WestchesterParents

11 members of the city council including our councilman voted to raise monthly trash fees for single family residences from $26 per homeowner to $36.32 which evaluates to $435.84 a year. 

Renters in apartments with four or less units will also have to their monthly trash fees increased from $17.16 to $24.33 which comes to $291.96 a year. 

The trash fee is not applicable to larger condo and apartment complexes that are served by commercial trash haulers which effectively exempts 615,413 city residents from paying fees that the council says are necessary to help the city “balance the city budget” leaving homeowners and renters in very small apartment complexes to shoulder the burden.

In a  Los Angeles Times article, Councilman Greig Smith told dozens of opponents of the trash fee that “You’ve been getting a deal for 50 years from this city.” 

Smith did not elaborate and say what city department or charity was providing funds to offset the so-called real costs to collect trash. 

The Department of Sanitation claims to serve 750,000 residents. At $26 per resident, the city’s annual billing is roughly $1 billion dollars. And they’re only picking up half of the city’s trash and recyclables.

The trash tax fee will come to a final second vote next week.

Can anyone explain why homeowners trash is more expensive to haul away than a person living in a four unit apartment and more importantly, why large apartment and condo complexes should continue to be exempt from having to pay for city services? 

I’d like to hear from the council office to explain that!

Posted on July 29th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: MANAGING GROWTH
1 Comment »

Other news:

All,
Thank you for the support you’ve shown me and all the help you’ve provided over the last 4 weeks. I’m still completely overwhelmed but 100% focused on finding my children.

Christine (Greg’s mom) and I, along with our attorney will be appealing to the public through the National media effective tomorrow.

If anyone is interested, you can tune in to MSNBC at 6, 7, and 8 a.m. PST (9, 10, and 11 a.m. EST) where we’ll do back-to-back live shows.
At 7:00 p.m. PST (10:00 p.m. EST) we will be on Fox’s On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.

Please forward to everyone you know. I continue to ask for your prayers…
Again, thank you for your support.

Zanni

(Daily Breeze) Last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller granted full legal and physical custody of the boys to their mothers, and cut off their fathers’ visitation rights. He also ordered the District Attorney’s Office to investigate the case to locate the children and return them to their mothers, Brot said.

ref: MMD News Wire

Today the mothers are issuing an urgent plea to the public, organizations dedicated to finding abducted children, and the media nationwide, to help them locate the young boys after the retrieval of a number of voice mail messages left for George and John Silah indicating, in graphic detail, that George and John Silah will be tortured and then killed. As a result, the mothers fear that the children’s lives are in great danger.

The threats made against George and John Silah were from members of the Armenian community, from whom the pair had recently bilked more than five million dollars. The pair had a long history of criminal activity, starting when George and John Silah lived in Philadelphia, and were forced to flee in the middle of the night, leaving a trail of creditors in their wake.

“We have some reason to believe that the children may still be in the United States,” said the mothers’ family law attorney, Ronald Brot, who along with his associate, Jennie Cerrati, are handling the case and who were originally told the children may be in either Mexico or Canada. “Our belief is based on the fact that the mothers had refused to release the boys’ passports, though they had been requested, and also because the identities of the brothers and their sons have been posted on various government agency ‘watch lists’ nationwide. Our hope is that the children will soon be found safe and unharmed,” Brot stated, “but time is working against us. We are in urgent need of the public’s help.”

Contacts:

• LAPD Detective Blanca Lopez:  310-482-6380
• Private Investigator John Nazarian: 310-286-2017
• Attorney Ron Brot: 818-594-0800

• www.DesperateExes.com
• www.FindTheSilahChildren.com

Posted on July 29th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL
2 Comments »

Last night I attended the second LAX Northside Land Use Community meeting and it was announced that the Westchester Golf Course will be getting its 3 holes back.

Years ago when the Los Angeles Department of Airports appropriated the 4,500 homes they also took 3 of the golf courses 18 holes.

Last night we were told that beginning late this Summer or early Fall, the three fairways and greens will be coming back. 

Edgar Saenz wrote that the extra three holes will be added to the adjoining 20 acres to the east. He said that “This will require the reconfiguring of one or two existing holes to improve the flow of play. Ground will be broken in the fall. They are conscious of a links style course to lay lightly on the land to reduce water consumption.”

“Bill Skura deserves the credit for his bull dogging them (LAWA)” says Neighborhood Council member Denny Schneider.

I don’t know Bill but he certainly deserves a statue or the 18th hole named after him.

I’ll have more thoughts on the LAX Northside Land Use Community meeting later.

Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: ACTIVITIES, GENERAL, LAX - AIRPORT
3 Comments »

Alex and Zaven.. You mom is in tears and your friends Stetdawg and Superjelly miss you. So does everyone at school!

Alex and Zaven (pictured on left) are longtime classmates and friends of my sons. Greg Silah, their cousin is pictured on the right. If anyone knows of their whereabouts please let us know.   

2 Brothers Suspected Of Abducting Their Kids
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Los Angeles police detectives are looking for two brothers who allegedly abducted their three boys from their ex-wives who have custody of the children.

Police say Jean John Silah, 47, picked up his child, 9-year-old Greg, from his ex-wife for a summer vacation visit last month and never returned the boy to his mother, who had custody.

In the past, police say, Silah has threatened to take their son to his home country of Syria.

Police say his brother, George Silah, 46, was scheduled to take his sons, 12-year-old Alexander and 8-year-old Zaven, on a cruise but never boarded.

Investigators say the Silah brothers have not paid rent for their Westchester-area home in several months. The residence appears to have been abandoned.

More information on their dad’s can be found at www.georgesilah.com and www.johnsilah.com.

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL
1 Comment »

When the mayor and the city council [yes even our beloved Bill Rosendahl] propose and vote to raise trash fees to provide more funding for more police officers it sounds like a really equitable tax. Afterall, everybody produces trash right? And we all have to pay for our trash to be picked up, right?

Well it’s not all what it seems. 

When our city council vote to raise the trash fee for more cops, they are in fact only raising the trash fees and imposing those costs on roughly 374,000 750,000 single family homes and condos. The other 615,413 461,000 housing units don’t pay the increased fee for more cops because they live in multi-family housing units of 10 or more units that are served by commercial trash collectors instead of services provided by the city’s sanitation department.

Trash taxes, school bonds, public safety taxes all targeted at single family home housing units… It’s no wonder that housing is becoming so unaffordable to middle class residents.

(Update)  The Bureau of Sanitation reports that it services 750,000 residential units. This would mean that of the 1,371,439* housing units, 615,413* have commercial pickups and thus exempt from paying the tax for more police.  (*source: draft housing element)

With the rising numbers of multi-family units being built each year (roughly 14,000 per year), single family homeowners will soon be the minority footing the bill for the entire city.

Below the split is a list of housing units that will certainly be exempt from paying the trash tax:

[Read more →]

Posted on July 18th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, MANAGING GROWTH
6 Comments »

The Los Angeles Times is undergoing some wrenching even retching changes and many are beginning to wonder if it will survive under trailer park mogul Sam Zell.

http://www.tellzell.com/
http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
http://tribuneemployeetalk.blogspot.com/
http://www.edpadgett.com/blog/blog.html

 
The LA Times today

Posted on July 18th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL
No Comments »

On July 9th a decision was made by the California Board of Education to begin Algebra testing on all 8th grade students. One of its proponents, Russlynn Ali of the Education Trust-West implored the State Board of Education to follow the Governor’s recommendation, and enter into a compliance agreement that does away with General Mathematics as a grade level assessment in favor of Algebra Readiness and ensure Algebra I for all over time.

“California has a rich history of trend-setting. Today we continue to lead the nation as an example of what it means to set the bar high and truly push for rigor and educational excellence.

Russlynn Ali – edtrustwest.org

Sadly, the trend is following an all too familiar path for Californian’s. Our state is well on its way towards replicating former education Superintendent Bill Honig’s disastrous policies on a new generation of California students.

The following chart paints a bleak picture where since 1997, over a quarter million LAUSD students had never made it to their Senior year, largely due in recent years to the states “one size must fit all”  requirement for a diploma. I can only imagine what the numbers are throughout the state.

TREND SETTING

Maybe after the testing begins, the Board of Education, the Governor and the Superintendent of Schools and the state legislature will get the picture that there should be several paths to a diploma. Not all students have the inclination or even the aptitude to become proficient in Algebra.  The states insistence on the algebra requirement and now pressing even younger kids to learn it will create even greater dropout rates in high school than we are seeing today.

This stubbornness on the part of the state legislature and the California Department of Education reminds me of the Whole Language boondoggle during Honig’s tenure that led to a decades worth of illiteracy in California. A problem that cost billions of dollars and millions of hours to try to correct.

Today, we are in a similar situation having to spend an inordinate amount of time, money, and resources to teach and mostly intervene on one particular subset of math and then denying students a diploma it they don’t get it. 

In the late 80′s and 90′s we denied students literacy and a diploma because of an ill-advised reading curriculum, now we are denying students a diploma because of an ill-advised math achievement threshold.

One writer commented on westchesterparents.org:

“I was educated in a high school environment in which students were assigned into one of three tracks. Inclusion was assigned based on elementary school achievements, a pre high school test and parent/school involvement. For example:

• TRACK 1 – College Bound
  • 4 years of Latin
  • 3-4 years of Math including Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus
• TRACK 2 – College Bound
  • 4 years of Spanish or French
  • 2 years of Math, including Algebra and Geometry
• TRACK 3 – Business
  • 1 year of Language Skills
  • 1 year of General Math

General classes, such as History, mixed students from the 3 tracks together. While I am not suggesting that every college bound student be given 4 years of Latin, I do suggest that students be given classes in which they can hope to succeed.”

“Students being given classes in which they can hope to succeed…”

I couldn’t have articulated it better myself. How many of today’s students do succeed in general math and could otherwise earn a diploma if California’s vanity didn’t stand in the way?  The Education Trust-West news release typifies this misplaced sense of vanity that places trend-setting over success.

Posted on July 14th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, OUR SCHOOLS
No Comments »

LAist has a fantastic series of photos, rare film, Daily Breeze clips and an article of the South Bays most famous ship wreck, The Dominator. 

As a kid growing up in Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, The Dominator cast a very large distinctive silhouette off the Palos Verdes peninsula that I saw nearly every day. The persistent grind of the ocean’s surf over the years has all but completely consumed it now.

The Dominator, a Greek ship carrying a load of wheat and beef from Vancouver, B.C, ran aground near Rocky Point on March 13, 1961.

Posted on July 5th, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: WPDR HISTORY
No Comments »

Annoyed with the high density housing being forced into our community and the increasing traffic gridlock? Tired of streets and sidewalks in disrepair or double digit increases in water rates while the DWP admits that it has hundreds of millions of excess dollars!  Is your personal checking account getting raided by the city, time after time with back to back increases in trash collection fees?

Tired of elected officials failing to respect the needs of our community and treating you with respect?

Here is your opportunity to give City Hall a good S.L.A.P!

Ron Kaye, former editor of the Daily News is organizing something big that all of us could rally around.

At noon Monday, July 14, Bastille Day, We, the people who care about the future of Los Angeles, are coming together on the South Lawn of City Hall to protest the failure of our elected officials respect the needs of our communities and treat us with respect.

This is actually much more than a protest. It is the launching of our concerned citizens coalition that is intended to bring neighborhood councils, service clubs, residents groups, business groups, churches and activists of all types together. Our plan is to form a third force in L.A. politics that will have a unified seat at the table of power with the unions and the developers-contractors-lobbyists. We all have different neighborhood issues and we might not always agree on everything our city, as a whole, needs. But, we can support each other in our individual goals. We can spark public conversation that will lead to faster progress in solving our problems in order to help create a greater L.A.

The operating name of the group is the “Saving L.A. Project” or S.L.A.P. and the theme protest is “Take Back Los Angeles — Demand A Great City.” I’ve been writing extensively about local politics, and the July 14 rally, ever since I retired two months ago as Editor of the Daily News. I have since met with dozens of community groups and I have learned a lot that has better informed my own views about what’s wrong with the way City Hall operates, and more importantly, how we fix it.

Thousands of people all over L.A., like you, have worked long and hard for years to make our neighborhoods better. I believe what’s needed is for all our groups to unite and develop an agenda for a great L.A., to bring the Spirit of L.A. back to life, a city with healthy neighborhoods, good schools, safer streets and less congestion. Our Neighborhood Councils are vital in achieving this.

During our rally we plan to put forward a “Contract for a Great Los Angeles,” that challenges our officials to sign and commit themselves to a new way of doing business. We need your ideas for this!. We need your participation! We need the biggest crowd we can muster to send City Hall a message! A message that we are serious and we are going to go forward to build an organization that will change the politics of our city and offer hope to our apathetic, alienated and defeated residents.

The future of L.A. is in our hands! We have set up an email address for your responses. Please let us know if you want our printed flyers, if buses or other transportation is needed and what ideals you feel we need to emphasize, during our protest and in our future.

This is the first step in bringing real democracy to L.A., to truly empower our community, to make a difference in our lives now, and in our children’s lives in the future. I hope you will take a look at what I’ve been writing regarding our city on my blog, ronkayeLA.com. Please give me the feedback I need to help me understand what you see. I want to better articulate the frustration and desires of our people, who have already stepped forward and worked hard to make L.A. better.

Please share this information and the attached flyer with all members of your organizations. I would also appreciate it if you would post the flyer wherever it is appropriate. I am looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. For further information, and to respond, visit: www.ronkayela.com

Join the movement to save L.A.Sign up now.

Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 by westchester dad
Tags: MANAGING GROWTH, TRAFFIC
No Comments »