Overtly determined to translate their flashes of early enthusiasm and bouncing energy into laser-focused action, about 30 residents answered a distress call to assemble and organize last night against a proposed cell phone tower in their neighborhood.
Faster than Mr. Revere informed the New England countryside, wildfire word has been streaking up and down Stevens Avenue:
Cash ‘n Carry, the venerable business at the corner of Sawtelle Boulevard and Stevens, has made a deal with T-Mobile to place a tower/antenna on its second-story roof, pending City Hall approval, probably in February.
The regular residents were joined by a sprinkling of political celebrities — City Councilman Gary Silbiger, Council candidate Meghan Sahli-Wells, who emerged as a major figure in shaping strategy for the neighborhood group, and Laura Stuart, representing Council candidate Jeff Cooper.
A Leader with Challenges
Striking three chords repeatedly, de facto leader Bryan Tjomsland, big, bearded, bespectacled and imposing, declared that his aroused neighbors:
• Must organize.
• Must not tarry because the leeway for time, while unknown, is brief.
• Must multiply — spread news of the perceived fear of health threats from cell phone towers to all with whom they come in contact.
Positioned, poised, in the center of a brightly illumined, jammed, stand-room-only living room, surrounded by curious and aroused persons of all ages, Mr. Tjomsland authoritatively established the agenda at the outset of the 75-minute evening.
He never veered from it.
As the conductor of what the disparate residents hope will grow into a sweet symphony, Mr. Tjomsland’s chief responsibilitywas and is to emulate the herding of cats.
Could he meld two rival camps — curious, vaguely informed neighbors on one side, hardliners on the other — into an effective fighting force that could block the proposed cell phone tower?
Some groups have, many have not.
That answer for Stevens Avenue may unfold in the coming 6 to 8 weeks.
Keeping those of differing minds motivated, and focused, for a sustained period may be the neighborhood general’s most elusive task.
Balancing those favoring an unyielding approach — to Cash ‘n Carry and City Hall — against moderates often is the chief issue bedeviling instantly moulded resident groups.
The audience was served a taste — and a test — of their strategy when the pretty orderly group was trying to thrash out an effective plan for forcing Cash ‘n Carry owner Dan Israely to “voluntarily” surrender his relatively lucrative agreement with T-Mobile. (It is lucrative to the extent Mr. Israely says the agreement is keeping his recession-plagued store afloat.)
The majority of speakers agreed that the store is an asset for their neighborhood. But they also declared their firm resolution that, whether with a velvet glove or a sterner stance, Mr. Israely must, somehow, be presented with a fait accompli deadline to abandon his tower plan.
If he doesn’t, the crowd seemed to agree, then Cash ‘n Carry tentatively would be formally protested — whether that means marching demonstrators out front, a boycott, or a creative form of similar strategy was not clear.
It was announced that two “polite” cease-and-desist-style letters had been sent to Mr. Israely without drawing a response from him.
Impatience in portions of the audience was audible.
The condensed version of their blocking strategy, besides drawing on the tactics of other successful neighborhood groups, is to closely organize and never allow their focus or motivation to slacken.
