Aroused RV Owners Get a Breather

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

     If Mayor Albert Vera is indeed dropping out of Culver City politics as of the April 11 election, he is flying out of City Hall with all of his jets spitting fires to be feared.
     Anybody who can strongarm a pet project through a wall of resistance still is a formidable force who can’t be shrugged off.
     Responding to a community outcry, as he often has in the past, Mr. Vera’s sheer strength of will enabled him to shove through the pipe yet another thirty-day moratorium for angry owners of recreational vehicles.
     The latest moratorium ranks as the mayor’s third straight successful effort to delay enforcement of a prickly ordinance that bans recreational vehicles from being parked overnight on city streets.

When a Black Newspaper Fails

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

            By appearances, the formerly glamourous young politician Martin Ludlow is said to be our town’s newest celebrity who stepped across the foul lines of the law, as we told you last week.
What a shock. A union guy’s milk of human kindness has gone sour. Can’t be more than twelve million precedents in Los Angeles for that kind of misbehavior.
To report that the chief executive of the sprawling union umbrella organization for this town, the County Federation of Labor, has resigned because he messed up the golden years of his professional life by alleged wrongdoing sadly has less impact on society than salivating on the sidewalk.
            The news is not that one more union hack has shot himself between the eyes. It is that the most promising and articulate and dashing young black politician whom Los Angeles has produced in awhile, just blew out all four tires on his career with his own hands. At the age of forty-one, Mr. Ludlow looks more done than the hamburgers Mom used to cook most weeknights when we were growing up.

Opening Ceremonies for the Culver City Little League

Ari L. NoonanNews

At season-opening ceremonies for the Culver City Little League last Saturday morning, guest speaker Artie Harris, left, top photo, was joined by Little League President George Aceves. Asst. Police Chief Hank Davies, lower photo, distributes stickers to players.

Did Commish Cooper’s Picnic Work?

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

• See Related Story Below
 
          From appearances, city commissioner Jeff Cooper’s well-publicized picnic on Saturday afternoon to protest the present proposed location of the new Skateboard Park was successful.
          A crowd of seventy-five persons met his expectations in size and spiritedness.
          Some of the community’s best known citizens and politicians flocked to Culver City Park to declare their support for changing the location.
          Among them: Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger, running for re-election, City Council candidate Scott Malsin, City Councilman Alan Corlin,  Gerald  Sallus of the Democratic  Club and his wife Betty, the environmental activist Jim Lamm, and the Dog Park entrepreneur Vicki Daly Redholtz.

Gross Pierces the Cooper Optimism

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

          City Councilwoman Carol Gross sniffed on Monday when she heard that seventy-five supporters participated in Commissioner Jeff Cooper’s picnic/rally on Saturday at Culver City Park.
          As the leading zealot on the City Council for retaining the new Skateboard Park in the grassy area, near Jefferson Boulevard, she archly declared:
          “It does not matter to me how many people were there. Seventy-five people or seventy-five hundred will not change the facts.
          “My principal motivation is protecting the well-being of our children. That does not, it cannot, take second place.”

When the Gas Man Meets the Culver Crest Consumer

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

            Armed with dignity, a portfolio of concrete explanations and solutions, a promise of transparency and a peace-making attitude, Steve Rush, the vice president of a much-villified oil drilling company, will walk into a den of his harshest critics early next month when he meets with the Board of Directors of the Culver Crest Neighborhood Assn.
            “Our main job will be to educate them about our business and, hopefully, demystify what we do,” the Plains Exploration & Production Co. official told thefrontpageonline.com.
            “But before that, we will emphasize that we understand the importance of improving communications with residents. We are trying to be more sensitive than we have been.
            “We want to make sure that even though what happened was extremely rare, and not at all dangerous, we want them to know who we are, how long we have been around, what our mission is, that we are environmentally sensitive, and that we are diligently working on mitigation measures.”

Councilman Pleads Guilty to Gross Charges

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

• For related comments, see Letters section

            With a do-over  vote on the disputed location of the new Skateboard Park tentatively scheduled for Monday, March 6, City Councilman Alan Corlin — tongue lodged in cheek — said last night that he was guilty as charged when Councilmember Carol Gross accused him of making the park a warm potato because Election Day looms. 
            In the six weeks since the original vote on Culver City Park , Mr. Corlin has been staging a one-man, daily, unrelenting, virtual door to door campaign to overturn the outcome and change the venue to a nearby paved area. 
            The arrows and slings that the Councilman and the Councilwoman vehemently exchange are heartfelt. 

Forfeiting a Brilliant Career

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

             Saddest tale of the week for the political community on the Westside is The Fall from Grace of Martin Ludlow. 
            Last seen, he was negotiating a perspiration-soaked deal with federal prosecutors to reportedly avoid a jail term. He was said to be seeking a plea bargain whereby he would ante up a quarter of a million dollars in assessments while agreeing to be barred from union leadership or public office for more than a decade.
            That sounds like the final out of the game. With a funereal dirge playing in the background, you probably can throw a shovel of dirt on Mr. Ludlow’s celebrity. 

Gross Charges Foe With Grandstanding

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

            The presumably dead possibility of changing the prospective Skateboard Park from the grassy Upper Level of Culver City Park to the plainer Lower Level poked its dusty, ghoulish head out of the grave on Tuesday night.
            Over the pooh-poohing of City Councilperson Carol Gross, Councilman Alan  Corlin, the driving force for switching the location, pulled off the unlikely.
He convinced all three of his colleagues who were present to agree to officially reopen the issue.
It is expected to be included on a City Council agenda in early March.
Ms. Gross, a foursquare opponent of moving the location or reopening the piping hot subject, had a few words afterward for her colleague Mr. Corlin.

Mr. Baquet, Fire This Reporter

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

            If you believe that the case is made in the following essay, dear readers, I recommend that you write a letter to the Los Angeles Times, urging Editor Dean Baquet to fire Paris-based correspondent Sebastian Rotella for consistently cowardly, viciously dishonest reporting. Ethically, journalistically, the gentleman is stone deaf. 
            My comments are bold-faced. 
            In a lengthy story on Page Three on Tuesday morning, Mr. Rotella reported on a particularly horrifying crime in Paris. 
            It is the most despicable destruction of one Jew — for being Jewish  —  that I have heard of in decades.