The Inimitable Bill Rosendahl

Here's a video of Bill Rosendahl, City Councilperson for District 11, in top form as he addresses the neighborhood on the issue of affordable housing and introducing his staff on Wednesday August 6, 2008. Bill is considered by many as a community-focused and honest member of the City Council.

Surfing Blind

Blind students learn to surf in Southern California program

Two best friends want to live independently one day, so they push themselves to tackle new and sometimes scary experiences.

Got Earthquake Insurance?

Recent rumblers in Los Angeles map (USGS).

Here's the new Caltech 3D representation of the quake.


Here's the Governator...

Racist Covenants: Remembering or reliving Jim Crow LA?

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre doesn't want to live with housing covenants that endorsed segregation.

LA TIMES reports that "though the decades-old contracts are illegal, their rules are still attached to some deeds. State legislator Hector De La Torre has introduced a bill that would clear them from public records."

Surely, here's a story that every thinking, breathing Angeleno needs to grapple with.

Los Angeles had its own Jim Crow "restrictive covenants" since the 1920s that forced buyers to comply with explicitly offensive racist rules. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. Yet these discriminatory rules remain in print and part of the public record in property purchase agreements in tens of thousands covenants across the state.

Our own Mar Vista community has community associations with such racist covenants.

De La Torre wants to "wipe the stain" by expunging them from public records. Others say they're already illegal and their removal is costly. Here are the pros and cons as delineated in the bill's analysis.

Here's one simple solution to remove the relevant clauses in a retrictive covenant. And here's another for $350!

And here's SB 1148 (Burton, Ch. 589) passed by CA legislature in 1999:

DISCRIMINATORY COVENANTS: Prohibits a common interest development document from containing any restrictive covenant that discriminates in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, marital status, disability, national origin, or ancestry; requires homeowner associations to amend governing documents to delete discriminatory restrictions; requires persons who disseminate declarations of common interest developments to mark the document, advising that discriminatory restrictions are void; and specifies that, as of January 1, 2001, housing discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act includes the existence of a restrictive covenant; in addition, permits an owner to require the county recorder to remove any blatant racial restrictive covenant contained in any recorded document associated with the property.

What do you think?

JORGEPENICHE.COM: RESPONSE TO BABAK NAHID

JORGEPENICHE.COM: RESPONSE TO BABAK NAHID

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Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Time to visit the LA Natural History Museum?

Mar Vista Resources

Open Mar Marvista is an evolving new community social network using Ning.com. Created by talented professionals and driven by the community, it promises to grow into a virtual marketplace of ideas.

Al Gore: Hectoring Hero? Zero Carbon in 10 Years
Smart, alert, and clear-eyed--Gore is 21st century jeremiad who deserves our close attention (and our forgiveness for his supercilious tone.) If only a Green America (and the peace and prosperity it could birth) was more than just a twinkle in the eyes of "liberals" and "progressives."

Don't Whine! Don't Panic! Or you'll get arrested!

As the US economy melts down, so do people and institutions. And there's no superhero in sight! http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-indymac16-2008jul16,0,1217522.story

It's a jungle out there: Working together to mitigate crime

Westside Village neighbors, SLO Ceja and hardworking gardeners clean up the Kingsland/Rose stairway (View Larger Map) to improve visibility and help mitigate crime.

Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch Links

• Neighborhood Watch (Wikipedia)
  
• Neighborhood Watch LAPD
• Neighborhood Watch Implementation Manual (usaonwatch.org)
  
• usaonwatch.com
  
• Neighborhood Watch (NCPC)
  
• Neighborhood Watch (NNWI)
• Neighborhood Watch (IFPO)
  
• SafeState (CA Attorney General)
• LACP Neighborhood Watch Signs
  
• Neighborhood Watch Theory and Research
  
• Implementation Challenges in Community Policing: Innovative Neighborhood-Oriented Policing in Eight Cities (US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub)

LAPD unveils new tipster tool: anonymous text messages

Pangea Day 2008

Pangea Day: Promoting Peace Pixel by Pixel, Skeptic by Skeptic

“I wish to bring the world together for one day a year through the power of film,” declared a nervous, shy Jehane Noujaim onstage at the TED 2006 conference.

Then, Jehane was best known as the Arab-American director of “Control Room”—an unsettling documentary on the media coverage of the start of the war in Iraq.

Two years later on May 10, 2008—thanks to a consortium of corporate genies from TED, NOKIA, YouTube, and supporters like Queen Noor of Jordan, Cameron Diaz, Goldie Hawn, Bob Geldof and Phillippe Starck—Jehane's wish came true.

The result: Pangea Day—four hours of live simultaneous global broadcasts in seven languages of films made by dozens of amateurs from more than 100 countries.

Months ago, I had mentioned Pangea Day to a few friends who seemed to under-react to the idea of live global film screening as a path to peace. I tended to nod more or less in agreement.

At the invitation of the Levantine Cultural Center, I now found myself in one of the best-funded (with both social capital and cash) crosscultural events of the progressive movement. I was accompanied by my 14-year-old son whose take on things is often (but not always, I keep arguing) sharper than mine.

Once past the tight security to Stage 15, the event headquarters at Sony Studios in Culver City, we entered a tall cavern resplendent with a “liberal” embarrassment of riches—a gathering of a thousand peace-minded folks, world luminaries and their corporate sponsors to watch short films from around the world.

While a few, Hollywood elite included, seemed to have been strong-armed to turn up to the event by their strong-minded bosses and companions, most—at least under the floodlights, giant jibs and robotic cameras—seemed to be in a world-aware, "we can overcome" kind of mood.

As part of the obligatory “kumbaya,” people were asked to introduce themselves to those sitting around them on the bleachers by shaking hands and saying beamingly "Hi, my name is...." Some even hugged.

Dangerously lacking breakfast and my morning coffee, I nonetheless swallowed my scroogy mood and exchanged a few greetings.Thus, in the largest sound stage in the Western Hemisphere, linked up to a thousand Pangea Day events around the world, our global congregation of strangers began its transcultural Shabbat for peace via satellite.

While impressed, I wondered whether Stage 15 was also the site of the decapitated goat that was the centerpiece of an infamous launch party in 2007 to promote the God Of War II game for Sony PlayStation 2. It certainly was where a tough US President declared to America and its enemies:

“Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid."

Stage 15 was, in fact, where “Airforce One” was filmed in 1996, in which a tough President Harrison Ford kills numerous terrorists in mid-air and with his bare hands. So films do influence us, it seems. Except today, it was Jehane's turn.

Our kumbaya notwithstanding, my empty stomach kept me skeptical. On Pangea Day, like the day before, we were Americans at a turning point than can twist either way. Nearly a decade of unapologetic, ineffectual ideology-snorting by both left, right and center does not a genuine movement for change make.

And, anyway, it was a media event at Sony—neither an Obama appearance nor a Ronald Reagan seance—but a shiny, PR-inflected cultural celebration of peace that may connect the converted but would do little to persuade those, liberals or conservatives, who distrust or even despise such “naivete.”

Yet my teenage son stared, clearly fascinated by the stories on the screen.

In Jehane's own documentary “Combatants for Peace,” we watched a former Israeli soldier who transported dying children from a suicide bombing in his helicopter and a former member of the resistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories whose 10-year-old daughter was killed outside of her school renounce violence and strive together for peace.

Or in Brent Hoff's Walleyball, we laughed watching the world’s most illegal game of volleyball – played at the U.S.-Mexico barrier. Mocking one of the world's most militarized borders between the rich North and poor South, these Americans and Mexicans turned the 20-foot fence into a net for their beach volleyball tournaments. Hoff summarizes the scene this way: “on one side, helicopters and machine guns; on the other, mariachi bands and families sharing popsicles."

Under the flicker of the screens, my son's face seemed to say: "So this is possible, people actually thinking and doing intelligent things for peace, with foresight, and for the sake of each other."

The turning point for us both was when Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad, an Israeli mother and a Palestinian man whose son and brother respectively were killed in the conflict, came on-stage to appeal for peace and reconciliation despite (and more importantly, because) of their terrible loss. The powerful film “Encounter Point” tells their incredible stories.

When Ali and Robi hugged tightly like mother and son, many wiped their eyes to better watch them descend slowly from the stage. By investing their grief in hope, and by their participation in the bereaved families forum Parents Circle, they had broken the chains of "Us and Them," shamed the rejectionists of peace and inspired the rest of us.

My right to be skeptical was finally trumped by the living example of people whose courage and compassion I would be extremely hard pressed to match.

Pangea Day was a global invitation to restart the memory of the first decade of twenty-first-century by supplanting fear, division and low expectations with a partnership for actionable change. Film as a medium offered us a chance to “learn” the world through global eyes and think again. Whether from Africa, Asia, Europe or the Americas, the films' message was “let's explore the possibilities, reexamine ourselves, understand our connections, and think ahead for the future, before it's too late.”

For my teenage son, it was a sign that even in a time of war, terror, ignorance and arrogance art can help make whole—at least for a moment—our fragile, frangible world.

Pangea Day reminded us—film after film, speaker after speaker—that a mature, courageous and compassionate America can make a world of difference; that only a world that sees through humane rather hate and fear-filled eyes can look forward to a bright future.

This—and not just another film festival—was Jehane's and her global audience's real wish.

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You can watch the event, the films, and learn more about Pangea Day here.

“Neighbor Helping Neighbor”

Vote for BABAK NAHID ● Candidate, Zone 1 Director ● Mar Vista Community Council

Dear Neighbor,

I am seeking your vote so I can actively help protect and improve our community as the Zone 1 Director for Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC).

MY BACKGROUND
I am a 15-year resident of Westside Village in Mar Vista/Palms where my family and I live, work and volunteer. A UCLA alum, nonprofit management consultant and educator, I want to help improve quality of life for everyone by bringing my expertise to the Council.

MY SERVICE HISTORY
My service to MVCC began years ago when my 8-year-old son and I attended a Council meeting to offer to help launch the beautification of Mar Vista Park. Thanks to many hands, today Mar Vista Park is the pride of our community.

Today, as an elected officer of the MVCC Santa Monica Airport Committee, I am working with MVCC, residents and Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution to ensure a safer, healthier airport for all.

With your support, I will use my 15 years of public service (with the American Red Cross, UCLA, Doctors Without Borders and MVCC) to help make our neighborhood's future even brighter.

WHY VOTE FOR ME
Elected or not, I’ll continue to offer a helping hand—this is my family’s neighborhood, where my son is growing up, where we walk our mutt Dodger, where my family and I work, play, shop and meet up with our friends and neighbors. If you elect and support me, however, I can be even more effective for our community.

My mission is to:
● Promote stronger safety and health standards for the whole community (traffic, crime, airport concerns etc.)
● Increase active participation of diverse stakeholders in the Council, including youth.
● Help celebrate and make visible our neighborhood's rich culture through festivals and other programs

MY PROMISE TO YOU
● I will strive as a volunteer to listen to and consider all perspectives in my effort to improve quality of life for all residents.
● I will be honest, diligent, and civic-minded in everything I do for the benefit of the community as a Zone director.
● I am running to accomplish good things for our community. Rather than play politics or do many things poorly, I will try to focus on our priorities and my own strengths, so that by the end of my term I can proudly say, I helped—thanks to your support—make Mar Vista’s future even brighter.

Please share YOUR suggestions on how to improve our neighborhood. Take the 30-second poll and/or the 2-minute survey, email me, or post your concerns and ideas. Civic rules of conduct apply!

Election Day
Saturday June 21, 2008, 10 AM-4PM
Mar Vista Elementary School • 3330 Granville Blvd. • Los Angeles, CA 90066

Photo credit: I love history because if we listen carefully, it almost always speaks to the future. For example, this great archival image of the now-destroyed tram system in Mar Vista points to our future Metro line! (Courtesy of Uncanny.net).

Learn more about the Metro project here.

MVCC

Mar Vista Community Council

MVCC Santa Monica Airport Committee

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MVCC New Board of Directors Are Sworn In July 8, 2008

(First photo courtesy of Jerry Gotlieb)

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

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Neighborhood Events

Mar Vista Farmer's Market

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

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