He Says He Can Unlock the Mysteries of ‘Wealth’ for You

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

“Plutonomics: A Unified Theory of Wealth,” 77 1-page chapters, counter-balanced by pithy, historic “quotes for comparison.” Publication date: Nov. 20. See the website: plutonomics.com.

When you meet the young author of the newest tome in the English language on comprehending the mysterious intricacies of wealth, you are guaranteed not to be disappointed. Asked for his rank or name or serial number, S.E. Harrison of Culver City says, “I am a fulltime inventor.” Who, praytell, is better armed to plumb the darkened byways of wealth enhancement than a nimble-minded creator? Even without empirical evidence, it is obvious that Mr. Harrison is an imaginative thinker. He also is a curious philosopher who dares to venture into seldom-trod territory that more cantankerous cogitators ardently avoid. If you think gadgets and foggy goggles when someone says “inventor,” you have solved one compartment of Mr. Harrison’s life. Technology at the computer is his specialty. Not only is he a pioneer purveyor with four patents and more than a dozen others pending, he also is pedantic. Between inventions, Mr. Harrison, an attorney, is an instructor of law. If you are beginning to come around, you should know that he appears to be smarter than your two oldest children combined. He also is a writer. This marginally honorable pastime has not always been an impediment to relocation along Skid Row. So how do you evaluate a man whose daily life is subdivided into so many significant particles? When he gets lost driving to his Culver City home, even though he is following a route “I have taken a thousand times,” is he acting like an absent-minded professor or, more impressively, is he immersed in thought?

On Evans’ Way Out of Town, Questions Still Haunt Her

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

Second of Two Parts

Susan Evans, the retiring Community Development Director of Culver City, was delivering one final private seminar before locking arms with her husband and winging away 150 miles to a newly acquired ranch along the Central Coast. “In order to be an effective administrator in this business,” she was saying yesterday, “you need to be a strong technician and you need to be a strong communicator. You need to gain the confidence of community members, the City Council members and your own staff. Early in this business, like many people, I felt very uncomfortable speaking in public. As soon as I recognized that, I forced myself to change because this is something you need to be able to do. I got on the speakers’ circuit. I started speaking on every panel and at every opportunity. I got out there. I became very comfortable. When I have found something to be difficult, I have attacked it.” Where do you suppose a graceful, refined, soft-spoken but unmistakably determined woman would acquire such a rugged trait? Ms. Evans is carried back to her childhood in Long Beach. “It comes from being the only girl in a male-dominated neighborhood,” she says. “You need to jump out there. You need to do what needs to be done.”

Is There Life in Culver City After a Resident Is Evicted? Silbiger Wants to Know

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

Government imprecision and the drifting vagueness of purportedly clear promises made by City Hall were on blindingly bright display at last night’s meeting of the Redevelopment Agency board. Mayor Gary Silbiger wanted to know if City Hall was telling the literal truth. He posed a series of simple questions, first to a staffer, then to a gentleman of stature. He wanted to know if a much-touted state-approved plan for relocating residents uprooted by city redevelopment was deadly accurate. Ever an aggressive advocate for the common resident, the mayor wondered, Was City Hall acting as an honest broker? When Culver City promises to relocate forcibly uprooted Culver City residents inside of Culver City, is it being truthful? Does Culver City mean Culver City? Could it actually mean Panorama City? A lawyer by day, Mr. Silbiger is unfailingly polite when he interrogates anyone from the dais. The ante was raised closer to the clouds this time. The mayor’s direct, unvarnished, uncomplicated questions were aimed at cool Murray Kane, City Hall’s outside counsel. Mr. Kane, a gray, granite-strength veteran immune to ruffling, was on a seat whose temperature grew warmer. For some sport-minded witnesses in Council Chambers, this was the ultimate game, lawyer-on-lawyer. The pristinity of the opening moment never wavered. Neither Mr. Silbiger’s congeniality nor Mr. Kane’s very-cool budged. But for eyewitnesses who were attentive, Mr. Kane’s responses, increasingly, appeared to climb into a car and travel a fair distance. Without showing any discomfort or frustration over Mr. Kane’s answers, Mr. Silbiger doggedly kept pressing for exactness. Just as doggedly, Mr. Kane appeared to dodge the mayor’s objective.

Magic and Mystery Made Culver City Work for the Retiring Evans

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

Barring an unanticipated epiphany in the coming 70 days, Susan Evans, the primary voice of redevelopment in Culver City, will slip into technical retirement without having resolved the makeup of the exact elixir that converts a community into an ethereal wonderland. Whether this is the equivalent of an accomplished musician not being able to read music or merely meaningless miscellany can be debated after she leaves on Dec. 15. Ms. Evans talks about twin ephemeral auras of “magic” and “mystery” that she and her redevelopment team have found or created in a community that was not previously known for such appealing assets. Classically attractive herself with unavoidably magnetic tall blonde hair, she brought to her position as the Community Development Director the exquisite taste and class that inform her appearance and her carefully guarded off-stage life. A breathlessly articulate woman — both with her ever-animated hands and her sprinting mind — Ms. Evans proved the past four years that it was not necessary to describe the ingredients that accounted for her vision so long as she could mold and create a dazzling final product. “My primary skill,” she told thefrontpageonline this afternoon, ”is in being able to articulate the ultimate goal, to help the team, the group, stay focused on the goal while pushing away superfluous activity. Over there is the goal. Let’s keep our eye on the goal. Let’s move that way. I think, however, that is offset by the fact that I really believe and understand the practice. The expert understands what can’t be done. The novice has no boundary. Having fresh voices at the table has strengthened my decision-making. They may see something the expert never will see. I want to make sure those voices always are there.”

Silbiger Draws Rebuke from Vice Mayor for ‘Non-Culver City’ Talk

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

One political debate heating up this afternoon was whether Mayor Gary Silbiger had fallen short of the threshold of loyalty to Culver City at last Friday morning’s historic groundbreaking for the light rail route. In his speech before a crowd of about 250, should he have touted his hometown, since it is a key to the light rail route, or performed as a non-partisan? Prominent persons landed on both sides of the dispute. On a vigorous flag-waving occasion that brought together many of the high-profile politicians, some Culver City boosters thought Mr. Silbiger should have at least mentioned the appeal of Culver City in his speech since this community is the terminus of the route from downtown Los Angeles. Vice Mayor Alan Corlin rebuked the Mayor this afternoon for snubbing Culver City, alluding instead to Santa Monica – which may/not be added to the 9-plus-mile route at a later date. Mr. Silbiger said he was looking forward to completion of the light rail project so he could ride the rails into “beautiful Santa Monica.” Inappropriate, protested Mr. Corlin, who came prepared to deliver a little oratory. However, he was not invited to the microphone by the mistress of ceremonies, County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. “Unlike the Mayor,” said the Vice Mayor, “I would not have extolled the virtues of heading out of town on the light rail. I always have a speech prepared when I go to a public event because I never know if I am going to be asked to say a few words. If called upon at the groundbreaking, I would have extolled the virtues of Culver City. I would have asked people to use this regional light rail project to come to Culver City and partake of the wonderful community that the government and the citizens have made available.”

Feisty Surfas Shoves His Chin Into City Hall’s Face

Ari L. NoonanNews

Embattled but defiant, the Culver City business owner Les Surfas, strapped to a tightly configured redevelopment agenda by the city, said this morning he has a dare bulletin for City Hall. Bring it on. “They are trying to intimidate me,” Mr. Surfas said. “It won’t work.” By appearances, though, the upper hand belongs to City Hall. In a sweeping attempt to clear the Washington-National neighborhood east of Downtown of sites and sights it considers impediments in anticipation of the arrival of a light rail station in a few years, the city has been negotiating with Mr. Surfas for two years. The city recently succeeded, on a stormy night in Council Chambers, in confirming purchase of a large slice of his property. The city’s current mission is to shut down a crucial Surfas facility, his warehouse. Presently, the scenario has been shrunk to court wrangling. Left dangling was one pressing question for the harried but determined owner of a prestigious business dating back to the Depression Era. When would Surfas Restaurant Design and Food Supply, with its cast of national and international clientele, be forced to vacate its prized property, across the street from Mr. Surfas’ retail business? The city has failed to fulfill its promise to find a suitable replacement for his warehouse. The drop dead date is Jan. 15, the city said. Whoa, replied Mr. Surfas. There is an election coming up that he believes could yet rescue him. He asked the city for what he called a “courtesy delay.” Would they agree to place legal proceedings on hold until after California’s Nov. 7 election when voters will decide the fate of Prop. 90. This proposed constitutional change promises to curb government authority to seize private property by eminent domain. (Last Saturday, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to pass a similar measure with strong voter approval, 55 percent to 45.) “The city said no,” Mr. Surfas reported. Throughout the ordeal of his showdown with City Hall, especially in the past several months as the stakes were raised, Mr. Surfas has displayed an ironic sense of humor. Speaking in the third person, he said: “I would hate to think what the city would be like if they didn’t like Surfas so much and they were not trying to be so helpful.”

A Jewish Editor Who Should Think About Converting Out

Ari L. NoonanSports

It hurts to be a Jew in Los Angeles today. Not because the 26-hour fast of Yom Kippur is about to begin. Los Angeles Jews, like the black community, the city’s other leading minority, suffer from intellectual vacuity and weak leadership. The most influential Jews in Los Angeles are cerebral paraplegics, lacking the two most important assets of their forefathers, will and courage. Just as the billboard of the black community, the Los Angeles Sentinel, is an embarrassing, unprofessional, uninformative enterprise, the Jewish community’s lone newspaper, the Jewish Journal, is ignored by the vast majority of serious Jews for the same failings. Anti-religious Jews, by the thousands, like to boast about how they wore their hearts on their feet when they marched with Dr. King in the 1960s. That passes for cultural bravery in the present morality-free environment. Whether Dr. King won or lost, it did not affect the non-blacks who marched with him, so they could brag about their civil rights-style courage.

A Moment of Glory for Light Rail Enthusiasts

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

Light rail enthusiasts from Culver City and the rest of Los Angeles attained their supreme moment of exultation this morning, virtually levitating when the ground was creased to signal the official beginning of the vast project. Psychologically, this was one of the significant occasions in Culver City history. The proposed 9-mile light rail route, from downtown Los Angeles to one of two Culver City destinations, is scheduled to be running in four years. Skeptics abound. Launching of the project is entirely tied to many criss-crossing and adversarial political agencies and funding sources. These complications create doubts among some parties as to how smooth of a ride the project faces between now and ‘10. Such details aside, the cream of political Culver City and political Los Angeles was polished, preening and prettified for the morning. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the chair of the Exposition Authority, was the mistress of ceremonies. Arguably, the co-stars of the event were Culver City Mayor Gary Silbiger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Their communities represent the present polar points on the light rail line. Mr. Silbiger, possibly the biggest booster of light rail in Culver City, if not the Westside, made what some in the crowd of about 250 regarded as an odd remark. Later, his observation drew fire. “I am going to love going on the light rail to beautiful Santa Monica,” Mr. Silbiger told the audience of ordinary and extraordinary persons. Loni Anderson is a Culver City activist who operates the TriMaru Health Acupuncture Clinic. She said she rather would have heard the mayor extoll the gifts of his hometown instead of talking about a community that may or may not become part of the rail system. “But it was an exciting, upbeat event,” added Ms. Anderson, herself a light rail enthusiast. Mayor Villaraigosa, freshly returned from a public relations adventure in England, did not forget his crucial Mexican constituency. He accommodated those who speak only Spanish and also those who prefer English.

$5,000 for Each Police Union Member — It Is Called a ‘Signing Bonus’

Ari L. NoonanNews

It is not yet clear how the news is playing across the large audience of union members employed by City Hall. Each member of the Police Officers Assn. is scheduled to receive what is labeled a “signing bonus,” a lump sum payment of $5,000, after — if —the union ratifies a new contract. Representative members of the city’s other five unions have not been surveyed, but an early sampling showed “wounded” feelings that they did not receive the same treatment. “It certainly would have been nice for our members to have gotten a ‘signing bonus,’ too,” said a veteran member of a rival union. “It just was not in the cards.” Another woman union member said that “resentment is too strong of a description of my feelings. I am a realist, I guess. The city always is going to take care of its safety people, and that probably is as it should be. Five thousand dollars is a lot of money, though. It would have been nice to have and put in the bank.” A third union member said, “Let me tell you what I find rankling. A few months ago, (City Manager) Jerry Fulwood was talking about a $3 million budget deficit. We couldn’t afford anything. Then he said it was down to $2 million. Then he said it was down to $1 million. What’s going on here? Now they are giving out ‘signing bonuses’ to all the members of one of the city’s six unions. That adds up to $600,000. Where does this money keep coming from?” Jim Raetz, president of the Police Union, told thefrontpageonline.com this afternoon there is a direct, logical explanation. For decades, the salaries of safety employees in Culver City have, by policy, been linked to the pay scale of the County Sheriff’s Dept. and the LAPD. Culver City officers are to receive 50 percent of the raises their Los Angeles colleagues receive. Everybody winced, though, when the average of the latest Los Angeles hike was 17.88 percent. “Instead of getting the raise we were entitled to,” said Mr. Raetz, “we agreed to take part of it in cash and forego a 2 percent raise that we have coming.”

Help Wanted in the Black Community — Only Thinkers Need Apply

Ari L. NoonanSports

If the besieged King/Drew Medical Center, the showcase hospital of the black community, fails in the coming months, as feared, the principal cause may be blind cultural loyalty. Too many influential persons in the black community genuinely believe that fellow blacks cannot logically be held accountable for betraying the integrity of King/Drew. The leaders get away with their anti-intellectual reasoning because they run the black community with their hearts rather than their minds. Except on the most parochial level, serious leadership has been missing in the black community of Los Angeles for decades. Among visible blacks in Los Angeles, I can hardly think of anyone I would want to spend 5 minutes with, engaged in sober, meaningful dialogue. Two exceptions are Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson and Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas. They represent a refreshingly adult departure from the carnival queens of clowndom, Congresswomen Diane Watson and Maxine Waters, and the wildly over-rated County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. These three obnoxious lightweight ladies are as useless to the black community as a new Lexus with a full tank of gas in the middle of the Pacific. Their inattentive, immature leadership partially explains why King/Drew is lurching toward its death bed.