lc section one 02 2020

Larchmont Chronicle

VOL. 58, NO. 2

• DELIVERED TO 76,439 READERS IN HANCOCK PARK • WINDSOR SQUARE • FREMONT PLACE • MIRACLE MILE • PARK LA BREA • LARCHMONT •

IN THIS ISSUE

Developers plan big changes for Rossmore Ave.

City Council candidates talk on issues of our time

By Billy Taylor Two projects in the works on North Rossmore Avenue may become the latest contributors to the evolution of that Hancock Park Apartment Corridor.

An Atlanta-based co-living developer last month purchased a five-story building with plans to expand the structure while converting affordable apartments into coliving units. And an eye-catching 11-story modern apartment tower, complete with an optical illusion design, is set to replace an existing two-story building. Stories on both projects are in Section 2.

n

n Residents fear eviction

VALENTINES tell how they met.

4

TRAVELS near and far.

Vacation Planning. 7

SCOUTING celebrates 110th year.

15

CONSTRUCTION of Beverly Rossmore halted in 1931.

Mardi Gras at Farmers Market

n Cajun cooking, music

SPRING SIGN-UPS begin.

2-15 For Information on Advertising Rates, Please Call Pam Rudy 323-462-2241, x 11 Mailing permit:

FEBRUARY 2020

By Rachel Olivier Hear Cajun and zydeco music, taste Southern cooking and watch the “Mutti Gras,” where a parade of pets strutting their stuff are parts of the 31st annual Mardi Gras celebration at the Original Farmers Market, 6333 W. Third St. The event, which will also feature bead throwing, arts, crafts and other activities, will take place over three days: all day Sat., Feb. 22; Sun., Feb. 23; Tues., Feb. 25, 6 to 9 p.m.

For more information, visit farmersmarketla.com.

Miracle Mile 2020

Our year-round guide to lifestyle, entertainment, residential and business news, “Miracle Mile 2020,” will be published with the March issue of the Larchmont Chronicle. To reserve advertising space call 323462-2241, ext. 11. Deadline is Mon., Feb. 10.

CANDIDATES Sarah Kate Levy (left) and Nithya Raman (right) at the Mid City West Community Council forum Jan. 13 at Greenway Court Theater on Fairfax. Moderator Marissa Gluck is center.

Crossover voting for March 3, Super Tuesday election explained

n Some parties allow ‘crossover voting.’ Some don’t

By Rachel Oliver Not affiliated with any party, but you want to vote for a Democrat in the presidential primary? No worries. You can do that.

People who are registered to vote with no party preference in presidential primaries are typically given a ballot without presidential candidates. If there is a presidential candidate that a nonpartisan voter wants to vote for, then he or she needs to request a ballot for that political party when voting at the polls. Some political parties allow this “crossover” voting.

Some do not.

Crossover allowed Political parties that allow non-partisan voters to use party ballots are the American Independent Party (which is not the same as being registered with no party preference), Democratic Party and Libertarian Party.

Crossover prohibited Parties that do not allow non-partisan voters to cross over to vote are the Green Party, Peace and Freedom Party and Republican Party.

Voters who want to vote for a candidate from one of these See Crossover voting, p 3

Homelessness, traffic addressed by candidates

By Suzan Filipek Incumbent Councilman David Ryu is joined by three other contenders in the race for the District Four seat on the City Council. The election is part of the Super Tuesday March 3 Presidential election.

Last month, Chronicle staff sat down separately with Ryu, Sarah Kate Levy, Nithya Raman and write-in candidate Susan Collins.

Homelessness and traffic were key concerns for all four candidates seeking to represent the second largest (by area) council district in the city.

Here are snapshots from those individual interviews: See CD4 Candidates, p 6

Local volunteers joined in ‘Point-in-Time’ homeless count n Results will be available in a few months

By John Welborne From 9 p.m. to midnight on Jan. 23, volunteers spread out throughout the parts of Los Angeles on this side of the Hollywood Hills — counting the number of individuals, families and encampments they saw on the streets. Residents of Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC) communities undertook this work in the 22

census tracts within the neighborhood council boundaries.

The annual Los Angeles County Point-in-Time Homeless Count took place over three days, Jan. 21-23, to determine how many people are homeless in the county.

Organized locally by GWNC directors Max Kirkham, of Oakwood-Maplewood-St. AnSee Homeless count, p 12

Girl Scouts put cookie sales earnings to good use n New Lemon-Ups join favorites on Larchmont

By Sondi Toll Sepenuk It’s time! Time to clear out that pantry shelf you reserved for holiday treats to make room for all of those Girl Scout cookie boxes you’re about to buy. Yep, it’s Girl Scout cookie season!

From Sun., Jan. 26 to Sun., March 8, local Girl Scout troops, including St. Jamesbased Troops #625 and #2115, Pilgrim School-based troop See Girl Scouts, p 14

DAISIES FROM TROOP 625: Sarah Saffron McCormick, Madeline Cheng, Byrdie Howe, Betty and Georgina Dentler and Lux Saevitz at last year’s cookie sales on Larchmont Boulevard.

www.larchmontchronicle.com ~ Entire Issue Online!

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Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

Editorial

Calendar

By John Welborne

Re-Elect Councilman Ryu There are many reasons why the Larchmont Chronicle recommends the re-election of David Ryu. His record is one of careful attention to the Fourth Council District, and that bodes well for him — and for us — in a second term in office.

Our recommendation to vote for Ryu notwithstanding, we commend the three other CD4 candidates for stepping up and entering into the public dialogue about the issues of our time in this district. We hope that each of them stays active in community organizations. Perhaps they will let the mayor put their skills to even more use through commission appointments in the future.

But why Ryu? He and the other candidates agree, possibly 100 percent, on what are the issues of the day confronting our neighborhoods and our city. Homelessness, traffic, affordable housing, crime.

Not only does Ryu agree that these are the issues, he has actively addressed them during his first four years in office. In a long-developed central part of the city like Greater Wilshire, where vacant land is scarce, the councilmember and his staff have worked hard to find sites for bridge housing and permanent supportive housing. And many of those projects have been completed or are in the works. continued at right

SB50 and Ending Residential Neighborhoods Under the guise of helping to house the homeless and ending LA’s housing shortage, State Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco has sponsored SB50, which would end single family residential zoning as we know it. This proposal has already stopped designation of any further HPOZs and has stalled any attempts to update our Preservation Plan. SB50 would override local zoning ordinances and allow for mid rise apartment buildings to be built within a half mile of a subway stop, or within a quarter mile of high frequency bus lines, or in a ‘jobs-rich’ community. All of Hancock Park fits this definition. The bill would allow property owners to convert single-family houses anywhere in the state into four-unit apartment houses. Senator Wiener has made a few cosmetic modifications to the latest version of his bill, which gives city officials a chance to shift some of the density.

This is part of the continuing effort by developers to replace affordable housing with unaffordable housing and to turn all neighborhoods into multi-story apartment and condominium projects. There is no shortage of commercial (and other) properties that could be developed to provide more housing without destroying the neighborhoods that make our city a wonderful place to live. Let your State Senator (Ben Allen - https://sd26.senate.ca.gov/district) and Assemblyman (Richard Bloom - https://a50.asmdc. org/) know how you feel and fight to keep our city a city of neighborhoods. o o o If you’re planning to make any changes to the street visible portion of your house, including hardscaping, and windows, check with our HPOZ Planner Suki Gershenhorn (suki.gershenhorn@lacity.org), before starting. The HPOZ Preservation Plan, which regulates our HPOZ, can be found at http://www.preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/hancock-park.

There is also an online form you can fill out to help speed up the process (http://preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/initial. screening.checklist). Report graffiti sightings by calling 311 or at the City’s Anti-Graffiti Request System — tinyurl. com/yyr3unhc — and by calling Hollywood Beautification, 323-463-5180.

Adv.

Tues., Feb. 4 – Lunar New Year Spring Festival ends.

Sun., Feb. 9 – La Brea Hancock Homeowners Association meeting, BMW dealership, 5070 Wilshire Blvd., noon.

Sun., Feb. 9 – 92nd annual Academy Awards, 5 p.m., oscars.org.

Wed., Feb. 12 – Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council board meeting, The Ebell, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd., 7 p.m. greaterwilshire.org.

Fri., Feb. 14 – Valentine’s Day. Mon., Feb. 17 – Presidents’ Day. Sat., Feb. 22 – NGA Hancock Park annual fundraiser, Wilshire Country Club, 7 p.m. to midnight.

Tues., Feb. 25 – Mardi Gras.

That’s the question inquiring photographer Talia Abrahamson asked locals along Larchmont Blvd.

Thurs., March 5 – Delivery of the March issue of the Larchmont Chronicle.

We also commend Ryu for his City Council legislative work seeking to make housing more affordable (including his leadership in opposing State Senate Bill 50 — legislation designed by and for developers and builders to create opportunities for them to build additional luxury housing, not affordable housing).

We further salute Ryu’s successful efforts to create or improve parks and recreation areas in the district and to address traffic issues in balanced ways. On March 3, vote for Ryu.

WILSHIRE DIVISION

OLYMPIC DIVISION

Senior Lead Officer Dave Cordova

Senior Lead Officer Joseph Pelayo

213-793-0650 31646@lapd.lacity.org Twitter: @lapdwilshire

Correction In the January issue, our statement in a story starting on Page 3 — concerning property for lease and sale in the Larchmont neighborhood — should have been, on Page 11: “Commercial property that is for sale in

‘What are your Valentine’s Day plans?’

213-793-0709 31762@lapd.lacity.org Twitter: @lapdolympic the neighborhood includes 5600 Melrose Ave., which may have been sold at press time. It is the site of long-established Lyman’s Automotive Services.”

We apologize for any inferences drawn about the current status of Lyman’s Automotive Services, which remains open for business.

“To spend it with my new Valentine [Sophie, her dog].”

Susie Goodman Windsor Square “I plan to spend it with my daughter and new pup.”

Sheila Tepper Windsor Square

“She’s going to Hawaii, but maybe we’ll go backpacking the weekend before, probably Sequoia.”

Peter Noeldechen with Larissa Hoy Larchmont Village

Larchmont Chronicle Founded in 1963 by Jane Gilman and Dawne P. Goodwin Publisher and Editor John H. Welborne Managing Editor Suzan Filipek Associate Editor Billy Taylor Contributing Editor Jane Gilman Advertising Director Pam Rudy Advertising Sales Caroline Tracy Art Director Tom Hofer Classified and Circulation Manager Rachel Olivier Accounting Jill Miyamoto 606 N. Larchmont Blvd., #103

Los Angeles, CA 90004 323-462-2241 larchmontchronicle.com

2020 Census getting underway Next month (approximately March 12-20), the U.S. Census Bureau will begin inviting households to respond to the 2020 Census questionnaire, either online or on paper.

Last month, on Jan. 21, the Census Director kicked off the decennial project by delivering the first 2020 Census questionnaire to a household in the remote Alaska Native village of Toksook Bay — while the ground was still frozen and prior to the spring thaw, when residents leave to fish, hunt and seek warm-weather jobs.

“I was thinking of doing something for my mom and my dad, maybe like a little gift, and asking out that special someone…I wish. But no. I’m just doing something special for my parents.”

Finn Corboy “I will be giving the person to the right of me a nice valentine and some delicious treats. My guess is Skittles, probably all purple. I’ll have to go through and pick it out and put it in a mason jar. And then my husband and I are surprising him and taking him away for the weekend.”

Kara Corboy

Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

Candidates and measures to appear on the March 3 ballot There will be a number of candidates, other than presidential, as well as several measures, on the March 3 ballot.

Below is a list of some of the measures and candidates relevant to our neighborhoods.

Ballot measures Measures on the ballot include “Proposition 13,” a state $15 billion general obligation bond to fund school construction, with $9 billion allocated to public

Crossover voting

in Norwalk.

Vote by mail Permanent vote-by-mail voters who are registered with “no party preference” will automatically be mailed a ballot without presidential candidates unless they request an American Independent, Democratic or Libertarian ballot.

For more information, call the Los Angeles County Registrar at 800-815-2666 or email votebymail@rrcc.lacounty.gov or go to tinyurl.com/j947dqf.

Additional information on “How To Vote for President” is at tinyurl.com/ yx6ra3vx.

(Continued from page 1)

parties must be registered to vote in that political party by Tues., Feb. 18.

You may register online at registertovote.ca.gov prior to that deadline.

If the deadline has passed, you may conditionally register to vote, and vote provisionally, at the County elections office

SECTION ONE

SCOUTING.

14

POLICE 2 VALENTINE’S 4 VACATION PLANNING 7 AROUND THE TOWN 8 COUNCIL REPORT 12 SCHOOL NEWS 17 DINING & ENTERTAINMENT Theater Review 22 On the Menu 23 At the Movies 24

SECTION TWO VIEW:

Real Estate Libraries, Museums, Home & Garden

CHANGING WORLD. 11 ON PRESERVATION 5 REAL ESTATE SALES 6 ON BOOKS, PLACES 9 BRIDGE 10 HOME GROUND 11 LIBRARIES 12 MUSEUM ROW 13 HOME & GARDEN 14 PROFESSOR 15 CLASSIFIED ADS 15

pre-K-12 schools, $2 billion for community colleges, $2 billion for the State University system and $2 billion for the University of California.

Measure FD is a Los Angeles County parcel tax measure. Voters will be asked whether there should be a levy of six cents per square foot on homes and all other parcels to support and improve emergency response.

The measure will provide $134 million annually. Passage requires approval of twothirds of county voters.

Measure R, if approved, would amend the Los Angeles County Code to give the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission subpoena power to investigate complaints and develop a plan to reduce jail populations and incarceration rates.

Local candidates Running for Los Angeles

County District Attorney are George Gascón, incumbent Jackie Lacey and Rachel Rossi.

There are eight candidates running to represent the 28th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Chad Anderson, Jennifer Barbosa, William Bodell, Eric Early, Sal Genovese, Ara Manoogian, G. Pudlo and incumbent Adam Schiff.

Running to represent the 34th District in the House are five candidates, including incumbent Jimmy Gomez, David Kim, Frances Motiwalla, Keanakay Scott and Joanne Wright.

There are three candidates running in the 37th District in the House, including incumbent Karen Bass, Larry Thompson and Errol Webber.

Running for the State Assembly in the 50th District are three candidates: incumbent Richard Bloom, Will

3

Hess and Jim King.

The two candidates running for State Assembly in the 53rd District are Godfrey Plata and incumbent Miguel Santiago.

Running for City Council in the 4th District are write-in candidate Susan Collins, Sarah Kate Levy, Nithya Raman and incumbent David Ryu. In the 10th Council District, where the seat is open, the five candidates on the ballot are: Channing Martinez, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Melvin Snell, Aura Vásquez and Grace Yoo. Also on the ballot will be a selection of Superior Court judges and board members for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

To find out more information regarding candidates that will appear on your ballot, visit lavote.net and click on “Voting and Elections.”

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FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

Larchmont Chronicle

elebrate Your alentine C V

Noodles, boxed wine led to love

By Caroline Tracy Dr. David Skaggs and Dr. Valerie Ulene met during their medical school years at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in the late 1980s. The first encounter was unremarkable save for the memory of Val’s voice, which resonated with David, and the image of David eating ramen

noodles in his apartment with his mother, which “sort of” stayed with Val. During that early meeting, Val was dating David’s roommate during David’s third year at med school. Their encounter happened in David and the roommate’s dingy apartment, which David’s mother, living close by in

David Skaggs and Valerie Ulene

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127 North Larchmont Boulevard

COUPLE’S CHANCE encounter kicked off Mike and Anne Fraser’s years-long love affair.

Crossed wires spell love for couple celebrating 47 years together Mike and Anne Fraser met by chance 47 years ago.

“I met my husband at my mom’s house,” Anne tells us.

She was at her mom’s S. Orange Grove Ave. home, as she was every Friday after work for dinner, when about 7 p.m. the doorbell rang.

“I went to answer the bell, and there stood a telephone repair guy,” she recalled.

“Hi, my name is Mike, and I am here to answer the call that was made to the phone company for repair,” Mike said.

“He asked if I called the phone company, and I said, ‘no,’ and I had no idea that my mom was having phone trouble and that she had called telephone repair.

“That started our wonderful romance. We were married

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New Jersey where David grew up, would frequent, bringing sustenance. David honors his late mother’s name, pointing out that “she was not responsible for the ramen noodles that day.” Val said the meeting was cursory, but the two struck up a conversation at a party a few weeks later, having remembered one another from the apartment encounter. By this point, the relationship with David’s roommate had ended. “It was not happening,” Val explained.

David ended up walking Val home that night, to her Washington Heights apartment in New York City, “not a pleasant place to walk at that time,” and the rest, they say, is history.

(Please turn to page 5)

♥

two years later, and this coming March will be our 45th wedding anniversary.”

The couple, who live in the Fairfax neighborhood west of La Brea Ave., have two daughters and three grandchildren.

“It seems we are more in love with each other with every passing day. We both feel blessed that we found each other,” Anne tells us.

“I believe you have to have trust and communication. To my husband and me, those two things are the most important to have for a good relationship. We consider each other our best friends.”

So did anyone call the phone company that fateful night?

“Yes, my mom really did call the phone company as she was having trouble dialing out.”

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Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

5

elebrate Your alentine C V

Seven-Year Itch? Hardly… it’s more like 40 years of bliss

(Continued from page 4)

Noodles continued to feature in the first three dates, all of which took place at an all-you-can-drink Chinese restaurant on the Upper West Side. “There was always a line out the door, and they served boxed wine to the waiting patrons to keep everyone at bay.”

Happily, boxed wine and Chinese eventually turned into more eclectic and “grown-up” fare during any of their free time spent together. They dated all through medical school, arranging residencies around one another to be in the same town at the same time.

David and Val married in Deer Valley, Utah in June of ’92, after the completion of her surgery residency. The bride’s parents had a home there, and she had worked as a ski host-

of it, the Fondevilas will embark on the trip of a lifetime to celebrate their special anniversary. “We are taking a cruise from Bali to Singapore, with a stopover in Beijing.” We’ll look forward to the photos and catching up with this adventurous couple maybe even before another seven years.

NEW YEAR NEW YOU!

NEARING their 40th wedding anniversary, Luis and Carol were photographed by daughter Francesca.

ON THEIR wedding day are Carol and Luis Fondevila.

Fondevilas’ daughter, Francesca, and Carol’s sister, Joanna, have worked for the firm

for nearly a decade. “We also live within walking distance to our office, so we can feel good

ess during the year between graduating from Princeton and going to medical school.

(David completed undergrad at Amherst). Having retreated to Deer Valley many times since becoming a couple, they thought the setting would be idyllic. “This was before destination weddings were really a thing, and we had many friends and David’s family on the East Coast. We thought it would cut down on the numbers, but we had a pretty good return on invites,” Val recalled.

After graduating from medical school, it was back to Los Angeles (home for Val’s family), to settle into their Plymouth Blvd. home, start a family and continue their professional journeys. David is the chair of Orthopedic Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Val (a preventative medicine physician who also com-

pleted boards in public health) co-founded and operates Clear Health Advisors. Their three children are following in their lofty footsteps; Kira, who attended Marlborough School and Amherst College, is pursuing medicine at Columbia; Jamie (Harvard Westlake and Yale) is also living in New York (“that they’re together in New York is just so great,” Val gushes); and Clay will graduate from Harvard Westlake this spring.

The Ulene-Skaggs duo seems to have made all the (Please turn to page 23)

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about reducing our carbon footprint,” she proudly adds.

On weekends Carol and Luis can be found decompressing at their home in Santa Barbara. There, Luis plays tennis with a group called the Montecito Mafia, and Carol enjoys hiking, yoga and gardening.

What’s next? By the sounds

©LC02 20

By Caroline Tracy We first featured Luis and Carol Fondevila in our 2013 Valentines issue and are happy to inform readers that the past seven years have not resulted in the titular phenomenon. In fact, the couple is celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year.

Still residing in Windsor Square, Carol reports that life and marriage have only gotten better with time. “We feel very blessed in our lives. We enjoy what we do (running an investment advisory business together) and are fortunate to have wonderful clients and family who work with us.” The

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FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

CD4 candidates (Continued from page 1)

The candidates’ websites are listed at the end.

Sarah Kate Levy After Sarah Kate Levy graduated from Yale University she headed west to Los Angeles, where she leased an apartment for $300 a month.

Twenty years later, that same apartment is in the $2,500 range, and the 734 percent jump is why the mother of four is running for City Council.

“This city had so much opportunity for young people… It’s gotten much harder.

Families are leaving…”

She explains that they’re moving to Texas and other places, where they can buy starter homes or larger ones for growing families.

Levy is active in numerous groups (see her website). Professionally, she is a screenwriter (she has a master’s degree from USC) and is a member of

Sarah Kate Levy

Writers Guild of America West.

When the native of Westchester County, NY, arrived here, she saw many duplexes and triplexes in surrounding areas, she recalls. She says that today, developers with deep pockets who can afford the land and the city’s lengthy permit process are not building similar affordable housing.

“We really do have a giant supply problem, because we haven’t built in a long time,” especially affordable housing, she says.

The city is now largely renters (60 percent); and while some can afford to pay rent, many can’t come up with down payments on a home and pay mortgages, adds Levy.

After returning from Florida to get out the vote for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, Levy says: “I felt like a lot of other women. I looked at the council and assembly, and there weren’t any women in any of the seats.”

She reached out to her political contacts to find potential women candidates to run, and, to her surprise, they suggested she enter the race.

She’s learned a lot in the last 18 months talking to people and canvassing the district.

“People are sleeping in tents, traffic is worse, and climate change is burning up our hillsides…

“The councilman is slow to act and ineffectual,” she said, adding that career politicians are exacerbating the problems.

The council has the power to change this, she says.

“People have to get off the sidewalks… before the whole city turns into Skid Row… We have to be more proactive on homelessness, on traffic…”

She supports Safe Parking L.A., a program that gets people who sleep in their cars off the street. “We have city parking lots all over the district,” and they can be especially useful in CD4, where 1,500 people are counted as homeless, up 54 percent in the past year, she says.

In addition, she says, 20 percent of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District and the city’s community colleges are “housing unstable.”

Then there’s the traffic.

“We need to be able to find ways for people to be close to where they work or get them out of their cars,” she says.

Many workers commute into the city and then take their tax dollars elsewhere.

Rapid bus lanes and an overall bike network are among solutions, she says, and she also hopes to add revenue to city coffers by encouraging small businesses to open and stay here. “There’s so much we could be doing so that business thrives here…

“This is where dreams happen. We lead in imagination for the whole world. I want our county and city to take back our roads,” instead of giving rideshare businesses an “awesome bonanza” at everyone else’s expense.

Asked about state bills to change local zoning, specifically State Senator Scott Wiener’s Senate Bill 50, she says she supports SB 50, while also saying: “Let’s do better here, so we don’t have to [work with the state].

“I want to show the rest of the state how it’s done.”

Nithya Raman “We need to take a more holistic approach, have more consensus building,” says candidate Nithya Raman.

“There is an absence of vision and what the future of Los Angeles could look like…

That is part of the work of a councilmember, to articulate that vision. We’ve accepted so little from our councilman.”

Raman and hundreds of volunteers are taking her message to the 140,000 registered voters in Council District Four, she says.

The mom of young twins, and most recently executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, Raman did not set out to run for public office.

An urban planner on the staff of the City Administrative Officer of the City of Los Angeles in 2014, she wrote a report on homelessness.

The report showed the city spent $100 million on largely

Larchmont Chronicle

Nithya Raman

jailing people for three days and then released them back onto the streets. Stable housing with access to services was not in the plan.

When she wrote her report, the city’s homeless population was 23,000; six years later, it has hiked up to 37,000.

Critically homeless individuals need housing now, she says. “We can do a much better job making services available when they need them.”

Meanwhile, rents have risen 65 percent in the last decade (Please turn to page 16)

skin

deep

by Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald

It’s that magical time of year when we’re all super busy abandoning our New Year’s Resolutions. Just think of it as one door closing and another opening because winter is the ideal time to achieve the best skin you’ve experienced in years. How’s that for a new goal?

Halo Laser Treatment is the very first hybrid fractional laser to marry ablative and non-ablative wavelengths. Stay with me now.

What this means for you is not only can we customize Halo to your precise skincare needs, we can address the dermis to stimulate collagen and elastin, and the epidermis to reduce brown spots and sun damage, minimize pore size and improve texture and tone. You can expect far less downtime compared to other ablative lasers - approximately five days of mild to moderate swelling, redness and flaking.

What you’ll experience is the Christmas morning of skincare treatments. What wonderful result will appear in the mirror each morning? After minimal recovery time, you’ll face the dramatic sloughing of brown spots and sun damage to reveal positively glowing and plumped skin; then reduced crow’s feet, fine lines around your mouth and other creases; and in time, tighter, firmer, more youthful skin. And just like that you’re back on track.

Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald is a Board Certified Dermatologist located in Larchmont Village with a special focus on anti-aging technology. She is a member of the Botox Cosmetic National Education Faculty and is an international Training Physician for Dermik, the makers of the injectable Sculptra. She is also among a select group of physicians chosen to teach proper injection techniques for Radiesse, the volumizing filler, around the world. Dr. Fitzgerald is an assistant clinical professor at UCLA. Visit online at www.RebeccaFitzgeraldMD. com or call (323) 464-8046 to schedule an appointment.

Adv.

Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

In search of the wild Bengal tiger, safaris, and more in India

By Suzan Filipek I went to India in search of the Bengal tiger.

So, after my first day on safari at Kanha National Park I was disappointed to be heading back near sunset with not a tiger in sight.

My disappointment quickly vanished when a male tiger lumbered out from the bush and onto the dirt road ahead of us.

“What’s that?” I asked my driver / guide and naturalist Raskesh Solanki, as I tried to make out the blurry creature.

“A tiger! A tiger!” he whispered enthusiastically. “Take a video!”

Fumbling with my phone, I managed to move it to video mode, and could now, through the lens, see this magnificent creature walking toward us.

I expected Rakesh to back up and get out of the tiger’s way. But to my surprise, he reversed just enough to let

the tiger keep approaching… until we hit a jeep stopped behind us. And, there were more behind it. The tiger was drawing a traffic jam.

With nowhere else to go, the king of the jungle passed in front and to the side of our open-air jeep within a few feet of me.

My video went dark at this point as I anxiously looked to my guide.

Rakesh assured me all was well and, sure enough, when I glanced back, the tiger had continued his relaxed pace, tail swaying like a house cat as he lumbered on the path alongside the stacked jeeps and into a ravine below.

Why India?

When people heard I was taking a trip to India, they would often ask if it was for a spiritual journey or a yoga retreat.

Nope, I’d say. Though in retrospect it was sort of a spiritual trek.

Besides Kanha, (the inspiration for Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” and where we stayed at the amazing Singinawa Jungle Lodge), we visited Bandhavgarh, a former maharaja’s game reserve, where we stayed at the Tree House Hideaway.

The second week we visited 1,000-year-old temples at Khajuraho, the holy Hindu city of Varanasi on the Ganges River, the Taj Mahal and Delhi.

Serving the tiger India is a vital, exciting and youthful country — the median age is 27. And, while the country has its share of social problems, it has managed to save its tiger from extinction (it’s listed as “endangered”), which is where it was headed before Prime Minster Indira Ghandi spearheaded the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972 and Project Tiger in 1973.

While a success — there are 50 tiger reserves in India, (Please turn to page 25)

SPOTTY is named for the markings on her forehead.

Photo by Suzan Filipek

Besides seeing the beauty of the golden orange-and-blackstriped tiger in the wild, I wanted to witness the incredible conservation effort underway in India — home to 1.4 billion people.

The trip was a longtime dream of mine, and it didn’t disappoint. In one week, we went on a whirlwind 13 safaris in two national parks and saw

20-plus of India’s 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the wild.

In short, it was the trip of a lifetime.

Safari drives The safari drives took place in the early morning and late afternoon, to avoid the scorching heat of midday in Central India — India’s summer is the best time to see the tiger as it forages out in search of water.

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Larchmont Chronicle

Donations, good cheer herald the New Year at local sites It is just not Christmas without the decked halls at the Irving Blvd. home of Suz and Peter Landay. Their party, held annually, assigned this year’s benefactor of the guests’ donations to the Jeffrey Foundation. Suz and Peter graciously asked for contributions in lieu

of the usual hostess gifts. Over 75 neighbors, friends and relatives poured in Dec. 28. Maestro Lars Roos tinkled the ivories as glasses of Champagne were raised to welcome in the new year. A grand holiday buffet featured beef tenderloin with mushroom bourbon

sauce, honey carrot ring and cider poached salmon — all topped off with the classic trifle. Among those imbibing and nibbling were Estie and Lars Roos, Dia and Ray Schuldenfrei, Sandy and Bill Boeck, Dennie and Umbaldo Marsan, Irnia and James Gibbons, Lau-

Around the Town with

Patty Hill ra and Richard Castriotta, Beate and Neil McDermott, Jeffery Foundation founder and director Alyce Morris Winston and her husband Winston, Jan Daly, Loyce and Joe Braun, Judy Bardugo, Shirley Strickland, Anne Combs, Patricia Rye, Tania Norris and Ramona Shelby. The evening ended with the presentation of much needed funds for the Jeffrey Foundation programs for disabled children.

ANNUAL PARTY. Suz and Peter Landay presenting donations to Alyce Morris Winston (right) of the Jeffrey Foundation.

• • • The Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society (WSHPHS) held its annual tea Jan. 12 at the Ebell of Los Angeles. Over 100 members and (Please turn to page 9)

“Homelessness increased by 53% in our community last year.1 We need change now. I’ll fight to increase access to mental health services and build more housing.” – Sarah Kate Levy

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Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

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lyn Layport, Brian Curran, Juliet Brumlik, Kiel FitzGerald, Juanita Kempe, Yvonne Cazier, Joyce Davidson, Patty Lombard, Fluff and Sandy McLean, Margo Dennis, Marlene Zweig, Patricia Reinstein, Jolin Croft, Judy Zeller, Carolyn Moser, Joann Clark, Gerry Kimbrough, preservationist Christy McAvoy and her husband Steve, June Bilgore with her son Andrew and her

9

daughter-in-law Deniz Olgac, and event co-chair Myrna Gintel with her husband Rudy.

Members of the venerable Junior League of Los Angeles, founded here in 1926 and long headquartered on Larchmont Boulevard, enjoyed a fun night of drag queen bingo January 23. The Hamburger Mary’s establishment on Santa Monica Boulevard in (Please turn to page 10)

♥ ♥ EBELL ♥ ♥Vice♥President ♥ ♥Janna ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Harris accepts a preservation ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Around the Town (Continued from page 8)

supporters gathered under the magnificent coffered ceiling in the club’s lounge designed by Julian Garsnsey. Ebell member Toby Horn led tours of this historic complex, including the art collection, fashion col-

lection, library and musicians’ perch — just some of the treasures that the 77,000-squarefoot building has to offer.

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serts of lemon bars and baby éclairs.

Guest speaker Craig Owens expounded upon his book, “Haunted by History: Separating The Fact and The Legends of Eight Historic Hotels and Inns in Southern California.”

One of the “haunted” hotels he talked about was the Alexandria, where the first president of The Ebell lived and raised her two daughters. The highlight of the afternoon was WS-HPHS President Richard Battaglia presenting his organization’s contribution to the Ebell of Los Angeles’s vice president Janna Harris.

There to applaud such a generous gift to The Ebell’s preservation fund were Sharon Lawrence Apostle, Caro-

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Around the Town

Larchmont Chronicle

Anchors Aweigh!

NGA-Hancock Park gala Feb. 22

(Continued from page 9)

West Hollywood was completely full, and 3/4 of the audience appeared to be young women enjoying one another’s company and the moderately ribald comedy of the bingo callers.

During the recent holidays, the League’s annual Harvest Boutique had the ladies appropriately honoring former JLLA president (and current president of The Ebell) Ginger Barnard with the League’s Spirit of Voluntarism Award. Also honored for Community Achievement were Alex Morales and Lucia Diaz. Coming up next, on April 4, the ladies will repeat their highly successful, familyfriendly “Touch-A-Truck” event that allows children to explore vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

Learn more at JLLA.org.

Always for ever and new.

JUNIOR LEAGUE members enjoyed a memorable evening of outrageous bingo at Hamburger Mary’s Bar and Grille in West Hollywood in January.

What was before is left behind; what never was is now; And every passing moment is renewed. —Ovid Happy New Year!

It’s Anchors Aweigh!, NGAHancock Park’s annual fundraiser is Sat., Feb. 22 from 7 p.m. to midnight at Wilshire Country Club.

NGA-Hancock Park is one of 33 chapters of the Needlework Guild of America. Its members have provided new clothing, linens and personal care items to their less fortunate neighbors in Los Angeles since 1895. Beneficiaries include Alexandria House, Aviva, Good Shepherd Shelter, Imagine LA and more.

Tickets to the gala are available at ngahancockpark.org.

Good Shepherd gala is for a good cause

Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women & Children’s second annual Together Towards Tomorrow Gala is Sat., March 21 at Vibiana, 214 S. Main St. The event will feature an open bar, cuisine, dancing and surprises; it raises much-needed funds for Good Shepherd Center’s programs, which include shelter, food, case managment and employment services. Visit gschomeless.org.

DEBUTANTES from the Greater Wilshire area include (left to right) Caroline Hawley, Chloe Baker, Hattie Rogovin, Katrina Pyle and Gigi Garland.

Debutantes presented at annual Ball; honors families and service Las Madrinas honored 26 families and their daughters in December for their service to the Southern California community and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). The young women were presented at the annual Debutante Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

More than 800 guests, including the 26 debutantes, celebrated the occasion with members of Las Madrinas, which means “The Godmothers.”

Las Madrinas President Mrs. Kjell Nicholas Hult formally welcomed the families and guests in attendance. She thanked everyone for supporting the research programs at CHLA, including the current

Las Madrinas project, a $5 million pledge for its endowment for the Chief of Neurology Chair and the Neurological Institute Epilepsy Program.

Member husband Mr. Wayne Martin Brandt announced the debutantes, while member husband Mr. David Thomas Balfour served as Director of Presentation. Flowers were from Drew Domenghini, and the music was presented by the Wayne Foster Orchestra.

Las Madrinas was established in 1933 as the first Affiliate Group of CHLA, and it has been supporting pediatric medicine and research there for 85 years.

Visit lasmadrinas.org for more information.

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Seeking FBI to investigate uptick in local anti-Semitic attacks I was only six-years-old when I first came to Los Angeles. Like so many families who have come before and since, Los Angeles was the place where my mother, father, grandmother, brother, sister and I chose to plant roots and see where we could grow.

We shared a 700-square-foot apartment off the 101 freeway in East Hollywood and called it home. Los Angeles was quite different from Korea, but I loved it immediately.

On my block were kids just like me, whose families came from all different backgrounds and countries all over the world, but who had come to Los Angeles to forge a new path forward. As I grew older, I met even more people from even more walks of life — and no matter what any of us looked like, or how we prayed or who we loved — we worked together, we marched togeth-

Council Report by

David E. Ryu er, and we shared a common bond as Angelenos.

This is the Los Angeles I know. A city defined by its diversity, built by the blood, sweat and tears of folks who came from all over the world — this is the place I call home.

But today, this Los Angeles is under threat.

Hate crimes have been steadily rising in our city, year after year. 2019 saw a more than 40 percent increase in reported hate crimes over 2016. Anti-Semitism is up.

Attacks on African-Americans, Muslims, immigrants and transgender Angelenos are up.

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The Los Angeles that welcomed me, the Los Angeles that I know and love, is falling to hate.

I can’t sit idly by while these numbers increase each year.

That is why I have pushed forward on proactive hate crime protection legislation that would, among other things, establish a citywide communications tool that can serve as a single point of contact for both critical incidents and hate crime prevention information.

It’s why I launched the Hate Crimes Security Fund last year, providing grants to vulnerable institutions across the district for security enhancements. And it’s why I have introduced a resolution calling on the FBI to launch a special task force focused on rooting out anti-Semitism.

We are not immune to a national rise in hate — and the cure takes much more than legislation. It takes leadership, courage and, above all else, unequivocal support among Los Angeles’ communities. That is why I organized 20 leading Asian-American and Pacific Islander organizations to sign on to a letter condemning anti-Semitism and hate and standing in solidarity with the Jewish community that has faced an unprecedented spate of attacks in recent months.

An attack against one of us is an attack against us all. We must make absolutely clear that Los Angeles is not a city of division and fear, but bound

by our common humanity.

Now more than ever, we must stand together against hate and in support of marginalized communities and a Los Angeles for all.

In a time when hate is given free reign, let us show the world that the American tradition of acceptance, diversity and inclusion is alive and well in Los Angeles.

HOMELESS COUNT volunteers from Greater Wilshire include, left to right, front: Beverlee Jean, Allison Powell; middle: Tammy Rosato, Joy McManus, Allison Schallert; rear: Preston Grant, Max Kirkham and Conrad Starr.

Homeless count (Continued from page 1)

drews Neighborhood, and Tammy Rosato, of La Brea – Hancock, the evening started with a 7:30 p.m. training session at Hope Lutheran Church on Melrose Avenue.

Councilman David Ryu spoke to the teams before they left.

The groups of three traveled in cars and drove through their assigned census tracts.

Throughout the county, the volunteers have been reporting the numbers of individuals — in categories of those over age 24, ages 18 to 24,

and as unaccompanied minors under age 18. The counters also noted family units, when found, as well as vehicles, tents and makeshift shelters.

The countywide results of the count will be available in several months.

The day following the latenight survey, organizer Tammy Rosato reported: “We ended up with more than 40 volunteers and counted all of our tracts. The last team returned just before midnight.

“We also saved a St. Charles Cavalier dog roaming the (Please turn to page 23)

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Girl Scouts of America CELEBRATING 109 YEARS

•

ANNIVERSARY WEEK: MARCH 8-14

Girl Scouts

(Continued from page 1) 85, Larchmont Village Girl Scouts (Ambassador troop 495) and their younger troop counterpart, the New Larchmont Village Girl Scouts (Senior Troop 615), will be setting up shop on Larchmont Boulevard in front of Trina Turk, Rite Aid and U.S. Bank, as well as coffee shops, farmers’ markets and grocery stores throughout local neighborhoods, to sell as many cookies as their parents’ car trunks can hold!

The flavors include all-time favorite Thin Mints (vegan), Samoas, Do-si-dos, Toffeetastic (gluten-free), Shortbread Trefoils, Peanut Butter Patties / Tagalongs, Caramel Chocolate Chip (gluten-free), S’mores, and one new highlyanticipated flavor, Lemon-Ups, a citrus-flavored biscuit with a layer of sweet glaze on one side to balance out the lemony tartness. The Lemon-Ups feature inspiring messages from Girl Scout entrepreneurs, such as “I am a go-getter,” and “I am an innovator” — just two of eight phrases that are pressed into the cookies. The cookies range in price from $5 to $6 per box.

Multiple activities Amy Miller, co-leader of Larchmont area troops 615 and 495, which include her own daughters Poppy and

DAISIES from Troop 625 last year on Larchmont Blvd.: Lux Saevitz, Betty Dentler, Madeline Cheng, Saffron McCormick, SofieAnn Sapochnik; front row Byrdie Howe.

TROOPS 2115, 625: Back Row Olivia Carson, Leaders, Nicole Hamilton, Amber Carson, Christina Kim and Cecilia Lopez; Middle Row Gabriela Lopez, Frances McTee, Stella Pathak, Harper Monroe, Yeon-Ah Rutherford, Keira Schoenholz; Front row: Madison Lee, Phoebe Quinn, Jean Lee, Biloxi Ware, Rebecca Lopez, and Michaella Armour.

Bluesette, marvels at the decade that the girls have spent together so far.

“We’ve gone camping in Santa Cruz, Malibu, Crystal Cove, Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, Ojai, Santa Barbara, Catalina… and during those trips the girls have learned how to build a campfire, cook over an open flame, set up and break down (which is the harder part, by the way!) tents, and they even have gone ziplining and horseback riding.”

Amy is floored by the hard work, dedication and commitment that the 9th grade girls in senior-level Troop 615 and the 10th and 11th grade girls in Ambassador Troop 495, who are now working towards their

the booths listed above, Girl Scouts offers a couple of digital methods to obtain your cookie fix. Buyers can download the Girl Scout Cookie Finder mobile app to their smartphones to locate nearby booths and access the complete listing of Girl Scout cookies available across the United States and Puerto Rico.

Another online service is The Digital Cookie platform, which allows a Girl Scout to manage her own online sales.

Just tell a Girl Scout you know that you’re interested in buying her cookies online, and she’ll take it from there!

So, if you’re in the mood for a box of the Girl Scouts’ worldfamous cookies, the time to

Gold Star, bring toward service projects and community outreach.

“The girls in both troops helped create a sustainable urban garden in Compton, called Moonwater Farms, because they are very interested in projects that help people and the environment,” she says. “They have an awareness of their neighborhood, community and world and they see how it all fits together. They all go to different schools, but they can come together and talk and compare and realize that they are all concerned about the same issues.”

Cookies online For cookie fanatics who aren’t able to visit the girls at

buy is now. Not only will you satisfy your sweet tooth, you may quite possibly be changing the life of a young girl in your community.

“I love Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles,” says Miller.

“These adventures that they undertake help create strong, independent and forwardthinking girls who are learning that they can accomplish whatever they want to do while knowing that they have the support of other strong girls.

“That’s the ultimate goal — to help these girls become women who support each other and lift each other up. I hope they carry that on into womanhood.”

These supporTers saluTe MeMbers of Scout Troops in our CoMMuniTy

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Boy Scouts of America CELEBRATING 110 YEARS •

FEBRUARY 2-8

PACK 16 TIGERS advanced to Wolves at May banquet.

WEBELOS of Pack 16 advanced at May banquet.

The troops and packs have been busy this past year. The big news is that Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouts of America) has opened its doors to girls. But other news from local scouting groups also includes an assembly honoring veterans, competing in the Pine-

is visited by a mobile shower facility Saturday mornings.

Patrols held competitions for the most soap and socks collected. Cubs collected at den meetings, and scouts learned more about cooperation and support for the less fortunate in the community.

Shower of Hope, honoring veterans among scout activities wood Derby and helping others with the Shower of Hope.

Socks and Soap “This year the Scouts came together to collect socks, towels and toiletries for ‘Shower of Hope,’” says Diane Gilmore, who volunteers with the scouting community. St. James’ Church

WORLD WAR II veteran Alexander Liston was one of the honorees at the November assembly.

New at Pack 10 Now that Scouts BSA has opened its doors to girls, “Pack 10 is proud of our three new female Cubs,” says Gil-more.

“The girls seem to know just what to do with a Pinewood Derby car and thrive on field adventures to Hyperion Water Treatment Plant, the Watts Towers and the Aviation Park in Santa Monica,” she continued.

Pack 10 launched the school year with a barbecue. Bear Cubs earned their Tote ’n Chip by carving bars of soap. Older Cubs tied knots and played relay games. The Webelos hosted the Cub Olympics in the fall, and the bears hosted a Christmas Carnival. All 54 Cubs cut their Pinewood Derby cars in January.

Pack 16: Veterans honored “At the November assembly

we honored seven vets,” says cubmaster Alexandra Liston.

One was Alexander Liston, age 94, who served in World War II. Another honoree was St. Brendan’s Monsignor Fleming.

Last May, a banquet was held where, among other events, Webelos were advanced to Cubs.

Upcoming events include the annual Pinewood Derby in early April and a pancake breakfast on May 3. These are open to the public and tickets are $5.

PHOTO Page 3: Shower of Hope was helped by Girl Scout Rebecca Lopez, Troop 10 senior patrol leader Luke Gil, junior assistant scoutmaster Max Rauchberg, Girl Scout Stella Pathak and Scout Wyatt Moen (not shown).

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CD4 candidates (Continued from page 6) www.windsorsquare.org 157 N. Larchmont Boulevard

Stop SB 50

Senate Bill 50 is back! Previously on hold in the State Senate, its real estate and construction industry promoters are working to have it moved out of the Senate so that it may be considered by the State Assembly beginning in February. (At press deadline, it was unknown if the bill actually will be moving from the Senate to the Legislature’s other house.)

As a reminder, the bill’s stated purpose is to address California’s housing shortage, by allowing multi-family dwellings in single-family neighborhoods near transit corridors. That includes most of central Los Angeles (including Greater Wilshire, within which lies Windsor Square), because proximity to transit corridors is defined loosely as “within a half mile of a train station and within a quarter mile of a bus stop.”

In response to statewide criticisms expressed last spring, summer and fall, SB 50’s sponsor, State Senator Scott Wiener from San Francisco, tweaked the bill a bit — but very little. The proposed law allegedly exempts neighborhoods with HPOZs (Historic Preservation Overlay Zones) — but only those HPOZs that were established prior to 2010, which would include Windsor Square but not Miracle Mile. Despite that provision, the complicated proposed law still does not exempt newer houses built within any HPOZ zone, known as “non-conforming” structures.

Many blocks in Windsor Square contain such structures, and these properties easily could be targets of developers’ wrecking balls. Imagine a boxy new four- or five-story condo building squeezed in between two historic homes!

Not for affordable housing Although many promoters of SB 50 imply that it is a means to create affordable housing, most serious analysts say that will not be the result because there is nothing in the legislation to require affordable housing for any projects with ten or fewer units. Given the real estate industry sponsors who are paying for the pro-SB 50 legislative advocacy (as well as for the election campaigns of Sen. Wiener and other supporters), the actual products of the adoption of SB 50 will be exactly what these developers want to build — more luxury apartments and condos (ten or fewer per project) as well as lucrative McMansions.

NOT the needed affordable housing.

Parking reduced Plus, developers will not be required to provide enough parking places for tenants, which will make construction cheaper.

This cash cow for developers will be a calamity for neighbors.

SB 50 is a give-away to the sponsoring real estate and construction industries. It likely will cause a reduction in affordable housing, especially in middle- and lower-middle income Los Angeles communities — as investors buy up more and more single-family properties to change them to reap the financial windfall being granted to developers by SB 50 — if it passes.

SB 50 not needed We can all agree that Los Angeles needs more affordable housing. SB 50 is not the way to accomplish this worthy goal.

There are many areas where large apartment buildings make sense — some of those areas are near Windsor Square. You can see large parcels to the east and west that already have been cleared for construction of big apartment buildings like many of the nearby projects that have been completed in the last few years. These projects are where they should be — on land zoned for multifamily projects. Sadly, though, most of this new construction is for expensive market-rate units. They are not affordable to many (including many who might have occupied former bungalows or small apartments on the land that was cleared for construction).

Let’s see a more thoughtful approach than SB 50 — one that will not destroy established or historic communities; one that will not be a handout to developers and the construction industry; and one that will honestly create more affordable housing.

Speak up!

Those of you in Windsor Square, or anywhere in Los Angeles, who care about the future of your block should write or call the following immediately — to tell them SB 50 will hurt their constituents, poorer ones especially, and to urge them to STOP SB 50. (And, if the Bill has died in the Senate before you read this, thank the legislators!)

Write or call: State Senator Ben Allen

The Windsor Square Association, an all-volunteer group of residents from 1100 households between Beverly and Wilshire and Van Ness and Arden, works to preserve and enhance our beautiful neighborhood. Join with us! Drop us a line at 325 N. Larchmont Blvd., #158, Los Angeles, CA 90004, or visit our website at windsorsquare.org.

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(916) 651-4026 senator.allen@sen.ca.gov State Senator Maria Elena Durazo (916) 651-4024 senator.durazo@sen.ca.gov Assembly Member Richard Bloom (916) 319-2050 assemblymember.bloom@assembly.ca.gov Assembly Member Miguel Santiago (916) 319-2053 assemblymember.santiago@assembly.ca.gov

while income has gone up less than half, says Raman.

As the homeless population grew in her Silver Lake neighborhood, Raman and some neighbors started the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition in 2017. (SELAH stands for Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Atwater Village and Hollywood.)

Once a week, SELAH volunteers provide an access center equipped with a shower, serve a hot meal and show a movie.

She continues to co-chair the group, which has expanded to include Glassell Park and other locations.

Raman was born in India, and moved to the U.S. as a child. She holds a master’s degree from MIT and an undergraduate degree from Harvard.

Her work on poverty issues reaches back to India where, post-college, she returned and began Transparent Chennai, bringing vital resources, like running water, to slums.

Environmental issues and mounting traffic are tied to the homeless and unaffordable housing, she said.

“We’re looking at the worst air we’ve had in decades…

90 percent of the pollution is from (commuter) cars and trucks driving in and out of the city.”

Buses make a difference, she says. “They are the most effective movers of people,” and they’re cheap, yet “we’ve made it very hard for people to take the bus.”

She believes that every problem, from homelessness to traffic and even potholes, is traced to career politicians in City Hall who have vested interests with city department representatives and unions.

She states that our problems have reverberated to the state level, where recently passed legislation is aimed at changing our zoning to increase housing.

“It’s not a question of building more, but protecting people who are here…

“Los Angeles has had developer- and real estate-funded elections and homeowners who have not wanted much development.” The combination has made for a worst-case scenario, she concludes.

“I want to make sure that we don’t need people in Sacramento telling us what we need. We should be able to do it ourselves. I think there’s lots of ways we can increase affordable housing stock that we’re not using. We have failed to use that power.”

She also suggests that immigration is another area where our leaders have failed, especially in the Trump Administration. “One third of our (Please turn to page 26)

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Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

ST. BRENDAN

By Olivia Martinez 8th Grade February is here! As we prepare for all of our fun Valentine’s Day festivities, we kick off the month with an all-school mass led by our 4th graders on the 7th. The day prior, our 1st graders go on an exhilarating field trip to the Aquarium of

SECTION ONE

the Pacific. The following week, the 4th graders will take a field trip to the San Juan Capistrano mission to learn about its history and how it was built.

Valentine’s Day is an exciting day here at Saint Brendan; there

17

are cupcakes and valentine treats to be passed out in the classrooms, and our biannual game of hush day! On February 18th, the 8th graders put on their caps and gowns for the first time to take their graduation photos for the yearbook! During the last week of the month, the school attends an Ash Wednesday assembly to start the Lenten season right!

Join us for exciting summer programs for students entering grades 1-6 at our expanded ESLA Head of School Peter McCormack, “The Library Book” author Susan Orlean, 10th grade student Klara Kaupanger-Swacker and School Chaplain Megan Hollaway at the school’s discussion of Orlean’s book about the 1986 fire at Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles.

Author discusses public library fire with students

Episcopal School of Los Angeles (ESLA) last month hosted author Susan Orlean to talk with students about the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire.

At the Jan. 15 event, Orlean discussed her new work, “The Library Book,” which she calls a “love letter” to one of Los Angeles’ most renowned institutions. Sophmore students Klara Kaupanger-Swacker and Georgia Davis-Bonk were selected to help moderate the discussion.

Orlean’s book was a summer reading assignment for the entire ESLA Upper School.

“The life and times and near-

death experience of the Los Angeles Public Library was a story that felt urgent to tell,” said Orlean. “It gave me a chance to pay tribute to these marvelous places that have been such an essential part of my life.”

The fire alarm sounded at the Central Library on April 29, 1986, Orlean told students. By the time the fire was finally extinguished seven hours later, it had destroyed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more — the largest library fire in the history of the United States.

“The Library Book” is available at Chevalier’s.

HOLLYWOOD SCHOOLHOUSE

fly to a location in the U.S. and stay there for four days. We are to book a hotel for three nights, rent a car for the duration of the trip, eat at two restaurants, and visit two attractions at this place that we are traveling to.

So far, my partner and I have had a great experience working on this project because we have had the freedom to choose as if we were adults.

In English, the 6th-grade class is also planning for our Black History Month projects.

These projects will include a formal research paper, a poetry/ technology component, and an art component for the figures that we have been researching. I chose Tyler Perry because of his great impact on the Black community through his donations and support for African American people across the country.

In art class, we are graphing a picture of our figures and slowly transitioning into painting our monotone paintings of them to put on display around campus. The purpose of this assignment is to learn more about historical African American people that made a difference in our society.

By Nikhil George 6th Grade

Recently at Hollywood Schoolhouse, the school musical has begun its rehearsals. This year, the musical is The Music Man. Personally, I’m excited to get to see all of my peers on the big stage! Another afterschool program that started this week was basketball. As a member of the HSH basketball team, I am ecstatic about practicing and competing this year! Also, I really love the relationships I have built with my team, both on and off of the court. In the end, I would say that these two extra curricular activities are great opportunities to learn more about and interact with other students.

In math class, both 5th and 6th grade students have been assigned a vacation project that they will create with a partner. Most importantly, students must stay on a budget of $2000. The guidelines for the project are that students must

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FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

OAKWOOD SCHOOL

By Scarlett Saldaña 9th Grade

Throughout February at Oakwood, activities including the high school play, concerts, and art showcases will fill the weeks of this month. First, in the middle of February, the high school dance department will hold a Win-

ter Dance Concert with performances from the ballet class and ChoreoLAB. As Oakwood’s student-driven dance company, ChoreoLAB creates choreography and dance pieces managed by their own creative ideas.

After the dance and music concerts, the high school play, Medea, will be performed for the remainder of the week. Although the cast and crew of Medea was given a short amount of two months to practice, they have all been working hard to ensure that our performance correctly honors the original Greek play. This is especially important as the main focus

Larchmont Chronicle

of Medea is feminism and the strength of women, an important and relevant topic that still continues throughout the centuries.

Lastly, the Winter Trimester ends with the middle school Art Exhibition, presenting the paintings and sculptures created by students over the term. Their art pieces will be shown around the school, introducing the bright and inventive ideas of each student at Oakwood.

THIRD STREET

By Sofia Kirilov 4th Grade

On behalf of everyone at Third Street Elementary, a huge thank you to everyone who helped raise money for our school so far!

Our coin drive and silent auction were a huge success! Your support helps Third Street students like me enjoy science lab, tech lab, theater, music and so much more!

One of the new programs at my school that I am particularly excited about is robotics.

Fourth- and fifth-graders at my school get to use Vex robotics kits to build and program robots.

Then, we get to compete with these robots via wireless controls using advanced sensors. We even get to set up and play games with the robots on special blocks. So cool!

I am also looking forward to our music program this year.

Third Street students get to try out and play various instruments.

Last year, I got to learn how to play the recorder. This year I will get to try out the xylophone, and next year it will be the ukulele.

Want to learn more about our school? Come to our Prospective Student Orientation and Tour on Feb. 6 from 9 to 11 am. Meet our principal, Mr. Kim, talk with parents of students, and visit a classroom, the library, science

IMMACULATE HEART

By Samantha Hutchinson 12th Grade School is officially back in session here at Immaculate Heart!

After three long, welldeserved weeks of break, the second semester is now underway, with many activities too.

We just had our highly anticipated Junior Ring Ceremony celebrating the official recognition of members of the junior class as upperclasswomen. This decadeslong tradition is celebrated with a prayer service planned by the Junior Board, with parents and friends invited to join the juniors as they formally receive their class rings. The Immaculate Heart ring symbolizes a special bond between the school and each graduate who wears it. The ring itself features the unique design of the school crest – a heart pierced by a sword

MARLBOROUGH

By Avery Gough 8th Grade

This new year has already been very exciting for Marlborough students. First, report cards came out on Jan. 7. Their arrival was met with both dread and anticipation depending on how each student did.

There was a whiteout game between JV Marlborough basketball and Chaminade on Jan. 9. A whiteout game is different from a normal game because at the whiteout game everybody wears all white. Another cool aspect of a whiteout game is that the first 75 fans to come get a free Marlborough t-shirt.

The Enrichment Opportunities Fair was held Jan. 8 on the North Terrace. The Enrichment Opportunities Fair allows representatives from multiple organizations to discuss the many advantages of joining their enrichment programs. Some examples of organizations who attend are The New York Times Student Journeys, UC Santa Barbara: Pre-College Programs and Global Leadership Programs.

Another wonderful opportunity that Marlborough provides for its summer school students is the chance to go to Memphis, Tennessee, where the Civil Rights movement began. They will then go down to Selma, Alabama and finally Georgia. Students will learn, first hand, the impact that the Civil Rights movement and the Voting Rights Act had on the United States.

The last week of January is known as Spirit Week. During this week, every grade is represented by a different color and will compete in various activities.

At the end of the week, there is a huge dance-off between every grade and even teachers! The winners of both the dance and of Spirit Week are decided after that. and surrounded by roses – which is a tribute to the school’s patroness, Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Meanwhile, our soccer and basketball teams continue their league games and are doing well despite tough competition. Members of our speech and debate team also compete after performing well in recent tournaments. Finally, our Bingo Night, a great fundraiser for the Athletic Department, was a success– complete with big prizes, delicious food, and fun times!

This month, our senior students will attend the annual Kairos retreat, an opportunity for personal reflection and a chance to bond and learn more from peers. Additionally, Immaculate Heart will welcome presenters from the organization Freedom from Chemical Dependency. In classroom meetings, FCD representatives will address the dangers of drug and alcohol addiction and share their personal experiences overcoming addiction with students.

Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

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Rec Center director breathes new life into Pan Pacific Basketball

By Caroline Tracy Over the course of a few weeknights in early January, kids ranging in age from 3 to 15 took to the basketball courts at Pan Pacific Recreation Center. Team assignments not yet decided, they scrimmaged while rec center staff and parents looked on. A somewhat new-ish face presided. Eric Calhoun, the Senior Recreation Center Director, oversaw the games and in turn began the process of divvying up the teams. Within days, teams were determined for the Little Dribblers (ages 3 to 4), the Mighty Mites (5 to 6), the Pee Wees (7 to 8), the Minors (9 to 10), Majors (11 to 12), and Juniors (13 to 15).

A full day of games on Jan. 11 marked the start of a busy season ahead.

Swastikas Calhoun took over as Director March 4, 2019, a day that lived in apparent infamy, as what was thought to be blood-marked swastikas appeared on the walls of the Senior Center adjacent to the rec center. “I was so angry when I saw them,” says Calhoun. “I immediately called up Lisa over at LAMOTH (The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust) and told her I was going to handle this. Growing up in the neighborhood, I had many Jewish friends, and we played basketball on these very courts.” Later, it was determined that the symbols were actually Hindu signs of peace — they could easily be mistaken for swastikas because the notorious Nazi symbol is essentially the Hindu symbol reversed. As of today, Wilshire Division police are still searching for the culprit.

Grew up here Calhoun’s quick and easy relationship with the LAMOTH staff is an indicator of the type of guy he is — affable, upbeat and bestowed with the “gift of gab.” He grew up in the neighborhood, attending Cathedral Chapel Elementary School and what was once Daniel Murphy High School on 3rd and Detroit (now Yeshiva Aharon Yaakov-Ohr Eliyahu), eventually graduating from Fairfax High in 1988.

He got his first job at West Wilshire Rec Center (which stood where the Senior Center is now) as a pool locker attendant through the city’s Youth Employment Program. At 18, he went through training and certification to become a lifeguard, all the while playing basketball on the courts with local kids.

After graduating from high school, “it took me 10 years, not the typical four, to graduate from college. I couldn’t do things the cookie-cutter way,” Calhoun explains. “I had to

ity between groups. “It’s fluid — if a kid from Minors Gold is really mastering the fundamentals and would be better suited for Platinum, we can move that kid up. It’s about excelling at his or her own level, whatever it may be. My ultimate goal is to help kids

fall in love with sports,” Calhoun says. “There are the kids who have to be dragged out of the house to do group sports, and there are the kids who are all about it, and then there’s everyone in between. I want to serve each and every one of them and help each child

experience success.”

So far, this philosophy seems to be working. As a parent in the league, I can attest that the kids seem happy and the energy at Pan Pacific feels just right.

For more information, visit laparks.org.

Eric Calhoun

explore and meander on that path. I have traveled to each state in the U.S. at least twice, and I’ve traveled to 29 countries. I was soul searching and gaining life experience. But I always came back to a love for teaching, coaching, and kids.”

He eventually completed his degree in physical education with a focus on coaching from Cal State Dominguez Hills in 1998.

Eric began working for the City of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, doing stints at various centers around the city, but it was a serendipitous reunion at Pan Pacific in 2018 that earned him the job locale of his dreams. “I was playing basketball there one day with some friends, and we came up to the center for a water break, and the supervisor was there. He was the same guy who ran the program when we were kids and we started talking. He said he was leaving and that I needed to put my hat in. I hightailed it back to Hermosa Beach, got my resume in shape and sent it over that day.” He got the job.

Improvements Calhoun wasted no time getting to work, getting the City to improve the infrastructure of the facility (including two new court floors), ushering in new programs (Pan Pacific Soccer, played on the turf), recruiting talent (bringing in club-level talent to assist with trainings and clinics), girls’ volleyball and, perhaps most ambitiously, restructuring the youth basketball program. “When I was a kid, they had two leagues within each age group (Minor A and Minor B). So, the kids who had been playing for a while and had a high level of skill were in Minor A, and kids who were new or still learning the fundamentals were in Minor B. Dividing it up this way allowed the playing field to be more equal. I wanted to bring back this kind of structure and modernize it. I’m calling it Minors Platinum and Minors Gold.”

With different levels in each age group (except for Little Dribblers), every kid can get the chance to shine. There is also room for upward mobil-

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FEBRUARY 2020

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Larchmont Chronicle

Music roundup: throwback albums to revisit

By Elijah Small Three throwback albums for your consideration this month. Happy listening!

Lonerism Released in 2012, this is the second album by Australian rock band Tame Impala. I would call this Kevin Parker’s (the band’s leader) first masterpiece. While “Currents” (the band’s most recently released album) focuses on a polished, streamlined style, this album focuses on emotion.

Everything about “Lonerism,” including the LP name, the album art and songs, is

packed with emotion. The psychedelic feel of songs like “Apocalypse Dream” and “Feels Like We Only Go Backward” is a totally new way of looking at psyche rock. I love the dreamy, loud feel of every song. The attention to detail is amazing. I recommend giving this album a good listen.

Review: 9 out of 10.

Songs like “Ain’t it Funny” are boisterous and danceable, but have nuance and personal meaning behind them.

Danny is in recovery from his substance abuse, and his music often revolves around stories about what it’s like to be an addict. He talks about acting recklessly but then regretting his actions. This album is full of life lessons.

Review: 8.5 out of 10.

FINALIST in YoungArts program, Windsor Square’s Grace Gallagher on the set of her film.

Local artist recognized for accomplishments in film

Atrocity Exhibition This 2016 album is by far American rapper Danny Brown’s best work. Be warned, “Atrocity Exhibition” contains very loud instrumentals with techno elements and soul samples.

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To Pimp a Butterfly This is Kendrick Lamar’s third album, released in 2015, and it is by far his best. I would even consider it a masterpiece. The album consists of a political dialogue around issues of growing up in Compton: police brutality, gangs, inequality and abuse. He talks about the school system and racism in his life. In songs like “Alright,” he talks about the constant mindset needed to survive. In “Institutionalize,” he talks from his grandmother’s point of view, with her telling him to stay safe, and how you must worry about yourself in order to survive. The instrumentals, with help from Dr. Dre, have amazing jazz and hip hop sounds, like the simple bass line in “King Kuta” that slowly gets faster and faster, and the complex production and bass lines in “Wesley’s Theory.” This is a must hear album, I would even go as far to say it was favorite album of the decade.

Review: 10 out of 10.

Elijah Small is a student at Pilgrim School.

A young filmmaker from Windsor Square was named a 2020 National YoungArts Foundation finalist in film.

As one of 10 finalists, Grace Gallagher received a cash prize, and she was invited to participate in National YoungArts Week, the program that provides artists with a week of master classes, workshops and mentorship opportunities.

She was selected by a panel of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process.

During National YoungArts Week, Gallagher screened her short film, “Pretty Enough,” at New World Center in Miami, Florida on Jan. 8.

Daughter of Matthew and Meg Gallagher of Norton Avenue, Grace attended Saint Brendan School through 8th grade and

she graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she was awarded the prestigious Norman Cohen Achievement Award upon graduation from the Cinematic Arts department. Most recently, she won the Female Rising Award at the 2019 All American High School Film Festival in New York City.

Gallagher is a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College, where she is continuing her education as a writer, director and cinematographer.

She will join distinguished YoungArts winners who include Viola Davis, Josh Groban and Andrew Rannells.

Applications for the 2021 competition will be accepted from June 1 through Oct. 8.

More details at youngarts.org.

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Larchmont Chronicle PILGRIM

FEBRUARY 2020

By Siobhan Schallert 8th Grade

PAGE

By Alec Salatin 7th Grade

CHRIST THE KING

The holiday season at Pilgrim has ended, but it was a blast! Elementary had their annual winter sing concert, where each grade level performs a song for parents and students alike. Secondary had a very successful winter carnival and are now preparing for finals. As well as our first semester, lots of our secondary sports are beginning soon.

Middle and high school basketball season has begun, and volleyball and soccer are starting soon. Pilgrim is a great opportunity to learn/practice a sport because of our facilities, the Field of Dreams (complete with soccer goals and line markings for other sports) and our gymnasium (with basketball hoops, volleyball anchors, and an adjoining weight/exercise room). Our sports have a nocut policy, so if you want to join you’re in, that’s the same as our musical and play! We have two performances a year, a fall play and a spring musical. Our fall play was An Evening With Edward Gorey, performed by middle and high schoolers. Our all school spring musical (to be performed in may) is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In previous years, we have had exciting performances such as Mean Girls, Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. I can’t wait for the second semester to start and for the fun things to really pick up!

Hey all! It’s Alec Salatin here again, possibly writing to you after a Laker game. :) This month at Page Academy will be jam-packed with many events, both fun and educational! The month of February brings the annual Valentine’s Day Pancake Breakfast and our Dental Health Assembly.

We will have the Funds2Org shoe drive continuing this entire month. All (new and or lightly used) shoes donated will go to people in need of them in other countries.

If you have any to spare, please feel free to bring them on by! We also have two exciting events, the Voyage of Odysseus Performance Assembly for kindergarten through 7th grades and a whole week of Astro Camp for our 5th- and 6th-grade students.

During this week they will get the full astronaut experience!

February also brings Black History Month.

We recognize and appreciate the important people and events throughout African American history.

Our field trip this month is to the Discovery Cube, a great place to learn and explore!

Lastly, it is time for spring photos already! Make sure your kid doesn’t look like a “Who” from The Grinch! As you can see, Page will be full of fun and exciting events.

Well, that’s it for now…until next time!

Happy New Year! After two weeks of holiday fun, CKS students returned to school, eager to begin the new year. The month of January was filled with many exciting events.

The basketball season started, and students were busy training after school for their upcoming games.

On January 14th, the Environmental Defenders, sponsored by the L.A. County of Public Works,

BUCKLEY

teams will have their CIF soccer playoffs on Feb. 11 and 12. Then on the 14th it will be Valentine’s Day and the students will be able to wear anything red, pink, or white.

We will not have school on the 17th, which is Presidents’ Day. Later, on the 20th, the 8th grade will have their community service day where they will go out and help people in need at an event chosen by the school that isn’t known yet.

And lastly on the 21st, the upper and middle school students will attend a Women’s History Month symposium where the leaders will discuss gender politics and the contributions of remarkable women.

By Jasper Gough 10th Grade The Lower School students will have an assembly where they will talk about Black History Month and learn about important black leaders throughout history on Feb. 7. The next day the 11th grade will take their ACTs (American College Test) off campus and Buckley will host our Saturday night gala. At the gala there will be an auction and the proceeds go to the financial aid program.

Next, the boys’ and girls’ soccer

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presented an interactive musical assembly to students through 6th grade.

The Rock the Planet assembly inspired our students to protect our earth, and taught them ways to prevent pollution.

Our Academic Decathlon team is studying hard after school in preparation for the Academic Decathlon event which will take place in the Walter Pyramid on March 1. The team will also participate in the Academic Quiz Bowl at Cathedral High School on February 1.

Having placed first overall last year in the Quiz Bowl, our 2020 group of students hope to keep up the favorable result, and bring

21

back home the trophy.

Students just finished Catholic Schools’ Week — a week when we celebrate Catholic education.

The theme this year was Learn, Serve, Lead, Succeed.

We had so many special activities lined up. We began the week with our open house, science fair and book fair on Jan. 26.

During the days to follow, we had career day, student appreciation day, grandparents day, faculty and staff appreciation day and pastor and principal appreciation day.

We wraped up the week with spirit day when students from all grades participated in fun, competitive games.

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FEBRUARY 2020

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Larchmont Chronicle

Insightful, funny look at Constitution; riff on climate change, future insightful analysis of our Founding Fathers’ (with the emphasis on father as in older white males) document. It’s about at this point when the adult Schreck takes over as she connects the document and amendments to the distaff side of her family: four generations of women covering subjects from voting rights to abuse to abortion, plus lack of gender recognition in the document. Amendments and terminology are explained. The audience is invited to participate throughout the play, and each attendee walks away with a handy pocket-size version of the Constitution published by the American Civil Liberties Union. The last part of the play is devoted to a spirited debate between a student and Schreck. I saw Rosdely Cipri-

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Theater Review by

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an, a high school sophomore from New York, as the debater.

She alternates in the role with Jocelyn Shek, a freshman from Los Angeles. This is a terrific one-act. Be prepared to learn some new facts, stimulating further conversations, while being very entertained.

Through Sun., Feb. 28, Mark Taper Forum Music Center, 213-972-4400.

4 Stars • • • The British play Earthquakes in London, by Mike

Exhibit examines human migration

View images of international human migration at photojournalist (and Brookside resident) Tish Lampert’s free exhibit marking the publication of her new book, “We Protest,” at the José Drudis-Biada Art Gallery, 12001 Chalon Rd., Sun., Feb. 9 to Thurs., March 5. A public reception is Sat., Feb. 8, 3 to 5 p.m. Call 310-954-4360.

Bartlett, is a riff on climate change, familial disconnect, as well as a discussion of the fate of future generations. A portrait created through the eyes of a modern family. “I want to write plays which are in some way vitally important for the audience watching them, so the question I had was, how does the threat of global warming change our behavior? And the story came from there,” said author Mike Bartlett.

The play centers on three sisters left to raise and care for one another after their mother dies. Now adults, they face the issues awaiting them in different ways. Sarah (Anna Khaja) is a government executive concerned with world issues; Freya (Ava Bogle) is pregnant and worried about her future

progeny; and Jasmine (Taylor Shurte) is young and rebellious. They are estranged from their environmentalist father Robert (Ron Bottitta). The play spans an extensive time period: 1968 into the 21st century and the immediate future. There are some excellent projections, with the graphic and projection designs by Michelle Hanzelova, to help with time and place. This is basically a play with music, and some inventive choreography

by Marwa Bernstein enhances the proceedings. The play is long at two and three quarters hours with a 10-minute intermission.

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What the Constitution Means to Me, by Heidi Schreck, is not quite what I expected, but is a revelatory, uplifting, resonating evening of theater. The play opens in an American Legion Hall in Wenatchee, a small town in the state of Washington. It’s a sterile blonde-toned assembly hall decorated with many photos of male Legionnaires.

Excellent scenic design by Rachel Hauck. Heidi, 15, (played with charm and super energy at all ages by Maria Dizzi), has arrived to enter the local debate competition. Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. This debate is monitored and hosted by a member of the Legion (Mike Iverson).

What follows is a very funny,

Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

Italian chef joins The Grove; hip Mediterranean spot in Venice

Those who mourn the loss of the Grove’s Whisper Lounge as a haven away from the bustle of the restaurants surrounding the dancing fountains have a new hideaway to try — the Italian edo by edoardo baldi. Following in the footsteps of his father Giorgio Baldi, whose eponymous Santa Monica restaurant is a celebrity favorite, edoardo (who eschews capital letters) first opened the white tablecloth e. baldi in Beverly Hills. The Grove’s edo is a far more casual eatery with simple décor and almost rushed service — perfect for pre-movie dining, but not so for an enjoyably paced meal. The new restaurant kept the Whisper Lounge’s covered patio. Inside, the large bar is gone, and red walls warm the room, but the geometric white chairs miss the mark.

Although edo has a less extensive menu than its Beverly Hills cousin, it does have a far more forgiving price point, and the food is just as good. Take the lasagna, for example. Green lasagna at e. baldi is $26; at edo, the green chard lasagna with beef ragu and besciamella (white sauce) is $16.

The homemade pasta sheets are thin and delicate, and the multiple layers of filling, noodles and sauce suggest the savory equivalent of a thousand-layer cake. Virtually everything on the menu is under $17, including the chicken scaloppini, the fried calamari and shrimp, and the beef filet salad. Corn-filled half moon ravioli in truffle sauce is a sweet and creamy pasta dish for $15. Delicious, buttery, the corn enhanced by the intense truffle flavor — this was our favorite dish. We also ordered the $14.95 tartufo pizzette (can one have too many truffles?), an individual-

On the Menu by

Helene Seifer size thin-crust pizza topped with a layer of mixed cheeses and perfumed with chopped truffles and truffle oil. An order of the $15.95 refreshing roasted chicken salad thankfully rescued us from a self-imposed carbohydrate overdose. Shredded moist chicken was tossed with mache, frisee, scallions, avocado and celery in a bracing vinaigrette. We couldn’t resist ending with a la bomba ice cream ball, essentially an Italian hot fudge sundae. A sphere of chocolate, pistachio and vanilla ice cream bathed in dark chocolate sauce was perched on a chantilly cream bed and finished with crushed toasted pistachios.

Although we struggled to keep the ice cream ball from rolling off

the plate every time we stabbed it with our spoons, the $12 dessert was worth the effort. edo by edoardo baldi, The Grove, 323-452-0354.

• • • My orientation tends to be mid-city and points east, but the other day, after a delightful walk around the Venice canals with a visiting friend, we headed to the oh-so-hip Abbott Kinney Boulevard for a late lunch at Chef Travis Lett’s Gjelina. A casual, wood-centric place with a bustling main room and a calmer back patio, the Mediterraneaninspired menu is filled with bright tastes. We wanted to eat something that skewed beachy since we were so close to the sea, so we sprang for a dozen oysters for $40, which featured varieties from Maine, New York and Washington, all fresh and sweet. Following the still-strong toast trend, we shared the silky house smoked salmon, piled high on goat cheese-slathered rye, punctuated perfectly with pickled Fresno chili, thin sliced

radish and dill. The extensive lunch menu includes well-executed plates of charcuterie, from the simple sampler to Wagyu beef heart tartare, each $20, to $15 salads with such ingredients as puntarelle (a type of bitter Italian chicory) or smoked trout, an $18 lamb burger, $28 skirt steak, and an impressive array of pizzas, $15 - $24, including wild nettle and duck prosciutto, brussels sprout leaves with raclette cheese and calabrian chili. In lieu of dessert we ordered what might be

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Homeless count (Continued from page 12)

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“All in all a great night of the community coming together!”

Skaggs & Ulene (Continued from page 5)

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Larchmont Chronicle

My list of the 32 most enjoyable, well-made films of 2019 Here is my list of the most enjoyable films I saw during 2019. This is just how much I enjoyed them, not as The Academy would rate an Oscar winner. But don’t look for any of these in nominated film categories, because I rate them on how well they are

made and how entertaining they are. The Academy apparently now rates them on how politically correct they are and the sex and race of the director and cast, which upstage quality and entertainment.

1. Richard Jewell: Clint Eastwood’s brilliant, captivat-

ing homage to a hero who was unjustly, brutally persecuted by the FBI and the media.

2. Knives Out: A takeoff on Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot mysteries that is far better than any of the Christie movies themselves, with an engaging Oscar-quality per-

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Longtime Windsor Square Resident, Valrae Bowen, Dies Valrae Mae Bowen died in the early hours of Sunday morning, December 8, 2019 in the comfort of her home with her two sons and husband at her bedside. She was 72 years old. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.

Valrae was born November 16, 1947 in Minneapolis to Helen and Clifford Anderson, and was raised in Edina, Minnesota. She attended Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She graduated in 1969 with a bachelor of science degree in Home Economics Education and taught home economics for 5 years in middle school in Richfield, Minnesota.

Valrae and Jerry married August 2, 1969 and followed his career in broadcast journalism in Minneapolis before moving on to Chicago, Rome, Italy and finally Los Angeles with CBS News. The Bowens lived in their Van Ness Avenue home for 39 years where they raised sons Nathan and Spencer. They had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a two-week safari in Tanzania and Kenya in late July and early August.

Mrs. Bowen belonged to the Needlework Guild and Ebell Club and was active in community service with Meals on Wheels. She was passionate about exercise (especially walking and Yoga), the theater, cooking, reading and adventure travel from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the Galapagos Islands, Alaska’s Denali National Park to the grey whale lagoons of Baja, California.

Mrs. Bowen is survived by her husband Jerry, sons Nathan, 43 and Spencer, 39 (Caroline) and four grandchildren, brother Tom Anderson (Beverly) of Minneapolis and sister Cathy Kindem (Jim) of Asheville, North Carolina and several nephews.

Her ashes will be interred in the spring in the Exira cemetery near their family farm in Iowa’s Troublesome Creek Valley.

Memorial donations in her name may be made to PanCAN.org, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, PBS or NPR.

Adv.

formance by Daniel Craig.

3. Echo in the Canyon: The story of folk rock that gestated in Laurel Canyon. The stories of The Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and many others; they are all here.

4. Maiden: An enlightening documentary about an all-female crew tackling the men in an around-the-world sailboat race.

5. Official Secrets: It’s chancy to believe history as told by motion pictures, but this film seems right on. More important, it is one of the most entertaining and fascinating films of the year, directed by Gavin Hood, who also did the outstanding “Eye in the Sky” (2015).

6. Wild Rose: Highlighted by wonderful music, Jessie Buckley gives a boffo performance as Rose-Lynn Harlan, a Glasgow country singer who longs for Nashville, but it’s a far more complex and nuanced tale. After only one minute, I turned to my assistant and said, “I love this movie!” And I never changed my opinion.

7. Little Women: An engrossing tale well told; the best chick flick ever made.

8. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice: Everything you might want to know about Linda along with lots of beautiful songs.

9. Yesterday: This film answers the question, “what if nobody had ever heard of The Beatles,” and it’s a treat with lots of Beatles music.

10. The Aftermath: I wrote that “Keira Knightley gives a mesmerizing performance that will probably be forgotten when awards time comes around, but I can’t imagine anyone giving a better one in this post-WWII story set in 1945 Hamburg.” While she carries the movie, Jason Clarke and Alexander Skarsgård are not far behind her. Both have emotional roles, and both carry them off with aplomb.

11. The Good Liar: A good Helen Mirren thriller that methodically draws you in.

12. Honeyland: This is an amazing film. It’s hard to believe that it’s really a documentary and all that is happening is actually happening and not being acted.

13. Ford v. Ferrari: Despite gratuitously defaming the reputations of two of the main characters without any basis in fact, it’s still an entertaining film with good racing sequences, and it allowed me to resurrect my Cobra jacket that appears in the film.

14. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio give their best performances, and the film has a fine pace.

15. Downton Abbey: I enjoyed it and never saw one episode of the TV series, so the

At the Movies with

Tony Medley series must be good.

16. Brian Banks: The acting is very good throughout. It is gut-wrenching to watch the unfairness Banks endured and Aldis Hodge’s performance is amazingly true to life. This is one of those films that will stay with you for a long time.

17. Zombieland: Double Tap: This is here solely because of Zooey Deutch’s off-the-wall knockout performance, which is a comedic masterpiece.

18. Hotel Mumbai: There is not a second that passes that isn’t fraught with tension. The Muslim fanatics attack with cold-blooded brutality. The automatic weapons they use to spray bullets at the guests might have been on half or quarter loads, but the noise of their shooting is frightening even if you are just sitting in a theater watching it.

19. The White Crow: This is a pretty long movie to tell the story of Rudolph Nureyev’s defection, but it has fine pace and isn’t overburdened with a lot of ballet sequences.

20. The Best of Enemies: A heartwarming true story about a black activist working with, and winning over, the head of the KKK to promote integration in the south.

21. The Chaperone: An entirely fictional story about silent star Louise Brooks’ first trip to New York that works despite its silly politically correct ending that would have been antithetical to the ’40s Midwest.

22. Late Night: Writer Mindy Kaling co-stars with Emma Thompson in her biting, feelgood semi-autobiographical satire of diversity and late night TV. While it’s filmed like a TV show (where first-time movie director Nisha Ganatra lives), it is funny, appealing and topical, despite its Hollywood Ending’s lack of connection with the real world.

23. Love, Antosha: The touching story of Anton Yelchin and how he lived his short, meteoric life knowing he had cystic fibrosis, a fatal disease of the lungs.

24. Greta: Even if, like me, you don’t like horror, this is worth seeing just to appreciate the outstanding filmmaking and the acting by Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz (and it’s not freakishly scary).

25. Frankie: A surprisingly involving exploration of relationships with Isabelle Huppert again, enriched by gorgeous cinematography of the location of Sintra, Portugal.

(Please turn to page 25)

Larchmont Chronicle

At the Movies

(Continued from page 24) 26. Gloria Bell: A gripping, rather dark, but thoroughly enjoyable remake by the same director as the original, giving Julianne Moore ample opportunities to display her breasts in scene after scene, highlighted by terrific background music.

27. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Tom Hanks gives his finest performance in this biopic that adds strong supporting performances by Matthew Rhys and Chris Cooper, among others, but it couldn’t have been more superficial, never scratching the surface of who Mr. Rogers was, what he thought or how he felt about anything.

28. The Spy Behind Home Plate: The Real Story Of Moe Berg, Major League Baseball Player Turned WWII Spy: Intriguing story of good field–no hit, but super intellectual, major league catcher Moe Berg that overcomes a puerile selfindulgent politically correct statement at the end by the director that has nothing to do with the movie and has no place in a film like this.

FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

29. Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love: Maybe the many fans of singer / songwriter Leonard Cohen know what he was about, but I imagine there will be a lot in here that will interest fans and non-fans alike.

30. Untouchable: This is a portrait of evil, fat slob Harvey Weinstein, who made lots of award-winning films but who abused his power by assaulting and exploiting women. It’s told mostly by his victims, and their stories are hair-raising.

It is an emotional movie to sit through, but well worth the sit.

31. Aladdin: Bollywood comes to Hollywood. A boffo performance by Will Smith as the genie is bolstered by vivid Technicolor, colorful costumes and wonderful music and dancing.

32. Scandalous: The Story of the National Enquirer: Absorbing tale of the paper that published sensational gossip but also did the hard reporting on cases like OJ Simpson, upstaging the lethargic mainstream media.

“THE FUTURE OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE.” -Los Angeles Times

Tigers

(Continued from page 7) which is home to 70 percent of the world’s 4,000 tigers (according to the World Wildlife Fund) — there are significant threats by poachers from China. Loss of habitat is another key concern, and local villagers are not happy with the beasts living in close proximity. The parks are not fenced, at least the two I visited, and sometimes a hungry tiger leaves the protected park for an easy meal, a villager’s cow.

The tiger is the only cat that likes water, and we saw more than one cooling off in water holes, including Spotty, named after the marking on her forehead. The eight-year-old cat almost seemed to pose for the camera, like a Bollywood star.

She grew up with the jeeps within feet of her, so she thinks they’re part of nature, our guide explained.

Park entrance is booked months in advance; and, during the season, several guides with tourists drive in each day. Occasionally, the elusive sloth bear or leopard is spotted, but more likely, visitors will see many of the park’s countless birds, including eight types of eagles, storks, woodpeckers, the turquoise-feathered Indian roller, plus hundreds of deer, wild pigs, jackals, the bison-like gaurs and langurs and rhesus monkeys.

Our tour company, Delhibased Nature Safari India, was key to our trip’s success, from help getting a visa to meeting us upon arrival and reserving the safaris.

And, mostly for taking us to the heart and soul of India’s wildlife reserves for a truly transcendent experience.

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FEBRUARY 2020

SECTION ONE

CD4 candidates (Continued from page 6)

residents are foreign born. If anyone is impacted by these issues, it is us. This is a time that the City Council should step up to protect us.”

She sums up that the city’s $10 billion budget needs to be “about our collective good…

We deserve better.”

David Ryu Addressing homelessness is nothing new to incumbent Councilman David Ryu. “I’ve been working on homelessness for 16 years,” he said.

After graduating from UCLA, Ryu was a senior deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke and later a special investigator for Los Angeles County’s Auditor-Controller. Just before his election to CD4, he was director of development and public affairs for the private nonprofit Kedren Acute Psychiatric Hospital and Community Health Center in

David Ryu

South Los Angeles, having worked there for six years.

What’s new, Ryu told us, is “this is the first time where we’re all working together.

The first time the community is engaged…

“I’m very encouraged with this newfound activism.”

When he was a freshman councilman, elected to his first term in 2015, the topic of homelessness wasn’t much on anyone’s radar, he recalls.

During his first campaign, “it was the fourth issue,” after development and housing,

traffic and infrastructure.

“I would contend there were more homeless before,” but in recent years, “It’s become localized... You see it more.”

That said, he added, “I will take the responsibility head on…. Homelessness is a citywide crisis that requires a citywide approach.”

Ryu says the homeless numbers in CD4 have increased by 54 percent, from 777 to 1,115, in the last year. While this is an increase, the numbers are small compared to the rest of the city, he adds. Most of the homeless in District Four are on the borders of Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks and the borders of Hollywood, he said.

Ryu grew up here as an immigrant, and he says he understands firsthand the city’s diverse population, and what individuals can accomplish with a little bit of help and a lot of hard work.

Ryu notes that he is on track with fulfilling the 15-member City Council’s goal of 222

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units of permanent supportive housing per district by July.

“My plan is to exceed it.”

He’s overseen construction or approved proposals for 300 transitional units in seven projects.

Ryu adds that homeless programs of all sorts are picking up steam, but “not enough. We need to be able to build more, build faster and cheaper.”

He contends we don’t have a housing crisis. “We have a moderate- and affordablehousing crisis.”

He told us that in the last five years, 91 percent of Los Angeles development has been in the luxury housing bracket, which the average teacher and firefighter cannot afford, “yet developers can’t pencil it out otherwise — the land is too expensive.”

He’s looking into solutions, from a combination of a vacancy tax, renters’ rights legislation and ways to get developers on board.

He’s also co-introduced a Paid Parental Leave Policy and pushed forward a child savings account program in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Both were passed by City Council, and both are key to homeless and crime prevention programs, he argues. “It starts from birth. ZIP Codes determine your place in life…” he says.

As the underdog candidate in his first election, he made several promises (“It was a long list,” he says), and the promises included long-overdue (80 years) concrete street repair in Hancock Park.

He also set out to rebuild trust and transparency and

created a nine-member community discretionary funds task force.

He’s counted more than 500 meetings with the community since he was elected, “and that’s just me personally.”

He notes that his “revolutionary” Campaign Finance Reform motion to ban developer funding was passed by the Council in May. “I tell developers that I want to base [your project] on the merits of your development. Everyone gets the same parameters.”

He refuses to take money from developers, yet he has garnered a hefty campaign chest. So far, he’s counted 2,000 donations totaling more than $900,000.

“I let my record speak for itself,” he said. “I am very proud of my body of work, and what my team and I have accomplished in the last fourand-a-half years.”

Susan Collins (Write-in Candidate) The homelessness crisis and the city’s “lack of handling of it,” motivated Susan Collins to run for office.

She opposes the conventional wisdom, as expressed by most public officials, as well as the other three candidates interviewed.

The city’s response to the crisis — adopting both the national “Housing First” and state and city bridge housing programs — makes neighborhoods, communities and businesses less safe, she says.

And, she adds, they are harmful to people they are (Please turn to page 27)

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Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

CD4 candidates

local neighborhood council and her home owners association, and she attends meetings at the Los Angeles City Council and Beverly Hills City Council.

Upcoming debates Scheduled candidate forums

(Continued from page 26)

supposed to serve.

“I’m very opposed to bridge housing where people who are the most vulnerable are housed next to drug addicts.”

“I want people to get the care they need and communities to feel safe and supportive.w “It must be a win-win for everybody.”

A realtor based in Sherman Oaks, she put her business on hold when the city attempted to put two homeless facilities in her area, one at the National Guard Armory, another near a market and the freeway. Neighbors shot down both projects.

Her research into the city’s homeless crisis took her to the 45-bed, El Puente shelter next to El Pueblo Park (Olvera St.), the city’s historic city center and the city’s first Bridge Housing site.

In Hollywood, she visited the 124-bed YWCA bridge housing for women and the Los Angeles LGBT Center Anita May Rosenstein Campus.

She concluded that, as a result of these facilities, the neighborhoods were “dramatically different… more tents, more people” after the housing sites opened.

One business owner told her, “When they moved in, the drug dealers lined up in front of my house.”

Subsequently, the situation is much improved at the LGBT Campus on McCadden Place after local businesses hired a private security company and installed exterior lighting and security cameras.

Also, “The [LGBT] center has been much better about talking to people and letting them know they cannot camp or otherwise participate in activities that are harmful to the surrounding businesses.”

It is these kinds of problems

SECTION ONE

include one organized by the League of Women Voters on Sun., Feb 16 at 4 p.m. at John Marshall High School, 3939 Tracy St., in Los Feliz, and one on Weds., Feb. 19 at 7:15 p.m. at Notre Dame High School, at Riverside and Woodman in

Sherman Oaks.

On March 3, the candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote wins the seat. If there is no winner on March, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held Nov. 3.

Susan Collins

that lead Collins to be disappointed with our leaders, and to prefer independently funded programs that refuse federal funding and its regulations against sobriety. Among such programs, Collins told us, is Solutions for Change in Vista, near Oceanside. It has “solved homelessness for 850 families” since 1999, according to its website. It offers a 1,000-day program that teaches self-reliance and includes personal and financial skills training.

Another site that Collins advocates as a model is Door of Hope in Pasadena. It houses 25 families in its transitional program.

Her multi-layered solution targets the city’s lack of affordable housing and includes expanding and simplifying Section 8 for tenants and landlords.

Existing rehab facilities and nonprofit providers could be better utilized, and she envisions a triage-like center to assess individuals for mental health or addiction issues or for criminal ones.

The “211 system” currently in place could be boosted with resources and dispatch agents.

Collins is active in her

Campaign websites: sarahkatelevy.com nithyaforthecity.com davidryu.com susancollinsla.com

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The League of Women Voters is hosting a candidate forum for the Los Angeles County District Attorney seat.

The forum is at the National Council of Jewish Women, 543 N. Fairfax Ave., Thurs., Feb. 13 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The three candidates running for District Attorney

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making the move to a simpler life MULTI-LEVEL RETIREMENT LIVING — EXCEPTIONAL VALUE AVAILABLE ON A SIMPLE MONTH-TO-MONTH FEE BASIS.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF

HOLLYWOOD

2 blks from Hollywood & Vine Metro

Sunday Worship

8:30am Wylie Chapel (Contempla�ve Service) 11:00am Sanctuary (Worship Together)

Visit us today.

323- 661-1128

Sunday School

9:15am Nursery - 6th grade 9:30am Youth Ministry (grades 7-12) 9:30am All Adult classes 10:45am Nursery - Pre Kindergarten Nursery opens at 8:15am

1760 N. Gower St. 90028

323-463-7161

www.fpchollywood.org

1055 N. Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90029 kingsleymanor.org We’re an equal opportunity housing provider.

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CA License #197608482

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2020_GAF_Edo_Larchmont-Ad_HR_Print_withBreakfast.pdf SECTION ONE

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1/23/20

1:29 PM

Larchmont Chronicle

FEBRUARY 2020

NOW OPEN

An Inspired Eatery Serving Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Enjoy an innovative menu of creative and healthy favorites alongside refreshing cocktails and wine.

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Located on Bow Street, next to See’s Candies.

Call Caruso Concierge at 323.900.8080 to book your dining reservation.

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