Power went out in Santa Monica for nearly 3,000 Southern California Edison customers Wednesday afternoon after construction crews working on the new Palisades Garden Walk accidentally hit a duct of power cables, the Los Angeles Times reported.

An Edison spokeswoman told the newspaper that the outage occurred at about noon, affecting 2,800 customers in an area bounded by Ocean Avenue, North Marine Street, 20th Street and Arizona Avenue. The lights and telephone service were knocked out of service at Santa Monica High School, where students were let out of class early, the Times reported.

The Palisades Garden Walk is one of two new parks under construction near the Santa Monica Civic Center. Crews are currently moving dirt to grade and shore up the 6-acre site located between Ocean Avenue and Main Street.

For more on the power outage, visit latimesblogs.latimes.com.

Stay up to date on Santa Monica news and events by following @StaMonicaPatch and “liking” us on Facebook.

A group of parents is joining together to form a united front in Culver City schools.

The new United Parents of Culver City will hold its kickoff meeting Thursday, May 24. The organization is a “labor of love” designed to represent all of the schools in Culver City, said Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, one of the organizers.

“We all decided that there was a need to have a parents' union when we tried to join forces regarding the adjuncts and parent-funded programs and positions issue,” she said. “It was an organic conclusion that there had to be a way for parents from all schools to exchange information and talk about issues that are important to us.”

Steve Levin, who serves as interim president of the United Parents of Culver City, said he was interested in getting involved in order to give children, including his three in Culver City schools, a voice in the local political process.

"The goal of UPCC is to assure that the children of CCUSD are well represented in the political process," Levin said. "Nearly every issue which effects the children has many stakeholders, some of whom are very effective at presenting their viewpoints.  It is inevitable that these stakeholders will sometimes have legitimate interests which conflict with the best interests of the children, so CCUSD, the Board of Education, and the community will need to weigh these competing interests.  UPCC will assure that at least one organization can present a viewpoint which is motivated solely by what's best for the kids."

The new, non-partisan organization will have a “Representatives Council” with representatives from each school as well as a Leadership Council and a Political Action Committee, Stehlin said.  

"While the beauty of Culver City is that each of our schools are unique, we also realize that parents share one thing in common: we believe that our children, the students, should be the first consideration when the District and the School Board make a decision," she said.

The kickoff event is scheduled to take place from 7-9 p.m. next Thursday at 4443 S. Purdue Ave.

Be sure to like Culver City Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The other day I found myself visiting northernmost South Central on business. When I was done I decided not to hop on the next bus home, but rather to walk for at least a little bit. The rest of my day was wide open and it was pleasantly warm and sunny. I began by heading north along Broadway; when I got to Washington, I crossed the tracks of the Blue Line.

In the early 20th century the South Central neighborhood was sometimes characterized as "The Harlem of the West." In 1964 the stretch of the 10 Freeway that separates South L.A. from Central L.A. was completed, and "South Central" became coded shorthand for "any black neighborhood south of the 10." Nowadays, as with most of L.A., the population is mostly Latino, although the Central Avenue Jazz Festival still takes place there annually, celebrating the rich musical history of the famed avenue.

Continuing along Broadway under the 10 freeway, I entered the South Park neighborhood of Downtown - home of the Staples Center and LA Live - which the city seems to hope will develop into some kind of SoCal Vegas. Oddly, there's an older neighborhood in neighboring South L.A. called South Park. Although some have attempted to extend what has been traditionally thought of as downtown south into University Park and Exposition Park, the 10 is apparently a barrier enough that no one involved in the naming of (new) South Park had heard of nearby (old) South Park. It's ironic that the very freeways that connect far flung communities for those also have the effect of separating and sometimes even destroying them.

Around Eighth Street the sidewalks begin to fill up considerably and the ethnic complex diversifies -- there are many Asians and Caucasians, whereas to the south it was almost exclusively black and Latino. Traveling north, I passed Pershing Square on the left. The park was dedicated in the mid-1800s and has gone through significant changes. In the 1990s the city spent millions of dollars for some large, very early-'90s looking public art, including a monolithic purple tower that remains today as its looming centerpiece.

A little further north, I weighed whether or not to take the Angels Flight up the steep side of Bunker Hill. But decided to keep walking instead and take one of many tunnels that cut underneath the hill.

While the Second Street tunnel gleams with white tiles and is undoubtedly one of L.A.'s most-filmed locations -- on average appearing in-two new car commercials per month -- the Third Street tunnel, on the other hand, is older and will never likely be used to shill any product. It's dim -- it feels like it's lit with gas lights or Edison bulbs. It's dank -- water continually runs down its walls. Mineral deposits are on their way to forming stalactites. Although a mid-day sneak attack from Jack the Ripper is unlikely to happen there, I reached into my pocket and caressed my knife for comfort. I also kept an eye on the manholes lest a C.H.U.D. attempt to drag me into the underworld. In the end, the only real threat came from three separate bicyclists who rode on the sidewalk and all barked at me to get out of their way.

After I emerged from the tunnel I turned left on Second Street and passed under another freeway, the 110, leaving downtown and entering the Temple-Beaudry neighborhood. As with developers' efforts to extend the definition of downtown into South L.A., some have advanced the concept of "Central City West." Tellingly, the area west of downtown is colloquially referred to as "The New Jersey of Downtown L.A." as well as "Little Central America," depending on who's doing the talking.

Along a bleak stretch of Beaudry, cross-street rivals Canvas L.A. and the Edward Roybal Learning Center seem to compete for in the "L.A.'s Ugliest Buildings" sweepstakes, but both are trumped by the bandage-colored apartments situated atop a paved and graffiti-scarred hillside that I refer to as the Angeleno Heights Favela. They sit just outside the Angeleno Heights Preservation Overlay Zone which includes rows of beautiful Victorian and Craftsman homes.

Along Sunset apparent signs of gentrification abound. New vegan restaurants have recently opened on both sides of a street formerly lined with unremarkable Mexican restaurants. Costa Alegre advertises a new Vegetarian menu on a banner. At a curve in the road known as Mohawk Bend (and now a restaurantof the same name), was Gentlemen's Breakfast, a boutique men's shop where an optician named Konstantin was talking to someone on the phone, who apparently was trying to recruit him for a drum circle.

Heading toward Silver Lake along Sunset Boulevard, one passes through "The Cut," a sandstone hill carved out in the 1880s by the Ostrich Farm Railway to bring visitors from downtown to the ostrich farm in Griffith Park. Ostrich Farms were apparently quite popular back then. Lincoln Heights and South Pasadena also had them. Now the hill is more recognized for the murals painted by a Guatemalteco artist who goes by "Cache," whose favorite birds are apparently ostriches' distant flightless relatives: chickens.

Upon arriving at the loose border of Silver Lake, one is greeted by the iconic "Happy Foot/Sad Foot" sign -- a rotating sign advertising a foot clinic that alternately shows a cheerful, anthropomorphized foot and, on the other side, a bandaged foot that walks with the aid of crutches. It's such an icon that it's been alluded to in a David Foster Wallace novel and an Eels song, and sometimes the area is even referred to as "HaFo SaFo."

When I arrived home and plugged in my phone, which had died long ago, there was a text from my neighbor/Thai-teacher/pingpong competitor asking if I wanted to go for a walk. My feet had stopped being happy. I declined.

The following post first appeared on the website CityWatch and is being republished with permission from the author.

WHAT’S METRO HIDING? - James Francis Dolan, PhD. Professor of Earth Sciences at USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

The guy may be tone-deaf, for all I know, but he is literally one of the region’s true geology rock stars. The go-to guy when it comes to faults, tectonics and all that jazz. 

I have no idea if his friends call him “Jim” or “Jimmy” or “J. F.”  Somehow with all his contagious enthusiasm and dry sense of humor, I imagine that he’s a Jimbo, but it’s just a hunch. Jimbo Dolan, USC rock star.

His rock star qualities became apparent at Metro’s Oct. 19 presentation when, as a member of a panel paid by Metro, barely able to conceal his authentic intellectual pleasure at discovering new faults, he moved County Supervisor and Metro Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky to remark that he would have become a geologist if he had had such teachers at UCLA.

Yaroslavsky repeatedly referred to Professor Dolan as “Professor Dillon,” so maybe this is a case of where there’s Gunsmoke, there’s fire. As for the supervisor’s scientific ambitions, the retort from a Trojan would, of course, be: if you’d have gone to USC, you would have had such teachers.  

While there may be some who wish that Supervisor Yaroslavsky had had Dolan or at least a Dolanesque geology professor back in the day, one can at least agree that “science can be fun and fascinating.”

After having seen JD live at the Metro presentation—yes, that’d be the one that Metro Board Member and County Supervisor Mike Antonovich described as Metro lucha libre, where you know the outcome before the match begins—I was interested in learning more about our faults. No, not about my own individual faults, as I have enough people in my life to constantly remind me of those. But I was fascinated to learn there was a major fault along Santa Monica Boulevard, complete with the requisite scarps.

I also loved hearing about Professor Dolan’s sense of time. He mentioned how geologists have a different perception of the time-space relationship and how he once found himself saying, “Yeah, those rocks are really young: they’re only ten or fifteen million years old.” I can only imagine that an added benefit of studying under Professor Dolan would come to any of his students ever needing any extra time to finish off a term paper, report or thesis. Need a deadline extension? No problemo.  What’s an extra week or even an extra month, given the context? 

Having read a bit more about Dr. Dolan and having written about his Alquist-Priolo conclusions in the Huffington Post (in an article entitled “Fault-y Towers: Don’t Mention the Core!”), I wanted to take the opportunity to chat with him in person. This was, it should be duly noted, before the October Metro report was seriously called into question by the independent review conduct by Exponent Consulting.  

But whether the conclusions drawn by Professor Dolan and his cohorts regarding the seriousness of the Santa Monica fault were justified or not, I was interested not only in his scholarship about the Santa Monica fault, but actually mainly about other faults in the region, including the Puente Hills fault with its potentially devastating power to wreak the ultimate destruction on Downtown LA. I was concerned that maybe the extent of the faulting in the region wasn’t adequately documented, and wanted to hear his reaction to the suggestion that more funds be devoted to mapping the area to the same extent Metro had done with the Santa Monica fault.

Our Deputy City Manager called Dr. Dolan to try to set up a meeting. Dr. Dolan answered his own phone, unpretentious unlike other rock stars. Does Eddie van Halen pick up his own phone? How about Justin Bieber? But Dolan does and he graciously said he would be happy to talk to me. But there was a catch. He also said that he was under contract to Metro; we would need to talk to Metro to be able to talk to him.  

After repeated calls to Dennis Mori, Metro’s current Executive Officer, capital development, we finally got a response. (Mori is also the former project manager of the Red line, whose construction was perhaps most well-known for its near-fatal sinkhole on Hollywood Boulevard). The answer to my request was “no.” I felt like Michael Moore when GM denied his request to meet with then-General Motors CEO Roger Smith.

Metro was clearly being overprotective of their rock star. Yet I still wasn’t sure what their reluctance was. Were they scared that I was going to try to lure him to become Beverly Hills’s Chief Geologist? We do have a Chief Arborist, but not a Chief Geologist. At least, not yet.   

Perhaps they didn’t want me to talk to him about the fascinating subject of Alquist-Priolo zones? I had written at this URL about the potential consequences of the new fault discoveries. Perhaps Metro didn’t want to be seen in the greater development community of greater LA as being at fault for the faults. As I wrote, while that might stifle overdevelopment and be frowned upon in some quarters, in others it would be looked upon as a holiday gift, namely by those who prefer more human-scale, low-rise development.

Why was Metro denying access to Professor Dolan? What of open-source scholarship? It seems the only reasonable conclusion is that Metro wants to control Dolan, control the message, control the spin. But to what end?  

If Metro restricts access to their experts, just how objective, just how independent can those experts really be? For people in Beverly Hills, the answer will be something they feel they already knew all along. Are there parts about the good professor’s data or conclusions which could somehow, somewhere work against what Metro perceives to be its interests? Why did GM so studiously avoid allowing Roger Smith to talk to Michael Moore?

In the case of Metro, the issues would seem to be as follows:

Metro is not particularly interested in the impacts the potential new Alquist-Priolo zones indicated by Dr. Dolan’s scholarship would create on their developer friends.  They like TOD (transit oriented development, or “death” in German) and density because it increases ridership. So while they’re happy to use the new fault information to put the kibosh on any Santa Monica Boulevard station, they are also concerned about the effects building restrictions could create upon ridership both in Century City and along the length of the Santa Monica fault.

Furthermore, living in an earthquake zone and with many more potentially deadly and unmapped faults all around us, additional study and mapping of faults could muck up future subway expansion plans. It seems that Metro is employing a very selective “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy. 

Don’t ask, for example, about the Puente Hills fault with its potentially devastating effects on huge swaths of the Downtown LA area. As mentioned, I wanted to talk to Dolan, among other things, about this fault. The conclusions it might lead to are perhaps not what Metro, their developer friends, as well as the politicians who benefit from their developer patrons, might want to hear. So don’t ask, don’t tell.

Dolan seems apolitical, and the only way to spin his viewpoints would be to control what he says; muzzle him about other potentially niggling facts, which as a scientist, he might be forced to conclude, but which would be bothersome to other aspects of Metro’s agenda.

In rejecting my request to meet with Professor Dolan, the “official” Metro line from Metro PR-meister Jody Litvak, responding on behalf of Dennis Mori, was that these paid experts—some of whom also happen to be professors at major universities—receive far too many enquiries from elected officials and media reps to reasonably fulfill. How odd: I seem to remember that Art Leahy said the experts would be available to media reps under the guise of “we’ve got nothing to hide” and “full transparency” messaging. In fact, his exact words at the Oct. 19 meeting were: “The panels that have just presented are available not only to answer questions now but they’re available to the media following the conclusion of this item on this committee.”

Let me get this straight: there are so many media requests to talk to Professor Dolan that there’s no time left over to talk to elected officials, especially in jurisdictions which passed Measure R by the highest of margins? If there are really that many media inquiries, maybe this guy just needs a press agent. Rogers and Cowan, where are you? You may have thought you had your hands full with Britney Spears, but another type of rock star awaits.

As a writer for various publications including the Los Angeles Business Journal, Huffington Post and the Beverly Hills Courier, I could perhaps reasonably qualify as a member of the media, but denying elected officials, especially those in areas that could potentially be affected by Metro’s plans, access to these experts seems nothing if not Orwellian. Are they afraid that independent elected officials (i.e. those who haven’t gotten financial donations from some of the potential beneficiaries of the subway routing) might ask questions that lead to different conclusions from their own spin?

I would have complete understanding if Metro were trying to restrict access to Lloyd Cluff, who was one of the “distinguished” and “independent” panel members conducting the peer review on the study. Cluff was until earlier last year the Director of Risk Management for PG&E, which gained notoriety throughout the state for their attempt to manipulate California voters through Proposition 16, a brazen and opportunistic ploy to protect PG&E’s monopoly within its sphere of influence (and which voters wisely rejected, despite the $46 million PG&E spent on propaganda). These textbook efforts to abuse the initiative process to cement their local monopolies were followed a mere few months later by PG&E’s gas explosion in San Bruno which killed eight people. Not a great year for PG&E.

Asking Cluff to be part of the peer review is a little like asking the risk managers for Chernobyl to serve on a Nuclear Power Safety Committee. The analogy isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem to some. After all, this is the same Lloyd Cluff who evidently feels it’s OK to build nuclear power plants on fault–lines. Cluff’s response to State Senator Sam Blakeslee, who expressed concern about the safety of his constituents living near PG&E’s nuclear power plant on a newly-discovered fault line was: “There’s uncertainty in everything. We don’t see a concern about the uncertainty.” So let’s get this straight: according to Cluff, it’s OK to build a nuclear reactor on a fault line, but a subway station is verboten?

So, yes, I completely get it if Metro wants to deny anyone and everyone access to their paid expert Lloyd Cluff, former Risk Manager for PG&E, the investor-owned utility which was responsible for the deadly San Bruno explosion (not to mention the attempted initiative scam that was Prop 16).  

But Jimbo Dolan?

Unfortunately, it would seem so. And here we have yet another reason why additional checks and balances should be imposed upon Metro, a public agency whose board consists of a number of elected and appointed officials, but whose board has not been elected directly by the taxpayers funding it. For starters, Metro should be subject to an extensive governance audit. The function Metro is supposed to serve is much too important to be left to a byzantine construct where a bureaucracy seems to be running the show, playing favorites and managing the board members in a way that would put some of Franz Kafka’s corporate cultures to shame.

Unfortunately, Metro’s refusal to allow elected officials access to Professor Dolan and the other panel members (sans Cluff) unnecessarily degrades Professor Dolan to just another talking head and for all Metro’s talk about the “independent” panel, gives cause to question his “independence”.  Tom Lehrer’s words about former VP Hubert Horatio Humphrey come to mind in slightly modified form: “Once a fiery scientist spirit, ah, but now when he speaks he must clear it.” 

What a shame that Professor Dolan’s ivory tower isn’t open to all; and as such, unfortunately, it perforce must lose some of its stature. Selective data by its very nature must lose credibility. After all, isn’t a great scientist willing to look at the bigger picture and all the consequences—at least isn’t afraid to examine and confront them all head-on?

Another Dolan was once proclaimed to be a “genius” for his mere suggestion of steak and a bottle of Lowenbrau. In the immortal words of Arthur Prysock “Tonight is kind of special.”

Today would be kind of special if Metro would “free Professor Dolan” and allow him to do what he does best: share the full wealth of his knowledge with those who are interested. All those who are interested. After all, that’s the Academic Way, isn’t it? In fact, on Supervisor Yaroslavsky’s website we can read the following:

While acknowledging that such discoveries [i.e. new faults] can spark concerns, Dolan said in an interview that he prefers to take an all-news-is-good-news approach.

“I think anything we learn about active faults in LA is always good news,” he said, “because it’s absolutely critical that we fully understand the seismic threat facing us as residents of earthquake country.”

While SC’s Professor Dolan, much like the eponymous steak and Lowenbrau-loving character from the Clio-worthy 70’s commercial may very well also be a genius, it’s difficult to appreciate the Professor’s brilliance if access to his knowledge and insight are being restricted by a Metro muzzle. 

What happened to the all-news-is-good-news approach? Isn’t all information good information?

Guess not for Metro.

C’mon, Metro: take the muzzle off of Professor Dolan.

To read the post on CityWatch, click here.

Palisadian Amy Katch has done something that perhaps only those with "spidey sense" might try to accomplish over the weekend. Katch rappelled 27 stories down theWit Hotel at the corner of State and Lake Street in Chicago during the May 5-6 weekend.

No, Katch wasn't out to nab the bad guys by swinging from building to building. She was one of 90 people who hovered 278 feet above the pavement for the "Skyline Plunge!," a fundraiser for the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.

According to a press release, many of the participants rappel for the thrill of scaling tall buildings. However, there are some who participate in memory of a loved one, or to honor someone affected by lung disease.

The group raised over $120,000 for lung disease research and programs.

There will be another Skyline Plunge! on September 8 and 9.

• For information about the event, or if you'd like to sponsor a participant, click here.
• For information about the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, click here.

An all-star cast that includes George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis and John C. Reilly has been recorded by Venice-based L.A. Theatre Works performing "8," a dramatization of the legal battle in California over gay marriage.

The drama was writen by Dustin Lance Black, an Academy Award-winnng screenwriter for the 2008 film Milk and a gay rights activist, and was directed by Rob Reiner, whose directing credits include The Princess Bride, Stand by Me and This Is Spinal Tap, according to a statement from L.A. Theatre Works.

"8" is based on the legal fight against California's Proposition 8, a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in 2008 by voters that recognized marriage as being only between a man and a woman. The script is based on trial transcripts and observations of the federal trial in Perry v. Schwarzeneggger that challenged Proposition 8. Black has said that he wrote the play to provide a true account of the court proceedings since video recording of the trial was not allowed.

Pitt portrays U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional after presiding over a 12-day public trial. Clooney, an Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for 2005's Syriana, and famed actor Martin Sheen portray lead co-counsel David Boies and Theodore B. Olson.

Bacon plays Charles J. Cooper, the lead attorney for the Proposition 8 supporters and Reilly plays David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, who was called to the stand as an expert witness by proponents of Proposition 8, the statement said.

The dramatization will air on public radio stations across the United States during the week of June 9 as part of Gay Pride month in June via L.A. Theatre Works' nationally syndicted radio theater series. It is scheduled to be heard locally in Southern California on June 10 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on radio station KPFK, 90.7 FM, and will be available for streaming on demand June 9 at www.latw.org. An audiobook and digital download will be made available June 1 on iTunes, Amazon and other major retailers.

L.A. Theatre Works in March recorded the West Coast premiere of "8" at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre as part of a benefit event that raised more than $2 million for proponents of marriage equality on the federal level.

L.A. Theatre Works can be heard on the following stations: 90.7 FM KPFK in Southern California; 89.7 FM WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 FM KUOW in Seattle and 91.1 FM KRCB in San Francisco. Check local listings for broadcast times.

The Beverly Hills Courier on Friday published a story alleging that Metro is preparing to pay $38.7 million to JMB Realty for land to use as part of the Westside Subway Extension project. The Courier said the information came from a Metro report.

The Courier also alleged that the large payment is much more than the assessed value of the land and implied that the $38.7 million was a payment to a politically-connected developer.

Metro’s response: The story is completely erroneous. 

Metro documents and studies do not in any way detail a $38.7-million payment to JMB, nor is the agency planning a $38.7 million payment to JMB.

In fact, with the Century City station at the proposed Constellation and Avenue of the Stars location, the entire subway project with the station entrance and construction area using JMB property would cost $38.7 million less than another alternative not using JMB property.

Where does the $38.7 million number come from? It appears the Courier made an incorrect assumption and a math error.

First, some background: There are two possible station locations in Century City. One is under Santa Monica Boulevard, the other is under Constellation Boulevard. Metro staff have recommended the Constellation location for two reasons — first and foremost because there are active earthquake faults under Santa Monica Boulevard. Also, Constellation is more centrally located in Century City and more people are projected to use a station in that location.

As for the math error, it appears to have come from this chart in a Metro report titled “Century City Station Location Report.” The chart shows different costs of building at either of the proposed locations in Century City and the money amounts reflect all costs for the entire nine-mile project, including potential real estate acquisitions.

In the chart, “Constellation A” is a station on Constellation with a portal and construction staging area on JMB-owned property. “Constellation B” is a station on Constellation with a portal on Century Plaza Hotel property and a construction staging area on Century Park East. Metro staff prefers the Constellation A configuration in the first line in the chart.

To put it in math terms:

$4,280,252,000 (Constellation B) minus $4,241,525,000 (Constellation A) = $38,727,000.

Thus, the $38.7 million figure cited by the Courier. It appears the Courier wrongly assumed that Constellation B was the option using JMB property and that it was the more expensive option. In fact, the opposite is true: Using the JMB property costs the public $38.7 million less.

And the cost of building the project along Santa Monica Boulevard? One option would be less expensive than using Constellation and one option would be more. Again, Metro staff do not believe Santa Monica Boulevard is a viable location for a tunnel and station because of seismic issues.

Metro will absolutely be paying to acquire parcels needed to construct the Westside Subway Extension and the agency will also be paying for easements for subway tunnels wherever they run under private property, whether it’s commercial or residential (here is a property acquisitions fact sheet). As per Federal Transit Administration guidelines, Metro has estimated the cost of property acquisition for the entire project. But information pertaining to future real estate negotiations with individual landowners, including potentially JMB Realty, are not disclosed until those negotiations conclude.

It is also worth noting that in correspondence with Metro, JMB Realty has requested that its property not be used as a construction staging area. The firm has also said it supports a subway station anywhere in Century City.

Finally, the Courier story intimates that JMB may be receiving a large payout due to its political contributions. JMB is a national company and is politically active — as are many individuals and businesses in the United States.

In all likelihood, there are politically active people and businesses along the entire Westside Subway Extension alignment, some of whom may benefit from having property near the subway or perhaps (if necessary) from negotiating an easement or property purchase with Metro. Metro has and will continue to try to build a project in compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements, that is within its budget and provides the most benefits possible to those who live and work in and visit Los Angeles County.

West Los Angeles College is celebrating this week with the grand opening of its new Student Services and General Classroom buildings.

The grand opening, which is scheduled for this weekend, marks a milestone for the campus, said President Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh.

“These are two significant, sizeable projects,” he said. “The college is finally transforming itself.”

The General Classroom building houses new classrooms as well as a lecture hall and offices for faculty members. There is also a courtyard between the two buildings. The new additions to the campus will be of great benefit to the college’s approximately 11,000 students, Abu-Ghazaleh said.

“It signifies a lot to the students who are deserving of appropriate facilities,” he said.

Lindsay Stadler, a business administration student who is in her last year, is pleased with the new buildings.

“They’re very beautiful inside compared to what we used to have,” she said. “It’s more of a university feel.”

Another new addition to the campus is a café called Café West. Stadler said it is a big step up from the food truck the campus used to have.

“That’s the cherry on top,” Stadler said.

The official grand opening will kick off this Saturday with a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. and an open house which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.

LONG BEACH (CBS) — CBS2 is getting a sneak peak of the new penguin exhibit at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

The $1.5 million June Keyes Penguin Habitat will feature Magellanic penguins, some of which were rescued from Brazil where they were stranded outside their native habitat.

The penguins will join the Aquarium’s collection of more than 11,000 animals in the institution’s fifty exhibits.

The permanent exhibit opens to the public Thursday, May 17, at 9 a.m.

The UCLA Volunteer Center, a major participant in an annual neighborhood clean-up day, may withdraw staff support from the Westwood Organized Mega Project.

The university's retreat from the event, dubbed WOMP, would be a big "womp womp," Westwood neighborhood organizations say.

The Westwood Organized Mega Project, a day of volunteer service and beautification in Westwood Village, is joint collaboration between the UCLA Volunteer Center, the Westwood Community Council and other local organizations and merchants. The third WOMP was held last month and more than 700 UCLA students participated.

In the last week, both the Westwood Neighborhood Council and Westwood Community Council unanimously passed a resolution urging UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to continue making WOMP a yearly tradition. Members of the Westwood Neighborhood Council said they were told during the WOMP event this year that the service day would not be part of the UCLA Volunteer Center's programming for the following year, citing time constraints.

Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council, said the UCLA Volunteer Center only needs to commit staff time to organize student participation in the event. The supplies needed for the event is either donated or raised by the community.

"We knew they had no money to put in it," Sann told the Westwood Neighborhood Council. "We raise 100 percent of the money, lunches, breakfasts, T-shirts, water, trees, paint. UCLA committed to be the gateway so that students, staff and faculty can participate."

Vincent Wong, assistant director of UCLA Government and Community Relations which houses the Volunteer Center, attended the meeting and told the council the office may lack the staff resources to coordinate student participation in the event. He said the Volunteer Center has been downsized to one full-time staff member.

"We are not exiting Westwood in any way shape or form, we are not backing out of our commitment to Westwood," Wong told the Westwood Neighborhood Council. "It just may or may not be in this same iteration that is based on our ability to dedicate staff and money."

Several phone calls to the office requesting information about the UCLA Volunteer Center's participation in future WOMPs were not returned.

Sann said WOMP would continue whether or not UCLA is involved, but members of both councils lamented the loss of the university's participation.

"I see so little required because the community does 95 percent of the work," said Wolfgang Veith, a North Village resident and Westwood Community Council member. "There’s no excuse that UCLA wants to change what they have done so far."

Westwood Neighborhood Council member Lisa Chapman said she was disappointed that UCLA may not give back to the community just outside its grounds.

"Are we the doormat to UCLA or the foyer?" she said.

Should UCLA stay involved in WOMP? Should the event go on with or without the support of the UCLA Volunteer Center? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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LA.StreetsBlog.org has debunked the argument that JMB Realty, which has donated to the political efforts of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is slated to make money off the Westside Subway Extension.

Villaraigosa is the chair of the Metro Board of Directors, the body that makes the final decision on the subway route.

Articles have been published alleging that JMB stands to make $38.7 million if the Century City stop of the subway is located at Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars on a tract of land owned by the realty company.

Depending on which side of Constellation Boulevard the Century City station is built on, the land is either owner by JMB or the Hyatt. At this point, the Metro board has yet to make a decision on the final placement of the Century City station.

According to LA.StreetsBlog:

...Metro doesn't know what the exact cost of station construction will be because Metro doesn't know what the real estate costs will be to purchase property. Negotiations between Metro and land owners won't begin until after the project completes the "Final Design" stage.

To read the LA.StreetsBlog article, click here.

The Venice Neighborhood Council on Tuesday night voted in favor of a proposal by a Canadian-based company to install a 720-foot zip line ride this summer on Venice Beach.

The proposal was introduced by Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who was greeted by a chorus singing "Happy Birthday" as he entered the auditorium. Rosendahl, who turned 67, blew out the candles and then gave the audience of about 40 people at Westminster Avenue Elementary School an update on Venice issues ranging from upcoming helmets for youths at the Venice Beach skate park to the cleanup of 3rd Avenue to Google and Gold's Gym.

Rosendahl introduced the zip line proposal by saying he recognized the community's objections to an earlier plan for a 175-foot Ferris wheel that a United Kingdom-based company wanted to quickly erect this summer on Windward Plaza. The councilman was presented with the zip line plan by Kevin Regan, assistant manager of the city's Department of Recreation and Parks, and he liked the idea.

Rosendahl noted how one of the many conditions attached to the proposal included a pledge that two-thirds of gross revenues be spent on Venice Beach to pay for maintenance and enhanced services, such as emptying garbage cans and improving the public restrooms.

The council's board voted 8-6 with three abstentions in favor of the proposal.

Plans call for the zip line to be up and running July 1 with a three-month permit for ride operator Greenheart Conservation Company. The zip line's higher, 50-foot tower will be placed between the bike path and the boardwalk near the skate park and its lower, 24-foot tower will be installed at Windward Plaza, just before the basketball courts.

The 15 public speakers at the meeting were practically split. Those opposed to it had issues that included public safety, over-commercialization of the beach, the potential loss of income for street performers and concerns over aesthetics and screaming.

Jay Goodfader, whose family owns the Sidewalk Cafe restaurant on the boardwalk and its adjacent Small World Books, voiced his support for the attraction that would be installed in front of the restaurant and was joined by Clabe Hartley, owner of the Cow's End coffee and sandwich shop on Washington Boulevard, who previously opposed the "Great Observation Wheel" proposal.

Other supporters said the ride fit the spirit and character of Venice, while others liked how it would encourage the arts and the use of public transportation and bike-riding.

Ian Green, president of Greenheart Conservation Company, said the attraction would have three main components: the ride itself, once-a-month special performances and a sliding-scale educational component for children with activities ranging from acro-yoga to dance to juggling. Board members and the public were shown a video sans audio of a 2011 Burning Man performance incorporating the attraction to get an idea of the type of performance possible.

Canadian-born Dream Rockwell, who lives in Venice, said that she would help to produce the children's programs and performance aspects of the proposal. Rockwell is the director of the Lucent Dossier Experience, a quasi-steampunk, avante-garde circus troupe, and has a background directing music videos and rock tours. She also is the founder of Cuddle the World, an organization that provides teddy bears to needy children around the world.

Alicia Schultze, also a Venice resident, said the performances would be "nature-based entertainment" and would be a combination of performance and public participation. Schultze specializes in aerial performances and has performed on tour with rock legends Motley Crue.

Rides will cost $20 and the operating hours will be 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. for children's educational programs and 11 a.m. to sunset for the general public. Each ride will last less than a minute.

The city's parks department is mandated to self-generate $30 to $40 million of its annual $185 million budget and Venice Beach, which attracts roughly 16 million visitors a year, has become a draw for private ride operators willing to split revenue with the city.

The community input process included two subcommitee meetings before a motion was forwarded by the council's Visitor Impact Committee for consideration, Regan said after the vote. The next step was finishing negotiations with Greenheart and issuing the temporary event permit for the attraction. The zip line ride was being compared to the American Ninja Warrior set recently constructed on Windward Plaza and Regan said it was believed that California Coastal Commission approval wasn't needed, but that he would follow up. City Council approval is not required since it's a temporary event permit.

One of the conditions approved by the Venice Neighborhood Council stated that the attraction must be dismantled at the end of the three-month trial period and another said that any permanent installation would be subject to environmental review by the city and the California Coastal Commission.

Via his facebook page, Bill Rosendahl just posted:

For several months, rumors have been swirling in Venice that Gold’s Gym, the iconic “Mecca of Bodybuilding” was going to be forced out of its location by Google, which last year made an historic move to Venice.

This morning, my staff spoke with both local Google officials and the head of Google America’s real estate group. We have been thoroughly assured that Google appreciates the significance of Gold’s Gym to the Venice and bodybuilding communities, and wants the gym to stay where it is.

Google America’s Real Estate Group confirmed that Google has acquired the lease for a number of properties in the area near its Venice campus, including the property occupied by Gold’s Gym. Google is currently negotiating with the Gold’s Gym parent company, TRT Holdings, Inc., and hopes to strike an agreement that will keep Gold’s Gym where it is for 10 more years.

I anticipate Google and TRT Holdings will make their own public statements when negotiations conclude. But in the meantime, Gold’s Gym is staying put, in the heart of Venice, as a landmark, and as the world capital of bodybuilding.

I had heard about it, of course, but I don't think I'd ever noticed it in all the years I rolled around the Westside. That changed Saturday when my friend Emily and I went to pick up an out-of-town friend at the Viceroy in Santa Monica.

We were looking for a place to stop for a cocktail when we drove by it. It's a little shack of a building with a vintage cocktail sign. As soon as I saw it I made an elaborate U-turn to enter its lot. I'm a sucker for classic bars -- I love the Prince, Musso & Frank, the H.M.S. Bounty and Dan Tana's --  so when we entered Chez Jay and saw its tiny, well-worn interior with old-school checked tablecloths, scratched bar and cast of colorful regulars, I fell in love.

It was mid-afternoon and a relaxed vibe prevailed. People ordered the omelet special and read the paper, sipping on bloody marys and beer. The top of the front door was open and warm sunlight filtered in. As Malcolm Lowry (a notorious drunk) once noted in his book "Under the Volcano," there is something sad and lovely about watching specks of dust drift through the sunlight under the crack of a bar door when you're day drinking.

And so it was at Chez Jay as Emily and I drank a tequila gimlet and enjoyed the sense of discovery that came with stumbling across this priceless piece of L.A. history.

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-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Chez Jay. Credit: Jessica Gelt / Los Angeles Times