WestchesterParents

Thanks to an group of outgoing city council members, the City of Culver City is being sued.

The local Argonaut Newspaper reports that “a public interest group comprised of residents from several Westside communities has filed a lawsuit against Culver City, alleging that it violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it approved the construction of a 176-foot-high building near the Westchester-Culver City border in April.”

“The Entrada Tower project is a 12-story, 342,409-square-foot edifice that was green-lighted by the outgoing Culver City Council on April 16th. Centinela Development Partners, the developer, is seeking to build the tower project adjacent to the Radisson Hotel in Culver City.

“Gina Koshak, a Westchester Bluffs homeowner and a member of United Neighbors of the Westside, the group that filed the lawsuit, took issue with the project’s height and what she believes are violations of the California Environmental Quality Act.”

“Residents of of Culver City and neighboring Los Angeles communities took exception to the fact that the development was approved a week before three of the Culver City Council members — Carol Gross, Steven Rose and Alan Corlin — were slated to leave office due to term limits.”

Previous Entrada articles posted on WestchesterParents

The Entrada office tower Massive project = massive headache
The Entrada Chokepoint
LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce opposes Entrada
Entrada opposition intensifies
Entrada – LAX Coastal Area Chamber Action Alert

Posted on May 30th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: MANAGING GROWTH, TRAFFIC
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It’s official, The California Department of Education released the Base API and school rankings yesterday and Westchester High School’s 11 point drop from 600 to 589 last summer has now earned the school the distinction as being one of the worst performing schools in the state with its statewide ranking of a 1 on a scale of 1 – 10. 

This is hardly a surprise. As noted in previous articles the academic performance of the school has continually fallen in the index since 1999 under the Perryman and Barner administrations.  When the Academic Performance Index (API) became law in 1999, the school’s first statewide ranking was a 4.

One fair comparison is the successful Pacific Palisades Charter High school which earned a state ranking of 10.  Westchester community members should insist that Westchester HS be modeled after Palisades once our school begins operating as an iDivision school. 

There was a mix of results from other Westchester schools. 

The Good news

• Cowan Elementary while dropping 1 point is still rated quite high at 8 
• Loyola Village remains remarkably unchanged at 7 where it has consistantly been since 1999
• Paseo del Rey also remains remarkably unchanged at 7 where it has consistantly been since 1999. Paseo once had an API score of 8 in 2001.
• Westport Heights has been see-sawing between 5 and 6 since 1999. This year it rose to a 6 

So so news

• Orville Wright rose 1 point from 4 to a 5 API which still leaves it in the bottom half. Orville was a 6 in 1999 and 2000

Bad News

• Kentwood Elementary lost 1 point putting it into the lower half of the API scale at 5

The Really Bad News

• Westchester High School finally bottomed out as among the worse performing schools in the state. The 1 API will guarantee that the school will be in its second year as a Program Improvement (PI2) school.

Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: OUR SCHOOLS, WESTCHESTER HS
5 Comments »

If you have a talented high schooler in your home who is interested in filmaking and animation here is a wonderful blog that goes into a great detail in the art of film.

Temple of the Seven Camels discusses storyboarding, animation, filmaking, drawing and many of the other facets of film.  I particularly liked the discussions of framing shots and the use of geography in action sequences.

Here is a sample from the blog that your budding artist would find useful:

Back when I was at CalArts I happened to be watching “101 Dalmatians” and during the scene where Roger and Anita meet in the park I noticed that when Anita is casting her eyes down to read the book in her lap her eyes become downward curves, just like as if they were closed completely. I had always thought of eyes drawn like that as “closed” or “asleep” eyes. But in the context of the scene, it read clearly as “looking down (demurely) to read”. It was absolutely the right choice and fit her feminine character perfectly. As soon as you see it you absolutely know that it’s correct: when we look down or upper lid almost completely covers the eye. But I never would have realized that on my own.

I found this blog at The Blackwing Diaries which itself is an excellant blog on animation. A lot of Disney history there.

Posted on May 21st, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL
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Is there going to be another LAX expansion?

Downtown business interests want it. The FAA wants it. So does the Los Angeles Times and the Mayors not talking.  

Is there really a runway safety problem at LAX? Not on the North Airfield Complex adjacent to our community there isn’t. Nearly all of the runway incursions occur on the runways that pass over the Sepulveda tunnel. This is called the South Airfield Complex.

Here on WestchesterParents you’ll find a collection of articles on LAX expansion that we’ve written to get you quickly up to speed on the facts. 

Here is a list of some of the more popular articles:

• The Mayor’s silence is deafening
• Two USC professors say LAX should fix human error before redesigning runways
• Los Angeles Times stoops to name calling – Westchester/Playa community are NIMBY’s
• The North Runway – How safe is it? Just count the dots
• Runway Safety Lights – LAX’s flawed rollout
• Fully staffing LAX control tower would generate BIG safety gains
• City Council criticizes FAA for understaffing LAX Tower
• LAX – Safer today, a more dangerous tomorrow
• Mayors BOAC Appointees Push for Airport Expansion
• CONDEMNED - LAWA’s Vision for Westchester and Playa del Rey (historical photo’s of previous homes lost)
• LAWA’s Hidden Agenda
• A History of LAX Expansion
• Westchester business district will be hurt by expansion
• Ghost Streets
• Air Traffic Controllers Report (PDF file 21 MB)

You can find all of the LAX articles in the LAX – Airport category at the right or just click here.  

You can help stop expansion and protect our community by visiting the ARSAC web site and getting your home a ‘NO LAX Expansion’ lawn sign.

Posted on May 19th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, LAX - AIRPORT
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Gerald Silver has been following and writing about the city’s billboard problem for some time. He just sent us an alert from the Coalition To Ban Billboard Blight advising us that Superior Court Judge Ralph W. Dau at Office #4 is running for re-election. This may be an important consideration for you at upcoming June elections. Sydnee R. Singer is his opponent.

According to the alert:

In 2007, a citizen’s group went to court in an attempt to stop a lawsuit settlement between the city of Los Angeles and several large billboard companies.

Among other things, this settlement allowed almost 900 conventional billboards to be converted to digital ones and grandfathered in an untold number of illegal billboards.

Judge Dau ruled against the citizen’s group, on the grounds that it could not show that its members were harmed in any way by terms of the lawsuit settlement, which in reality not only will have far-reaching effects on the city’s visual landscape, but was hammered out behind closed doors without any public notice or debate.

You can read more about the city’s role in the wild proliferation of billboards in this fascinating LA Weekly article.
 

Posted on May 17th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, OUR ENVIRONMENT
1 Comment »

Ron Kaye the former editor of the Daily News writes about the mayors new recycled water policy that includes toilet to tap in his new blog, www.ronkayela.com.

Kaye’s humor has quite a serious edge. After luring you into the story he summarizes exactly what is behind this urgent drive to recycle and conserve:

“Now, the reason we need this breakthrough technology is that the mayor and his backers want the city to grow by half a million people as fast as possible to refill the city treasury and keep contractors and construction workers fat and happy. That this will make traffic congestion, air pollution and the quality of life worse is of no consequence.”

Two other water/housing articles came out today, one in the Los Angeles Times and another related story in the Argonaut about the draft Housing Element that took place at the Neighborhood Council of Westchester/Playa board meeting where city planner Jane Blumenfeld made a presentation and took questions. I was cited in both of those of those articles.

Today’s water conservation efforts have nothing to do with getting through a tough period of drought. It has everything to do with the current administrations efforts to build a staggering number of housing units and fill the city treasury.

Posted on May 15th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, WATER
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This sounds like it going to be a lot of fun.

Westchester dad Scott reports that if you haven’t heard, this 4th of July is going to be a wonderful day here in Westchester/Playa del Rey!

The direction of the Chamber’s Parade has been reversed and will now go from LMU to Westchester Park.

Immediately following the parade, the inaugural “Stars and Stripes Town Picnic” with kick off with fantastic live entertainment, a taste of Westchester PDR, Kids Corner, family games, prizes and fun for all. This is a free community event designed to enhance the great success of the Parade and to reach out to our community for all that you do.

The Westchester Park, it’s Advisory Board and the W/PdR Neighborhood Council have joined forces to present this great event. The park will be shut down at 6:00AM in preparation for the all the activities. Expected attendance will be 4,000 to 7,000.

Sounds like fun doesn’t it? And wait until you hear “The Hodads” our band for the day.

Stay tuned for more details and if you have interest in participating, please let us know!!

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: ACTIVITIES, GENERAL
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Chrissina of POWWOW reports that she received word this morning that the charter will not be moving on to the Westchester High School campus.

Posted on May 6th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, OUR SCHOOLS, WESTCHESTER HS
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“I have not seen a more serious water situation in my career, and I’ve been doing this 30 years,” said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.“This is a harbinger of relatively tough times, not just for this year but for a set of years,” Quinn said. He and others urged Californians to rein in water use.

So while contemplating Quinn’s words and closely reading the draft Housing Element that was just released, how on earth could the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning have completely ignored housings most critical component, water and how it relates to housing?

One could surmise that the city has more overiding goals than providing and maintaining safe, quality, sustainable housing. According to the draft, the City of Los Angeles is assigned to provide an additional 112,876 new housing units between January 2006 and June 2014 which calculates to about 14,109 new housing units per year. In the six county Southern California region, the goal is for 733,000 new housing units.

Setting aside the housing goals, there should be an even more important discussion going on in this city because as this draft is being discussed, debated, dissected and commented on, the entire Southern California region is in the second year grip of a severe water shortage.  As water supplies are being sharply cut back and restrictions are being imposed on residents, the 225 page draft barely devotes a single page to the water supply system for housing and it begins there by stating unconvincingly that the “water supply for new projects is generally adequate.” [Read more →]

Posted on May 4th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, MANAGING GROWTH, WATER
2 Comments »

All of us who live in the Westchester/PdR community are understandably cynical of the city’s planning department and city officials who want to force multi-family housing on our community.

Take a slow drive either way on Manchester between Lincoln and Pershing and you’ll see plenty of examples of the high density multi-family residential and mixed use replacing older retail establishments and low density apartments, the worst example being the massive 550 unit Playa del Oro which is near completion at Lincoln and Manchester.  These policies have already begun ruining the quality and character of our communities.

Recently there has been a flyer making the rounds through Playa del Rey that started a rumor that the city was making plans to demolish a quiet little PdR retail center.

“Without ANY notice, the L.A. City Planning Dept. is submitting a plan to remove the commercial/retail stores along Manchester between Gulana and Delgany and replace them with multi-family housing for low income and seniors. That’s where the pharmacy, the Play Postal, Beach Pizza, and the other stores are located. In addition they want to construct more housing on 83rd Street where the Elks Club parking is. There was no public hearing. No chance for PDR residents to comment. This is just a scheme to entirely change the nature of our neighborhood without giving us a chance to do something about it.”

Fortunately, the statements on the flyer are not at all true. The L.A. City Planning Dept. is not submitting a plan to remove the commercial/retail stores along Manchester between Gulana and Delgany and replace them with multi-family housing. It can’t.

[Read more →]

Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, MANAGING GROWTH
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