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October 2007
Malibu Fire
A Message From Supervisor Yaroslavsky
on the Malibu Canyon Fire
Santa Ana winds are suspected of sparking the first of a series of wildfires throughout several Southern California counties that began shortly before dawn in Malibu Canyon on Sunday October 21. The fire moved erratically toward Malibu Crest, Carbon and Las Flores Canyons, above Serra Retreat and into the Malibu Road area south of Pacific Coast Highway before firefighters managed to fully contain the blaze by Wednesday night, October 24. When it was all over, the final damage tally included the Malibu Presbyterian Church, which was burned to the ground along with six homes and one business. Also, more than a dozen homes and other structures including two local school classrooms were damaged. Some 4,565 acres were scorched, and the cost of fighting the fire was put at $5.2 million. Thankfully, no lives were lost.
Santa Ana winds were among the strongest in memory, making fire fighting especially treacherous. Winds in the Santa Monica Mountains above the City of Malibu were clocked at 60 mph, and reached as high as 111 mph, Category 2 hurricane force, at Laguna Peak near Point Mugu along the coast north of Malibu. Officials put the Topanga Emergency Plan into effect immediately as the growing fire threatened lower Topanga Canyon on Sunday and Monday. Residents of Malibu Crest, Monte Nido and the various canyons in the vicinity were evacuated, and citizens readily cooperated with public safety personnel. The Equine Response Team moved quickly and helped evacuate hundreds of horses without incident to Pierce College for safe keeping.
All in all, the fire could have been much worse. The hot, dry and windy conditions made for a perfect firestorm. Only the heroic efforts of firefighters, both in the air and on the ground, limited the damage. Fire officials credited citizen cooperation with the authorities as well as compliance with brush clearance regulations for substantially reducing the potential loss.
Other parts of our County and Southern California were not so lucky. Our hearts go out to those in northern Los Angeles County, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties who lost lives and a large number of homes.
I want to personally thank Governor Schwarzenegger, the State Office of Emergency Services and all other agencies that came to our assistance through a unified command and mutual aid agreement that characterizes emergency response in California.
Above all, I want to thank our firefighters, law enforcement personnel and other emergency responders on whom we have grown to depend in disasters like these. Los Angeles County and its neighbors have the best trained and most experienced first responders in the world, and we should never take them for granted. If you see one of them in the neighborhood, let them know how much you appreciate the risks they take and the sacrifices they make on our behalf.
Please see the left-hand column for further information on the fire and the various forms of assistance available to those who suffered losses.
Left to Right: Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky, Sheriff Lee Baca and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are given a tour of the devastated area by Ruben D. Grijalva, Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Supervisor Yaroslavsky, Gov. Schwarzenegger and Sheriff Baca survey the damage at the Malibu Presbyterian Church which was destroyed shortly after the Malibu Canyon fire erupted.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky gets a closer look at the fire from Piuma Road, above Carbon Canyon.
Addressing Homelessness
Yaroslavsky Testifies in Congress
On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky testified before the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), to express the County’s support for reauthorizing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Enacted in 1987, the legislation is the key federal funding program for homelessness programs around the country.
Read a copy of Yaroslavsky’s full testimony here.
Federal Homelessness Czar Philip Mangano
Visits Los Angeles
On October 2, 2007, Supervisor Yaroslavsky and his colleagues honored Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, a body comprising twenty cabinet secretaries and agency heads charged with developing a federal strategy and coordinating a response to end homelessness throughout the nation.
Mangano’s efforts focus largely on prodding local governments to adopt the goal of ending chronic homelessness and devise their own 10-year plans toward that end. More than 300 cities and counties to date have signed on to the program. During his visit, Mangano was also feted at a banquet hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation, which jointly funds the Council on Homelessness with Common Ground Community. Common Ground is a non-profit housing development and management organization dedicated to creating supportive housing for homeless and low income individuals.
Yaroslavsky Endorses “Project 50”
at Regional Homeless Meeting
Pictured here, from the left: Edmund D. Edelman, former County Supervisor and currently homelessness consultant for the City of Santa Monica; Horace Sibley, Director, United Way Atlanta; Philip Mangano, Executive Director, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; Zev Yaroslavsky, Chairman, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; Rosanne Haggerty, President, Common Ground; Rob Hess, Department of Homeless Services, City of New York; Richard Bloom, Mayor, City of Santa Monica. (10/4/07)
On October 4, 2007, Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky (center) participated in a day-long working session with national experts and local officials to address “Regional Strategies to Solve Homelessness.” Yaroslavsky endorsed the “Project 50” concept, an intensive program to identify the so-called “anchor” homeless, the top 50 individuals living longest out on the street and relocate them into permanent supportive housing that includes links to essential social services. Yaroslavsky expressed the hope that demonstrably changing the social dynamic for the hardcore homeless could create a "tipping point" to deal more effectively with homelessness on the streets of Los Angeles overall.
The gathering was co-sponsored by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and New York-based Common Ground, with major funding from The Rockefeller Foundation. Common Ground has hosted several delegations from Los Angeles County to tour their homeless projects, including the historic Times Square Hotel that was redeveloped into housing for 652 low-income and formerly homeless individuals.
Yaroslavsky Co-Chairs 2007 PATH
National Mall Network Summit
As co-chair of the 2007 Mall Network National Summit, Supervisor Yaroslavsky recently welcomed more than 200 participants to the National Mall Network Summit convened in Los Angeles. Led by PATH Partners (People Assisting The Homeless), the two-day event involved various community leaders who are actively engaged in efforts to reduce homelessness across the country.
Challenging the traditional “maintenance” approach of shelters and soup kitchens, Yaroslavsky described the Mall concept of “one-stop, multi-service homeless centers” as a promising new strategy to better serve the nation’s homeless population, allowing service providers to pool their efforts to assist clients within a facility where those in need can obtain under one roof all the services and support they require. (10/4/07)
Yaroslavsky Joins United Way to Announce
First-Ever “HomeWalk”
On Monday, October 15, 2007, Supervisor Yaroslavsky joined other local elected officials and representatives from United Way of Greater Los Angeles to announce the agency’s first-ever “HomeWalk,” a 5K Family Walk in Exposition Park to be held as part of its A Pathway Home initiative to prevent and end homelessness.
The walk, in collaboration with the Fannie Mae Foundation Help the Homeless Program and Walkathon, will take place simultaneously in Washington D.C. and across six other cities. While this will mark the walk’s Los Angeles debut, Washington, D.C.’s event celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with more than 35,000 walkers.
HomeWalk and A Pathway Home are key elements in United Way’s recently launched Action Plan, aimed at creating pathways out of poverty by building increased public and political will for workable, effective homelessness solutions like supportive housing. For more details on the event, read the press release. (10/15/07)
Improving Our Waters
New Water Treatment Plant Opens
at Malibu's Marie Canyon
On Thursday, October 11, 2007, Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky was joined by City of Malibu elected officials, representatives from environmental organization Heal the Bay and County Department of Public Works officials to dedicate a new $1.3 million water quality improvement project at Marie Canyon in Malibu. The County owned and operated facility can treat as much as 100 gallons per minute - roughly triple the average amount of flow - of dry weather runoff flowing from Marie Canyon, effectively removing bacteria and other pollutants before they reach the public beach at the canyon’s outlet to the ocean (indicated below right by Supervisor Yaroslavsky).
In recent years, water quality at the beach outlet of Marie Canyon has ranked among the three worst in the state, according to Heal the Bay’s Annual Beach Report. Designed by Clear Creek Systems, a Bakersfield-based water treatment solutions firm, the plant (shown above left) employs a filtration system using multimedia and organo-clay beds to remove common pollutants like litter, leaves, oils, and pesticides, then passes the water through a series of two UV-light filters to eliminate bacteria and viruses.
The County of Los Angeles operates 18 other devices in the Santa Monica Bay intended to divert low-flow urban runoff away from the ocean to nearby sewage treatment facilities, which have been credited with substantially reducing Santa Monica Bay beach closures during the summer of 2007.
Malibu’s Whale of a Problem
Photos courtesy of Northern Section Lifeguard Chief Fernando Boiteux
Around 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, September 30, 2007, a 65’ blue whale carcass washed ashore at Broad Beach. Officials believe it to be one of three animal carcasses that had washed up on a Ventura County beach two weeks earlier. Los Angeles County’s Lifeguard Rescue Boat “Baywatch del Rey” towed the carcass 15 miles offshore under the US Coast Guard request. Several days later, on Thursday, October 4, 2007, at 7:30 a.m., the unlucky whale washed back ashore at 24500 Malibu Beach Road, Malibu. That afternoon, County lifeguards tried again. At 1 p.m. “Baywatch Malibu” began towing the carcass a planned 20 miles off shore, and since then no further sightings have been reported. (10/4/07)
For information on how to remove sea animals that have washed ashore, you can contact the Northern District of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Headquarters at 310-454-7962.
Improving Our Environment
A Tree Grows at the Hollywood Bowl
Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky oversees the planting of a new 25-foot sycamore tree in the Hollywood Bowl’s Box Office Plaza as part of the County’s ongoing Urban Reforestation Project. Replacing a diseased and potentially dangerous older tree that was previously removed, this sycamore tree – a beautiful California native variety tolerant of heat and wind, offering generous shade - is the largest of the more than 9,000 trees planted throughout Los Angeles County as part of the effort.
Under the project, by year’s end some 59 Los Angeles County parks will have received 9,168 trees and planted 7,000 small shrubs. The Los Angeles County Urban Reforestation Project is funded by $3.7 million from State Bond Proposition 12. All trees and shrubs are planted on irrigated Los Angeles County Park property by the Los Angeles Conservation Corps using at-risk youth workers, and will be nurtured and maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. (10/3/07)
Transportation
Yaroslavsky Welcomes Former
Curitiba Mayor Jaime Lerner
Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky welcomes to Los Angeles former Mayor Jaime Lerner of Curitiba, Brazil, whose innovative and highly successful “Speedybus” Bus Rapid Transit system sparked Yaroslavsky’s proposal to build the 14-mile Orange Line Busway across the San Fernando Valley. Launched in November 2005, the Orange Line continues to set monthly ridership records, now topping 24,000 daily weekday boardings. (9/28/07)
In the Community
Yaroslavsky Addresses UCLA Town & Gown Conference
Supervisor Yaroslavsky also tackled matters of planning and land use as a featured speaker at this year’s 2nd Annual Town & Gown Conference held at UCLA Covel Commons, hosted by UCLA’s Community & Local Government Relations Division. Other speakers addressed such diverse topics as best practices pertaining to issues in economic development and policies concerning student conduct. (10/12/07)
Yaroslavsky Discusses Density, Development
at VICA Conference
Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky offered keynote remarks on the topics of growth, density, development and neighborhood protection at the 2007 Newsmaker Connection conference organized by the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA). Afterward, Yaroslavsky took questions from participants on a range of issues such as land use and transportation challenges facing residents throughout the County. Yaroslavsky is scheduled to speak as a panelist at VICA's upcoming 19th Annual Business Forecast Conference on November 8, 2007. (10/11/07)
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