly shuffled between panels on building a beauty empire to workshops on combatting sexual assault, like students dashing between classes.

“I really wanted to come today because I wanted to learn as much as I could,” said 21-year-old Maliyah Mason, a senior at Cal State Long Beach who also holds the title of Miss Compton 2017. “I wanted to get new ideas on how I could grow and develop as a person. … I’m just so happy that this is a new event, where people from across the country can come together and can talk to like-minded people and get new ideas on how they’re going to be innovators and activists and trailblazers.”

Mom and startup founder Carole Hamm, who flew in from Maine, was excited to expose her 12-year-old daughter to the conference’s unique opportunities, even its serious topics.

“I want her to start learning early how to find her way and navigate these issues [of being a woman] and help her come out a stronger young lady,” said Hamm. “I kind of look to Teen Vogue for some of that guidance.”

But the day wasn’t all lectures in real world subjects. You could bedazzle
a Juicy Couture jacket at one station, or chat with a “mentor” like TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie at another. Stars like singing-songwriting sister duo Aly and AJ paused to take selfies with fans in the hallways of 72andSunny.  And Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches circulated on platters during the afternoon.

The night capped off with a guided meditation by “Hunger Games” actress Amandla Stenberg and a performance showcase featuring singer-songwriting duo Alex Belle and Isis V., among other artists.

Admission to the summit was pricy: $299 for Friday’s professional development “@Werk Immersions” at various L.A. tech and media companies, $399 for Saturday’s summit, or $549 for a two-day pass. At least 50 participants attended on scholarship.

But most of the attendees I spoke with walked away inspired — pleased with their investment — even if there weren’t enough sandwiches to go around at lunchtime.

“I really just thought of Teen Vogue as a magazine,” reflected Loyola Marymount University senior Tallie Spencer. “I think this is going to change the world of journalism and magazines and news a little bit, because it’s going to inspire people to be their own brands and make a difference and make their ideas into a reality.”

“It’s encouraging,” added 33-year-old activist, artist and attorney Mary David. “I think a lot of times for older generations, there is this fear of younger generations being so obsessed with social media and so focused on self. What this event has done for me is show me that there are so many [young people] out there who are just brilliant and have the most beautiful mindset.”

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.

In a video released Wednesday night, L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin announced that the L.A. Department of Transportation will soon restore traffic lanes on Vista Del Mar and apologized for gridlock caused by reducing traffic to one lane in each direction.

Bonin credited L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn for allowing the city to relocate street parking to a beach lot, making the traffic lane restorations possible while still addressing safety concerns that prompted the lane reductions.

Bonin will also convene a Playa del Rey Road Safety task force to address the recent reconfiguration of Pershing Drive and portions of Culver and Jefferson Boulevards.

A town hall meeting on traffic issues scheduled for this Saturday has been cancelled.

–Joe Piasecki

Al Gore visits Playa Vista to praise technology’s transformative power

By Shanee Edwards

The YouTube Space LA panel focused on reasons to be hopeful
Photo by Maria Martin

There was no politicking as Al Gore and the directors of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” spoke before a live audience at YouTube Space LA in Playa Vista on July 28, the day of the film’s release.

Instead, the former vice president turned climate change crusader spoke calmly and firmly about truth and hope.

It’s been 11 years since “An Inconvenient Truth” set off alarm bells around the world with its call for immediate action to put the brakes on global warming. Since then, “climate-related extreme weather events are a lot more numerous and more destructive,” said Gore — but there’s also good news.

“We have the solutions now. Solar and wind electricity have come down incredibly fast in price. Electric cars are becoming more available — the new consumer version of Tesla is about to come out, and all the major [car] manufacturers are about to introduce them. Batteries are coming down [in price], so we have the ability to solve this now,” Gore said. “I think it’s important to convey that message. It’s one of the reasons why people come away from watching Bonni [Cohen] and Jon [Shenk]’s film feeling hopeful but also feeling a great sense of urgency.”

Billed as a “fireside chat,” the panel also included Joe Hanson, founder of the science-focused YouTube channel “It’s Okay to Be Smart,” and was moderated by Kate Brandt, head of Google’s global sustainability program.

YouTube has its own role to play in increasing global awareness of climate change, panelists said. For one, people being able to capture video evidence of extreme weather and instantly share it with the world puts a giant wrench in the agenda of climate change deniers.

“People are noticing the climate is changing very quickly. People are looking on the computer in their daily lives and are seeing evidence of something they are being told doesn’t exist. The two things aren’t jiving. It’s becoming clearer to people … that now is the time to act, especially since the solutions are here,” Shenk said.

But there’s another, more obvious connection between YouTube and “An Inconvenient Sequel.” In the first film, Gore takes audiences through a slideshow of mostly still photos and graphs. But the new film relies heavily on dramatic video footage, much of it generated from YouTube videos.

“Some of it, from a visual perspective, looks like computer-generated material,” said Cohen. “The best example came from a helicopter pilot in Greenland who is flying over the Jakobshavn Glacier. … He noticed that not only was it extremely hotter than normal, but the glaciers were exploding and just falling down in all these different places. So he pulled out his iPhone and he just recorded it out the window. You’ll see it in the film. … It looks like something out of the most beautifully directed sci-fi film you’ve ever seen, and it’s actually our world.”

While this footage of exploding glaciers stands as a frightening example of the accelerating impacts of climate change, Gore said they are not cause for despair.

“I have come to the conclusion, and others have as well, that we are in the early stages of a global sustainability revolution. This has the magnitude of the industrial revolution, but the speed of the digital revolution,” he said. “And, instead of starting in a little corner of England in a world with 1.5 billion people and slowly spreading outward, this Sustainability Revolution is being jumpstarted in rich and poor countries alike in every part of the world.”

Gore argued that digital tools are not only enhancing productivity, but also giving mankind the ability to treat atoms and molecules like data.

“We’re seeing incredible improvements in efficiency of all kinds,” he said. “Global warming pollution has actually stabilized and has come down a little bit over the last three years. It’s coming down in the U.S., in Europe and China. In India, they’ve done a U-turn since the Paris Agreement. … They’re expanding solar, closing lots of coal plants, and they just announced that in only 13 years 100% of cars and trucks sold in India are going to have to be electric vehicles.

“We ought to make a commitment like that here.”

Shanee Edwards is managing editor of Playa Vista Direct, a sister publication of The Argonaut, where a version of this story also appears.

Neighborhood leaders support continued operation of natural gas facility

By Gary Walker

SoCal Gas Co. may close up to a third of the gas monitoring wells at its Playa del Rey storage field
Google Photo by Andrew Mass

As Los Angeles County leaders and Porter Ranch residents fought tooth-and-nail to keep the Southern California Gas Co. from reopening its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa members were getting ready to show the company some local love.

On Aug. 1 — just three days after a state appeals court ruled that SoCal Gas could resume natural gas injections at the site of what’s widely regarded as the worst natural gas leak in U.S. history — Westchester-Playa leaders sought to pass a resolution to “fully endorse the Gas Company’s continued safe and efficient operation of its Playa del Rey storage location.”

Instead, a parade of local residents and a couple of board members who weren’t sold on the timing of the resolution convinced the council to host an informational community meeting with SoCal Gas representatives sometime later this year.

More than a dozen speakers lobbied for the council to defer voting until Los Angeles City Council committees complete an analysis of local oil and gas regulations and decide whether SoCal Gas should build a 2,500-foot buffer between its Playa del Rey gas facility and homes in the bluffs overlooking Culver Boulevard.

“This [motion] seems very premature,” said Stephanie Tatro, a social worker and Playa del Rey resident among those who argued that it would be more responsible for the neighborhood council to let policymakers finish their work.

Neighborhood council member Michele Cooley-Strickland said a community meeting, possibly even coupled with a tour of the facility, would allow residents to directly interact with SoCal Gas staff and ask pointed questions.

“As a homeowner and parent who can see the plant from my windows, I had concerns about potential accidents affecting local homes and wetlands until I became much more knowledgeable about this specific facility, its history, operations, and the role it serves in energy supply for California,” Cooley- Strickland said. “The public would be better served by firsthand education and dialog with SoCal Gas experts than a letter from the board endorsing the Gas Co.’s operations in Playa del Rey, particularly as the letter was written.”

Playa del Rey residents have expressed growing concerns about gas leaks since the October 2015 leak at Aliso Canyon, with a grassroots campaign to close the facility picking up steam earlier this summer.

The Playa del Rey storage facility is much smaller and much less active than the Aliso Canyon facility, however. There are 114 gas wells in Aliso Canyon, compared to 54 in Playa del Rey.

SoCal Gas has already convened community advisory councils and activated a community telephone, text and email notification system for neighbors of both the Playa del Rey and Aliso Canyon facilities.

Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa President Cyndi Hench said she was happy the council will set up a community meeting with SoCal Gas.

When activists campaigning to shutter the Playa del Rey facility held a town hall meeting in June, Hench circulated a letter warning locals not to fall for “misinformation” about the Playa del Rey gas storage facility.

“The community needs to understand the facility and its operations better. That was clear from the misinformation that was shared in public comment and the comments from the board,” Hench said last week. “No one benefits from misinformation.”

Deutsch Good’s Lena Khouri pairs millennial values with agency talent

By Shanee Edwards

Khouri and Deutsch Good team member Lukas Miller have helped to renovate a homeless services center in Venice, clean up the beach in Santa Monica and find homes for rescue dogs
Photo by Maria Martin

After Lena Khouri graduated from college, she was excited to begin a career in entertainment. But after nearly two years at Creative Artists Agency, she was yearning to rely less on her thick skin and more on her creativity.

Luckily, Khouri found her dream job at Deutsch L.A., the Playa Vista-adjacent advertising agency widely known for the Volkswagen commercial that features a little boy dressed as Darth Vader, attempting to use “The Force” to start the car. But after just four months at Deutsch, Khouri discovered she had a new yearning — to use her creativity to make the world a better place.

“I knew Deutsch did some big things, like Habitat for Humanity, but I just felt there could be an initiative to bring people together within the agency because we’re kind of separated by accounts. It could also be a really cool opportunity to use our creativity to give back to the community. So I ran the idea by my mentor [former Deutsch colleague Andrew Dubois],” Khouri recalls.

Liking what he heard, Dubois suggested bringing the idea to Deutsch President Kim Getty. Armed with a PowerPoint presentation and very little advertising experience under her belt, Khouri did just that. And hit it out of
the park.

“She loved it. She partnered me with Karen Costello, who’s one of our creative execs who had a similar idea,” says Khouri. “Together, we co-founded Deutsch Good.”

For the past three years, Deutsch Good has been holding monthly events focused on giving back to the community. The entire agency votes on at least one cause (like water conservation or childhood hunger), but anyone can pitch a project they feel passionately about.

The program has been so popular, it’s expanded to the New York office.

But Deutsch’s decision to add a philanthropy arm isn’t just about the warm and fuzzy feelings that come from helping people, it’s also a smart way to attract and keep millennial talent.

Deutsch Executive VP and Director of Communications Theresa Collins says that’s a trend happening everywhere.

“Young talent in all industries want to work for purpose-driven companies. Deutsch Good is an opportunity to give them an outlet for something very important to them,” Collins explains.

So who exactly is benefitting from all this altruism? The environment, homeless youth and school children in need, just to name a few.

For Earth Day, a team of “Deutschers” donned plastic gloves and cleaned up the beach in Santa Monica.

Before that, they gave a makeover to the new the homeless youth drop-in center in Venice, operated by local nonprofit Safe Place for Youth.

“The building was very plain looking,” says Khouri, “so we made it look more alive by painting murals on four walls. We did all the planning at the agency beforehand, involving our Target team and their art directors. We also spent time talking with the homeless youth and brainstormed ideas with them.”

For Khouri, volunteering with the homeless kids was an eye-opening experience: “Sometimes I couldn’t tell who was youth just there to volunteer and who was youth that was actually homeless. It made me really think about the people walking down the street around Venice. Sometimes, you can’t tell they are homeless.”

But the experience that impacted Khouri most came when Deutsch Good wanted to help foster kids.

“Most of these kids, when they go into the foster home they just get a trash bag to put all their stuff in. We purchased duffle bags and decorated them, then we wrote handwritten notes to each recipient. The duffle bag also comes with a blanket, books and other things we put in there,” she says.

Inspired by the duffle event, many people at Deutsch revealed to Khouri that either they were adopted or that they had adopted a child. This is just one of the ways Khouri thinks Deutsch Good can bring the agency together.

And it’s not just people and the environment benefiting from Deutsch Good.

“I’m a sucker for dogs,” says Khouri, who, last December, coordinated an event called “Santa’s Good Shop.” Not only did it benefit children who needed books, there was also a canine component. “We worked with Kombucha Dog, a company that puts photos of shelter dogs on their bottle labels to encourage people to rescue a dog. They brought in a shelter partner, and they brought five dogs who needed to be adopted.”

One of the dogs had been severely abused and had grim prospects. Much to Khouri’s delight, the dog was adopted by a friend of a Deutsch employee.

Khouri says her time at Deutsch has been a tremendous growth experience.

“To go from knowing nothing about advertising to running this initiative — it’s been pretty awesome.”

A version of this story appeared in the June/July issue of Playa Vista Direct, a sister publication of The Argonaut. Explore a digital version of the publication at playavistadirect.com.

Despite Vista Del Mar reversal, residents sue the city and neighborhood council calls for restoring lanes

A week after a group of residents made good on their threat to sue the city over traffic lane reductions in Playa del Rey, the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa officially called for restoring Culver and Jefferson boulevards to their former traffic patterns.

On Tuesday the neighborhood council voted 15-2 to ask L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin in writing that the lanes be restored — the rebuke coming despite Bonin’s intention to form a task force of residents, business owners and other stakeholders to hold public hearings on the lane closures.

The letter’s final draft excluded changes to Pershing Drive after several residents spoke in support of traffic-calming measures on that street, citing safety improvements and less congestion than when the lane reductions fist took effect in May.

At least 150 people turned out for the meeting, 80 of them contributing public comment. More than half the speakers opposed the lane reductions, many of them complaining about traffic congestion and negative impacts on local businesses.

“In the history of our neighborhood council, no single issue has energized members of our community to become active and involved in such significant numbers. Although perhaps a well-intentioned effort to increase safety, it is impossible to overstate the frustration currently experienced by the majority of residents and stakeholders in Playa del Rey,” reads the letter introduced by council member David Voss.

The city has already reversed highly unpopular lane reductions on Vista Del Mar, striking a deal with L.A. County to move street parking to the beach in order to resolve liability concerns that stemmed from fatal vehicle-pedestrian collisions.

The Safe Streets for Playa del Rey Initiative that impacted Culver, Jefferson and Pershing grew out of local traffic safety concerns.

“This did not come out of left field. This happened with a lot of community input,” Playa del Rey resident Susan Bowling, who participated in several of those discussions, told neighborhood council members during public comment.

Bonin has publicly apologized for inconveniences caused by the Safe Streets for Playa del Rey Initiative and promised regular re-evaluations of the project’s impacts, especially now via the forthcoming neighborhood task force.

But that doesn’t satisfy Keep L.A. Moving, the grassroots committee that filed suit last week alleging the misuse of county Measure M funds to implement traffic calming measures rather than repair streets.

“Measure M was sold to the public as a promise to fix our roads, not make them worse,” Keep L.A. Moving Director Karla Mendelson said.

— Gary Walker

Teen Vogue taps Hillary Clinton and Ava DuVernay to blaze a trail for youth empowerment in Playa Vista

By Christina Campodonico

Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth paired Hillary Clinton and “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi for a conversation about empowering young women
Photos by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Teen Vogue

Can fashion and politics coexist on a glossy teen magazine platform?

It was a foreign concept in legacy media before Teen Vogue rocked the Twitterverse last December with a bold op-ed on how President-elect Donald Trump was “gaslighting America.”

A year later, Teen Vogue continues to incisively pair political commentary with fashion-forwardness — (why wouldn’t they?) — and brought that sensibility to its first-ever Teen Vogue Summit, which concluded in Playa Vista on Saturday.

A political thread ran through the day of panels, workshops and keynotes as seamlessly as the flourish of faux white fur that peppered giant bean bags, outdoor lounges and butterfly chairs on 72andSunny’s airy corporate campus.

The morning began with a call to action as “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi interviewed former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. HRC urged a crowd of hundreds — mostly millennial and Gen Z women and girls — to vote in upcoming midterm elections and hold their representatives accountable for their recent actions in Congress.

“This is a burning house,” Clinton said. “Now, hopefully, the fire isn’t that big yet, and there’s still a lot of time to put it out. But it will only be put out by people standing up and claiming their rights, claiming their values again, and voting. In 2018, we have a chance to stop this mean-spirited effort to undermine our rights and set our progress back, but it will only happen if people can get out and vote.”

Clinton also advised young and future voters to not “look for the perfect campaign and the perfect candidate,” she said, “because there’s no such thing as a perfect human being. Look for people who generally agree with you.”

Film director Ava DuVernay encouraged young women to earn the respect of potential mentors

Later in the day Rep. Maxine Waters, whose district includes Playa del Rey and Westchester, did not disappoint the young progressives who’ve taken to calling
the outspoken Trump critic “Auntie Maxine.” She led the crowd in chanting “Impeach 45” after an eviscerating condemnation: “Donald Trump does not deserve to be president of the United States of America. … This man is deplorable and he’s dangerous. You cannot depend on anything he says.”

But it was 14-year-old actress Storm Reid, the star of the much-anticipated spring film “A Wrinkle in Time,” who made perhaps the most profound if not out-rightly political statement of the day.

“I have a really strong belief that we have the ‘IT’ in the book and the movie, and then we have an ‘IT’ right now, in our world,” said Reid, referencing the evil villain of the novel and film and perhaps some contemporary force. “In order for real change we all have to come together and be one to basically save the universe, because it’s ugly right now. It’s real ugly.”

When politics took a back seat, the gathering was buoyed by attendees’ eagerness to connect with each other and learn from the summit’s speakers, workshop leaders and panelists — among them YouTube entertainer Lilly Singh, who participated in a panel on content creation,  and ground-breaking film director Ava DuVernay. She spoke about “A Wrinkle in Time” with Reid and co-star Rowan Blanchard as well as mentoring women and people of color in the film industry.

“It’s important that we pass the knowledge along, pass the love along, and pass along the idea that we could lead in any moment,” said DuVernay.

Between keynotes, stylishly-dressed teens and twentysomethings, even thirthysomethings and moms accompanying their preteen daughters — many sporting white PB Teen backpacks stuffed with swag — excitedly shuffled between panels on building a beauty empire to workshops on combatting sexual assault, like students dashing between classes.

“I really wanted to come today because I wanted to learn as much as I could,” said 21-year-old Maliyah Mason, a senior at Cal State Long Beach who also holds the title of Miss Compton 2017. “I wanted to get new ideas on how I could grow and develop as a person. … I’m just so happy that this is a new event, where people from across the country can come together and can talk to like-minded people and get new ideas on how they’re going to be innovators and activists and trailblazers.”

Mom and startup founder Carole Hamm, who flew in from Maine, was excited to expose her 12-year-old daughter to the conference’s unique opportunities, even its serious topics.

“I want her to start learning early how to find her way and navigate these issues [of being a woman] and help her come out a stronger young lady,” said Hamm. “I kind of look to Teen Vogue for some of that guidance.”

But the day wasn’t all lectures in real world subjects. You could bedazzle
a Juicy Couture jacket at one station, or chat with a “mentor” like TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie at another. Stars like singing-songwriting sister duo Aly and AJ paused to take selfies with fans in the hallways of 72andSunny.  And Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches circulated on platters during the afternoon.

The night capped off with a guided meditation by “Hunger Games” actress Amandla Stenberg and a performance showcase featuring singer-songwriting duo Alex Belle and Isis V., among other artists.

Admission to the summit was pricy: $299 for Friday’s professional development “@Werk Immersions” at various L.A. tech and media companies, $399 for Saturday’s summit, or $549 for a two-day pass. At least 50 participants attended on scholarship.

But most of the attendees I spoke with walked away inspired — pleased with their investment — even if there weren’t enough sandwiches to go around at lunchtime.

“I really just thought of Teen Vogue as a magazine,” reflected Loyola Marymount University senior Tallie Spencer. “I think this is going to change the world of journalism and magazines and news a little bit, because it’s going to inspire people to be their own brands and make a difference and make their ideas into a reality.”

“It’s encouraging,” added 33-year-old activist, artist and attorney Mary David. “I think a lot of times for older generations, there is this fear of younger generations being so obsessed with social media and so focused on self. What this event has done for me is show me that there are so many [young people] out there who are just brilliant and have the most beautiful mindset.”

A clogged storm drain caused flooding in Playa del Rey
Screenshot via KCAL 9

The first rains of 2018 brought flooding to low-lying coastal areas of Playa del Rey streets on Monday and Tuesday, with water pooling at Culver Boulevard and Trolleyway as county workers deployed pumps and hurried to unblock a clogged storm drain.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Works spokesman Steven Frasher said it appears shifting ocean currents pushed sand into a 72-inch concrete reinforced pipe at the end of Culver, causing the blockage.

The pumps could be in place for a couple of days before all the water has been removed from the intersection, Frasher said Tuesday.

“We have a system that works most of the time. When the storm came along it didn’t work as it should have,” Frasher acknowledged. “We didn’t anticipate any kind of blockage.”

One longtime resident said storm-related flooding has occurred at least a half a dozen times in recent years, especially in the oceanfront neighborhood known as The Jungle.

“We had a couple of feet of water in our garage. The county just totally screws up once in a while,” said homeowner Vance Griffith, who has lived at Trolleyway and Culver for 35 years.

“Solutions are actively being worked on” to avoid further blockages, Frasher said.

Today is World Oceans Day, an occasion to reflect on how we can help to restore and protect these life-giving bodies of water that impact all life on Earth.

On May 24, students at Citizens of the World Charter School in Mar Vista joined some 4,500 area students at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey for the 25th annual Kids Ocean Day beach cleanup.

Citizens of the World fifth-grader Emmett Kliger won the event’s annual poetry contest and read aloud during the event:

“Roses are red, oceans are blue, but that can’t happen without the help of you.

“The ocean has trash, but that can be fixed. We really should be mindful of it.

“When all is said and done, the fight to clean trash has just begun.”

Emmett’s mother Sydnie said the Kids Ocean Day contest has given her son a new outlook on citizen activism.

“He jumped into something that was very new to him, and now he’s found a real passion to make a difference in the world,” she said. “I think his generation is walking into a world where they see that it’s not perfect, and they realize that for their future in order to make it better they have to jump in.”

Since 1993, the Malibu Foundation has coordinated Kids Ocean Day in the Los Angeles region by organizing the beach cleanup and giving presentations at area schools.

After the cleanup students stood in formation in the shape of a huge wave, photographed by helicopter to send a visual message of concern about the ocean.

“Young people are the wave of the future. And this program is teaching us that the ocean has limits, and we need to protect those limits,” said California Coastal Commission Vice Chair Effie Turnbull-Sanders.

— Gary Walker

The Venice Dual Force Main Project cuts across Marina del Rey Harbor between a city pumping station and the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey

Tunneling and trench work to replace an aging sewer line that runs under Via Marina began last weekend near Marquesas Way, temporarily reducing traffic flow to a single lane in the immediate work area.

The Venice Dual Force Main Project connects the city’s Venice Pumping Plant on Hurricane Avenue to the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey, replacing an existing line that sanitation officials say is more than 50 years old and at severe risk of rupture.

“We expect tunneling activities to occur for several months in the marina,” said Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation Engineer Gevork Mkrtchyan, construction manager for the sewer project.

Work has already been under way near The Jungle neighborhood of lower Playa del Rey, where residents have complained about lane closures on Culver Boulevard, Pacific Avenue and Trolleyway causing potentially dangerous conditions for drivers and pedestrians.

“With summer bringing more people, strollers, children and bicycles, this intersection must be monitored by police who can enforce illegal stops, illegal U-turns and illegal three point turns,” reads an email complaint by neighborhood activist Jan Hagaan.

Bureau of Sanitation officials deny that their work is putting anyone at risk.

“We have no knowledge of anything at that intersection causing life-threatening situations,” Mkrtchyan said. “We have designated U-turns on Pacific Avenue and soon we’ll be adding more signage in The Jungle to guide motorists in the right direction so they’ll know where construction is taking place.”     

— Gary Walker

The Playa Vista location of Hal’s Bar & Grill was the place to be during Runway’s 2017 night market event, photographed by VenicePaparazzi.com

The iconic Hal’s Bar & Grill has gone out of business, shuttering its locations in Playa Vista and Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice this morning.

Notes on the doors of both restaurants state that the business in liquidating and instruct employees to meet in Playa Vista this afternoon to settle final paychecks. The mood inside the building was a mix of shock and sadness, as the surprise closure comes about a month after the restaurant hired a new executive chef and rebooted its dinner menu. The restaurant’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hal’s original Abbot Kinney location of 30 years closed in April 2015 when its landlord sold that building for $44 million. A more compact version of Hal’s and sister restaurant Casa Linda (now also shuttered) later reopened down the street in the former home of Primitivo. In 2017, owners Don Novack, Linda Novack and Hal Frederick opened a gorgeous new flagship restaurant inside the now-struggling Runway at Playa Vista retail, entertainment and residential complex.

Argonaut food writer and Venice native Jessica Koslow recently wrote a tribute to Hal’s Bar & Grill on the occasion of its new menu.

— Joe Piasecki

Closures mark the end of an era in Venice and curtail a comeback story in Playa Vista

By Joe Piasecki, Jessica Koslow and Gary Walker

Event photographers Venice Paparazzi captured the Playa Vista location of Hal’s Bar & Grill packed with diners during a 2017 Runway Night Market event

A Westside cultural institution for more than three decades, Hal’s Bar & Grill anchored the renaissance of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and pioneered a flagship presence in the growing community of Playa Vista. The restaurant, bar and live jazz venue didn’t just roll with the changes, it played a leading role in preserving a sense of local identity among the growing presence of national chain stores.

That legacy appears to be a historical one now. Late last Thursday, notes appeared on the doors of both its Venice and Playa Vista locations stating that the business will be liquidating and instructing employees to meet in Playa Vista to settle final paychecks. The mood there appeared to be a mix of shock and sadness, and owners of the business could not be reached for comment.

Hal’s original Abbot Kinney location of 30 years closed in April 2015 when its landlord sold that building (now home to a flagship Adidas store) for a reported $44 million. A more compact version of Hal’s and sister restaurant Casa Linda (also shuttered) later opened down the street in the former home of Primitivo.

Meanwhile, Hal’s Bar & Grill owners Don Novack, Linda Novack and Hal Frederick staked the restaurant’s future on the Runway at Playa Vista retail, entertainment and residential complex. In the spring of 2017, after an extended period of construction, Hal’s opened a gorgeous new flagship restaurant at Runway, which is due for a more pedestrian-centric remodel this year while struggling to lease many of its retail storefronts.

About a month ago, Hal’s Bar & Grill celebrated the hiring of a new executive chef and updated its dinner menu. News of its closure has left many longtime locals feeling shocked and upset.

“Hal’s was Venice’s city hall at lunchtime. People came to eat, conduct business, see and be seen,” said former Venice Neighborhood Council President Linda Lucks. “My favorite times were just sitting with Hal and listening to his stories about his early acting career and hanging out with James Baldwin in Paris.”

“I was just in Venice and passed by the old Hal’s and my heart was full and sad because not only has change come, but the energy of the entire block was different,” said Venice native Jewel Delegall, whose jazz musician husband gigged at Hal’s. “As things changed in Venice, Hal’s was the one place I could go back to that felt like old Venice. It had a special energy. Where will we go to feel that same sense of home?”