Ari L. Noonan

     At a Town Hall meeting on Monday night at Culver West Park that was not supposed to be any more treacherous than a pillow fight,

·         Physical action was threatened by Mayor Albert Vera,

·         City Councilwoman Carol Gross pointedly criticized numerous people,

·        Councilman Steve Rose appeared to demand two apologies, received none,

     The fluid Downtown restaurant scene was jolted this morning by the news that Jay Handal, the owner of the popular San Gennaro Café, filed for bankruptcy last week in federal court in Santa Ana.

     Throughout a whirlwind ten-year career in Culver City, Mr. Handal, a peripatetic former New Yorker, has been, arguably, the most visible, busiest and most talked-about business owner in the community.

     His most familiar pose is with his cell phone to his ear, constantly changing locations, all the while barking directions to staffers.

            Since one of the two teenage boys charged with murder in a Hayden Tract killing two weeks ago after a hip-hop party at the Debbie Allen dance studio is a Long Beach Poly football star, the case this week unexpectedly grew into a cause celebre.

            After the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported yesterday morning that Jurray Casey, an all-star on the newspaper’s Dream Team last autumn, was one of the suspects, clusters of media descended on the Police Station on Duquesne Avenue. Crime, even major cases, commonly retreats swiftly into the shadowy background in Culver City, and seldom is heard a discouraging word about the incident ever again.

            When the Press-Telegram made a profile of Mr. Casey and his single-parent family the lead story this morning for the second day in a row, after radio and television had their shot yesterday, the sudden spray of  interest gave energetic legs to a tale that, once again, had threatened to waft away untouched.

            I trust that the estimable Cheryl Cook of Ladera Heights, a good woman and a responsible parent, read the latest racist rant on the Opinion Page of the Los Angeles Times yesterday morning. Hopefully, the piece will motivate Ms. Cook and her group to even more ardently pursue their goal. The author of the ill-tempered Times burst, one Erin Aubrey Kaplan, appears uncomfortable being a girl and equally uneasy being black, which, presumably, led her to lash out.

      Presenting herself as a spewer rather than a serious thinker, Ms. Kaplan says the Ladera Heights families who want to transfer their children from black and broken down Inglewood schools to the much more prestigious campuses in Culver City are being disloyal to their race. They should stay “home” and fix what is broken.

First of Two Parts
     
     Tension between two top-tier city officials soared to a sizzle on Monday night when the freshly renewed chief executive Jerry Fulwood delivered his grim but hopeful mid-year State of Finances report to the City Council.

     Two rows behind Mr. Fulwood’s table, in the well of Council  Chambers, sat the poker-faced City  Treasurer Crystal Alexander. Mostly, she looked straight ahead without changing expression. Body language did not offer clues to her deeper feelings. Occasionally she leaned to her left to comment to her deputy Karen Maggio about something that Mr. Fulwood and his three-person team had said.

     During twelve years on the City Council, Mayor Albert Vera has polished his public persona to such a high gloss that he can keep the juiciest secret of the election season.

     He may be the first politician since 1900 who can truthfully make that claim.

     Always in complete control of himself, he discloses only the information that he wants to release. And not a drop before he wants to.

      To the disappointment of hundreds of Ladera Heights families, a County Board of Education committee on Wednesday rejected a controversial petition to transfer three hundred and thirty-seven students living in Ladera Heights from Inglewood to Culver City.

      After months of carefully structuring and executing plans for moving their children from a lowly regarded school district to a far more prestigious one, Ladera Heights parents have vowed to accelerate their fight.

     Which of the three current candidates will benefit most from Mayor Albert Vera’s withdrawal?