Year in Review
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t’s difficult to pin down a single theme that accurately defines 2014. In many ways, this was a pretty confusing year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up from 16,441 in January to a record high of more than 18,000 before Christmas, but wages remain flat for most as the cost of living climbs — except at the pump, with gas prices plummeting well under $3 per gallon. A rainy and cold December has capped off months of intense concern about the still very troubling drought. And how will we ever explain the Ice Bucket Challenge to our grandkids? Restoration plans for the Ballona Wetlands still haven’t materialized, and for better or worse the Annenberg Foundation has decided against building a controver-
sial $50-million nature education center there, putting us back where we began in 2013. The courts struck down prohibitions against people sleeping in cars as security along Venice Beach ratcheted up, but the clearest remedy for homelessness — more affordable housing — remains out of reach. At the same time, residents have found themselves pitched against developers in neighborhood battles over increasing density. In Santa Monica it was opposition to the towering Hines project that turned the political tide toward slow growth. In Marina del Rey, longtime locals and boat owners say they’re being squeezed out by county plans for a harbor makeover and are up in arms about plans to redevelop tranquil Mariners Village. A proposed
It took 365 firefighters, eight of them suffering minor injuries, to extinguish a 14-hour blaze that engulfed the Extra Space Storage facility on Venice Boulevard on Oct. 25 and 26. Photo by Marta Evry.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, in which people willingly dumped buckets of ice water on themselves to raise awareness and funding to combat Lou Gehrig’s disease, went viral in 2014. Cynthia Hoepner, principal of St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey, stepped up to the plate on Aug. 21. Photo by Greg Mitchell. PAGE 10 THE ARGONAUT January 1, 2015
On Nov. 4, election night victories went to Sheila Kuehl (pictured on election night with former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) for county supervisor, Autumn Burke for state Assembly, Ben Allen for state Senate and Ted Lieu for the U.S. House of Representatives. Photo by Marta Evry.
restaurant patio in a formerly industrial block of Venice has become a lightning rod for critics of a much wider gentrification trend. Meanwhile, Playa Vista is riding the Westside tech industry boom to an unprecedented growth spurt. IMAX is already building a new $45-million West Coast headquarters there, and Google just bought 12 acres for a $120-million corporate compound. Construction of the Runway at Playa Vista retail center and adjacent high-end housing (already selling fast!) clips along at a breakneck pace, foreshadowing what may become the biggest story of 2015. — Joe Piasecki
The endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly reestablished a thriving population in the Ballona Wetlands this summer, naturalists finding more than 117 of the thumbnailsized insects where previously there were none. Photo by Patrick Tyrell.
On his way to hanging out with Gwyneth Paltrow at a $15,000-perplate Democratic Party fundraiser, President Barack Obama dropped by Ted Lieu’s Venice congressional campaign office on Oct. 9 and spent a few minutes calling Westside voters on Lieu’s behalf. Lieu cruised to victory in the Nov. 4 election and takes over the seat being vacated by the retirement of Henry Waxman.
Alix Hobb, who began volunteering with Heal the Bay as a teenager in 1993, became the nonprofit’s CEO and president on Oct. 1. Photo by Nick Fash.
Sibyl Buchanan (center), who retired this year after 25 years as community affairs director for Playa Vista, was honored on Oct. 21 by the Rotary Club of Playa Vista Sunrise. Photo by Glenn Marzano.
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Morrey Plotkin, who founded the LAX Flight Path Learning Center & Museum and provided critical support for the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce, died Oct. 8 at his home in Playa del Rey. He was 97.
Freak lightning strikes on Venice Beach killed college student Nick Fagnano (pictured) and injured 13 others on July 27. The tragedy renewed support for a public address system to clear the beach and boardwalk in case of emergency.
Paul Grover, 62, of Playa Vista was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Jan. 9 while jogging along Lincoln Boulevard near Loyola Marymount University. The driver is still at large.
Westchester taco stand cook Jesus Delgado is praised as a hero after foiling a Feb. 26 snatchand-grab child kidnapping attempt on Manchester Avenue, chasing down and confronting the would-be kidnapper and recovering the four-year-old boy. The neighborhood group Moms of Westchester and Playa del Rey raised more than $22,000 as a reward for Delgado. Photo by Jorge M. Vargas Jr.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced in June that a stretch of Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista would be part of his Great Streets initiative to revive neighborhood centers by making them more pedestrian friendly. Photo by Ted Soqui.
Santa Monica Beach homeless outreach volunteer Janet Watson Lilliot, 62, was struck and killed by a city contractor’s landscaping truck that backed over her while she was walking near Crescent Bay Park.
The Seth Rogen and James Franco buddy comedy “The Interview,” about the fictional assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, drove one of the biggest national stories of the year: the cyberattack on Culver City-based Sony Pictures, Sony’s decision not to release the film after the hackers made terrorist threats, and Sony’s distribution of the movie online after President Obama fingered North Korea for the hacking and laid political cover for the film. Pictured: James Franco, third from right, joined local artists in December at Venice Beach to paint a mural based on the film. Photo by Edizen Stowell / venicepaparazzi.com.
Amidst bitter opposition from neighbors concerned about density and traffic, the Los Angeles City Council voted in January to give developers TriCal Construction permission to build a five-story, 140-unit residential and retail complex at 7407 S. La Tijera Blvd. in Westchester (a rendering of the project is pictured above). Construction has yet to begin.
Westchester Lutheran Church and School took best overall float honors at this year’s 14th annual Westchester Fourth of July Parade, sponsored by the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Glenn Marzano. January 1, 2015 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 11
Year in Review
Months before buying 12 acres in Playa Vista to expand its L.A.-area operations, tech giant Google visited Marina del Rey Elementary School in September to announce a donation of $1 million in supplies for LAUsD classrooms. Photo by Jorge M. Vargas Jr.
Capt. Joseph Stephen took the helm of the Marina del Rey Sheriff’s Station in June after department brass promoted Capt. Reggie Gautt to the Carson station.
Vandals trashed Culver-Marina Little League facilities in Del Rey during the first weekend in August, leaving behind satanic graffiti and prompting a Sheriff’s Department sweep of homeless encampments in the adjacent Ballona Wetlands. Pictured: Culver-Marina Little League Baseball Vice President Matthew Wind assessing damage. Photo by Jorge M. Vargas Jr. PAGE 12 THE ARGONAUT January 1, 2015
Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin live tweeted the cleanup of a burning mattress on Ocean Front Walk, prompting an ongoing rollout of new security measures for the Venice boardwalk that include 24/7 LAPD-monitored video surveillance cameras.
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Pepy’s Galley, a popular Mar Vista diner for more than 44 years, shuttered permanently in June to make way for renovations of AMF Mar Vista Lanes. In May, hundreds of residents and L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin rallied around owner Joseph “Pepy” Gonzalez (pictured behind the counter) to try to save the restaurant. Photo by Joe Piasecki.
Pop star P!nk presided over the third annual Venice Sign Holiday Lighting at Windward Circle. Photo by Edizen Stowell / venicepaprazzi.com
A massive die-off of tens of thousands of anchovies in Marina del Rey harbor on May 17, likely due to lack of oxygen, left a feast for seabirds and stench for boaters. Photo by Joe Piasecki.
Santa Monica voters defeated an aviation-backed Nov. 4 ballot measure to prevent city council members from moving to close down the Santa Monica Airport, passing instead a city-backed measure that gave voters veto power over building on airport land. Photo by Jorge M. Vargas Jr.