Dylan Martinez: One Student’s Manifesto

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

   Among the numerous  students who articulately conveyed  their message of protest against pending immigration bills on Monday in front of City Hall was Dylan Martinez.
   A surprisingly mature sounding junior at Culver City High School, he was enterprising enough to give himself an edge over the rest of the rally marchers.
   In this day of instant technology, Mr. Martinez wrote out in long hand, on both sides of an eight-by-eleven sheet, the remarks he intended to deliver.
   He was not going to rely on passion alone.
   He wanted to be certain that he made every important point.

Good Goth, Here We Go Again

Frédérik SisaThe Recreational Nihilist

     In reading my fellow critics’ reviews of V for Vendetta, I came across a pet peeve that irks me enough to devote this week’s scribblings to setting the record straight. That pet peeve is the consistent misrepresentation of the Gothic (or Goth) subculture in the media and in films.
 
     The most in-your-face offense, of course, comes on the big screen, typically in the form of what I call gothploitation. This is when the Gothic “look” is appropriated without its substance. I think the trend started more or less with the first Matrix film. But it really went over-the-top in the Underworld films, which concealed nonsensical storytelling by exploiting gorgeously gothic costume design.

Davies Makes Chief Finals on Tuesday

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

     The road is long before the City Council votes for the next Police Chief on Tuesday night.
      Asst. Chief Hank Davies, the hometown favorite who sailed through Thursday night’s introductory round of interviews, faces two more grillings on Tuesday before the final score is announced.
     Mr. Davies and Capt. Jacqueline  Seabrooks of Santa Monica — both of whom have a record with the City Council — will be joined in the witness box by the remaining finalist, a gentleman who already is a police chief in the Los Angeles area.

A Bow to Founding Dad Harry Culver

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

     For several hours on Sunday afternoon, Harry Culver, the founding father of Culver City who has been gone for sixty years, will essay a permanent comeback — in sculpted form.

     At 2 o’clock, inside and outside of the historic Culver Hotel in Town Plaza — which Mr. Culver built in 1924 — there will be a dramatic buildup for history buffs just before a sculpture of the Harry Culver family is elaborately unveiled.

More Proof City Hall Is Broke

temp102OP-ED

(Second in a series)
 
     It is fascinating to me, a recently retired Culver City Hall Accounting Manager, hearing opposition to the proposed City Manager version of the City Charter: “If it’s not broke, why fix it?” 
     Given the next Charter review may be twenty-five years from now, and I have worked in two City Manager- type of cities, I feel an urgency to encourage city residents to vote Yes to Measure V on April 11.

Many Reasons to Back Malsin

temp42Letters

     Scott Malsin is a smart man of genuinely good character. I would love to see him elected to the City Council on April 11.
     At the recent Candidates Forum in Blair Hills, Mr. Malsin demonstrated that he has both a comprehensive understanding of local issues and the temperament to address them in an effective way. Mr. Malsin convinced me that his leadership style is just what the City Council needs. 

     Mr. Malsin describes himself as a practical consensus-builder. He also indicates that one of his goals is to bring civility back to the City Council. Given the number of three-to-two decisions we see coming from the current City Council, we clearly need a practical consensus-builder.

O’Leary Clashes in Blair Hills

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      Finally, some emotion.
Real heat.
      Passions must have been taken prisoner at the start of the City Council campaign in January. They did not escape until Wednesday night in usually placid Blair Hills when the scrupulously followed candidate script was shredded.
      Typically, the first two months of Candidate Forums have been a little duller than watching paint dry.
      Of all things, feelings flared over Measure V, which proposes to replace the fifty-nine-year-old City Charter with a rewrite that contains controversial provisions.

Tunick Tweaks the Mayor

temp16OP-ED

   Mayor Albert Vera’s main reason for endorsing Mehaul O’Leary for City Council is that he’s a businessman who will bring business practices to City Hall.
 
     Three questions arise: 
 
     (1) Don’t we have enough businesspeople on the City Council already, like, say, five out of five?     I believe their orientation has benefited Culver City’s business community at the expense of unrepresented workers, customers and residents, not to mention taxpayers.
(Having the Chamber of Commerce head as a Council member is like having a former chief executive of Halliburton as vice-president, if you can imagine that.  Can you spell c-o-n-f-l-i-c-t  o-f  i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t?)  

MalsinO’LearySilbiger — They Are Close

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      Two and a half weeks before Election Day on April 11, here is one unofficial consensus:
      If the vote count is as tight as the candidate forums that have caravanned into every neighborhood, the three candidates for the two City Council seats will need to be pried apart by a crowbar.
      The single development three-quarters of the way through the three-month campaign is that Mehaul O’Leary, the greenest candidate in January, has grown stronger and more confident.
      To say it differently, he has caught up with Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger, the only incumbent, and Scott Malsin, the Planning Commission veteran.
      However, since most Culver City residents who will be voting next month have not attended any of the forums, trends and tendencies may not influence the way they mark their ballots.

School District Issues a Fact Sheet

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

      Locked in a contractural logjam with the Teachers  Union for months, the School District has issued a paper that it calls a fact sheet, offering its version of broken down negotiations.
      The two sides are scheduled to meet with a mediator on April 17.

      The Teachers Union, still seeking a contract for last school year, has turned down the District’s offer of “a more than  five percent”  salary increase because the offer included elimination of retiree health benefits for teachers hired after July 1.  Elimination of these benefits was first proposed by the District on Feb. 2.