One (brief) meeting into his four-year term as a new member of the School Board, Steve Gourley this morning provided a glimpse of the future.
Even though he is a freshman on the Board, he has nothing resembling new-guy jitters.
To put it delicately, it is unanimously agreed among his four colleagues that he is the least bashful member.
This being New Year’s Eve, whenever anyone at City Hall hearkens back to the wonderful moments of this year, I hope the names of Cool Harry, the Saez brothers, Patrick Vorceak, Les Surfas and Marc Chiat will spring to the fore first.
Three of them lost their bought-and-paid-for businesses in the last 12 months. With a foot to the tush, the Saez brothers were kicked out of town. By comparison, Mr. Surfas got off relatively easily. “All” that he lost was his warehouse.
[Editor’s Note: This is the third and final installment in Dr. Cohen’s series comparing the atmosphere for immigration in the United States, where she has lived for 23 years, with France, where she previously resided. See Part I, “Our Favorite Visitor to France Returns with Immigration Views,” Dec. 27, and Part II, “When in America, What Language Should You Speak?” Dec. 28.]
Lifted from the biographical files of your Board of County Supervisors:
Zev Yaroslavsky proves that he flies higher who is not weighted down by the baggage of scruples. Last time I checked, Mr. Yaroslavsky held membership in two synagogues, one liberal, one traditional. Press 1 for Traditional Jew. Press 2 for Liberal Jew. This should niftily cover his entire Jewish constituency.
Bypassing the candidate more commonly associated with Culver City, Mayor Alan Corlin announced this morning he is supporting Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks in the June 2 election to replace long-serving County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.
“I honestly believe Bernie Parks is a winner,” Mr. Corlin said, “and I want to back a winner.
Cinema has developed a very specific vocabulary for post-apocalyptic stories: Deserted streets, decrepit technologies, nature’s return to power, ruined landmarks. Although Richard Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend” was first published in 1954, this third adaptation of the story, after “The Last Man On Earth” and “The Omega Man,” makes excellent use of the imagery offered by films released after the novel. There’s a bit of “12 Monkeys” in Francis Lawrence’s vision of a world depopulated by a virus, and “28 Days Later,” and “The Quiet Earth,” and many others. But for all the tried and true vocabulary, Lawrence succeeds in overcoming the familiarity to deliver something unsettling and melancholy. When the last remaining human on earth, military virologist Dr. Robert Neville (Smith), scavenges lifeless homes for survival resources, we get a glimpse of interrupted lives —
[Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part story comparing French and American immigration issues. After a gentle beginning yesterday, today’s installment turns provocative. Our correspondent is herself an immigrant. See Part 1, “Our Favorite Visitor to France Returns with Immigration Views,” Dec. 27. Part 3 will run Monday.]
It was a fascinating, and unusual, juxtaposition from where the dragon-slayer among anti-eminent domain lawyers was sitting.
Robert P. Silverstein of Pasadena had told the newspaper last summer that he intended for Marc Chiat, his under-siege client on fast-emptying Exposition Boulevard, to be the last business standing.
Indeed, he had no plans to fold.
For the feisty businessman Les Surfas, the fight with City Hall this morning is “98 per cent” over.
After three bitter years of aggressively, noisily contesting City Hall over whether it had a right to force him, via eminent domain, to relocate his warehouse at the southwest corner of National and Washington boulevards, Mr. Surfas has rested his case.
He was shoved out to clear room for the city to build a business and residential complex around the proposed light rail train terminal, accommodating the train from downtown Los Angeles.
[Editor’s Note: During the next three days, one of our favorite correspondents, just returned from her most recent trip to Paris, where she formerly lived, will analyze the differences between American and French attitudes toward immigration.]
I was asked to give my view on differences between American and French immigration and integration.
