The cops came prepared. All that ordinary people saw was one lone black-and-white from the Culver City Police Dept., innocently positioned across the street in the driveway of a 7-11. Unbeknown to the hundreds of participants at last Sundays anti-terror demonstration at the King Fahad Mosque, numerous police, sheriffs and highway patrol officers from surrounding communities were poised to pounce at the first sign of trouble. Although the demonstrators largely devoted the two-hour rally to exercising their voices, no physicality was reported. There were no arrests and no injuries, only wounded feelings. Plainclothes officers mingled with the unsuspecting, distracted demonstrators. They were too riled up to notice. Since vagueness and mystery are essential to these kinds of police operations, City Hall sources declined to discuss the number of agencies that assisted or the number of personnel who were at the ready. This form of mutual aid agreement has been around for years, a source told thefrontpageonline.com. Within the last 10 years, it has been refined to a pretty high degree. I cant tell you everyone who was there, just that all areas of law enforcement were represented.
After You Clean up Your Room, Clean up the Creek
Jim Lamm of the Ballona Creek Renaissance, the easygoing emperor of the environment in Culver City, is leading the charge to recruit volunteers, especially students, for the annual Creek Cleanup Day on Saturday. He tole thefrontpageonline.com that he has no idea how many (especially young) people will volunteer at three sites along the Creek — Sepulveda Boulevard, Overland Avenue and Duquesne Avenue. Entrance is by the bike paths. Over the years, between 100 and 350 persons — with an accent on the student population — turn out for Ballona Creek Cleanup Saturday to socialize and to purify the environment. It is Coastal Cleanup Day all over Southern California. As a lure, students may document their service hours. Registration begins at 9 a.m. “Cleanup Day has two purposes,” Mr. Lamm said, “to get the community together and to remove trash around the Creek that otherwise would end up in the ocean. It also is intended to create an awareness of the environment in people.” Friends believe that sensitivity toward the environment has steadily increased in Culver City because of the gentle manner of Mr. Lamm, one of the leading instructors in environmental education. “The environment is a subject that often is ignored,” Mr. Lamm said. “But once people are introduced and get involved, many find that they are inspired. The ecosystem is all around us, trees, water, land, sky. It all works together. More and more businesses and developers are going green in meaningful ways.” Mr. Lamm, who first became a serious student of the environment during his own student days in the last century, talked about “how dramatically the environment has been altered in the last 100 years. Gradually, there has been a recognition that we can’t go on living the way we have or we will spoil our nest. So much renewal is going on, and that is good.”
Mr. Lamm may be reached at Jimlamm@ballonacreek.org or 310.839.6896.
Arnold the Star vs. Dreary Ol Whats-His-Name
Witty, folksy and brimming with brisk, fast-paced repartee, Eric Bauman, the Chair of the County Democratic Party, told the Culver City Democratic Club last night that the November elections look promising for partisans, but the results are not a cinch. Nationally, he said, Democrats have their best chance to make inroads in Republican monopolies since President Bush’s election six years ago. He foresees a likely split decision in Congress. “Winning the House is truly within our grasp,” Mr. Bauman said. “Winning the Senate is a possibility.” Back in California, in spite of the Democrats’ longtime dominance of the State Legislature, there is foreboding darkness at the top of the ticket. It might not have been kosher for Mr. Bauman to make an outright prediction that Gov. Schwarzenegger will handily be returned to office, given that he was surrounded at the moment by fiercely loyal Dems. But he circularly danced to the point convincingly. So compelling is the Schwarzenegger persona that a remarkable event occurred during Mr. Bauman’s extensive analysis of what is shaping up as a one-sided gubernatorial campaign. In the heat of a Democratic race, in a Democratic setting, with only Democrats within range of his voice, Mr. Bauman did not mention Mr. Schwarzenegger’s Democratic opponent by name one time. Mr. Bauman, however, implored his audience in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium to ignore published polls before Election Day.
Basss Opponent Beats the Heat by Thinking Ahead
As the most fascinating underdog competing in the autumn elections for the State Legislature, Assembly candidate Jeffers M. Dodge is beating the heat of his first campaign by concentrating on his second run for office. The show business veteran is accustomed to thinking creatively. Before converting back to Republicanism, he had to wear a mask over his political heart every time he left home. For now, Mr. Dodge has concluded that Assemblywoman Karen Bass, the much decorated first-term incumbent for the 47th District, ranks somewhere between cinch and unbeatable for the November elections. This, you know, is one of those districts that goes Republican once or twice every century. Voters will have no trouble distinguishing the diminutive and dynamic Ms. Bass from her first challenger. Strapping and square-shouldered at 51 years old, Mr. Dodge, of Middle Western roots, breathes the organized confidence of a 10-term officeholder. Instead of affecting the Southern California casual trademark, he dresses like a traditional candidate. Beneath a hank of sandy hair, he wears a dark blazer, light slacks, open-necked white shirt. While enduring the (under)dog days of a campaign hungry for notice, he is preparing for a takeoff that he predicts will blow away his Democratic opponent when the time is propitious.
City Worker Accident Today at a Moment of Irony
Irony intersected with solemnity shortly before 7 this morning when a city sanitation truck driven by veteran employee Juan Vasquez and bearing an estimated 8 tons of trash turned over and landed on its right side, injuring both the driver and his passenger, known as the collector. Jose Meza, the collector, riding on the right side of the truck that is equipped with compressed natural gas, was trapped in the vehicle. The Fire Dept. seared off part of the vehicle to free him. The scene was spectacular a combination of an enormous garbage truck inertly on its side, like a wounded elephant, shattered windshield glass scattered in the street like so many diamonds, and decidedly infragrant trash strewn on the adjacent grass. Although Mr. Meza was deemed to have sustained the greater injury, both he and his partner. Mr. Vasquez, had been medically released by early this afternoon, sources said. On the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, the emergency rescue call came on a cool, overcast morning, around 6:50. A phalanx of dark-uniformed officers from the Police Dept. and Fire Dept. were lining up along the yellow stripe down Duquesne Avenue, in front of the Police Station. The summoned officers from both departments broke ranks, climbed into vehicles diagonally lined up in front of the Station, especially for the brief annual 9/11 commemoration ceremony. They headed for the nearby accident scene, at Jefferson Boulevard and Duquesne.
5 Plusses Abound in a Sizeup of Culver Citys Interim Super
She is an interesting selection for Interim Superintendent of the Culver City School District because in a profession where blandness frequently is honored, she is a woman of opinion. Dr. Diane Fiello is by no means an opinionated woman, though, a crucial distinction. But she thinks independently. She also speaks for herself. Approaching her first quarter-century as an educator, Ms. Fiello efficiently combines the challenge of working effectively within a large and dense system with being firmly seated atop a foundation of settled judgments. With Dr. Laura McGaughey having ridden off into the retirement sunset definitely not for keeps, say friends there is a fresh new environment in the Superintendents ground-floor office at District Headquarters. Sort of the way your refrigerator smells after it is cleaned out. The old food, like the old Superintendent, was not necessarily stale, but if you were trying to impress a visitor, the old food was not the first you would choose. For at least five reasons, Ms. Fiello deserves to be treated as if this were a honeymoon.
Ostensibly, the appointment is only for an estimated 120 days, until Nov. 1. Meanwhile, a headhunting firm is scouring America, from the fever swamps of Florida to rain-drenched Oregon, to see who wants to be a Superintendent in Culver City.
She is smart. This is the main reason the rhythms and dynamics emanating from the Superintendents office have sharply changed. She brings balance, moderation, maturation, stability, enthusiasm, creativity or, to say it differently, gravitas and confidence to her position.
From the Inside, His Mourning Comrades Remember Chuck Baird
Rocked by the sudden killing of their comrade Chuck Baird in a motorcycle crash on Sunday evening, members of the Culver City Fire Dept. reflected this afternoon on the striking uniqueness of their fire family and how prominently Mr. Baird fit into it. For the solemnity of the occasion, the unflawed quietude surrounding Fire Station # 1, Downtown, seemed appropriate. The perhaps under-appreciated culture of fire departments everywhere is that the firefighters — unlike other professions — are together all day and all night, working round-the-clock schedules, consecutive days at a time. When the 44-year-old Mr. Baird died shortly afterward from injuries suffered when his motorcycle crashed, the loss slammed separately and crushingly into each then member of the fire family. “Everybody has been talking about Chuck, obviously,” said firefighter/paramedic Jorge Kurowski, an 18-year veteran. “Chuck, without a doubt, was an all-in type of person. He jumped in with both feet, regardless of the activity. If somebody was organizing an event, Chuck spared no expense in going out to get everything that was needed and then made it happen. I don’t care if we were going fishing, the guys were going motorcycle riding (a passion of his) or planning a game of golf. Even when he made a commitment to speak Spanish, he went all-in. He was always all-in, all the time. You could count on him. You didn’t have to call him to see if he had reserved a spot for us.”
Fire Victim Extremely Lucky
Farewell Summer Concert Thursday (See below)
Suffering from smoke inhalation, Barry Leigh of Culver City remains hospitalized this afternoon after a fire early on Sunday morning destroyed his mobile home in Culver City Terrace. A spokesperson at Brotman Medical Center said Mr. Leigh was “doing all right, but I don’t know when he will be released.” After surveying the mobile home that had been reduced to rubble, Fire Investigator Mike McCormick told thefrontpageonline.com that “Mr. Leigh was extremely lucky to get out alive.” One report was that a refrigerator shorted out and sparked the destructive fire. “That has not been ruled in or ruled out,” Mr. McCormick said. The cause, he added, remains under investigation. Evidence was scarce because the mobile home was “just a pile of rubble.” The fire “probably” will be ruled accidental, Mr. McCormick said. The Fire Dept. was called at 5:36 a.m. on Sunday. Arriving two minutes later, para-medics found Mr. Leigh in bed in a bedroom at the rear. Two mobile homes nearby in the Culver City Terrace park sustained damage. Two rooms in Frances Spencer’s home were damaged enough to force her out until repairs are made. Leonard Lebock’s home had minor external damage, to latticework.
A Culver City Tragedy Paramedic Is Killed
Chuck Baird, a popular 12-year veteran of the Culver City Fire Dept., was killed last night about 9 o’clock near his Culver City home when the motorcycle he was riding was involved in a single-vehicle crash. Off-duty at the time, he was 44 years old. Shocked para-medic colleagues transported their friend to the UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of his injuries. Mr. Baird had served as a para-medic since 1997. In the early hours following the accident, details were sketchy surrounding the collision. One of the unanswered questions was determining the cause of the crash. Handling a motorcycle was one of Mr. Baird’s areas of expertise. A friend of the family said Mr. Baird “was an avid motorcycle rider.” He even competed in off-road events. Physically, he prided himself on being superbly conditioned. Fellow firefighters described the 6-foot-3 Mr. Baird as a strapping physical fitness buff. He was so devoted to razor-sharp fitness, said Fire Capt. Bill Bischoff, that “on Chuck’s days off, he worked out at the station.”