lc real estate 08 2020

HOME GROUND

VACATION

REVOLUTIONARY

Book reflects on how gardens take on trascendent meanings in war and pandemics.

New Zealand was a dream trip for Dennee Frey and Uvaldo Marson.

Remembering a forgotten hero of the American Revolution: On Books and Places.

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Real Estate / Entertainment Libraries Home & Garden

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Section 2

LARCHMONT CHRONICLE

AUGUST 2020

HANCOCK PARK • WINDSOR SQUARE • FREMONT PLACE • GREATER WILSHIRE • MIRACLE MILE • PARK LA BREA • LARCHMONT

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508 N. June St. | Hancock Park | $4,995,000 Beautiful English home on the golf course with 5 Bd, 4.5 Ba, wonderful outdoor space with pool.

604 S. Arden Blvd. | Hancock Park | $ 2,950,000 Crisp 4bed/3.5 bath w/open kitchen breakfast room. Grand Liv+Din rooms overlook backyard.

Rick Llanos 323.810.0828 CalRE# 01123101

Lisa Hutchins 323.460.7626

Rick Llanos 323.810.0828 CalRE# 01123101

Lisa Hutchins 323.460.7626

944 S. Longwood | Brookside | $1,849,000 Brookside Spanish w/ 4 large bedrooms, 3.5 bas, family rm & grassy yard w/ room for a pool.ww

2741 Rinconia Dr. | Hollywood Hlls | $1,599,000

531 N. Rossmore PH B | Hancock Park | $1,599,000 Contemporary 4+5 penthouse near Larchmont Village. 3,090 sq ft/AS. 531RossmorePH.com

623 N. Lucerne Blvd. | Hancock Park | $1,500,000 3 Bd + 2 Ba. 1920’s California Bungalow, renovated single family home, great location.

Sandy Boeck & Rick Llanos 323.687.6552 , 323.810.0828 CalRE# 01005153 , CalRE# 01123101

Rick Llanos 323.810.0828 CalRE# 01123101

Loveland Carr Group 323.460.7606

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346 N. Lucerne Blvd. | Hancock Park | $1,295,000 3 Bd +1 Ba. Ideally located historic home harkens back to quieter, simpler era. Large lot.

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1500 S. Crest Dr. | Beverlywood | $6,995 /MO Chrming 2 stry Spanish home. 3/3 +Den+Enclosed Porch; LR w/Fpl; Formal DR; Hdwd Flrs; Air; Large Yard

346 Westminster Ave. | Windsor Square | $4,500 /MO

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Lisa Hutchins 323.460.7626

Cecille Cohen 213.810.9949 CalRE# 00884530

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COLDWELLBANKERHOMES.COM Hancock Park 323.464.9272 | 251 N Larchmont Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90004 The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty are independent contractor sales associates, not employees. ©2020 Coldwell Banker Realty. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Realty fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC CalBRE# 00616212

2

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Larchmont Chronicle

Life, home, work, hope, beauty, plants and gardens

We thought we would be on our way now, here in early August, in the year of pandemic, to something resembling normal. The new normal, of course — face covered, six feet apart, perfectly scrubbed hands — but we might be out in the world anyway, dining, shopping, singing — ah, but not singing. But fine. We’ll take it; that is, we would have taken it.

But we are back to the beginning, and back to a sense of timelessness in many ways, and this morning, at first light, I unlocked a door and stepped into a courtyard to check on my plants.

For a gardener, this is what we do no matter what, check

Home Ground by

Paula Panich on our plants. One or two in a windowsill, we still check on our plants. And here in pandemic-land, where we, all of us in this world, live, a private conversation with our plants is a bridge to something normal, and to something resembling hope.

When I first read Kenneth Helphand’s “Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime” (Trinity University Press,

Residential program at Maryvale, city’s oldest children’s charity, closes

By Rachel Olivier Maryvale, Los Angeles’ oldest children’s charity, will cease operation of its residential services Wed., Aug. 5.

Maryvale, founded in 1856 as the Los Angeles Orphan Asylum, began as an orphanage and hospital on the site where Union Station now stands. It expanded and moved to Boyle Heights in 1891 until growth (helping up to 8,000 children), earthquake damage and freeway

construction meant a move to Rosemead in 1952, where it remains today, with preschool and a community-based family program added to its residential program, otherwise known as Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP).

The STRTP closure was announced in June by Maryvale’s CEO Steve Gunther. There was a final graduating class of residents in the (Please turn to page 5)

2006), I was deeply moved and was convinced that what I had just read will likely prove to be among this century’s great contributions to garden and landscape history and to the study of human behavior in wartime.

The image in my mind of the gardeners of the Warsaw Ghetto, planting a crop they knew they would not live to harvest, has stayed with me, and will always.

But I have just reread this stunning book. Its thesis — that human beings often make gardens in response to difficult and abnormal circumstances — has accrued a different and deeper meaning. Commonplace in ordinary times, gardens take on transcendent meanings during war — and pandemics.

Wherever and whenever gardens appear, they encompass ideas and feelings, as Helphand has suggested, of life, home, work, hope and beauty. “The persistence of the ordinary,” he has written, can become extraordinary when worlds turn upside down.

Gardens, made in almost impossible circumstances, give some semblance of order. In World War I, soldiers in the trenches of France grew celery; imprisoned Japanese-

wire and armed guards, there is a psychological connection between life, as many of us experience it now, and wartime civilian internees.

Kenneth Helphand’s original research is impressive. His citing of memoirs and diaries of internees and prisoners of war gives the book’s narrative gravitas and emotional resonance. People speak of the experience of the “timeless present” — that is, when the duration of imprisonment is unknown — and of the boredom and depression that sets in with the loss of contact with the outside world.

“The worst shock” of the internment experience, wrote Canadian J. Davidson Ketchum, interned in Germany during World War I, “was the wiping out of the future.”

Making gardens then and now can assist in reinventing hope, and reinventing ideas of the future. Gardens provide useful work. They engage all aspects of the human being with their harvests of beauty and of nourishment.

Garden-making gives us a small wedge of control over our situation — some small power, as Helphand says, over our sense of powerlessness.

The reading of Helphand’s book can give that, too.

BOOKS AND GARDENS can give us some small wedge of control and power over our sense of hopelessness in times like these.

Americans and Japanese citizens built elaborate gardens in internment camps during World War II. Gardens fed people, and gardens could, and did, nurture a tenuous hold on retaining a sense of basic humanity.

The fourth of the seven chapters in this book, called “Barbed-Wire Gardens,” is a study of the gardens in both world wars planted by Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees in Europe and Asia.

We too are locked into a timeless present. While we are not surrounded by barbed

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Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

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Some statues are worth saving; some people worth remembering

A statue of Haym Salomon resides on the southeast corner of Pan Pacific Park. As I write this column, the bronze figure sits barricaded by a chain link fence and construction activity on Third Street. It’s visible as one drives west towards Farmers Market, but few will now walk near the statue through the surrounding trucks, tools and workmen.

Funny that I had never noticed this statue when the park was fully open to the public and clear of obstructions.

My inattention couldn’t last.

Monuments of such scale have become objects of charged controversy in the weeks following the murder of George Floyd. The points of discussion aren’t new of course, but never have they been so powerfully foregrounded. What and who do we choose to remember? Why and how do we make those choices? Where do we station monuments? And perhaps most urgently, who is the “we” in these questions?

Haym Salomon seems a person worth a public remembrance. He brokered, raised, and gave money in support of the 18th-century American revolt against Great Britain.

He was imprisoned twice and faced execution as a spy. He escaped to Philadelphia and pro-

On Books and Places by

Bruce Beiderwell vided crucial support for Gen. George Washington’s military campaigns. But he didn’t benefit from Washington’s success. Nor could he, a prominent citizen, hold public office in Pennsylvania. Salomon was a Jew. He gave and loaned a substantial fortune for a cause that would break him. He died a poor man at an early age.

Even a quick recounting of such a life invokes worthy themes: on the personal side, service and sacrifice; from the public perspective, gratitude and atonement.

Still, the sheer bronze weight of the monument hasn’t kept it settled in the 74 years since it was cast. As Michael Darling explains in a nice piece on the sculpture published in “LA Taco,” the Salomon memorial has moved about Los Angeles very much in sync with movements among Jewish communities. The monument was first settled in Boyle Heights, then

moved near MacArthur Park, then off to the Fairfax district close by its current location.

The permanence signaled by bronze, and the adaptability suggested by the multiple moves, indicate complexities of public memorializing. We’re, after all, honoring not just individuals, but communities and ideals. We’re interested in aspirations as well as past actions.

Communities, ideals, aspirations are abstractions subject to change. What is remembered can be again forgotten. The interests driving remembrances aren’t stable or unassailable.

The meaning of the Haym Salomon monument, for example, may be extended to suggest other marginalized or uncredited heroes. Think of Black servicemen who returned from World War II to find Jim Crow laws firmly in place.

Conditions resulting from the pandemic along with the public murder of George Floyd have intensified much dialogue over essential matters as well as accelerated change — or at least the perception of change. Certainly new forms of memorializing have developed. On my way driving down Third Street to the Farmers Market, I recently saw, just a few blocks before the Haym Salomon monu-

HAYM SALOMON supported the American Revolution. It was a cause that would break him financially.

ment, a mural painted on an east-facing wall of ModShop.

It’s a large portrait of George Floyd by Misteralek (a muralist and commercial artist) that seems to have appeared overnight. The words I first read scrolled under the tragic face were “Change the World.” The next time I passed and slowed to view more carefully, I noted I had missed seeing a final “d” on the verb: “Changed the World.”

My misreading speaks to our currently unsettled state.

“Change” is a command; “changed” is a proclamation.

Perhaps both are necessary now. And perhaps such murals are for the moment exactly

the sort of public art that’s needed. Because they are commissioned privately and can be produced quickly and relatively inexpensively, they are able to respond to the moment.

They are more ephemeral than bronze, but that can be an advantage, too, for they are easily revisable, replaceable or erasable. They commence a dialogue of what should be rather than pronounce what is. I’ll take the pop-up art that appears on the street over the cynical project proposed by President Trump to memorialize the “greatest Americans” at the very time he is defending existing symbols of white supremacy.

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Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Assaults from Sacramento, part two: The Assembly now attacks!

When I last reported on the shotgun blast of California State Senate bills aimed at the heart of single-family neighborhoods and the quaint idea of local control, I had been keeping an eye on the second barrel coming out of the Assembly which produced its own buckshot of bills. Like the Senate proposals, these bills blew through their respective committees

with minor changes in July and will be arriving in their opposite house as the Larchmont Chronicle lands on your doorstep.

Meanwhile, our local neighborhoods’ dynamic duo in the upper house, Sen. Benjamin Allen and Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, voted to approve all of the bad Senate bills mentioned here last month (SBs 995, 1085, 1385, 1120) with

On Preservation by

Brian Curran

the exception of SB 902 — arguably the worst bill, from San Francisco’s single-family housing hater Sen. Scott

Wiener — where both Allen’s and Durazo’s votes were not recorded. Were they afraid that maybe their Los Angeles constituents would not favor the opportunity bestowed upon us

by Sacramento to gut our own single-family neighborhoods and historic districts?

Perhaps Allen and Durazo were more comfortable with SB 1120 that would allow developers to create luxury duplexes in single-family neighborhoods, but only if the locations were not encumbered by any type of Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, other overlay zone, environmental issues or pesky existing tenants. Still not a good approach to planning.

While we concerned citizens might have been focusing on the many threatening SBs, our own Assemblyman Richard Bloom teamed up with eastern San Francisco’s ambitious Assemblyman David Chiu (and Sen. Wiener) to craft the Assembly’s answers to the soundly-rejected SB 50 from earlier this year. Let’s quickly examine this second brood conceived as kin of that defeated, mean-spirited bill.

AB 725: Written by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (Berkeley) and Sen. Wiener, this bill uses the cudgel of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to force cities to ensure that at least 25 percent of their share of moderate income and above moderate income housing be allocated to sites with zoning that allows for at least two units of housing which, with new accessory dwelling unit laws, includes all neighbor-

hoods zoned single-family.

AB 1279: This is the attempt by Assemblyman Bloom (representing our neighborhoods, basically west of Plymouth Blvd.) to usurp local control by imposing byright developments in undefined “high opportunity areas” to be determined by the Dept. of Housing and Community Development if RHNA targets are not met (again the cudgel!). Once triggered, AB 1279 allows 50 housing units per quarter-acre and 120 units per half acre within all existing residential areas, from single-family neighborhoods to mixed-use shopping districts.

Affordable units are supposed to be included, but a fee to the government may be paid instead!

AB 2345: San Diego’s Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez teamed up with Assemblyman Chiu to produce a bill that is essentially Los Angeles’s Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program with less affordable housing required. It has the potential to conflict with our town’s TOC program by offering a 15 percent affordable housing requirement rather than our 17 percent requirement in order to get a 50 percent density bonus. Result? More luxury housing units for fewer affordable ones!

AB 3040: Assemblyman Chiu strikes again with what Livable California called his “Sophie’s Choice” bill, which forces cities to choose between rezoning single-family homes over 15 years old to satisfy RHNA targets (the (Please turn to page 5)

Larchmont Chronicle

On Preservation (Continued from page 4)

cudgel!), or do it through the state Density Bonus Program which has proved impossible for most cities. Since failure is assured, Wiener’s SB 35 (streamlined construction) is

Maryvale

(Continued from page 2) spring. Since then, Maryvale has worked with the Los Angeles County Dept. of Children and Family Services, the Dept. of Mental Health and the Probation Dept. to place residents in the most appropriate settings, said Gunther.

The pandemic has changed how nonprofit groups and organizations such as Maryvale, and its auxiliary the Orphanage Guild, founded in 1950, function and fundraise.

Many of these groups also are reconfiguring their purposes.

Maryvale still operates a preschool for children — infants to five-year-olds — and a community-based set of family programs that include mental health and other “wraparound” services. With the closure of the residential program, the Orphanage Guild is also having to revise how it operates. But both organizations are still going strong. To learn more visit maryvale.org or laorphanageguild.org.

AUGUST 2020

brought to bear to provide a sucker punch.

Learn more about Livable California, the nonprofit that advocates for empowerment of local governments to foster equitable, livable communities and truly affordable housing, at livablecalifornia.org.

AB 3107: Finally, to add insult to injury, our own Assemblyman Bloom proposes a bill that legalizes housing in commercial areas (something already legal in Los Angeles) Local state representatives considering the bad housing bills are: East of the centerline of Plymouth Boulevard: State Senator Maria Elena Durazo District Office (213) 483-9300 State Assembly Member Miguel Santiago District Office (213) 620-4646 West of the centerline of Plymouth Boulevard: State Senator Benjamin Allen District Office (310) 318-6994 State Assembly Member Richard Bloom District Office (310) 450-0041

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but also specifies that housing projects with 20 percent affordable units will be arbitrarily up-zoned, regardless of their surroundings, to the tallest height allowed in commercial or residential areas within one quarter mile. In Los Angeles, that potentially means nine-story mixed-use apartments citywide.

It is not too late to contact your State Senators and

SECTION TWO

Assemblymembers!

The best way to do this is to call your representative directly and tell him or her to oppose these bills. You also can organize a group to schedule a Zoom meeting with a staff member or the legislator to express your concerns. You can also reach the relevant committees and their staffs through the “California Legislature Position Letter Portal”:

5

calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates

Once you sign up on that portal, you can use it to search and submit comment that is received by the Legislature’s “bill analysts” and committee members. You can create an account for groups as well.

Act now to ensure that housing policy and planning remain in local control and that your voice will continue to be heard.

What Lies Beyond The Door?

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JILL GALLOWAY Estates Director, Sunset Strip 323.842.1980 jill@jillgalloway.com jillgalloway.com DRE01357870

Compass is a licensed real estate broker (01991628) in the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdraw without notice.

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6

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Larchmont Chronicle

Local architect restoring 1926 Victorian house on Larchmont

By Billy Taylor A beautiful if slightly faded 1926 Victorian house on Larchmont Boulevard has been given a new lease on life thanks to a restoration project being undertaken by local design and architecture firm AR&D Architects.

Sean Lockyear, the firm’s founding principal and lead architect, told the Chronicle last month that he is excited to restore the old house to its former glory, while adding some modern touches to complement the design. When we spoke, construction crews

were preparing to replace the building’s old foundation.

“It’s a beautiful Victorian building,” said Lockyear of the house located at 424 N. Larchmont Blvd. “But the foundation was crumbling everywhere. Everything that we opened, we realized we were

going to have to start fresh.”

Interested in keeping all of the original Victorian character, Lockyear is working with a Paramount Studios workshop to produce replicas of the exterior siding as well as the interior moldings and trim for the house.

Once complete, Lockyear said

the renovated Victorian house will serve as his firm’s Los Angeles office because they have outgrown their space across the street at 507 N. Larchmont Blvd.

Studio AR&D is an architecture, design and construction firm with offices in Los Angeles and Palm Springs. More information is at studio-ard.com.

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232 S. Rimpau Blvd.

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Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

7

‘Local’s’ new guidebook to our enormous and wild park

By Larry Guzin If you’re a local, you will learn a lot by reading Casey Schreiner’s “Griffith Park: A Local’s Guide.” Certainly not limited to “locals” however, this guidebook is a great read for an out-of-towner with even a vague interest in our city’s enormous and wild municipal park. Personally, I first learned about Griffith Park growing up a few blocks south in Los Feliz, where I played with neighbor pals as a boy, earned my Troop 20 Boy Scout “Nature” merit badge, and ran crosscountry for John Marshall High School. The park was like my backyard, my hallowed ground, and still is. In adulthood, with 40 years of twiceweekly evening hikes and over 300 as a Sierra Club certified outings leader, my love for the park and the depth of my park knowledge has grown.

However, reading Schreiner’s outstanding guidebook has increased my knowledge of the park. This genteel Baedeker about all things Griffith Park is a fulsome trail guide and much more, chock full of substantive facts and practical hints to help the reader fully enjoy all that the park has to offer. The armchair adventurer, the would-be hiker, or the rugged mountaineer alike will be

NEW GUIDE BOOK by Casey Schreiner.

informed by detailed descriptions of 33 Griffith Park hikes.

These descriptions are sure to whet a newbie trekker’s appetite to experience the “back country” of our city-adjacent wilderness and will no doubt amplify a greybeard trails devotee’s appreciation for the footpaths leading to the park’s mini-mountaintops and grand viewpoints.

Useful extras In addition to turn-by-turntype hiking route navigation, Schreiner’s apt descriptions provide objective measures of the distances to be traveled, elevations to be gained, and high points to be reached on each, enumerated route. Subjective (but quite accurate) assessments of the difficulty

(ranging from “Easy” to “Very Challenging”) and the time required to complete each trek are also provided. This data is supplemented by uber-useful information about “amenities” available for each hike, including nearby restrooms, sources for drinking water, GPS location coordinates, driving directions, and nearest public transit to each trailhead.

Example hikes As an example of the hikes listed, “Hike 15” leads the rambler on a moderate hike to infrequently visited Glendale Peak, an actual mountain in Griffith Park with its very own U.S. Geodetic Survey benchmark showing a 1,184-foot

elevation. The last few hundred feet to the summit traverse a narrow ridge with a sublime overlook of remarkable city and valley views, one of my favorites in the park. Another example, “Hike 23” (and what Schreiner calls “Mineral Wells Loop” but which I refer to as “Amir’s Circuit” on the Sierra Club hikes I lead) is a fantastic workout for someone seeking a strenuous hike. The guidebook pegs this as a hike of oneand-one-half hours duration, but my experiences inform me a fit hiker will require an extra half-hour and perhaps more to complete the splendid circuit, just a bit of a quibble. These are two of 33 adventures await-

SIERRA CLUB leader Larry Guzin (third from left) and a group take a break at the intersection of Bill Eckert Trail and Ankle Breaker trail en route to Mount Hollywood. City of Glendale is in the background.

ing the Griffith Park visitor wishing to hit the trails.

Details described The hiking route descriptions, however, are only half the content of Schreiner’s excellent guidebook. The other half is devoted to just about everything else you would want or need to know about the park, ranging from the obvious (Hollywood Sign, Observatory, Autry Museum, Greek Theater, Zoo, and Travel Town) to the nuanced (Joe Klass Water Stop, Griffith Park Tea House, and the longgone beacon of Beacon Hill). If it is a feature of Griffith Park, big or small, this book describes it in detail, and well.

Sierra Club hikes I only wish Schreiner paid a bit less attention to routes to the Hollywood Sign (which looks much better from the streets below the park and is, frankly, a nothing burger up close) and gave more than a passing reference to the iconic Sierra Club evening hikes, a half-century institution in Griffith Park.

These Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday rambles start at 7 p.m. sharp from Lot 2 just past the Merry-Go-Round and are led by experienced Sierra Club leaders all year round. These sociable conditioning hikes divide participants into groups (Please turn to page 14)

508 North June Street — AVAILABLE OFF MARKET — $4,995,000 A stunning English home full of charm and character overlooking Wilshire Country Club, this beautifully decorated estate features a charming entry, wonderful living room with vaulted beamed ceiling, built in bookcase and fireplace and a formal dining room with views to the rear garden. Spacious family room, beautiful powder room, updated cooks kitchen with laundry area plus a maids room and bath complete the first floor. Upstairs you will find a well sized master suite with a walk in closet, bathroom and dressing area. There is also access to the 2nd floor deck which offers views of the professionally landscaped grounds and Wilshire Country Club. Additionally there are 3 bedrooms, 2 more bathrooms and an office with wonderful golf course views. Step outside to find a yard perfect for entertaining with outdoor lounge and sunny pool area. There is also a full workout room.

120 North Hudson Ave — SOLD OFF MARKET

2741 Rinconia Drive — $1,599,000

This beautiful home is located on Wilshire Country Club and offers wonderful golf course views from most rooms. The light filled rooms featured wood floors and floor to ceiling windows within a graceful floor plan. The master suite occupies the first floor while upstairs there are 3 additional bedroom suites plus a family room. A truly wonderful home that sold quietly off market.

Nestled on a quiet cul-desac in Beachwood Canyon stands this large modern Mediterranean. Enter to find a 2 story living room with balcony and calming views out to the canyon, step up to the formal dining area and into the updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a separate breakfast area. Upstairs is a large master suite with an equally large master bathroom and walk in closet.

There are 2 additional bedrooms and another bathroom on this floor. On the lower level is a family room with access to the outdoor entertaining area, home gym or could be an office plus a mother-in-law unit with kitchenette and full bathroom. A great value in a great location.

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The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are independent contractor agents and are not employees of the Company. ©2018 Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker, the Coldwell Banker Logo, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury and the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury logo service marks are registered or pending registrations owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.

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Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

‘Library To Go’ curbside pickup at Fairfax library

Fairfax library, 161 S. Gardner St., is one of 18 Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) branches participating in “Library To Go,” a program that offers curbside pickup and dropoff of books, audiobooks, DVDs and CDs. “By bringing curbside pickup to these beating hearts of our communities, we will reopen doors of creativity, discovery, and imagination for all of us,” said Mayor Garcetti when the program was launched last month. “Learning to live with COVID-19 means finding creative ways to reconnect us with critical public resources.”

How it works Using the online catalog, patrons can reserve materials for checkout, and they then are given instructions via email or phone for scheduling a pickup at one of the 18 branches.

Materials are set out on tables located outside the library branches for patrons to collect at their scheduled time. There is a designated waiting area; facemasks and maintaining physical distance are required.

Bookdrops are also available at the 18 locations for patrons returning materials. All returned materials are isolated for a period of time before being re-shelved or reissued.

The due date for materials checked out before the LAPL closure in March has been extended to Wed., Sept. 30. However, due dates on new items follow the standard borrowing schedules: three weeks for books and audiobooks and one week for DVDs and music CDs. Visit lapl.org/library-to-go.

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MAYOR GARCETTI displays some of the books available for checkout through ‘Library To Go’ curbside pickup.

LIBRARIES *FAIRFAX 161 S. Gardner St. JOHN C. FREMONT Online only MEMORIAL Online only WILSHIRE Online only ASK A LIBRARIAN 213-228-7272 infonow@lapl.org HOURS

*Library to Go Fairfax: Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

All other branches will remain closed until further notice. Visit lapl.org.

Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Guilty pleasures, topical and relevant plays

We are approaching an existential crisis. It’s not the present danger to our democracy, health, or economy — although those are certainly real enough. Rather, it is how to be a theater critic when there is no theater?

There have been valiant attempts, such as drive-in plays where the audience sits in cars; one-person shows for audiences of two or three; actors performing behind plexiglass (talk about the fourth wall!); and the ubiquitous Zoom. There are pluses and minuses to the Zoom experience: 80,000 people logged on to watch Richard Nelson’s play, “What Do We Need To Talk About,” which was specifically written for the medium.

The play would have needed to run for a year to get an audience that size. Audiences love to “chat” during Zoom performances, which is even worse behavior than texting during a play. While there are advantages to streamed, stayat-home-theater such as comfort, safety, and better food at intermission, the Zoomed play takes away the one thing live theater requires of an audience as a collective: to meet the play and its ideas on its terms, rather than our own.

You walk into a theater, you see who else is in the audience, you look at the set, wondering how it will be used, the lights go down and you perk up. You give your attention and your “willful suspension of disbelief.” You engage in the fiction of being “there,” while the cast engages in the fiction of you not being “there,” and in that agreed upon lie, the magic of theater happens. It feeds performers and spectators alike!

Which is why, having watched the trailer several times on the Internet, I have no desire to see “Hamilton” on Disney+ (I saw it live in New York). There has been criticism, since the George Floyd shooting, of the play glossing over the fact that its cast is portraying slave owners. Last year, Ishmael Reed castigated the whole creative process that led to the juggernaut’s creation with his own play, “The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda,” denouncing “Hamilton” for “giving the genocidal men who wrote America into existence a veneer of social justice legitimacy” through its multiracial casting. (Nawal Arjini, “The Nation,” June 3, 2019.) Quite a comedown for a show that made waves lecturing Vice President Pence when he attended the play four years ago!

This is the difference between the “topical” (which touches the topic of the day) and the “relevant” (which lifts it up for perspective). “Hamilton” was topical; Shakespeare

Theater Review by

Louis Fantasia is still relevant (as the current audio version of “Richard II” from the Public Theater makes clear).

My own guilty Revolutionary pleasure is Peter Stone and Sherman Edward’s “1776!” I know: an all-white male cast of Founding Fathers, slave owners, or men who made money from the slave trade (as Hamilton did), who punted on the one great moral issue that continues to haunt us to this day, all singing and dancing as if they hadn’t a care in the world.

“1776!” won the Tony for Best Musical that year, 1969, a time fraught with its own racial crises. Perhaps it pointed to the ir-

relevance of Broadway, as “serious” plays were being done on smaller, experimental stages.

Or perhaps, in a less aware (or possibly, more forgiving) time, we could appreciate these Revolutionary icons as staged, with their shortcomings in full view: flawed, imperfect, yet striving — much like the new Republic they were trying to create.

One of the casualties of the pandemic was the cancellation of Diane Paulus’s “gender inclusive” restaging of “1776!,” with a cast featuring “multiple representations of gender, race and ethnicity,” with casting calls for “female, nonbinary and trans-identifying performers” (playbill.com). It is now scheduled to open right after the 2021 Inauguration, assuming we can finally get a handle on this virus. It will be interesting to see if the production still seems relevant, or if it is just merely topical.

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Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Nearby Black-owned restaurants worth supporting post-BLM protests

The recent protests have sparked a nationwide conversation about the meaning of Black Lives Matter and how best to move forward and effect change. One recommended action is to support Black-owned businesses, and an enjoyable way to do that is to eat one’s way through the varied cuisines found in our city’s myriad Black-owned restaurants, such as sampling the “California Soul Food” found at Alta Adams.

Executive Chef Keith Corbin had an unlikely path to restaurant success. Hailing from

the circa-1955 Jordan Downs housing project in Watts, Corbin ran with a tough crowd and served 10 years in prison.

Upon release, it was difficult to find employment until Corbin applied at LocoL, then a newly opened restaurant in South Los Angeles, whose mission was to bring affordable, healthy food to the neighborhood and provide opportunities for the chronically underemployed local residents.

Corbin was hired as a line chef and quickly caught the attention of Daniel Patterson, the Michelin-starred chef who co-

On the Menu by

Helene Seifer founded the restaurant.

When LocoL closed a few years later to become catering only, Patterson took Corbin under his wing, trained him in his San Francisco restaurants and then partnered with him to open Alta Adams.

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• • • A Black-owned restaurant with exceedingly bad timing, Flavors from Afar opened in March, days before the stay-athome order hit. It had been a catering operation and market previously, but this expansion into full-service dining came at a risky time. Nevertheless, they persisted with takeout and a unique concept.

Owner Meymuna HusseinCattan is a refugee from Ethiopia, having fled civil unrest in 1975. Once in Southern California, she started the Tiyya Foundation to help other refugees navigate and adjust to a new home. The foundation is credited with helping over 250 families to date.

A catering operation was established to fund the nonprofit, and refugees from around the world were hired as chefs and trained to translate the flavors of their homelands into food worthy of a paying crowd. The logical next step was to open a sit-down restaurant.

Overseen by co-founder Christian Davis and program instructor Jalen Bannet, an Eataly alum, Flavors from (Please turn to page 15)

Our restaurant menu is available for take out & delivery!

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cious start, Corbin is paying it forward at Alta Adams by hiring and training others with prison records. Additionally, at least during this COVID takeout time, he offers two food options: a three-course dinner for two for $78 and a one-course main with sides on a sliding scale. Those who pay the $20 full fee underwrite a meal for someone else. Those for whom $20 is a hardship can pay a percentage or nothing at all.

My husband and I decided to try the fried chicken dinner.

Each $20 plate came with a generous portion of delicious red beans and rice, tender, vinegary collard greens, and a plump and juicy chicken leg and thigh. The chicken was shatteringly crisp, even after a car ride home, and was loaded with flavor and just the right touch of heat. It was one of the most flavorful and satisfying fried chicken dinners we’ve had. We also bought two $10 pints of their homemade ice cream. Not as rich and creamy as Salt & Straw’s, yet satisfying. Strawberry tasted fresh and authentic; butter pecan was loaded with nuts and buttery afternotes. Some other meals on their biweekly rotation have featured ribs or oxtail, and there’s always a veg-

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AUGUST 2020

Surprises, laughs, thrillers on home screens

Military Wives (9/10): 108 minutes. PG-13. This was such a pleasant surprise.

“Inspired by true events,” the story of a monopolizing wife of the Commanding Officer, Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas), and her officious efforts to organize the wives of the men under his command while they are deployed to a sixmonth tour of duty in Afghanistan is disarmingly captivating when, under less talented hands, it could have dripped with banality. This is a realistic, heart-warming film with some good music and shines a light on a part of society that rarely gets considered. I recommend it highly, not something I generally say about a chick flick, although I also liked “Emma;” am I getting soft? This is a 2020 release but it’s available on Prime.

Worthy old movies and where to find them: Cassandra’s Dream (10/10): Woody Allen is something like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When he’s bad, he’s very, very bad, but when he’s good he’s wonderful. In this 108-minute film, which he wrote and directed and filmed

At the Movies with

Tony Medley in London, he’s wonderful. It’s a gripping drama of decisions, family loyalty, selfishness, and how one can drift into disaster. Let me add here that one thing I’ve always admired about Woody is his statement that no film should be longer than 90 minutes, with which I wholeheartedly agree. But I have no complaint that this ran almost 20 minutes over his limit, because it is a compelling story with acting that is off the scale. Prime.

Chaos Theory (10/10): This film has scenes so funny I was laughing out loud, uncontrollably. But it also has scenes of pathos. It starts with Ed (Mike Erwin), a fledgling bridegroom unsure about his potential wife, Jesse (Elisabeth Harnois as the grown up/ Matreya Fedor as the sevenyear-old), having discovered her infidelity. He mistakenly wanders into the bar where he finds his potential father-in-

law, Frank Allen (Ryan Reynolds), who engages him in an unwanted, unexpected contentious conversation about life.

This is a gem of a film that did not get a wide release, so many people didn’t see it. STARZ with Prime video channels.

Tell No One (10/10): Directed and written (with Phillippe Lefebvre) by Guillaume Canet (who also appears in the film as Phillippe Neuville), this thriller is based on Harlan Coben’s bestselling novel of the same name, which has been translated into 27 languages, and has sold over six million copies worldwide. It’s always difficult to write a review of a good thriller because anything a critic writes can spoil the enjoyment of a fresh viewing without knowing what’s going on and what’s going to happen. But the way Canet sets the ambience of the film (Please turn to page 15)

SECTION TWO

11

Koontz

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Summertime & the living iS eaSy ….

We have these useful and fun fruit and vegetable savers.

Examples are “avocado savers.” You just cut the avocado in half, use half, and put the other half in the “avo saver” right with the pit still inside. Put it in the refrigerator and it keeps it fresh and unblemished. “We also have “savers” for onions, tomatoes, garlic, lemons, limes. Forget the saran wrap.

We also have a “multi-level” steamer, cooker. You can microwave fish on one level and vegetables on another, all in the microwave. All done in minutes.

We have great beach chairs, attractive and portable.

We have the carbon monoxide detectors to comply with newly passed laws. Check out our fans and portable AC units, also, while you are here.

We love our Larchmont customers who we hope to see this August! Have a great summer.

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AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Locals who dared to travel—part two

LIPSON

By Helene Seifer Last month, we covered several residents’ travel reports.

Here is Part Two. There is a lot to sort out when balancing health with the desire to burst out of confinement during these coronavirus times.

Abshez family For Wendy and Allan Abshez, that included ascertaining the best way to visit their daughter Erica and son-in-law Dave Moran in Minneapolis, whose baby was due. They wanted to time their one-week visit to coincide with the birth, but COVID prevented that. Wendy first consulted with her doctor and a pediatrician, and both said that, they “…absolutely must quarantine for 14 days” in the Twin Cities before seeing the newborn in person.

Therefore, no road trip. They are hoping to go in late summer and are considering driving to Minneapolis to visit Jane Nina Moran, born July 14.

In addition to greeting the next generation, the Abshezes were supposed to go to England to spend a week at Wimbledon and then travel around Britain. When the tennis tournament cancelled, they transferred their tickets to next summer.

In the meantime, they and their other daughter, Natalie, road-tripped to their home in Sonoma County where it was quiet, peaceful, and felt

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Larchmont Chronicle

LAST ROAD TRIP to Minnesota by Allan and Wendy Abshez.

safe. Natalie lives and works in Wash., D.C., but Wendy explains, “Her job went remote... so in the beginning of May she flew home to join her family in Windsor Square, where she spent two weeks confined to her room to make sure she hadn’t contracted the virus.”

Ester Poberezhskaya Larchmont Boulevard functional fitness instructor Ester Poberezhskaya, of Body by Ester, initially conformed to safer-at-home directives, but she then began taking small trips with her girlfriends in May. She has gone to Apple Valley to look at the blooms, Palm Desert to swim, Oxnard to golf, Lake Elsinore to waterski and San Diego to paddleboard. As someone who is used to picking up and heading off to Croatia’s beaches, Canada’s slopes, or the rugged British countryside, Poberezhskaya is itching to take a bigger trip. “I would like to get back to Europe. Maybe Italy. I travel all the time. Either I’m going to the snow or the water.”

Yvonne Adams Yvonne Adams refuses to be completely confined to her Miracle Mile home and has regularly spent time in Palm Desert. After all, the former travel agent is used to exploring the world, having visited all seven continents, including Antarctica. “I enjoyed South Africa, Buenos Aires, Korea, China.

Hong Kong was a big shopping trip. I took a whole group on a Black History tour of Paris.

ESTER POBEREZHSKAYA enjoys a streak of sunlight playing golf in Oxnard.

FASCINATORS ON: Yvonne Adams (left) and friend dressed for Ladies Day at Royal Ascot Races.

NEW ZEALAND DREAM VACATION for Dennee Frey and husband Uvaldo Marson.

Last year I went to Ladies Day at Ascot.” Not eager to board a plane these days, she’s embarking on a road trip with her daughter Dana Coleman, sonin-law Che Coleman, grandson CheThomas and Che’s mother Joan Abu Bakar. The two-week (Please turn to page 14)

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Larchmont Chronicle

AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

Poker: Game of chance, or skill? Find out from a poker wiz Poker for All by

George Epstein your less-skilled opponents. In the long run, the skilled player goes home with the chips (money). The more skilled you are, the more you can expect to win. In that sense, the skilled player is investing. The reward is greater than the risk. Watch your chip stacks grow! It is akin to investing in a business and making it profitable.

In summary, poker has elements of both gambling and

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investing. The greater your skills compared to your opponents, the more it is similar to an investment.

Millions of people throughout the world play poker. Some become professionals (“pros”) who depend on poker for their livelihoods. (That, I don’t recommend.) The vast majority play for recreation. We enjoy the challenge (like playing a competitive sport or checkers, or doing a crossword puzzle).

The mental stimulation (some even believe playing poker may help prevent Alzheimer’s) and social interaction are priceless.

After retiring from their jobs, poker players may enjoy longer and happier lives than those who become “couch potatoes,” spending their free time watching television. And it is always a good feeling to go home a winner from the casino. Those are the reasons why so many people play poker…

Texas hold’em There are many forms of poker. The most popular today is the game known as Texas hold’em. Twenty-five years ago, 7-card stud was the most widely played and still is often played.

And then there are draw poker, Omaha, and others. Most are available in casinos and card rooms across the country.

Some players enjoy moving

from one game to another. I do not recommend that. It is much better to specialize and become as skilled as you are able by focusing on a single game. My columns will be about low-limit Texas hold’em. It is available in thousands of casinos and cardrooms across the country, including those owned by Native American Indian tribes. Home

Family-Run

games are common most everywhere. Several states allow online poker.

In next month’s column, we will explore the basics. Subsequent columns will discuss various key skills, including your starting-hand selection, improving your hand as the game progresses, building the (Please turn to page 14)

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An oft-asked question: Is playing poker gambling? Gambling is the wagering of money or something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome, with the primary intent of winning money or material goods. Since you cannot control the cards that are dealt out, luck is a big factor in poker.

What is poker?

Using a deck of 52 cards, poker has evolved over many years; and there are many varieties. Since it involves luck, it is a form of gambling. It is like tossing a coin into the air — heads I win; tails you win.

However, in playing poker, skill makes a big difference. It puts the chance (probability) of winning on your side versus

13

Travel

(Continued from page 12) motor home journey will take

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AUGUST 2020

SECTION TWO

them up the coast into Canada, if allowed. “I’ve never been in a motor home before,” Adams admits. “As long as I don’t have

to do any cooking, I’ll be ok!”

Frey / Marson In spite of the 111-degree heat, Dennee Frey and her hus-

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band Uvaldo Marson recently rented a house in Palm Springs for a week. “It almost felt normal there. It was so good to get away. We had contact-less check-in. They sanitize between people.” The 46-year residents of Windsor Village [recently relocated to Beverly Hills adjacent] will eventually plan their annual visit to Italy to see Mar-

POKER

(Continued from page 13) size of your pots, bluffing and other forms of deception, raising, value betting, and more…

George Epstein, a long-time local resident, was an engineering manager in defense and aerospace. Upon retiring in 1991 at age 65, poker became his second career. He is the author of three poker books and currently is writing “Win More in Texas Hold’em.”

He has taught poker classes at West L.A. Community College, the VA/West Los Angeles, Santa Monica Public Library, and an Alzheimer’s group. He created the Claude Pepper Seniors Poker Group, which grew from six members to over 200.

He has been elected to the Seniors Poker Hall of Fame.

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To our readers: Columnist Grand Slam of “Bridge Matters” is on sabbatical.

Larchmont Chronicle son’s daughter Giorgia and her husband Massimo. They also will be changing their typical accommodations. “We usually do house exchanges,” explains Frey, “But I don’t know when we’ll do that again.”

The headache of planning a trip with a pandemic as backdrop makes Frey nostalgic for trips past.

“We went for a month to Australia and New Zealand in 2019. I am so glad we did that trip when we did.”

Griffith Park

(Continued from page 7) according to various, subjective degrees of strenuousness, from a plodding pace on relatively flat ground to all-out trail running, with various levels of moderate hikes in between. What better way to spend an evening than with good exercise and feeling a sense of accomplishment in reaching the summit of Mount Hollywood, to look out at twinkling lights of our vast city below? Before you join the fun, however, avail yourself of this excellent Griffith Park guidebook!

Larry Guzin is a longtime Sierra Club hike leader in Griffith Park as well as a Himalayan trekker. Guzin is president of the Windsor Square Association.

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Correct pronunciation was a matter of life or death in the Bible

On the Menu

(Continued from page 10) Afar features a different chef and cuisine each month. As of this writing, eight chefs are on rotation; we experienced Chef Sonia’s Guatemalan food in July, and August will feature flavors from either Somalia or Kenya.

Wednesday through Sunday, a short list of selections is posted. We decided to plan on leftovers and order one of everything. Besides, the prices are more than fair: the chicken entrée was $12; the other items were $5 or $6 each. Not only does ordering support the foundation, but a percentage of all sales goes to providing nonperishable foods to a needy family.

The pollo en recado de tamales was the Guatemalan

say “sh” but only “s” as in sibboleth.

You see, the Gileadites had defeated the folks from the tribe of Ephraim, and some of the conquered had escaped

into Gilead to escape retribution. The vindictive victors put these refugees to this simple test and when they failed to correctly pronounce “shibboleth,” gave them the axe. Gives new meaning to speaking correctly, eh?

• • • How come a flirty girl is a “coquette”? wonders Susan Brooke.

This evocative word is a the feminine form of the French coquet — a flirtatious man.

It is the diminutive of coq, which is a rooster.

• • • Why is a hearty eater known as a “trencherman”? ponders Ed McCauley.

“Trencherman” is from the French trencher, a wooden board or platter on which food is served or carved. Those gluttons who camped out at the trencher were forever labeled.

• • • A person who roams around aimlessly is a “gadabout.”

Why? queries Sonya Kern.

This descriptive term is the shortened form of the Middle English gadden, which means “to rove about without purpose.” It also is used in “gadfly,” a somewhat political term which describes an irritating nuisance with a pet cause who will not be easily deterred.

Professor Know-It-All is the nom de plume of Bill Bentley, who invites readers to try and stump him. Send your questions to willbent@prodigy.net.

equivalent of a homey midweek dinner. White rice was the bed for two chicken pieces in a moderately spicy thick red sauce cooked with peppers, potatoes and carrots. We also loved the ground beef and onion sambusas. The four triangular pastries were flaky and well-seasoned; the accompanying mild green chili sauce enhanced the dish.

Not everything was equally successful. The corn slaw would have benefitted from a pungent dressing, and the

fried potato pancakes were mushy. I’ve had more flavorful taquitos, but crunchy rolled tortillas, crema and pico de gallo always satisfy even if the chicken filling didn’t sing — but for food at that price and with such a big heart, how can one resist?

Flavors from Afar, 1046 S. Fairfax Ave., 714-623-9420.

To support more Blackowned restaurants try Kat Hong’s neighborhood-byneighborhood list at https:// tinyurl.com/y7z2542q.

At the Movies

him the FBI is on the way and he must get out immediately. He doesn’t believe the caller; the FBI comes and he’s in big trouble. Inspired by producer Stephen Spielberg, while this is a thinly veiled attack on The Patriot Act, it is still a high-tension thriller, regardless of your political belief, reminiscent of (if not homages to) “2001” (1968), “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1970), and even “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956). Prime.

Professor KnowIt-All Bill Bentley

Larchmont Boulevard

Pets of Larchmont, redux Tiffany Easton and Alden Oreck sent a photo of Muse, 9, taken on her birthday, last April. “She just moved to Hancock Park and is excited to meet her neighbors,” they tell us. Our annual Pets of Larchmont ran last month.

606 N. Larchmont Blvd.

PH (323) 466-8591

DeaDline For the September 2020 iSSue iS fri., aug. 21, 2020.

Wilshire Vista Apt.

2 Blks. NE of Pico & Fairfax 1300 Block of S. Odgen Dr. LA, CA 90019 1 Bdrm., 1 Bath., $1,500 Moly.

1 Bdrms., 1 Baths, $2,000 Moly. newly deco., part city/mntn. vw., carpet & lino. flrs., carport/off street pkg.

Application Needed Phone Intvw. & Sec. Dep. Req. Contact (323) 394-0606 Ask for Carolyn

at the start, you’d have to be dull, indeed, not to know that something pretty bad is about to happen. Although this is rare, it’s a film that is at least as good as the book.

In French. Fandor with Prime video channels.

Eagle Eye (9/10): Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) comes to his apartment to find all sorts of boxes he didn’t order. His phone rings and a voice tells

OFFICES FOR LEASE

MUSE lounging at home on Lillian Way.

For rent

(Continued from page 11)

• Newly remodeled suites • Close to Studios & Restaurants • Village Atmosphere, Parking Provided • Very Competitive Rent

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My grandfather used the word “shibboleth” when talking about a saying identified with a group or cause. What’s the origin? asks Nathan Brauer.

“Shibboleth” actually refers to any test word which might distinguish one people from another. The word in ancient Hebrew means stream or flood and was used as a test word (as told in the Old Testament, Judges 12: 4-6), to distinguish the people of Gilead from the Ephraimites, who could not

community public Service announcement

communiyy Volunteer!

Big Sunday still has Suppliers of domestic staff, Free COVID-19 testing develoPmental editing its Big Summer List!

• Wash hands often to all L.A. County resscreened to extremely high Books, Scripts, Theses, • Cover mouth/nose w/ tissue Exp. creative professional; idents, whether or not standards w/ rigorous ref.

Dissertations, Newsletters, From virtual arts and when coughing / sneezing very cat & dog savvy. you are experiencing & background validation.

Magazines & More. movements classes Visit emiliasparagna.com For childcare, housekeeper, coronavirus symptoms • Clean frequently touched aP, aPa, mla, to stuff backpacks surfaces daily. or email cheffing or P.A. needs, ChiCago StyleS of the virus.

• Stay six feet away from somejerseygirl@sbcglobal.net for school kids. please call: + 20 years experience Visit: coronavirus. people while out in public.

Also available for dog walking.

Visit: thesummerl(323) 230-0497 323-856-9501 lacity.org/testing.

Visit corona-virus.la Located in Hancock Park. puttputtproductions.com foxandmagor.com ist.bigsunday.org/

Pet Portraits, headshots, editorial

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SECTION TWO

AUGUST 2020

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