June 13, 2013
Local News & Culture Marina del Rey
Westchester
Free S a n ta M o n i c a
P l aya d e l R e y
P l aya V i s t a
M a r V i s ta
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VenicE
Photo By Michael Aushenker
Can the Civic be saved?
The group Save our Civic Auditorium, led by Nina Fresco (front row, third from right)
As the iconic concert venue goes dark on June 30, the Santa Monica community rallies to rescue this architectural giant from a permanent sleep By Michael Aushenker In 2002, on her first day working for the city of Santa Monica’s Landmarks Commission, a young Nina Fresco witnessed the cementing of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium as an iconic Westside destination. “I came in, we went down to the site, and we landmarked,” Fresco recalled, noting how the venue– home to the Santa Monica Symphony and the host of historic concerts by such internationally renowned acts as The Doors, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Pink Floyd and Prince – met the five-point criteria for landmark status with “flying colors.” Today, Fresco leads the charge to save the 3,000-seat concert hall from extinction. The Civic’s lights will go dark on June 30. So what led to the decision by the City Council to mothball the landmark venue on the night of Oct. 23, 2012? “We lost the redevelopment money for renewal of the Civic,” Fresco said. “They were planning to shut it down for renovations on June 30 – to modernize the facility. But the redevelopment
money did not come through, so they moved to shut it down for good.” The landmarks commissioner, who doubles as the head of SaveOurCivicAuditorium.org, an online effort to rescue the facility from permanent closure, is working with a core volunteer group of 14 scrambling to find a solution curtailing the ominous fate awaiting this esteemed Welton Becket creation. On the evening of June 4, about 100 area residents gathered at Virginia Avenue Park’s Thelma Terry Center to troubleshoot. Jessica Cusick, cultural affairs manager for the city of Santa Monica, delivered an overview of the situation before leading the discussion. City staff, she explained, hired Urban Land Institute (ULI), an independent research firm, to assess the Civic’s viability. The ULI, Cusick continued, estimated it would take $52 million (“probably on the low side”) to redux the building’s main auditorium (currently not fit for public assembly) for seismic stability and “with a better sound system.” “We need a clear vision, a clean plan for how to make this happen economically,” she added. (Continued on page 14)
Santa Monica
Community struck by shooting tragedy begins to heal Zawahri, 24, at his father’s home in the 2000 block of Yorkshire Avenue prior to carjacking a woman and forcing her to drive down streets where he randomly shot at vehicles en route to the college. Several people were injured in the rampage, police said. Carlos Franco worked as a longtime groundskeeper at the community college and had taken his daughter, who had recently enrolled at SMC, to pick up textbooks at the campus when they were shot in his SUV. “Carlos Franco was our colleague – a dear member of the Santa Monica College family,” said SMC President Dr. Chui Tsang, who embraced Franco’s widow, Ramona, during the procession to Corsair Field. “We remember him as a devoted father and husband and for his dedication to work and the family.” Marcela, who was Franco’s youngest daughter and formerly a student at California State UniversityDominguez Hills, was remembered by loved ones for her intelligence, outgoing nature and her determination to become a clinical psychologist, Tsang said. Police say Gomez was shot to death by Zawahri as she stood outside the campus library, where the (Continued on page 9)
Photo by Vince Echavaria
By Vince Echavaria Three days after a shooting rampage through Santa Monica streets and the city’s community college claimed six lives, including the gunman’s, hundreds joined together to mourn, share feelings of anger and confusion and pay their respects to the victims whose lives were tragically taken. The gathering began outside the Santa Monica College library, where the June 7 violence came to an end, and traveled past a makeshift memorial on campus, with family members, loved ones and community members walking together, many embracing each other, toward Corsair Field. The school had just welcomed back students earlier that day after they were placed on lockdown June 7 before police shot and killed the gunman, identified by authorities as John Zawahri, 23. At the football stadium, where graduation ceremonies were held June 11, mourners remembered victims Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, his daughter, Marcela Franco, 26, who died two days after the shooting, and Margarita Gomez, 68. Authorities say the violence began when Zawahri fatally shot his father, Samir Zawahri, 55, and brother, Christopher
A CONSOLING HAND – Santa Monica College President Dr. Chui Tsang (center) joins loved ones of victims of the Santa Monica shooting rampage during a procession to a community memorial service.