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Page 6 Palisades News September 16, 2015 Heard About Town Upset by Jewelry Store Letter We have received another letter addressed simply to “Resident,” this time from a Westwood jewelry store. They claim they were most upset to hear about a wellknown Palisades jeweler and his troubled business and claim, “At Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers, we are known for quality and ethics, something Pacific Palisades could use right now.” Sarah Leonard is probably not known for compassion, something else the Palisades could use right now. No, owners of Sarah Leonard, after receiving this letter, I would rather go to a pawn shop or flea market before I set foot in your store. Alcohol Tasting in Stores I read in the Community Council minutes that Gelson’s and Ralphs are applying to be able to have alcohol tasting tables in their liquor aisles. This really doesn’t seem appropriate in such family-oriented environments, with kids walking past the tables and observing. This also sounds dangerous, sending people out the door with a buzz as they try to remember where they parked their car. (Editor’s note: It is a tasting and the area will be “fenced off” from children. Stores are restricted to one vendor and one alcohol choice per day. The most one person will receive in a day is 8 oz. of beer or 3 oz. of wine—half a cup is 4 oz.) DWP Working on Sunset DWP have been working Sunset between Marquez and Temescal. We understand from the workers that they are laying more electrical lines from Brentwood. Has the DWP given up on the controversial new Distribution Station? (Editor’s note: According to DWP spokes - person Carol Tucker, there has been no movement on a site selection for DS 104. The project you observed is to upgrade the existing electrical line that goes underground from Kenter Canyon to the ocean. The purpose is to provide greater power reliability in this high-voltage transmission line, and is not related to the new DS.) Hot Days and Burned Paws Our sidewalks are awfully hot during these heat waves. Please be careful not to walk your dog on any surface you wouldn’t want to walk barefoot on yourself. ——————— If you’d like to share something you’ve “heard about town,” please email it to spascoe@palisadesnews.com Oops! In the “Stop Thief!! Residents Give Chase” story in the September 2 issue, Bentons Sports Shop was identified as Benton’s. Bentons has been a staple on the Westside and a retail mainstay on North Swarthmore for the past 33 years and we apologize for the error. ANN CLEAVES VIEWPOINT The Beauty of Diversity By RABBI ZUSHE CUNIN Executive Director, Chabad Jewish Community Campus The weekly Swarthmore farmers’ market is a colorful and vibrant place with many enticing and diverse fruits, vegetables and products to buy. Strolling through the open market, I also enjoy bumping into old friends, and making new ones. On a recent visit, I saw more than 30 friends and acquaintances of all ages, backgrounds and occupations. I enjoyed conversing with them all. One sports coach shared with me his philosophy about success, saying “The difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful one is the successful person tried just one time more than the other.” A real estate investor I encountered told me his greatest life lesson: “No matter how much you make, only what is shared with family, friends and the needy really counts.” These “chance” meetings at the farmers’ market got me thinking about diversity and beauty. What is beauty? Is there a theme or rule for what is beautiful? Why does one person find something beautiful while another finds it unattractive or plain? Psychologists say symmetry plays a role. We tend to find symmetrical faces attractive as a sign of health. Familiarity with something also makes it beautiful in our eyes; while new and unfamiliar views can take our breath away. The Bible refers to the “etrog,” a citrus fruit used during the upcoming Sukkot holiday or Feast of Tabernacles, as beautiful or “hadar” in Hebrew. Its beauty is explained from the fact it “lives” (“dar”) on the tree for four seasons, therefore uniting each unique season within this final fruity product. Jewish mystical teachings of Kabbalah explain another word for beauty in Hebrew: “tiferet,” which also means “to weave.” This implies that beauty comes from weaving together various elements into a unified whole, as in sewing pieces of fabric into a garment. We see this in nature, too. A rainbow has bands of color, each beautiful in its own right. But the unique combination creates magnificence greater than the sum of its parts. Diversity is nature’s secret to not only beauty, but also survival. If we define beauty this way, then Pacific Palisades would be a prime example. Our hometown harmonizes various landscapes— mountains, ocean, lowlands and highlands— into one natural paradise. Each has its own unique beauty, but viewed as a whole, its collective beauty surpasses it all. Nature and her creator are teaching us an important lesson. Diversity is beauty; diversity is a blessing. As a community leader, I interact with people of varied ideological, educational and social backgrounds. I have learned from every one of them. I am not above anyone, nor is anyone above me. Together, we are a community of many colors and variations. Each of us is important. No, it’s more—each of us is crucial and irreplaceable. You offer something to the world that cannot be fulfilled by someone else. We can use this understanding to accept and tolerate where we differ. We can also go a step further—to see those different from us as completing us. We can appreciate how the other person’s differences serve our community, and actually make us all better, more complete and beautiful. Wishing you a healthy, sweet and beautiful New Year! Thought to Ponder “Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.” ― Lucius Annaeus Seneca Founded November 5, 2014 ——————— 15332 Antioch Street #169 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 (310) 401-7690 www.PalisadesNews.com ——————— Publisher Scott Wagenseller swag@palisadesnews.com Editor Sue Pascoe spascoe@palisadesnews.com Features Laurie Rosenthal LRosenthal@palisadesnews.com Graphics Director Manfred Hofer Digital Content and Technology Kurt Park Advertising Jeff Ridgway jeffridgway@palisadesnews.com Grace Hiney gracehiney@palisadesnews.com Jeff Parr jparr@palisadesnews.com Advisor Bill Bruns Contributing Writers Laura Abruscato, Laurel Busby, Libby Motika, Logan Taylor Contributing Photographers Bart Bartholomew, Shelby Pascoe ——————— A bi-monthly newspaper mailed on the first and third Wednesday of each month. 14,500 circulation includes zip code 90272 and Sullivan, Mandeville and Santa Mon - ica Canyons.All content printed herein, and in our digital editions, is copyrighted. Online: palisadesnews.com
Palisades News September 16, 2015 A forum for open discussion of community issues Page 7 EDITORIAL Kill the MRCA’s Stop-Sign Cameras Astory in the Daily News (“WAZE App Blamed for Traffic in Parks,” September 7) explained that heavy traffic in local mountain parks, such as Temescal Canyon, is the result of people using the trafficnavigating app. “Traffic apps such as WAZE advertise routes through parks like Franklin Canyon Park,” said Fernando Gomez, chief ranger for the Mountains Recreation Conservatory Authority (MRCA). “This has resulted in a substantial increase in traffic and created a huge hazard for park users.” Later in the story, Gomez concludes: “The park access roads in most of our parks, such as Franklin Canyon Park, or Temescal Gateway Park in Pacific Palisades, were never intended to support the kind of volume that they now do.” Those of us who live in Pacific Palisades know the road into Temescal soon deadends and that WAZE would not send a driver there. In the story, Gomez was not questioned about whether the increase in people could be the result of hiking apps or social media. Palisades resident Warren Cereghino described a visit to Temescal Gateway Park on August 27. “On the driveway heading up into the park, about 20 yards north of the marked crosswalk/entrance to the lower parking lot, there are four traffic-counting cables stretched across the Money May Not Be the Answer I have been following the discussion of the homeless in the Palisades and have personally communicated with Officer Moore and written to Mayor Garcetti and Councilman Bonin. As a licensed psychologist, I worked in community mental health for a number of years and am discouraged that we seem a long way from effective solutions. Los Angeles has a shameful and degrading problem with homelessness, and our representatives need to learn from other places that have been more successful. Mr. Maceri presents a rather incomplete explanation of the causes of and solutions to the problem of homeless people living in public places (Palisades News, “Money Sought for Homeless Solution,” September 2). His advocacy that money would be well spent on hiring two of his social workers is likely a poor investment. The mantra “homelessness is not a crime” is off point and leads to the failed conclusion that we all must accept that people are free to live in very degraded conditions and behave as they wish in the community. Mr. Maceri would have us believe that the best we can do is cajole the chronically homeless, who often have chronic substance abuse and serious mental/behavior problems, into accepting help of their choice. A very important factor he did not mention is the change in laws that coincided with the closing of mental hospitals and other residential facilities. Thanks to the misguided notion of “civil liberties,” we are now very limited in getting anyone to accept shelter and needed medical and psychiatric treatment. roadway and anchored by some kind of nails and tape, with the terminal part looped around a tree on the left side. I thought to myself, ‘Oh, they’re counting traffic. Hmm, I wonder why?’ “When I got up to the camera-enforced stop sign I saw a metal pole extending about 15 to 20 feet into the air with some kind of device on top. I surmise that it is a signal receiver for the tire-counting cables I noted above. The pole is connected to the stop-sign post and a metal box is chained to the post and the pole at the bottom.” A few days later, our editor visited the park and found the devices gone. Why? And why MRCA’s sudden interest in counting cars? The Daily News story concluded: “The warning comes as senators in Sacramento plan to discuss in January if the nine cameras installed at stop signs overseen by the conservation authority are justified.” Ah ha! The Daily News story was not about WAZE or increased car traffic, it was about stop-sign cameras. MRCA operates photo-enforced stop sign cameras, which generate $1.5 million annually in gross revenue. Tickets ($100 for the first offense) are mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle as identified from a photo of the rear license plate. The tickets are administrative citations, which don’t count against an individual driving record, but are turned over to a LETTERS TO THE EDITOR After the investment of considerable police and professional time, a disturbed or disabled person can be placed on a 72-hour hold if they are gravely disabled or present an imminent danger to themselves or others. After 72 hours a court hearing is required to hold someone for up to two weeks. This is very costly as well as ineffective with chronic populations. Even two weeks is too short a time to begin to help someone with multiple problems, so people are back on the street in the same condition. As a result, the trend has been to virtually give up on taking even the most grievously disabled or disruptive people in for an evaluation. What’s the point? Another factor has been the loss of will to enforce laws and regulations pertaining to public behavior and the use of public facilities. Not all cities tolerate skid row, encampments on hillsides, public intoxication, disturbing the peace, etc. Right now Los Angeles turns a blind eye to what used to be and should be unacceptable. Case in point is the man who appears to be both physically and psychiatrically gravely disabled who spends his whole day lying on the concrete sidewalks of the Palisades. He appears in very compromised physical health, is often barely clothed, and almost always surrounded by trash. He is easily agitated, rants, and threatens people. I find his condition as well as his impact on the community to be dreadful. Officer Moore told me that when asked, this man says he doesn’t want help, and therefore nothing can be done. After recently threatening a resident, he was finally taken in for what I assume was collection agency if not paid. When the cameras first appeared in Temescal in 2007, former Beverly Hills attorney, local activist and resident Jack Allen contended that the park deliberately ignored state law and national standards to raise revenue: The state Vehicle Code authorizes using automated traffic enforcement at stop signals, not stop signs. Many agree with his analysis, and last May Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) introduced a bill to kill the cameras. Pacific Palisades Community Council reached out to State Senators Fran Pavley, Huff and Ben Allen, asking them to support SB 218 to end stop-sign photo enforcement. The PPCC wrote: “The two photo enforcement machines MRCA placed in Pacific Palisades’ Temescal Canyon Gateway Park are at intersections with no history of accidents or injury and very little traffic. As a result, PPCC has received numerous complaints about erroneous enforcement by these machines.” Senate Natural Resources Committee Chair Pavley blocked the bill in May in order to curb speeding in the parks and save stop-sign revenue. In January 2016, SB 218 will return to the committee for a second time. The News agrees with Huff, Allen and the PPCC, and thinks it is time for MRCA to retire stop-sign cameras. a 72-hour evaluation and then released with absolutely no improvement in either his condition or behavior. In sum, three things need to be changed. First, commitment laws need to be such that people in need of intervention can be held for a longer period so evaluation and meaningful treatment become possible. Can anyone really argue that our current approach is compassionate to let chronically psychotic people lie on the sidewalk all day, because they are able to say, “I’m fine and can take of myself?” Second, some of our taxes should be directed to provide sufficient low-cost facilities that will house people quickly. This will entail simplifying the many regulations associated with putting a roof over someone’s head. Finally, our representatives need to be serious about not letting people live in public spaces, disturb the rest of the community, and break laws. I suggest we spend our money on a campaign to get Mayor Garcetti and other representatives to very actively get going on changing the paradigm and making this a priority. Linda R. Friar, Ph.D. Caruso’s Liquor License Plans Thank you so much for the article on the Caruso plan for liquor licenses (September 2). It sounds like he wants to open a movie theater and surround it with a food (Continued on Page 8) Palisades News welcomes all letters, which may be mailed to spascoe@palisadesnews.com. Please include a name, address and telephone number so we may reach you. Letters do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Palisades News.
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