MVCC
__________________________________________
MVCC New Board of Directors Are Sworn In July 8, 2008
(First photo courtesy of Jerry Gotlieb)
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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MVCC New Board of Directors Are Sworn In July 8, 2008
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Odds & Ends
A Mar Vista Magpie's Miscellany
Followthemoney.org: if you really want to know how it works in politics...
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The House I live In
Frank Sinatra in The House I live In (1945), an award-winning short film ahead of its time on tolerance and diversity. Includes the song "The House I Live in or That's America to Me." Yet, unsurprisingly for its time, it delivers its message of tolerance at the expense of the "Japs." Oh well!
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"Sleepless in Mar Vista"
In this sneak peek of the episode "Sleepless in Mar Vista" from CBS's The New Adventures of Old Christine, Matthew is sitting on the couch as doorbell rings again…and again. When he opens the door, he finds Christine and Burton kissing!
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Gregory Ain Mar Vista Home Walk-through
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Guerilla Gardening
Friday, May 11, 2007
Recommend?
Reviews
of Local Businesses, Services & Products
by Neighbors for Neighbors
Submit a review below using the headings below:
- Name (of Business/Product/Service)
- Location (address/phone of Business/Product/Service)
- Description (of Business/Product/Service)
- Your Name
- Rating: Neighborhood's best / Very good / OK / Not OK / AVOID!
- Pros
- Cons
- Suggestions (on how to improve business, product, or service)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Best Practices
Research and scholarly documents/projects 
● The Neighborhood Participation Project (NPP) at University of Southern California
● Rand: Neighborhood Definitions and the Spatial Dimension of Daily Life in Los Angeles
● Belfer Center: Best Practices in Neigborhood Revitalization
● Neighbor Works: Managing Neighborhood Change(pdf)
● Encyclopedia of Community
● Robert's Rules vs. Rosenberg Rules (pdf)
● DeliberativeDemocracy.net
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Preparedness
A Directory of Lifesaving Emergency Preparedness Resources A smartly designed site, you click on the buttons to find out how you can prepare yourself and your family for an emergency. http://www.daretoprepare.org/www.terremotos.org A bilingual earthquake readiness campaign to raise earthquake awareness and encourage earthquake readiness in Southern California.
Prepare.org
Youth Leadership
Mar Vista "Youth Community Action & Leadership" (YCAL) Program
(in development)
___________________________________
Ganging up on the Talent in Da Hood
Gangs embody our nation's and our city's worst nightmare. Urban poverty, drugs, violence, apathy and despair have, in fact, conspired to give LA the dubious distinction of being the nation's gang capital, the epicenter of a deadly epidemic.
We all know that gangs destroy the lives of our most vulnerable population, urban youth. They also seriously endanger our communities, our police officers, and ourselves. And each week, they keep growing: 1500 gangs and 200,000 members and counting.
Meanwhile, the never-ending background story of how our megalopolis and our politicians have denied, distorted, abused and ultimately failed to genuinely address this civic crisis is just as scary. Just search "gangs" in Los Angeles Times and you'll see what I mean.
Yet it's not impossible to sew a purse from a sow's ear, to find hope in this neigborhood and national tragedy, if we dare to look.
Sometimes in the dark you stumble across something that inspires and illuminates. And it serves us well to pay attention and use it to light our way through.
The Mar Vista Family Center is one shining project deserving of our support. Incredibly, MVFC succeeded in recruiting the very gang members who burned down its low-income community pre-school in 1980 to help build it and their community back up. A phoenix of a community organization, if there ever was!
Then there is Jorge Peniche, a talented Renaissance man from "da hood," a diamond in the rough and tough of LA. Visit his Website and you tell me!
A young man of indisputable talent, Peniche's in-your-face photography of real and wanna-be gang-bangers alone is an eye-opener, civic education through photographs that reveal truths in a kaleidoscope of greys rather than just black, brown or white.
Peniche's photographs bring all this to the surface in a way that makes the viewer ask why, how, who, and WTF (pardon my acronym)!
Above all, Peniche's calibre of work and personal modesty as a whole is a powerful message to young people everywhere. Peniche's work neither denies nor glorifies gangs. Instead, it shows its complexity, the allure, commercialization, vulnerability and deadliness of it all.
The message seems clear: Tell your story using a camera instead of a gun. Get your high with art instead of drugs. And don't ever give up in building yourself and your community a better future, decision by decision, pixel by pixel. And hurry, before it's too late!
WARNING: His latest video below of gang bangers posing and being "shot" in Mar Vista Gardens features Hip-Hop lyrics some folks may find objectionable. Turn down the volume if it irks you and/or get any kids/immature audiences out of earshot.
- JorgePeniche.com: The images and the classical music is to die for!
- Mar Vista Family Center: A Phoenix of community philanthropy
- Streetgangs.com: A down-and-dirty hub of news and activism about LA gangs since 1995.
- Culver City Boyz: Possibly the gang in Peniche's video.
- KPCC Report on LA's anti-Gang plan
- LA Times on the "Businessmen": Geezer Gang Reform
- Mayor Villaraigosa's Gang Reduction Strategy
Opinion
LOS: Listen Observe Speak
Observations, Ideas, Rants and Opinions about Our Megalopolis and Community
____________________________________
The Attack of the Nimbys: The Selfish Community
I love it that when you look up "NIMBY" on Wikipedia, it nervously announces that "The neutrality of this article is disputed." And some dispute it is, given how every neighborhood has its share of NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard), NIABYs (Not In Anyone's Backyard), NAMBIs (Not Against My Business or Industry), and even a few BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything or possibly Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone)!
Disputing and debating is good for encyclopedias and for democracy. The Greeks do it, Muslims do it, Jews do it, even we as Americans do it when we're in the mood. The democratic mind knows that outside the borders of tolerance, debate and compromise loom darkness and dictatorship.
I had stumbled into a dust-up about definitions but I still
wanted to know what is, more or less, a NIMBY?
Wikipedia finally gives in:
In fact, NIMBYISM defines the idea of democracy balanced between the contradictory tug of the forces of majority rule and the forces of minority rights. Our democracy is rife with examples of this teetering between the common good and the individual good.
The majority rules that a cellphone tower, a clean water plant, a metro system, an airport or a new school benefits many, but they simultaneously act to protect their rights as a minority by wanting it "elsewhere." The minority, in other words, should not have to sacrifice its minority rights to peace, quiet, and enjoyment of strong property values for the sake of a development that benefits a majority.
So while everyone, including the NIMBY, benefits from, say, a new school in the neighborhood (because it educates and empowers children as future citizens), the NIMBY doesn't want to deal with the noise, the traffic, the loss of her favorite strip-mall, and above all, the potential loss of her property's value.
So it seems, then, that the tiniest distance can separate a NIMBY from a non-NIMBY.
Imagine this scenario:
Resident A—a childless retired apartment-owner living adjacent to the school playground—is the most ferocious NIMBY because she hates the noise, the traffic and the lowering of the price of her property due to its extreme proximity to the school.
Resident B—a single parent with a school-age child living 100 feet from the playground—not only has less noise to deal with but has a school her kid can walk to and may even see a rise in her property price because of its proximity to a school. She's no NIMBY!
Sometimes, inches separate one from the other. And it seems that the potential solution can also be measured in inches.
Blessed with the democratic principles of tolerance, debate and compromise, each would have to give an inch or so to the other. Resident A agrees to install double-glazed windows thanks to a special subsidy for properties adjacent to the school supported by Resident B while the school plants trees or a sound wall to mitigate the noise for Resident A and Resident B.
Both the minority and the majority benefits, albeit at a price. Both the collective and the individual interest is satisfied, give or take. Above all, the NIMBY is cured of her NIMBYISM and the community is whole again!
But still I wondered whether NIMBY selfishness is always a bad thing.
Local activism can have global and social justice benefits. A poor neighborhood prone to having industrial waste dumped on its porch would presumably wear the NIMBY badge with pride and deserves everyone's respect. So there must be good NIMBYs and bad NIMBYs.
Still, no one likes the term applied to them.
I don't want a cellphone tower outside my bedroom window even if it will give me and everyone else better reception. I want the better reception, but I want the tower "elsewhere." Yet if I wasn't willing to come up with a better solution than to want to enjoy the benefit without any effort on my part, to want crystal calls thanks to the tower blocking my neighbor's window, then I'm not so much a NIMBY as selfish and nasty.
A "good" NIMBY works out the solution for both his and everyone's benefit rather than act hypocritically. In other words, I don't want a cellphone tower to be blocking my neighbor's window either. But I don't want to be a NIABY either. Something must give.
Being a NIMBY is hard work, as is living in a democracy. Without vigilance, without active participation, democracy is hollow. It's only as good and effective as its citizens. A democracy of dunces and hypocrites is no good for anyone.
Elsewhere, I read that "Nimby" was popularized in the 1980s by an Englishman, Nicholas Ridley—a powerful, abrasive minister in Margaret Thatcher's government—to attack people's resistance to housing developments.
It later emerged that Ridley personally was blocking a development near to his country home.
A NIMBY? No, just a nitwit!
___________________________________
Ganging Up on the Talent in Da Hood
Gangs embody our nation's and our city's worst nightmare. Urban poverty, drugs, violence, apathy and despair have, in fact, conspired to give LA the dubious distinction of being the nation's gang capital, the epicenter of a deadly epidemic.
We all know that gangs destroy the lives of our most vulnerable population, urban youth. They also seriously endanger our communities, our police officers, and ourselves. And each week, they keep growing: 1500 gangs and 200,000 members and counting.
Meanwhile, the never-ending background story of how our megalopolis and our politicians have denied, distorted, abused and ultimately failed to genuinely address this civic crisis is just as scary. Just search "gangs" in Los Angeles Times and you'll see what I mean.
Yet it's not impossible to sew a purse from a sow's ear, to find hope in this national and neighborhood tragedy, if we dare to look.
Sometimes in the dark you stumble across something that inspires and illuminates. And it serves us well to pay attention and to use it to light our way through.
The Mar Vista Family Center is one shining project deserving of our support. Incredibly, MVFC succeeded in recruiting the very gang members who burned down its low-income community pre-school in 1980 to help build it and their community back up. A phoenix of a community organization, if there ever was!
Then there is Jorge Peniche, a talented Renaissance man from "da hood," a diamond in the rough and tough of LA. Visit his Website and you tell me!
A young man of indisputable talent, Peniche's in-your-face photography of real and wanna-be gang-bangers alone is an eye-opener, civic education through photographs that reveal truths in a kaleidoscope of grays rather than just black, brown or white.
Peniche's photographs bring all this to the surface in a way that makes the viewer ask why, how, who, and WTF (pardon my acronym)!
Above all, Peniche's calibre of work and personal modesty as a whole is a powerful message to young people everywhere. His work neither denies nor glorifies gangs. Instead, Peniche shows its complexity, the allure, commercialization, vulnerability and deadliness of it all.
The message seems clear: Tell your story using a camera instead of a gun. Get your high with art instead of drugs. And don't ever give up in building yourself and your community a better future, decision by decision, pixel by pixel. And hurry, before it's too late!
WARNING: His latest video below of gang bangers posing and being "shot" in Mar Vista Gardens features Hip-Hop lyrics some folks may find objectionable. Turn down the volume if it irks you and/or get any kids/immature audiences out of earshot.
The Attack of the Nimbys: The Selfish Community
I love it that when you look up "NIMBY" on Wikipedia, it nervously announces that "The neutrality of this article is disputed." And some dispute it is, given how every neighborhood has its share of NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard), NIABYs (Not In Anyone's Backyard), NAMBIs (Not Against My Business or Industry), and even a few BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything or possibly Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone)!Disputing and debating is good for encyclopedias and for democracy. The Greeks do it, Muslims do it, Jews do it, even we as Americans do it when we're in the mood. The democratic mind knows that outside the borders of tolerance, debate and compromise loom darkness and dictatorship.
I had stumbled into a dust-up about definitions but I still
wanted to know what is, more or less, a NIMBY?Wikipedia finally gives in:
NIMBY is an acronym for Not In My Back Yard. The term is used to describe opposition to a new project by residents, even if they themselves and those around will benefit from the construction. Often, the new project being opposed is generally considered a benefit for many, but residents nearby the immediate location consider it undesirable and would generally prefer the building to be "elsewhere."Deceptively simple and yet I was struck by the idea's slipperiness. A NIMBY doesn't say "Good for you, now go away" but "Good for us, but not good for me especially, so go away."
In fact, NIMBYISM defines the idea of democracy balanced between the contradictory tug of the forces of majority rule and the forces of minority rights. Our democracy is rife with examples of this teetering between the common good and the individual good.
The majority rules that a cellphone tower, a clean water plant, a metro system, an airport or a new school benefits many, but they simultaneously act to protect their rights as a minority by wanting it "elsewhere." The minority, in other words, should not have to sacrifice its minority rights to peace, quiet, and enjoyment of strong property values for the sake of a development that benefits a majority.
So while everyone, including the NIMBY, benefits from, say, a new school in the neighborhood (because it educates and empowers children as future citizens), the NIMBY doesn't want to deal with the noise, the traffic, the loss of her favorite strip-mall, and above all, the potential loss of her property's value.So it seems, then, that the tiniest distance can separate a NIMBY from a non-NIMBY.
Imagine this scenario:
Resident A—a childless retired apartment-owner living adjacent to the school playground—is the most ferocious NIMBY because she hates the noise, the traffic and the lowering of the price of her property due to its extreme proximity to the school.
Resident B—a single parent with a school-age child living 100 feet from the playground—not only has less noise to deal with but has a school her kid can walk to and may even see a rise in her property price because of its proximity to a school. She's no NIMBY!
Sometimes, inches separate one from the other. And it seems that the potential solution can also be measured in inches.
Blessed with the democratic principles of tolerance, debate and compromise, each would have to give an inch or so to the other. Resident A agrees to install double-glazed windows thanks to a special subsidy for properties adjacent to the school supported by Resident B while the school plants trees or a sound wall to mitigate the noise for Resident A and Resident B.
Both the minority and the majority benefits, albeit at a price. Both the collective and the individual interest is satisfied, give or take. Above all, the NIMBY is cured of her NIMBYISM and the community is whole again!
But still I wondered whether NIMBY selfishness is always a bad thing.
Local activism can have global and social justice benefits. A poor neighborhood prone to having industrial waste dumped on its porch would presumably wear the NIMBY badge with pride and deserves everyone's respect. So there must be good NIMBYs and bad NIMBYs.
Still, no one likes the term applied to them.
I don't want a cellphone tower outside my bedroom window even if it will give me and everyone else better reception. I want the better reception, but I want the tower "elsewhere." Yet if I wasn't willing to come up with a better solution than to want to enjoy the benefit without any effort on my part, to want crystal calls thanks to the tower blocking my neighbor's window, then I'm not so much a NIMBY as selfish and nasty.
A "good" NIMBY works out the solution for both his and everyone's benefit rather than act hypocritically. In other words, I don't want a cellphone tower to be blocking my neighbor's window either. But I don't want to be a NIABY either. Something must give.
Being a NIMBY is hard work, as is living in a democracy. Without vigilance, without active participation, democracy is hollow. It's only as good and effective as its citizens. A democracy of dunces and hypocrites is no good for anyone.
Elsewhere, I read that "Nimby" was popularized in the 1980s by an Englishman, Nicholas Ridley—a powerful, abrasive minister in Margaret Thatcher's government—to attack people's resistance to housing developments.
It later emerged that Ridley personally was blocking a development near to his country home.
A NIMBY? No, just a nitwit!
___________________________________
Ganging Up on the Talent in Da Hood
Gangs embody our nation's and our city's worst nightmare. Urban poverty, drugs, violence, apathy and despair have, in fact, conspired to give LA the dubious distinction of being the nation's gang capital, the epicenter of a deadly epidemic.
We all know that gangs destroy the lives of our most vulnerable population, urban youth. They also seriously endanger our communities, our police officers, and ourselves. And each week, they keep growing: 1500 gangs and 200,000 members and counting.
Meanwhile, the never-ending background story of how our megalopolis and our politicians have denied, distorted, abused and ultimately failed to genuinely address this civic crisis is just as scary. Just search "gangs" in Los Angeles Times and you'll see what I mean.
Yet it's not impossible to sew a purse from a sow's ear, to find hope in this national and neighborhood tragedy, if we dare to look.
Sometimes in the dark you stumble across something that inspires and illuminates. And it serves us well to pay attention and to use it to light our way through.
The Mar Vista Family Center is one shining project deserving of our support. Incredibly, MVFC succeeded in recruiting the very gang members who burned down its low-income community pre-school in 1980 to help build it and their community back up. A phoenix of a community organization, if there ever was!
Then there is Jorge Peniche, a talented Renaissance man from "da hood," a diamond in the rough and tough of LA. Visit his Website and you tell me!
A young man of indisputable talent, Peniche's in-your-face photography of real and wanna-be gang-bangers alone is an eye-opener, civic education through photographs that reveal truths in a kaleidoscope of grays rather than just black, brown or white.
Peniche's photographs bring all this to the surface in a way that makes the viewer ask why, how, who, and WTF (pardon my acronym)!
Above all, Peniche's calibre of work and personal modesty as a whole is a powerful message to young people everywhere. His work neither denies nor glorifies gangs. Instead, Peniche shows its complexity, the allure, commercialization, vulnerability and deadliness of it all.
The message seems clear: Tell your story using a camera instead of a gun. Get your high with art instead of drugs. And don't ever give up in building yourself and your community a better future, decision by decision, pixel by pixel. And hurry, before it's too late!
WARNING: His latest video below of gang bangers posing and being "shot" in Mar Vista Gardens features Hip-Hop lyrics some folks may find objectionable. Turn down the volume if it irks you and/or get any kids/immature audiences out of earshot.
- JorgePeniche.com: The images and the classical music is to die for!
- Mar Vista Family Center: A Phoenix of community philanthropy
- Streetgangs.com: A down-and-dirty hub of news and activism about LA gangs since 1995.
- Culver City Boyz: Possibly the gang in Peniche's video.
- KPCC Report on LA's anti-Gang plan
- LA Times on the "Businessmen": Geezer Gang Reform
- Mayor Villaraigosa's Gang Reduction Strategy
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Neighborhood Councils
Neighborhood Council Interactive Map (DONE)
________________________________________
Mar Vista Community Council
Palms Neighborhood Council
Venice Neighborhood Council
West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council
Westside Neighborhood Council
a. South Robertson Neighborhood Council
b. South Robertson Neighborhood Council
Del Rey Neighborhood Council
____________________________________________
Neighborhood Associations
Westside Village Civic Association
Mar Vista Neighborhood Association
VenMar Neighborhood Association
____________________________________
Bill Rosendahl (Council District 11)
Len Nguyen for Mar Vista, Palms, Westside
________________________________________
Mar Vista Community Council
Palms Neighborhood Council
Venice Neighborhood Council
West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council
Westside Neighborhood Council
a. South Robertson Neighborhood Council
b. South Robertson Neighborhood Council
Del Rey Neighborhood Council
____________________________________________
Neighborhood Associations
Westside Village Civic Association
Mar Vista Neighborhood Association
VenMar Neighborhood Association
____________________________________
Bill Rosendahl (Council District 11)
Len Nguyen for Mar Vista, Palms, Westside
____________________________________
Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, Second District
____________________________________
Local Resources (Courtesy of Westside Village Civic Association)
City Services
Abandoned Vehicles 800-222-6366
Building & Safety 310-575-8200
City Information - Round the clock 24/7 311
DWP (Electric and Water) 800-342-5397
Fire Department - Emergency or Paramedics 911
Fire Department - Non-Emergency 213-485-5971
Garbage - Bulky Item Pick Up 800-773-2489
Garbage Pickup or Container Replacement 800-773-2489
Gas Company 800-427-2200 Graffiti Cleanup 310-204-2748
Noise - Santa Monica Airport 310-458-8591
Police - Emergency 911
Police Non-emergency, Pacific Division 310-482-6334
Police Non-emergency, Main Headquarters 877- ASKLAPD or 877-275-5273
Police-Neighborhood Watch, Senior Lead Officer, Anthony Vasquez 310-622-3975
Public Library, Palms Rancho Park Branch, 2920 Overland 310-840-2142
Sidewalk Repair 800-996-2489
Street Maintenance 213-473-8410
Telephone Repair 611
Tree Trimming 213-473-8410
Community Resources Directory
____________________________________
Local Resources (Courtesy of Westside Village Civic Association)
City Services
Abandoned Vehicles 800-222-6366
Building & Safety 310-575-8200
City Information - Round the clock 24/7 311
DWP (Electric and Water) 800-342-5397
Fire Department - Emergency or Paramedics 911
Fire Department - Non-Emergency 213-485-5971
Garbage - Bulky Item Pick Up 800-773-2489
Garbage Pickup or Container Replacement 800-773-2489
Gas Company 800-427-2200 Graffiti Cleanup 310-204-2748
Noise - Santa Monica Airport 310-458-8591
Police - Emergency 911
Police Non-emergency, Pacific Division 310-482-6334
Police Non-emergency, Main Headquarters 877- ASKLAPD or 877-275-5273
Police-Neighborhood Watch, Senior Lead Officer, Anthony Vasquez 310-622-3975
Public Library, Palms Rancho Park Branch, 2920 Overland 310-840-2142
Sidewalk Repair 800-996-2489
Street Maintenance 213-473-8410
Telephone Repair 611
Tree Trimming 213-473-8410
Elected Government Officials
City Councilman Jack Weiss, 5th District 310-289-0353
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, 11th District 310-575-8461
County Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke 213-974-2222
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa 213-978-0600
State Assemblymember Karen Bass, 47th District 323-937-4747
State Senator Debra Bowen, 28th District 310-318-6994
U.S. Congresswoman Diane Watson 323-965-1113
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 213-894-5000
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein 310-914-7318
Parks
Mar Vista Recreation Center & Pool, 11430 Woodbine 310-398-5982
Palms Child Care Center, 2930 Overland 310-202-2577
Palms Recreation Center, 2950 Overland 310-838-3838
Post Offices
Palms, Motor north of Venice - 90034 800-275-8777
Exposition, Exposition south of Pico - 90064 800-275-8777
Schools
Public Schools Clover Avenue Elementary, Clover Avenue and Military 310-479-7739
Charnock Road Elementary, Charnock Road and Sepulveda 310-838-6110
Palms Middle School, Kelton and Woodbine 310-837-5236
Hamilton High, Robertson and Cattaraugus 310-836-1602
Private Schools Adat Shalom, 3030 Westwood Boulevard 310-475-4985
Redeemer Baptist Church and Elementary School 10792 National Boulevard 310-475-4597
Lycee Francais de Los Angeles, 3261 Overland Avenue 310-836-2699
Notre Dame Academy Elementary, 2911 Overland Avenue 310-287-3895
Notre Dame Academy High School, 2851 Overland Avenue 310-839-5289
St. John's Presbyterian Church, 11000 National Boulevard 310-477-2513
Web Sites
Emergency Survival Training www.cert-LA.com
Los Angeles City www.lacity.org
Mar Vista Community Council www.marvistacc.org
Palms Neighborhood Council www.Palms-California.US
State of California www.legislature.ca.gov
U.S. Congress www.Congress.org
Westside Village Civic Association www.westsidevillage.org
____________________________________
Community Resources Directory
Crime Control
Los Angeles Community Policing
Pacific Community Telephone Directory
LAX Substation 802 World Way, West Los Angeles, CA 90045 310-646-2255. Beach Substation, 1530 W. Ocean Front Walk, Los Angeles, CA, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. 310-392-5131
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