Warning to Parents, Students

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   In anticipation of yesterday’s protest rallies, Principal Pam Magee ordered the following letter of warning to be distributed to students and their families: 
 
   Dear Parents:
 
   On Monday, May 1, a nationwide Day of Protest is planned by advocacy groups in opposition to proposed legislation in Washington dealing with illegal immigration. In some cases, advocates are calling for May 1 to be a daylong boycott of work, school and businesses. Other groups, however, are calling for demonstration activities that would take place after school hours.

Yer Outta Here

Ari L. NoonanSports

      One of the enduring mysteries of the City Council for the past four years has been the isolation of Gary Silbiger. The seeming freeze-out broke long enough last Monday night for the lady and gentlemen of the Council to elect him Mayor for the next year. The gesture came from a common-sense determination that he deserved the honor — albeit, by his patience, by his longevity, not, it was indicated, out of sheer merit. As the most casual reader of thefrontpageonline.com may know, philosophically I disagree with almost every breath that Mr. Silbiger draws, practically down to the way that he spells his name. His vision of life is aggressively at the far terminus from mine. All of that, however, is separate from the present discussion. When you were in school, you may have noticed the kid in the corner of the schoolyard whom others did not play with. Or the guy in your homeroom who knew many answers, but, somehow, rarely was called on. That is Mr. Silbiger. Searching my memory bank, the isolation of Mr. Silbiger — equally by all of his colleagues — was established so early, so permanently, in such a nuanced manner that it was immediately viewed as the norm. Him, you talk to. But him over there, you don’t. The disposition of a supposed equal was so subtle, had such a normative feel, that I believe this is the first time in four years I have commented on it.

‘May I Interrupt Your Honeymoon?’

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

In the absence of expensive stopwatches, Scott Malsin’s honeymoon as this season’s only new member of the City Council lasted 3.8 seconds. This was how long it took the irritated community activist Beverly Polokoff to stride to the front of Council Chambers following Monday night’s meeting to confront Mr. Malsin, to scold him, in unadorned language. According to eyewitness Carol Gross,the City Councilperson, who admitted she was “amused” by what she heard, Ms. Polokoff complained: “I thought you were going to unite the City Council. I certainly didn’t see it tonight. You didn’t do anything to unite them. In fact, at times you added to the divisiveness.”
 
As the only one of the five Council members left without a titular role after Monday night’s scramble for Vice Mayor, Redevelopment Agency Chair and Vice Chair, Ms. Gross had anticipated that Mr. Malsin would have behaved deferentially. “If he truly wanted to unite,” she said, “he would have said ‘I don’t want to be (Vice Chair of the Redevelopment Agency). It is Ms. Gross’s turn in the rotation.’” That, it turns out, would have been a towering misreading of Mr. Malsin’s laser-focused philosophy and of his objectives. His calm demeanor on the campaign trail and his reputation through years of neighborhood activism as an authentically pleasant gentleman failed to recognize the pragmatic methodology he employed to position himself for this spring’s election. As he explained later, he never had any intention — nor any need — for leaning back in his new chair and observing the way his supposedly more experienced brethren perform. It was not as if he had just arrived from a separate planet and required an introduction to an unfamiliar lifestyle. Having invested the last five years with the Planning Commission, he knows the territory.

Watch the People Off-Stage

Ari L. NoonanSports

      When I dropped off my weekly bundle of dirty clothes the other morning with my Farsi-speaking dry cleaner, he told me I could not pick up my order at the regular time. “Our Hispanics are taking the day off,” he announced. My loosely wired liberal friends, supposedly out of power, will score a giant victory in America’s culture wars on Monday when every city turns its private looney bins upside down and tells what falls out to march in the massively organized demonstrations to win full rights for illegal immigrants. Future readers of American history books will wonder why the smart people in this country never saw such an obvious ploy flying toward our frozen faces — like a squishy lemon meringue pie with a bomb embedded in it. For once, the screaming bald-headed lesbians may be right in hollering “Date rape.” The protest marches are the largest single date rape in modern history. What is not to understand? Imagine walking down Culver Boulevard on Monday morning with your spouse. You see a holdup man approaching. You elbow your wife in the ribs and giggle. It’s a joke, isn’t it? Steadily, the gunman  draws closer. From two feet away, he squeezes the trigger. The bullet disintegrates inside you. You are lying on the sidewalk, staring at the sky, desperately mumbling, “I was sure he never would shoot.” Pal, you are in the identical position for Monday’s all-day, all-country demonstrations.

Mayor Urged to Challenge Ruling

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      The slobbery fizz you hear when a big balloon is deflated is exactly the sound that City Councilman Alan Corlin expects to hear in response to his bold challenge when the next meeting starts on Monday, May 8. “Don’t look for any drama (over last Monday’s vote),” he said. “Nothing will happen. The controversy (over committee membership) is going to resolve itself into a big nothing. I don’t think a further ruling has to be made about (the legality of) our vote.” Mr. Corlin, just elected Vice Mayor, is so certain that he and new Councilman Scott Malsin will be elevated, without interference, to the important Light Rail Committee that he issued a new challenge this morning to his adversary and chief critic, the Mayor Gary Silbiger: “If Gary thinks the City Attorney’s opinion is wrong, he should ask for a personnel review of her.  I don’t need another opinion. Now I am not a lawyer, but the only remedy I think Gary has is to go to court and get a writ to vacate the City Council’s vote.” In anticipation of his future participation as Culver City’s official delegate, Mr. Corlin plans to attend next week’s meeting of the light rail group’s Joint Powers Authority. “At this moment,” he added, “the onus is on Gary to produce an opinion saying our City Attorney is wrong. The ball is in his court.”

Banner Day for Culver City Dems

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      By the hundreds, fired-up Westside Democrats streamed into the cavernous, brightly decorated Vets Auditorium last Saturday afternoon to hear the cream of the Democratic Party tell the faithful why voters should check their names in the June 6 primary. For Culver City, history was made on a colorful occasion that attracted five hundred and fifty loyal voters. It was a shining moment — four crammed hours’ worth — for the Culver City Democratic Club, widening its horizons, stretching its muscles by hosting eighteen of the twenty Democrats on the ballot, and by luring seventeen other Democratic Clubs to co-sponsor the spectacular show at the Vets.

It’s Kuehl To Be Gay

Ari L. NoonanSports

     Having sprung from the slower thinking corner of my family, it only recently has occurred to me why most gay people are not married, well-organized publicity to the contrary. The most militant — which feels like fifty million but actually may be five thousand — don’t have room in their busy lives to spend evenings before a crackling fire with their fellow wives and their fellow husbands. They are off to their twenty-five-year-old phony propaganda wars, pal. Since the faux rights wars started, “rights” and  “tolerance” have entered our lexicon as buzz words. But actually they are gay community euphemisms for “domination.” Everyday a new battle is to be won, a new group of the unsuspecting and the well-meaning to be indoctrinated. Never is it too early or too late in a day for the militant machos to step down into the filthy but necessary trenches to educate the unenlightened about how morally necessary it is to fight for their rights in a world that hates them. They will not consider their war won until the suggestion of one wit is adopted: Name every city in California West Hollywood. Today it is the turn of state Sen. Sheila (Bad Penny) Kuehl (D-Santa Monica, naturally) to rant. Keep an eye on Senate Bill 1437, which she has introduced in Sacramento.

Corlin Fumes at the New Mayor

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

•See main City Council story directly below this story
  
      The first big fight of the new City Council season, between Mayor Gary Silbiger and Vice Mayor Alan Corlin, grew hotter instead of cooler Tuesday on the day after the opening session. By late afternoon, Mr. Corlin was “convinced” his legal chances of defeating Mr. Silbiger’s objection and winning a prized seat on the Council’s Light Rail Committee were one hundred percent. Mr. Silbiger stood by his Monday night assertion that the perceived end run by Mr. Corlin to gain the seat was “illegal,” and he believed he could win a change in ruling.

      “Outrageous, outrageous,” Mr. Corlin said several times in describing the new Mayor’s resistance to his plan. Mr. Corlin also was fuming over an end-of-the-evening incident when he believed Mr. Silbiger may have misled the rest of the Council. Preparatory to taking over the main seat on the Light Rail Committee early next month, Mr. Corlin asked Mr. Silbiger if anything of significance was going on in light rail discussions. “I must have asked him hree or four times,” Mr. Corlin said. The Vice Mayor heard the Mayor say no. However, shortly before the meeting was adjourned, Mr. Silbiger, in a casual, by-the-way mention, noted that he had been asked to bring back two light rail-related appointments from the community. He added that he had tentatively selected two political allies. Mr. Corlin nearly exploded. “Gary did not tell us the facts,” he charged. “This is outrageous. He didn’t even consult us. He just went ahead and made a unilateral decision. I don’t know why he did it. Maybe he was nervous. Or maybe he was trying to pull the wool over our eyes.”

New Voting Bloc Worries Gross

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      As the only member of the City Council left without a title after Monday night’s restlessly volatile Reorganization Meeting, Carol Gross went home disappointed, and she woke up Tuesday morning not feeling any better.
      “I have serious concerns about this (reconstituted) Council,” she said. She worries that a newly formed three-person voting bloc of Alan Corlin, Steve Rose and new member Scott Malsin could be a potential threat to the conduct of business.
      “I don’t see this Council having an ability to easily agree or disagree,” she said. “Instead of getting things done, I see us getting caught up in power plays. These are just going to make us powerless, a laughingstock to other communities. All of the hard work that the last Council did to gain respect will be lost.”  
      Calculating the data on a rotation-minded City Council, Ms. Gross said it was her turn to either be the Vice Mayor of the city or the Vice Chair of the Redevelopment Agency.  

On Being Unfair to Vera

Ari L. NoonanSports

      Watching the bowers of colorful flowers being thrown toward Mayor Albert Vera at the start of the City Council meeting on Monday night, it was obvious this outpouring would be the primary or secondary angle in my Tuesday morning edition. Retirement parties are for backslapping, not backstabbing. Aren’t they? For all of the love letters that have been inspired by Mr. Vera’s well, well-documented charity during the last fourteen years of public life, the generally unreported truth is that a matching volume of anti-Vera invective reposes in the shadows of the community’s neighborhoods.
      His long political career in this town and his social conscience have only been written about fawningly. They only passed the taste test if you are on a sugar diet. Puppy dogs don’t have press this good. The incurious authors of the Legends of Vera have been intellectually consistent journalists who have swooned at the sight of him. This was grossly unfair to Mr. Vera. The more hot air the image jockeys pumped into his reputation, the more they cemented the Mayor’s impenetrable status as an icon for eternity. The storyline was that God may have had critics, Mr. Vera did not. By the time Mr. Vera took the final plunge into retirement this week, God had to ask him for permission to sit. After all, admirers said, “this is Albert’s world.”
      The truth about Mr. Vera – more complex than most residents of this town — lies somewhere south of what is accepted as unchallengeable dogma. Most of the people who trooped to the podium to express their extraordinary gratitude for his service to Culver City probably would risk their own safety to shield Mr. Vera from peril. That was no plastic parade of the praise-minded. They believe, down to the bottom rung in their hearts. Need any man live longer once he has heard such gold authentically bestowed upon him?