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May 2008
Metro Issues
Yaroslavsky Decries Runaway Growth,
Threat to Neighborhoods
In a Los Angeles Times op-ed published on April 13, 2008, “Don’t Be Dense”, Supervisor Yaroslavsky outlines how the City of LA’s housing needs can be advanced without destroying its many neighborhoods and their sense of scale and place.
“Project 50” Houses Nearly Half of Fifty
Most Vulnerable Skid Row Homeless
Pictured here with Supervisor Yaroslavsky, to the left, is project director Carrie Bach, joined by members of her staff and several clients. (4/14/08)
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky recently paid a visit to the offices of Project 50 – a pilot program he initiated last fall, aimed at identifying, assisting and housing the 50 most vulnerable street homeless in LA’s Skid Row area. For Yaroslavsky, it was an inspiring lunchtime visit with Project 50’s motivated and optimistic staff, and an opportunity to meet and talk with some formerly homeless individuals finding their way back to lives of dignity, stability and hope.
To date, Project 50 has successfully housed nearly half of those initially identified for the pilot program. Pictured here with Supervisor Yaroslavsky, to the left, is project director Carrie Bach, joined by members of her staff and several clients.
In the Valley
Sun Valley Middle School Health Clinic Dedicated
Pictured here, from the left, are Kim Waldhanz, human resources, NEVHC; Rosie Lopez-Castel, information technology, NEVHC; Theresa "Missy" Nitescu, Chief Operating Officer for NEVHC; Marirose Medina, nursing director for NEVHC; Dr. Ursula Baffigo, Associate Medical Officer, NEVHC; Jan Marquard, Sun Valley Health Center Administrator; Kim Wyard, Chief Executive Officer for NEVHC; Yaroslavsky; Patricia Moraga, Chief Financial Officer for NEVHC; and Dr. Patrick Dowling, UCLA Department of Family Medicine. (4/2/08)
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was joined by local elected representatives, community leaders, school officials and students to celebrate the grand opening of the Sun Valley Health Center, the County’s first school-based health center to be designed and built from the ground up as a clinic. The 10,840 sq. ft. facility, sited on the campus of Sun Valley Middle School, serves students and families, and is operated by community-based non-profit Northeast Valley Health Corporation (NEVHC). Asthma screening services are provided by the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine.
Grand Opening for Parthenia Street
Senior Housing Facility
Pictured here, from the left, are Sean Spear, Director of Major Projects, City of Los Angeles Housing Department; Herman Ransom, Acting Director, Los Angeles Multifamily Hub, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development; three tenants of Parthenia Street Senior Housing; Lance Bocarsly, Chair of the Board of Directors, Menorah Housing Foundation; and Anne Friedrich, Executive Director, Menorah Housing Foundation.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky cuts the ribbon to dedicate the Parthenia Street Senior Housing Facility, the latest project of the Menorah Housing Foundation, a community-based non-profit formed in 1969 to meet the housing needs of low-income seniors. The cheerfully painted housing complex, located at 19455 Parthenia Street in Northridge, offers 77 affordable independent-living apartments set in a distinctive stepped four-story design amidst landscaped gardens.
Menorah’s next project, made possible on a motion by Supervisor Yaroslavsky, will provide affordable senior housing on the site of a former County Public Social Services office at Pico and Veteran Avenues in West Los Angeles.
Protecting Our Enviroment
Yaroslavsky Celebrates Earth Day in Studio City
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky joined a group of Studio City youngsters to celebrate Earth Day 2008 with a special tree-planting effort. The fourth-graders from Carpenter Avenue Elementary planted some 300 native shrubs and nine trees along the LA River, taking their place in a global community comprising tens of millions of similar volunteers joining in International Earth Day observances.
Yaroslavsky’s office coordinated the event in conjunction with the County’s Department of Public Works, with the new riverfront garden planting intended as the beginning of a proposed greenbelt project extending from Coldwater Canyon Avenue to Fulton Avenue. The site will be tended by the Village Gardeners, a volunteer-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to beautifying this stretch of the Los Angeles River.
The County has coordinated dozens of Earth Day events over the years within its watershed communities and in partnership with local schools. Students won’t soon forget their hands-on lessons in planting native vegetation, disposing of trash properly, and shopping with reusable bags instead of disposable plastic or paper sacks. It’s all part of the effort to teach them to protect their own health, and the health of their natural habitat throughout the County. (4/21/08)
Yaroslavsky Opens Pepperdine
University Water Conference
Supervisor Yaroslavsky – pictured here, from the left, with Heal the Bay founder Dorothy Green, Malibu Mayor Jeff Jennings, and Rhiannon L. Pregitzer, Pepperdine University’s Director of Regulatory Affairs - welcomed participants to the Water Run-Off Conference at Pepperdine’s Malibu campus. Those attending learned how to reduce water use and better manage water run-off. Breakout sessions reviewed existing water conservation projects and ordinances, offered realistic and aesthetic solutions through landscaping, water recapture, and other best management practices, and explained the connections between water, energy and global climate. Green, serving as Honorary Chair for the event, spoke and introduced her latest book “Managing Water.” Visit www.malibuwatershed.org for more information. (3/5/08)
EPA Awards Pacoima Beautiful $300,000
“Green Practices” Grant
Pictured here with the check, from the left, are Supervisor Yaroslavsky; Matt Haber, US-EPA Air Division Deputy Director; Detrich Brown Allen, General Manager, City of Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department; State Sen. Alex Padilla; Nury Martinez, Executive Director, Pacoima Beautiful; and Karen Y. Henry, Environmental Scientist with US-EPA’s Region 9 Environmental Justice Program. For more grant-funding opportunities, visit the US-EPA Office of Air and Radiation grants page, here. (3/14/08).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded a $300,000 grant to Pacoima Beautiful - a local non-profit group advocating for a healthy, environmentally safe, prosperous and sustainable community. The grant promotes a variety of green practices aimed at improving the environmental quality of life for area residents.
The funding will underwrite efforts in the largely low-income, light industrial portion of Los Angeles to identify high diesel emissions from trucks and school buses and encourage area auto dismantlers to engage in environmentally-sound practices such as recycling and using cleaner-diesel trucks and equipment. It also pays for an $89,000 academic research study in partnership with the EPA’s Office of Research and Development to examine the links between nearby roadway air pollution, adverse birth outcomes, and vulnerability factors.
For more grant-funding opportunities, visit the US-EPA Office of Air and Radiation grants page, here.
On the Westside
Los Angeles Free Clinic Becomes the Saban Free Clinic
Pictured here, from the left, Los Angeles Free Clinic Co-Executive Director Abbe Land, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and philanthropists Cheryl Saban, Ph.D. and Haim Saban, gathered to announce the Sabans’ gift of a $10 million endowment and the formal re-naming of the Clinic to become the Saban Free Clinic.
Officials said the donation will provide much needed discretionary funds for special projects at the facility. The Los Angeles Free Clinic was established some 40 years ago and has grown into one of the region’s most highly regarded health and social services organizations, comprising four clinics, 195 employees, more than 400 volunteers, and over 100,000 patient visits annually. (4/21/08)
Breaking Ground for Hollywood/Los Angeles
Beautification Team Headquarters
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky joined other officials to break ground for the new permanent headquarters of the Hollywood/Los Angeles Beautification Team, (HBT) a grassroots environmental organization whose mission is “to enhance the quality of life in Los Angeles by teaching and empowering people to change their environments through community capacity building, physical improvements and job creation.” HBT was established in 1992 by neighborhood volunteers, and has since grown into a countywide organization, serving communities by improving school campuses, neighborhoods and business districts, as well as by providing educational workshops and vocational training to at-risk youth.
The group has adopted more than 110 public schools, hired 2,500 young people on various projects and helped create 250 mural walls. Teaching children about art and the environment, the HBT staff has gone on to mentor more than 27,000 young people in interactive art, tree planting, and cleaning projects at their own schools. HBT annually plants 2,000 trees, abates more than two million square feet of graffiti, and picks up more than 30 tons of trash throughout the city of Los Angeles. (4/4/08)
Board to Fund Step Up On
Second’s “Daniel’s Village”
Permanent Supportive Housing Project
On April 1, 2008, the Board of Supervisors approved Supervisor Yaroslavsky’s request to authorize $200,000 in Third District discretionary funding for the “Daniel’s Village” renovation project located at 2624 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica. The project sponsor, Step Up on Second, is a well-established Westside community-based non-profit agency assisting the homeless. When completed, Daniel’s Village will offer eight new units of permanent supportive housing for youth aged 18-28, who are aging out of the foster-care system and are homeless or at risk of homelessness. See Daniel report for full details.
Building Healthy Communities
Yaroslavsky Joins East Valley Family
YMCA for “Healthy Kids Day”
Pictured here from left to right are Stephen Swofford, East Valley YMCA Board Member; Supervisor Yaroslavsky; Disney volunteers and members of the East Valley YMCA – and Goofy. (4/12/08)
Supervisor Yaroslavsky recently helped celebrate YMCA Healthy Kids Day held at the East Valley Family YMCA at North Hollywood Park. The local event was part of YMCA’s Activate America™, a national initiative to help all Americans improve their health and wellness by making fitness fun. The Obesity Society reports that roughly one in five of today’s youth is overweight.
The YMCA program introduces parents and kids to an array of activities that teach healthy eating and ways that the whole family can play together. At this year’s event, kids and families enjoyed a climbing wall, obstacle course, relay games, arts and crafts, healthy snacks, a healthy foods cook-off with celebrity chefs, dancing, stage performances, and even a surprise visit from Disney’s Goofy. To learn more about childhood and adult obesity or how to make healthy lifestyle changes, visit CDC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.
Yaroslavsky Joins Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
to “Top Off” New Hospital Building
Pictured here with Supervisor Yaroslavsky, from the left, are Richard Cordova, CEO of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and Mary Hart, TV personality, Board Member and Co-Chair of Fundraising for CHLA's New Hospital Building. They were among several hundred guests and participants on hand for a “topping-off” ceremony to celebrate placing the final structural steel beam atop CHLA’s new $548 million, seven-floor, 460,000-square-foot New Hospital Building. With its scheduled opening set for 2010, the wing will be the finest medical and surgical environment for seriously ill and injured children in the United States. (3/9/08)
Grand Opening for Kaiser Hospital
in Panorama City
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky presents a plaque to Dr. David Potyk, past medical director for Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center, who helped oversee the successful completion of Kaiser’s brand new $280 million facility. The Kaiser medical center becomes the first full-service hospital to open in the San Fernando Valley in 14 years, and replaces Kaiser’s original Panorama City Hospital dating back to 1962.
The 400,000-square-foot hospital includes an electronic medical records system accessible by computers in every patient room and at nurses' stations, a state-of-the-art digital system for MRI's, CT scans and other diagnostic imaging, and 10 operating rooms with high-definition cameras to assist surgical teams. An entire floor is devoted to labor and delivery, with 13 patient suites and a 24-bed level 3B neonatal intensive care unit, among the most advanced and well-equipped neonatal facilities in the nation. (4/25/08)
Arts & Culture
LA Philharmonic Unveils
2008 Hollywood Bowl Summer Season
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced the concert lineup for the 2008 Summer Season at the Hollywood Bowl, recently named by Pollstar Magazine as “Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue” in the nation for the fourth year in a row. As always, the program is an exciting and eclectic mix of classical, world music, jazz, spectaculars and special events.
This year marks the farewell for long-time LA Phil Music Director and principal conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who departs at the conclusion of the 2008/9 season to devote more time to composing. In the meantime, we welcome as special guest conductors – pictured here with Supervisor Yaroslavsky, from left to right - Bramwell Tovey, wielding the baton for the Philharmonic at the Bowl, and Thomas Wilkins, presiding over the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Full ticket information may be found at Hollywood Bowl tickets.(3/17/08)
Plácido Domingo Feted At 40th Anniversary Gala
From the left, pictured here are Mark Stern, Chairman of LA Opera, Supervisor Yaroslavsky and Plácido Domingo, General Director of LA Opera. On Friday April 18th, the renowned tenor was celebrated for a lifetime of achievements on the 40th anniversary of his starring debut at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. At the time, the young singer was touring with the New York City Opera, performing the title role in Alberto Ginastera’s Don Rodrigo. Since that time, Plácido has sung 22 different roles in 120 opera performances and has conducted 52 performances of 10 different operas in Los Angeles. Visit LA Opera online to attend any of the outstanding upcoming performances. (4/18/08)
Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center
Receives $10 Million Endowment
Supervisor Yaroslavsky acknowledges with gratitude a new $10 million gift endowment for the Santa Monica College (SMC) Performing Arts Center from philanthropist and arts patron Eli Broad (center), seated next to Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, one of the better known SMC alums and chair of the facility’s artistic advisory board.
The endowment will support programming and arts education at the college. Set to open on September 20, 2008, the 499-seat state-of-the-art theater will present renowned artists and world-class operas, symphonies, musicals, dance troupes, film and live theater. The adjacent smaller black box theater will present readings, plays and other small-audience offerings, showcasing new material and experimental dramatic, musical and dance performances. The Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center is located at 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica, California. For further details, see the SMC press release (3/6/08)
In the Community
County Commission for Women Honors
2008 "Women of the Year"
Pictured from left to right: Supervisor Yaroslavsky, former State Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, Bobbi Jean Tanberg, Chair of the Awards Luncheon, and Charlotte Lesser, President, Los Angeles County Commission for Women, gathered for the 23rd Annual Women of the Year Luncheon to celebrate “Women of Service” and salute them for their work to bring about social and economic change.
This year, the 3rd District honored Pavley as a former educator and successful state legislator who saw more than 70 of her bills and resolutions adopted. An ardent environmentalist, Pavley’s landmark tailpipe emission-reduction bill was among the first global warming laws in the nation and has become a model for other jurisdictions. To date, bills based on Pavley’s “Clean Car” legislation have been enacted in 11 other states and many provinces in Canada. (3/10/08)
West Hollywood Community Remembers
Murder Victim with Candlelight Vigil
Supervisor Yaroslavsky, pictured here adding his candle to an improvised shrine, joined family and community members at Poinsettia Park Recreation Center in Los Angeles to honor the life of Katan Khaimov, a 70-year-old grandfather and father of five who was fatally stabbed in an apparent street robbery while walking his dog in the evening near the border between West Hollywood and Los Angeles. Among those in attendance were officials from the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, LAPD and County Sheriff’s representatives, and many others who turned out to express their outrage at the incident.
On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, the Board of Supervisors approved Yaroslavsky’s motion offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder. This brings to $67,000 the total reward being offered in the case. Anyone with any potential information is urged to call Hollywood homicide detectives at (213) 972-2910, or the 24-hour hotline (877) LAWFULL. (4/11/08)
Board Honors Award-Winning
Theatre Company for At-Risk Youth
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky presents a County commendation to 19-year-old Jose Ramirez, an orphan and one-time incarcerated gang member, who is accepting as the current youth representative for The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company (US), a Culver City-based non-profit organization renowned for their work over the past 15 years with incarcerated and foster youth throughout Southern California.
The group was recently recognized by the President’s Committee on Arts & Humanities as one of 18 national and international recipients of the Coming Up Taller Award, the nation’s highest honor for after-school arts programming. Founded in 1993 by actress Laura Leigh Hughes in the wake of the Rodney King verdict riots, US brings together theatre and film professionals to help the participating teens collaborate in the creative process to produce 12 separate productions a year. The intensive 12-week program helps participants cultivate pride, racial tolerance and social consciousness as they write and perform original plays as an ensemble. (3/18/08)
At James Monroe High School,
Yaroslavsky Champions Public Service
Supervisor Yaroslavsky champions the importance of public service, appearing as an invited guest speaker for 10th and 11th graders in the Law and Government Magnet Class at James Monroe High School in North Hills. Yaroslavsky shared his enthusiasm about his lengthy career as a public servant, fielded questions about his family life and how he chose a career in elective office, and shared with students a savvy insider’s perspective on city and county government. Yaroslavsky’s son is a graduate of the Monroe Law and Government Magnet, Class of 2000. (4/18/08)
Commission Appointments
(+ denotes reappointment):
5/6 - Jacquelyn McCroskey+, LAC Policy Roundtable for Child Care
Stephen Rosmarin+, LAC Veterans Advisory Commission
4/15 - Rosi Dagit+, LAC Beach Commission
Stanley Rogers+, Consumer Affairs Advisory Commission
4/8 - Clare Bronowski, Esq.+, LAC Beach Commission
Jeffrey D. Jennings, Esq.+, LAC Beach Commission
Scott J. Svonkin+, LAC Commission on Insurance
Ross Eden Viselman, Esq., LAC Workforce Investment Board
4/1 -Peer Ghent, M.B.A.,
Board of Governors of the County Arboreta and Botanic Gardens
Alan M. Glassman, Ph.D., LAC Citizens' Economy and Efficiency Commission
Helen A. Kleinberg+, LAC Commission for Children and Families
Helen Levin+, LAC Consumer Affairs Advisory Commission
3/18 - Renee Adams+,
LAC Developmental Disabilities Board (Area 10-Los Angeles)
Judith Frank+, LAC Health Facilities Authority Commission
Anne R. Greer+, LAC Consumer Affairs Advisory Commission
3/11 - Honey Amado, LAC Child Support Advisory Board
Fred Flores+, LAC Veterans Advisory Commission
Thank you for reading our newsletter. If you would like to send a comment or a message to Supervisor Yaroslavsky, please send your message to zev@bos.lacounty.gov or just simply click here .
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