Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association

Santa Monica Canyon News

Spring 2005

Reports on Crime, Service Station Landmarking, New History Book, Elections Issues Highlight 58th Annual Meeting May 3 at Park
Crime Update. Recently, we have experienced an increase in crime including follow home robberies, burglaries, and thefts from and of vehicles in the canyon. In addition, there have been several bank robberies in the Pacific Palisades and a late night robbery at Mort's Deli. Senior Lead Officer Chris Ragsdale will update the community at the annual meeting of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association on May 3 at 7:00 PM at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center, 601 Latimer Road..
Officer Ragsdale will report status of current investigations and steps we can take to keep our community safe. He will answer questions.
Canyon Service Preservation Effort. After learning that the service station property was being sold, several community members have pursued the preservation of the station which is viewed as historically significant by the LA Conservancy, the Palisades and Santa Monica Historical Societies and other groups including the SMCCA board. A historical designation was sought from the Los Angeles City Cultural Heritage Commission. The commission approved the request and City Council approval is pending. The City Council's planning committee will consider the application on April 27 at 2:00 PM in room 1010 of City Hall, downtown. Discussions are proceeding among the interested parties and one possible solution is the partitioning of the property with the portion housing the station sold separately to a nonprofit organization or to interested community members. An update will be provided at the SMCCA Annual Meeting.
Canyon History Lesson. We are honored to have Historian Ernest Marquez as a guest at our annual meeting. He will present a short slide show of some historical photographs of the Canyon from his personal collection and will be available to sign copies of recent book, Santa Monica Beach: A Collector's Pictorial History. A former canyon resident, Mr. Marquez grew up in the canyon and has written about the long wharf that was a major port here a century ago. Mr. Marquez also wrote of his family's cemetary on San Lorenzo Street and extensive land holdings in this area.
City Elections Issues. The general runoff election to select a sucessor to Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski will be held on May 17. Your Association hosted a candidate's forum on February 1, prior to the primary election [see photo.]









The runoff candidates are Flora Gil Krisiloff and Bill Rosendahl. A runoff for Los Angeles Mayor also will take place on May 17 between Jim Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa. All four candidates have been invited to appear at our annual meeting. As of press time, Flora Gil Krisiloff has confirmed her attendance. Bill Rosendahl and Jim Hahn have declined and we have not received an official reply from Antonio Villaraigosa.
Community Elections Issue. Electing new board members is a key reason for the annual meeting.
Other items of interest at the annual meeting will include a report by the committee looking at ways to keep the canyon ambience in a world of larger houses and possible loss of the trees and landscape that drew many of us to our canyon.
Refreshments will be served.

Whatever happened to

"I called the number and got a loan company."
The City has now replaced several 800 numbers with their easily remembered 3-1-1 phone number for reporting problems, sort of a "one number fits all" approach. It operates operates 24-7 and now works even in our canyon. After an initial glitch when the phone company could not figure out who lives in Santa Monica and who lives in Los Angeles. The number is the City's attempt to wean people out of calling 9-1-1 for nonemergency services. There remain a few direct dialed numbers for reporting various problems. Please see list, next column.

"I am concerned about West Nile Virus."

ccording to the County Health Department, 308 human and 16 equine cases have been reported in the County this year as of April 6. Concerns include stagnent water where mosquitoes may breed, and dead birds. The only infected birds in L. A. County were in one area, North of where the Golden State Freeway passes the I-14 (Antelope Valley) turnoff. See list, next column, for phone numbers for removal of stagnent water or dead animals or go to the City web site:
http://www.lacity.org/westnilevirus/index.htm .