Woodlawn Cemetery is struggling financially but has come up with a solution. Officials want to change a rule that said only Santa Monica residents can be buried there, according to the Daily Press:
A 112-year-old cemetery where more than 60,000 Santa Monica residents have been laid to rest could soon be open to outsiders.
City officials plan to change an old ordinance that limits interment at Woodlawn Cemetery to only current residents or former Santa Monicans who lived in the city for at least five years, making it the only known municipality in the state with such a restriction.
The recommendation by Woodlawn staff came at the City Council meeting on Tuesday during a presentation about a new business plan aimed at making the cemetery financially sustainable.
It's another lovely day at the beach in Santa Monica, with a light spring breeze blowing across the sun-dappled sea and cyclists pedaling stress-free along the bike path.
Paradise. Nirvana. Whatever you call it, we're lucky mugs to have a tranquil respite from the urban madness and permanent bottlenecks.
But wait. Do I see a collision in the making?
A woman is pushing a stroller, a teenager is on a skateboard, a man is walking a dog on a leash -- all of them idling along on a path that's marked BIKES ONLY -- and here comes a cyclist, closing in on this knot of nudniks. The cyclist slows, he weaves, he shoots past them and all are safe. But it doesn't always work out like that.
"It happened right here," Jon Louis Mann is telling me as he replays an accident that happened about a week ago. "I was heading south and there's a guy standing in the bike lane with a dog on a leash, and he's talking to another guy."
[Updated: 5:33 p.m. Two young men accompanying the suspected burglar fled before police arrived, Los Angeles Police Officer Rosario Herrera said. The shooting occurred in the 3800 block of Beethoven Street, and the gunshot victim was taken to a local hospital where he was in stable condition, Herrera said.
“The shooter wasn’t arrested, it was in self-defense,” Herrera said.]
A man suspected of burglarizing cars in the Mar Vista area was shot in the face by a resident early this morning, police said.
The man was breaking into vehicles when he was confronted by a resident at about 1:40 a.m., said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dennis Beacham.
"He was subsequently shot and sustained a gunshot wound to the facial area," Beacham said. "It’s my understanding he’s in stable condition."
Police did not release the name or age of the victim, and would not say whether the resident who shot him was arrested.
Pepperdine University today will dedicate as open space a 72.7-acre property known as Little Las Flores Canyon, about eight miles from the school's campus. Slated to attend the invitation-only event are Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Pepperdine President Andrew K. Benton and officials from the state Department of Fish and Game and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which will hold title to the land.
In 2000, the university, which sits on a small portion of an overall 830 acres in the Malibu area, pledged to collaborate with government agencies to set the property apart as open space for preservation. The land is an integral part of the watershed and ecosystem of the adjoining Tuna Canyon "significant ecological area."
To help protect the sensitive habitat, public access will be limited, via a designated trail that ascends to the Backbone Trail. Pepperdine said the property will be protected by a conservation easement held by the Department of Fish and Game.
The area features a deep canyon system formed by Little Las Flores Creek, reptiles and sandstone outcroppings with ledges and pinnacles for roosting and nesting of owls, hawks, eagles and ravens. Plant communities include sycamore riparian woodland, coastal sage scrub and native grasslands.
Nearly half a century ago, a ritzy boutique opened at the corner of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way in Beverly Hills and quickly changed the rules of the retailing game.
The store was Giorgio Beverly Hills, and it featured a yellow-and-white-striped awning outside and a reading room, pool table and oak bar indoors -- along with, of course, a jaw-dropping array of designer duds sought after by Beverly Hills mavens and Hollywood A-listers.
In a nod to his erstwhile boutique’s glory days, Fred Hayman (a.k.a. Mr. Beverly Hills) this week dedicated a re-creation of the storefront through which walked the likes of Natalie Wood, Princess Grace, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Diana Ross, Charlton Heston, Elizabeth Taylor and the Rat Pack.
The door, topped by a balcony with a white wrought iron railing draped in metal flowers, is a few blocks from where the original resided. Hayman, 83, years ago moved his offices to a building on Canon Drive just north of Wilshire Boulevard and painted it bright yellow, his signature color, also featured on his Mercedes-Benz two-seater and his Lamborghini. The faux entry is on a wall around the corner on Clifton Way.
In front stands a sculpture by J. Seward Johnson Jr. of a young family enjoying an outing on Rodeo with their pet dachshund (for which Hayman’s dog Giorgio posed). Hayman had commissioned the work for his shop, and it remained there from 1989 until May 1998, when Fred Hayman Beverly Hills, as the store was then called, closed. During the interim, Hayman has kept it at his Malibu beach house.
Hayman took over Giorgio Beverly Hills from his partners in 1962. The Swiss-born former hotelier dreamed of turning Rodeo into a world-class shopping district -- like New York’s Fifth Avenue, London’s Bond Street or Paris’ Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
In these recessionary times, it might be tough to recall what Rodeo Drive was like in the 1970s and 1980s. So influential was Hayman that designers such as Halston granted him the exclusive right to sell their designs. Patrons arrived with an extra limousine for their purchases. As recounted in a 1998 Los Angeles Times Magazine story, Hayman once had to close the shop temporarily to regroup after an Arab and his harem bought every evening dress in the joint.
In honor of National Bike Month, the League of American Bicyclists, a nonprofit group that is an advocate for the rights of cyclists, today awarded the city of Santa Monica a "bronze level distinction" for its "remarkable commitments to bicycling."
Santa Monica boasts nearly 16 miles of bike lanes, 19 miles of bike routes and a 3-mile-long beach bike path, according to a release from the city. The city's innovative bicycle valet program parked more than 20,000 bikes last year at community events. Plans are underway to build bicycle parking facilities downtown.
Santa Monica is the first city in western Los Angeles County to be given the award. Long Beach also was among this year's honorees. Previous recipients in the county were Claremont and Santa Clarita.
Municipalities are recognized for their role in promoting bicycling in five key categories: education, engineering, enforcement, encouragement and evaluation. The league awards platinum, gold, silver and bronze awards twice each year. More information is available at the league's website.
The annual Venice Garden & Home Tour is Saturday, and more than 30 properties will be open along the canals, walks and side streets of one of L.A.’s iconic neighborhoods. Bring a camera and a notebook to jot down plant names, or borrow some inspiration with this preview of four very different gardens on the tour. We start at the home of actors Orson Bean and Alley Mills, whose canal district garden mixes floral bounty with vintage signs used as folk art.
Tommy Scott was a high-spirited and well-liked LAX police officer when a pedestrian commandeered his patrol car four years ago on Lincoln Boulevard and dragged Scott along as he struggled for control of the steering wheel. The car hit a fire hydrant, killing Scott, 35, the first LAX officer to die in the department's history.
At noon Saturday, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Councilwoman Janice Hahn will be among dignitaries, friends and family gathering in Westchester to dedicate a portion of Lincoln Boulevard in Scott's memory. The place where Scott died is marked with a plaque and memorial.
Southbound lanes of Lincoln between La Tijera and Sepulveda boulevards will be closed to the public between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Responding to an "unprecedented number of complaints" from constituents, U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) this week wrote to Postmaster General John E. Potter for an explanation about why so many mailboxes had been removed in the L.A. area.
Noting that many residents had complained that boxes were removed without warning, Waxman asked Potter a few questions: What criteria are used to determine whether a box will be removed? How are data collected to demonstrate that the criteria were met? How and how far in advance are customers notified that a box will be removed? Can customers appeal the removal and ask that a box be returned?
In March, U.S. Postal Service officials said the removals were part of an ongoing effort to reevaluate mail collection and routes nationwide, a process accelerated by the economic downturn.
Waxman's office said he has not yet received a reply.
--Martha Groves
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the incorporated cities of Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills and
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Students from Third Street Elementary School in Hancock Park will compete Saturday in an Olympics-style athletic competition to benefit homeless children. Their ticket in will be a new backpack filled with school supplies, which will later be distributed to homeless children in Los Angeles by School on Wheels, a tutoring service for low-income children.
The Grove shopping center will sponsor the second annual event, to be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the school's South June Street campus. The Tiger Woods Foundation also awarded the school a $2,500 grant to help the students meet their goal for this year's event: 1,200 filled backpacks and $12,000 for some of the school's key programs. The school will accept cash donations at the door.
Last year, more than 400 students participated in the competition, contributing 814 backpacks.
Don’t expect the Los Angeles city attorney’s runoff to get any more civil before voters go to the polls May 19.
The political action committee of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor -- closely allied with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who chairs the election committee of City Councilman and candidate Jack Weiss -- notified the Ethics Commission this week it was spending $335,309 on a media buy to oppose Weiss' opponent, Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich.
No script has been posted yet for the ads, but the move sets up dueling independent expenditures between the federation and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which is backing Trutanich. Independent committees are exempt from normal fundraising limits as long as they don't coordinate with the candidates they support.
The LAPPL's political action committee has spent $252,000 on positive radio spots noting the endorsements of the San Pedro defense attorney by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and praising Trutanich as “law enforcement's choice.”
Weiss, in turn, has been endorsed by Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, the Los Angeles Police Command Officers Assn. and La Ley, the Latin American Law Enforcement Assn.
Meanwhile Weiss’s campaign scrambled to put on a noon news conference to denounce a flier on the website of the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. that asks voters to support Trutanich and denounces Weiss as a threat to 2nd Amendment rights who wants to take away “your right to self-defense.”
And former Laker Shaquille O’Neal endorsed Trutanich this morning as “the only man I trust to work with our kids to keep them safe at school and away from gangs.” Previously, Laker legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson endorsed Weiss.
Santa Monica is debating whether to build a new library in the Pico district. Everyone seems to like the concept, but some are critical of building it inside Virginia Avenue Park because it would take away open space. Details from the Lookout News:
While several City Council members on Tuesday expressed strong support for locating a new library at a Pico neighborhood park, others worried it would eat into much-needed open space. The debate over where to build the new Pico branch library is still brewing after the council directed staff to continue exploring the two options – placing it at Virginia Avenue Park or finding an available piece of land along Pico Boulevard. The most vocal supporters of the park site were Mayor Ken Genser and Council member Richard Bloom, who made a new library for the Pico neighborhood part of their campaign platforms in the November race for four open council seats.
Click here for more coverage of the communities of Los Angeles' Westside, including Westwood, Century City, Bel-Air, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades and
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There have been many epic debates in West Hollywood about preserving the city's historic housing stock. Now, the WeHo News is reporting that the city is talking about new regulations that could put a greater burden on preservationists:
Buffeted by recent attempts to stop redevelopment from demolishing the West Hollywood’s considerable historic housing stock, the council decided before Sal Guarriello’s death to make it more difficult for preservationists to nominate properties for cultural heritage protections.
The amendments to existing law would lengthen the time between possible nominations from five to ten years, as well as shorten the time for appeals of the council’s denial of historic status to 12 months.
The first wave of slayings haunted Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. The killer slipped mostly unseen through the night, preying on older women who lived alone. He raped them and squeezed their necks until they passed out or died. Of the 17 who were killed, he placed pillows or blankets over their faces.
The second wave hit a decade later in Claremont -- five older women raped and strangled, faces again covered. Even with at least 20 survivors, police never connected the two homicide-and-rape rampages nor solved either of them. The victims gave conflicting descriptions of the rapist, police in different jurisdictions didn't communicate, and DNA technology had not come into use.
Now authorities say they have linked John Floyd Thomas Jr., a 72-year-old state insurance claims adjuster who twice has been convicted of sexual assault, to five of the slayings. Detectives also describe him as a suspect in up to 25 more based on the circumstances of those crimes.
"When all is said and done, Mr. Thomas stands to be Los Angeles' most prolific serial killer," said LAPD Robbery-Homicide Cold Case Det. Richard Bengston.
What happens when the tide goes out? L.A. Times staff photographer Ken Hively snapped close-ups of creatures, like the sea anemone above, that dwell in the tide pools and crevices of Leo Carrillo State Park when the water disappears. View the rest of Ken's tide-pool work.
The Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution today that will offer an additional $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests and convictions in each of five attacks on UCLA researchers since 2006.
The most recent attack was March 7. Police said animal rights extremists destroyed UCLA neuroscientist J. David Jentsch’s car because he uses and sometimes kills vervet monkeys in his medical research.
The other attacks include incidents in June 2006, June 2007 and February 2008, when incendiary devices were left on the front porches of researchers’ homes. In November 2008, extremists also destroyed the car of researcher Goran Lacan, authorities said.
Several other agencies, including the FBI, have already offered a combined reward of about $100,000 for each case. The original motion, which was authored by Councilman Jack Weiss, still needs to be signed by the mayor.
Former "Prison Break" actor Lane Garrison has been released from prison. Garrison was serving a sentence of three years and four months for a Beverly Hills drunk-driving crash in 2006 in which a teenage boy was killed. The 28-year-old actor was released after serving less than half of his sentence.
Malibu, home to one of the most polluted beaches in the region, will hold a water quality symposium from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Pepperdine University. Scientific and technical experts will join with California regulators for a discussion of the latest science and technology and how they relate to water quality regulations.
The morning session will cover scientific presentations about identifying sources of pollution and regulations affecting human health and natural resources. The afternoon session will feature a panel discussion, with audience members invited to participate.
Seating at the Graziadio Graduate School Executive Center, where the symposium will be held, is limited. The $25 registration fee includes lunch. For information, go to the city's website.
-- Martha Groves
Click here for more coverage of the communities of Los Angeles' Westside, including Westwood, Century City, Bel-Air, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades and
the incorporated cities of Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills and
West Hollywood.
Casting is underway for "Octomom The Musical," a fast-paced parody based on Nadya Suleman, the Southern California woman who gave birth in January to octuplets.
Authorities have agreed to return the $1.4 million in jewelry Rihanna was wearing the night she was allegedly assaulted by Chris Brown.
Her attorney told a judge in L.A. Superior Court this morning that the Los Angeles Police Department will hand over three rings and a set of earrings after officers photograph them.
Neither Brown nor Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, attended the hearing before Judge Patricia Schnegg. The judge said a preliminary hearing will likely take place in June.
Brown stands accused of felony assault and criminal threats in the February incident.
On a typical day hundreds of thousands of commuters cram through the Sepulveda Pass, creating an unending line of tail lights that snake across the Santa Monica Mountains from the Westside to the San Fernando Valley during the afternoon commute.
For years, transportation officials have been pushing to ease the gridlock with a $1-billion widening project for the northbound 405 Freeway, which is considered one of the state’s most crowded roadways.
The project is supposed to move forward later this year. But the state’s grim financial situation may cause more delays.
The state was planning to sell $662 million in bonds to help pay for its share of the project, but has not yet been able to. It's unclear when officials will be able to sell the bonds.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is stepping in, allocating local and federal funds it had earmarked for the widening to get work started on the first phase.
Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, usually would remain in his home base in Washington, D.C., to trot out the group's annual list of America's 11 most endangered historic places.
But he journeyed cross-country to make this morning's announcement in Century City, right across the street from the Century Plaza hotel. The mid-century modern touchstone, which opened in 1966, made the list after its owner revealed plans in December to demolish the building and replace it with two 50-story towers.
"We wanted to call attention to this local landmark," Moe said at a news conference.
Diane Keaton, who in recent years has become a vocal advocate for preservation, said the prospect of the crescent-shaped hotel's demise was "terribly upsetting."
"I don't get it," she said. "Look at that curve, that bend, that arc. That's really sexy."
In her excitement, Keaton referred to the hotel as the Century Park Plaza, but her meaning was clear. Architect Minoru Yamasaki "pushed modernism away from straight angles," she said. "We're not going to let that wicked curve meet the wrecking ball head-on."
She drew a laugh from the small audience when she equated the hotel with a voluptuous Sophia Loren, "enriched by a lot of men" -- i.e., the many high-rises that surround the 19-story hotel, scene of presidential victory parties, star-studded galas and an elaborate dinner for the Apollo 11 astronauts.
Still, the conservancy and the trust will have a battle on their hands. Developer Michael Rosenfeld, backed financially by D.E. Shaw Group, says the building is too young to be considered historic. William Delvac, a prominent land-use attorney representing the hotel, said federal regulations would argue against naming a building younger than 50 to the National Register of Historic Places.
"The most stringent standards for eligibility apply to contemporary buildings," Delvac said. "It is intentionally a very high hurdle. In my professional view, the hotel does not pass the test."
With the conservancy in adamant disagreement, it's time to watch that space at Avenue of the Stars and Constellation Boulevard.
Do you have memories of working or celebrating at the Century Plaza? Do you think it should be preserved -- and why? Please share your thoughts.
Conservationists who for years have struggled to win federal funding for new or expanded parks suddenly are seeing green, even in these lean budgetary times.
President Obama has proposed spending $420 million next year to buy land for national parks, forests and wildlife refuges, and to help states fund parks and recreation projects. That is more than double the amount Congress provided for 2009.
What's more, Obama has called for boosting the annual pot of money to $900 million within five years -- a level that has been reached only once, during the President Clinton years, since President Johnson signed the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act in 1964. At the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, officials hope to secure funding for the largest federal purchase of parkland in more than 15 years.
Click here for more coverage of the communities of Los Angeles' Westside, including Westwood, Century City, Bel-Air, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades and
the incorporated cities of Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills and
West Hollywood.
Every day, tiny stories spring up from the Southern California maze of freeways and neighborhoods and into the "missed connections" section of Craigslist. Most don't have Hollywood endings, it's just hopeful residents trying to meet, reconnect, share moments in some way. For the lucky few, lives change. Every week, video-journalist Katy Newton tracks down the faces behind the posts.
This week: Bob, 48, searches for his missing older brother Chris Kathman. 'I'm trying to find my brother...'
Minutes after their return from the moon in 1969, the three Apollo 11 astronauts gazed out the window of their isolation chamber as President Nixon welcomed them home and invited them to a state dinner in their honor.
The setting would be a magnificent ballroom in the Century Plaza hotel in "Los Angeles’ space-age Century City complex," as the Los Angeles Times described it.
Forty years later, the crescent-shaped monument of midcentury modernism where guests enjoyed specially created "moon rocks" of green almond paste dusted with chocolate, is poised to become the focus of what promises to be an intense battle over preservation.
New owners have revealed plans to demolish the hotel, no longer the VIP magnet it once was, and replace it with a $2-billion complex including two 50-story towers containing condos, offices, shops and a smaller luxury hotel.
The Los Angeles Conservancy is determined to stop them. To bolster its campaign, it has enlisted the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which Tuesday put the 726-room Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel on its annual list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.
"By naming this structure to the list, the National Trust is demonstrating that the preservation of recent past and modern buildings is as important to our cultural record as preserving architecture that’s from the Victorian period or Art Deco era," said Christine Madrid French, director of the trust’s nascent Modernism + Recent Past Initiative.
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