Second of two parts.
See “Despite Lehman Brothers’ Troubles, Parcel B Groundbreaking Is Due,” Aug. 22. Keyword: Lehman Brothers.
This was the week that construction once was scheduled to begin on the prospective shiny centerpiece of Downtown architecture, known prosaically as Parcel B, a name that has yet to make hearts flutter, but the final product may.
In the less than crystallized run-up to the County Board of Supervisors’ vote-of-last-resort in October on the Baldwin Hills oil field, a regular meeting of the County Regional Planning Commission is the next stop for opponents of expanded drilling.
Set for 9 o’clock on Wednesday morning at the Hall of Records, 320 W. Temple St., Room 150, downtown Los Angeles, this time residents of Culver Crest and other drilling-affected neighborhoods will know what they are getting into.
Exasperated by what he believes are debatable costs that keep showing up in the projected, constantly growing, budget for hiring Culver City’s first fulltime animal control officer, City Councilman Chris Armenta said this afternoon the new officer could be in place by December.
“That is our goal,” he said.
In case you are wondering what ever happened to the still-invisible Parcel B, the unappetizingly labeled project that formerly was going to be the final jewel in the crown of a rebuilt Downtown, consider the spectacular tailspin being suffered by the glamour party that had been behind the financing:
Yesterday the Financial Times reported: “Lehman Brothers, the beleaguered U.S. investment bank, held secret talks to sell up to half of its shares to South Korean or Chinese parties in the first week of August but failed to reach agreement with either.”
Mike Bauer, president of the Culver Crest Homeowners Assn., emailed neighbors this morning that “great news” was only a fortnight away.
Three and a half years after the Crest lost Tellefson Road, one of its two main arteries, because of a hillslide during the height of the rainy season, normalcy appears about to be restored.
[Editor’s Note: The County Regional Planning Commission’s next meeting on oil drilling will be in downtown Los Angeles at 9 a.m., Wednesday, at the Hall of Administration, Room 150, 320 W. Temple St.]
One of the two main architects of the organized citizen pushback against expanded drilling in the Baldwin Hills oil field said this morning he is “cautiously optimistic” that Los Angeles County officials will digest, fairly assess the thousands of resident comments, and will return, around Labor Day, with redacted documents deemed satisfactory by the opposing parties.
In a hometown homicide that has dripped with irony from its strange beginning, Sgt. Scott Ansman of the National Guard this morning was ordered to stand trial on Thursday, Sept. 11, for allegedly murdering his girlfriend, JoAnn Crystal Harris, in the midst of a feud at the National Guard Armory, behind the Vets Auditorium.
The biggest irony of all remains to be publicly revealed.
Ronnie Jayne, the singing entertainer, could sell air conditioning for igloos.
Even snow ploughs in Miami on the 4th of July.
Without ever leaving Culver City, the ubiquitous chair of this year’s Fiesta La Ballona probably has rolled up 5,000 miles this summer, seeking to ensure Fiesta’s unrivaled success.
La Ballona Elementary School was a beehive of activity last Friday.
Sure, students still were on summer break, but that didn't stop more than 150 employees of HOK Architects from donating their time to turn a large chunk of pavement into a new athletic field, paint a massive world map and generally spruce up the Washington Boulevard campus.
Thanks to more than $50,000 in cash and in-kind donations from its partners and tons of labor from HOK employees, the company delivered a 5,400-square-foot soccer field lined by trees, complete with an automatic irrigation system.
In the wake of the news that the state Dept. of Conservation agency known as DOGGER has asked the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to extend the public comment period beyond today regarding renewed drilling in the Baldwin Hills oil field, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) said this morning that he endorses this approach.
