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BEVERLY HILLS VOLUME: LIV
NUMBER 45
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Bird Sues Beverly Hills Over Scooter Ban By Victoria Talbot Bird Riders, Inc. is suing the City of Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hills City Council and the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) seeking an overturn of the City’s ban on e-scooters, restitution, attorney’s fees and the return of all impound fees, costs and expenses in a suit brought by O’Melveny & Meyers LLP. “We are disappointed Bird has filed this lawsuit rather than addressing the safety problems that led to the adoption of our six-month prohibition on shared mobility devices,” said City Attorney Laurence Wiener. “At several public meetings, we heard testimony that these dockless scooters were consistently and illegally operated on the sidewalk posing a hazard to pedes-
George Christy, Page 6 John Alonzo’s Cinematography Captures The Lifestyle Of The Gangland Underworld Of 1930s Los Angeles. Directed By Roman Polanski, Chinatown, Is A Gem, And Not To Be Missed
November 9, 2018
Rachelle Marcus, Tristen Walker-Shuman Elected To Beverly Hills School Board
BRAM GOLDSMITH WAY — Beverly Hills named a street after Bram Goldsmith Wednesday, accompanied by a monument noting the incredible contributions he made during his long and storied life to the City of Beverly Hills and the community at large. Pictured, from left: Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold, Karen Mack Goldsmith, Elaine Goldsmith, Russell Goldsmith, former Mayor Vicki Reynolds, Bruce Goldsmith, Beverly Hills Councilmembers Lili Bosse and Robert Wunderlich. For the full story, see page 4.
Mark your calendars! The Rodeo Drive Holiday Lighting Celebration is next Thursday, Nov. 15 at 5 p.m. on Rodeo Drive.
SINCE 1965
trians. Also, they often blocked the public right-of-way when they were parked, making it almost impossible for seniors and the disabled to pass. That alone was sufficient to justify the temporary prohibition. Furthermore, the scooter riders almost always failed to wear helmets, thus endangering themselves in addition to the pedestrians. State law explicitly allows us to regulate these dockless scooters. We plan to continue to regulate them until we can work out the safety impacts. In the meantime, the City of Beverly Hills
By Laura Coleman Beverly Hills voters overwhelmingly selected Rachelle Marcus to serve on the Board of Education, giving her 46.61 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election. Tristen Walker-Shuman Rachelle Marcus Tristen Walkernabbed the secShuman ond open spot with 32.69 percent of the vote. cent of the vote. Marvin Winans Jr., an “I am thrilled with the entertainment executive with election results and would like three young children who to thank the community for moved to the City just over a year ago, received 20.71 per(see ‘BOARD OF EDUCATION’ page 19)
Judge Sets Metro Tunneling Hearing For April 22, 2019
provides several mobility options in addition to traditional vehicles, most notably our shared bike program.” (see ‘BIRD LAWSUIT’ page 22)
World-Renowned Beverly Hills Furier Edwards-Lowell To Close After 78 Years By Steve Simmons Iconic furier Edwards-Lowell is preparing to close its doors after 78 years, company president Paul Matsumoto, and VP Jeffrey Lehman confirmed to the Courier. The famed fam- From left, Jeffrey Lehman, Grace Lowell and Paul ily-run business will Matsumoto, principals of Edwards-Lowell. host a series of events to mark the Lehman. Available for sale will be end of its 78-year run. In the mean time, Matsumoto and Lehman Edwards-Lowell’s inventory of invite the public “to come in, have (see ‘EDWARDS-LOWELL’ page 19) a drink and celebrate,” says
By Laura Coleman With only a couple of items left in dispute at the start of Monday’s status conference between Beverly Hills Unified School District and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) related to the matter of running a subway tunnel under Beverly Hills High School, U.S. Federal Judge George Wu made short work of resolving the outstanding items. And while ostensibly it seemed as though BHUSD failed to gain any traction when Wu ruled that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) didn’t need to augment the Record of Decision with additional documents that might have proved helpful to the district’s case, the attorney for the district, Jennifer Recine with Kasowitz
Benson Torres LLP, said that the hearing was actually a success. “Ultimately this was the resolution of our motion to compel the supplementation of the record,” she said. “The court compelled FTA and Metro to add most categories of the documents that the district requested to the record. And more importantly, the court agreed to hear the merits by April 22, 2019, before Metro otherwise is scheduled to begin tunneling.” Monday’s hearing was the third on BHUSD’s original motion to supplement the record. The upcoming hearing on the merits of the case now set for next spring will allow the court to make a determination on whether Metro engaged in (see ‘METRO HEARING’ page 10)
I F Y O U H AV E N ’ T S E E N I T, CHECK IT OUT — Starring Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson and John Huston, Chinatown is #2 on the American Film Institute’s list of best mysteries. For more photos, see George Christy’s column on page 6.