Counting Legs or Torsos?
The activist Deborah Weinrauch, founder of the group Friends of Culver City Animals, estimates that 6,000 to 10,000 dogs —counting marrieds and singles — live in Culver City. Readers should turn off the radio and the television while digesting this tale. The details are complicated. A year ago this summer, after torridly arguing with the community whether dogs should be allowed to cavort in the city’s parks, the City Council handed a clear-cut directive to its professional staff. They were to design an ordinance that said dogs on leashes could only pass through one city park — the magnificently named Culver West Alexander. All City Council members agreed with horrified parents of little children that dogs were no more welcome in the city’s parks than hungry mountain lions. An exception was made for Culver West Alexander because of the layout of the neighborhood. Dog walkers easily can walk around the city’s other parks. But at Culver West Alexander, for dog walkers to avert traipsing through the park, they would practically have to detour to Salt Lake City. In many cases, they would take such a long schlep down Wade Avenue that men would be advised to bring razors. Lady dog walkers could grow old before reaching their destination.
My, How Time Becomes Airborne
By the time the proposed language reached the City Council last night, not only had everyone in town celebrated another birthday, it was (almost) unanimously agreed that the texture of the tentative ordinance had been turned on its head. Instead of restricting what one creative soul dubbed a “Poochie Path” to Culver West Alexander Park, staffers had massaged the language. The planned changes in the City Council’s orders were stretched and kneaded. It took longer to read the changes than the original Alexander needed to conquer the world. According to the revised language, the Council was invited to “allow dogs on leashes on designated dog paths in certain city parks.” The severely altered language was like a meringue pie in the face to residents who oppose permitting dogs to enter any city park other than Culver West Alexander, limitedly, and the Dog Park itself.
Council Has the Authority
In order, Jeannine Stehlin, Jamie Wallace, Judy Scott and Robin Slater marched to the speaker podium to protest the broadening of the intended ordinance. Everyone on and off the dais acknowledged that the City Council has the power to allow dogs or even dinosaurs to enter city parks — but not this time. Studying the proposed ordinance in its original form, Councilman Scott Malsin was thrilled. He didn’t think the language was too broad. He exulted. Repeatedly. Everyone else on the Council looked as if he had just bitten into a ten-year-old slice of bread. Mr. Malsin’s colleagues quickly lined up against him — a rare experience for the first-year member. He told the residential protestors they were wrong. “You are seeing problems where there are none,” said Mr. Malsin. When he attempted to make a motion to approve the plan as-is, he rammed into a tall wall of silence. Councilwoman Carol Gross immediately spotted the flip of the language. She sharply urged the language, and the scope of the ordinance, be specifically narrowed. Vice Mayor Alan Corlin stood at Ms. Gross’s shoulder. A moment later, Councilman Steve Rose joined them, making passage of the trimmed-down version a cinch. Not until the whole room had become aroused and puddles of perspiration had been spent did Dep. City Atty. Heather Iker speak up. She admitted that her office had created the heavily criticized language. She promptly denied any ill motivation. We were not trying to sneak in anything through the back door, Ms. Iker insisted. “We were just trying to look at this from a legal standpoint,” she added. As if an uproar had been anticipated, she quickly offered compromise language that was swiftly embraced. Mr. Malsin, however, did not go peacefully. The reworked wording was no more than an illusion, he said stubbornly. “It is unrealistic,” he added, “to think (Ms. Iker’s changes) make a difference.” In fact Ms. Iker’s words did make a difference — they bought peace for a few minutes. The vote to narrow was 5 to 0.
What About National Boulevard?
Inspecificity also was a boulder in the path of the City Council as the five of them sorted through details of how to make a stretch of National Boulevard immediately south of Washington Boulevard safer. The perceived crisis arose last March. A teacher from the prestigious Turning Point School was killed when a car that police said was being driven haphazardly, jumped a sidewalk and struck her while she was shepherding a group of students. The aftermath of the tragedy billowed into a still unresolved disagreement between two factions. Numerous neighbors say drivers routinely take liberties that imperil pedestrians (especially Turning Point students) and other drivers. City Hall consistently has responded with authorized statistical data showing that accidents not only are infrequent but well below the calculated average. The speed limit is safe and, frankly, there is scant evidence the peril is as acute as neighbors charge, said Gabriel Garcia of the Public Works Dept. City Hall did not say that last March’s fatality was a fluke, but the sentiment was unmistakably conveyed. Community activists Cary Anderson and Loni Anderson are not related, but they brought the same criticism to the podium: Statistics notwithstanding, they regularly see problematic driving. Help is needed. Traffic regulations are too liberal, they said. “Statistics don’t always work,” Mr. Anderson said. After 70 minutes, the City Council unanimously approved a 13-part fine-tuning plan…
COUNCIL NOTES —— The aforementioned Ms. Weinrauch, who has evolved into one of Culver City’s most tireless single-issue activists, made her periodic appearance before the Council. Eloquent, as usual, in reading a prepared statement into the record, Ms. Weinrauch wants City Hall to hire its own animal control officer even though the City Council judges the enterprise to be drastically infeasible economically…Speaking of tireless and creative activists, Sharon Zeitlin, President of the Friends of the Library, made a dramatic — but tasteful — appearance. She promoted Saturday’s gigantic Peter Pan-oriented climax to this summer’s Culver City Reads program. For readers, leaders and followers, festivities start at 5:30 in Vets Park (ccfol.org)…Continuing to speak of tireless and creative activists, Jeanette Vosburg had a separate remarkable event to promote. For the community, but especially for lovers of the natural environment, the Ballona Network and the Ballona Creek Renaissance are hosting a Silent Auction, Raffle and Dinner on Sunday, 6 to 9 p.m., at the Culver Events Center, 11934 W. Washington Blvd. Ms. Vosburg said that up to 75 artists will have their works on display (BallonaNetwork.org)…
