CULVER CITY— A new bakery called Copenhagen Pastry has sprouted at the intersection of Washington Blvd and Washington Pl. Management plans to open in June serving traditional Danish baked goods. [Toddrickallen]

DOWNTOWN— Clifton's Cafeteria is undergoing that refurb which will turn the vintage restaurant into a multifaceted 47,000 square foot space to refuel. Blogdowntown caught up with owner Andrew Meieran who says that he has "uncovered just amazing things." One such article is a neon sign that was discovered behind a wall, and the light was on, glowing for the past 70 years. "Neon experts" have told Meieran that the sign is likely the "oldest existing, continuing operating neon in the world." [Blogdowntown]

WEHO— Effective May 30, The London initiates "Wednesdays at Sunset" wherein the hotel's rooftop opens up to the public. From 6-7PM beer and wine is offered gratis to all guests. Resy required. [EaterWire]

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.

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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.

But it is a wonderful food tour of the hidden gems that make up LA dining.

The tour is also for the curious, carefree foodie in all of us. Foody Field Trips is designed for those who like exploring, discovering new food destination and meeting new people.

Says Foody Field Trips co-owner Ricky, “Mei and I started the company out of our passion for eating and obsession for anything and everything that is FOOD!”

Every weekend, a tour of Pasadena — a three-hour tour (cue Gilligan!) — starts at 9:45 a.m. and costs $65. A three and a half-hour tour of downtown Culver City is also offered every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. for the same price. Private and group tours (10-35 people) are also available.

For more information about Foody Food Trips, click here.

In honor of Eater’s pizza week I thought I’d post a photo of the best pizza I’ve had in the past week… Pitfire’s new spring special, The Hula Hoop. Featuring pineapple, jalapenos, straciatella, and speck, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a slice I crave come April of every year: the pineapple and jalapeno pizza from Spicy Pie.  Pitfire’s wood fired Neapolitanish pizzas bear no resemblance to the ridiculously priced $7 slices that Coachella goers stuff their faces with every year, but considering I didn’t make it to Coachella this year it was close enough.  Now if only the Tupac hologram had joined me for lunch, it would have been perfect.

Related:
An Open Letter to Spicy Pie: Please Open a Storefront in Los Angeles
Am I Crazy or Is Pitfire Pizza Not Terrible? (Even By New York Standards!?)

Congratulations to Culver City High School’s Michelle Bac for talking first place honors in the 2012 Congressional Arts Competition.

Bac’s submission, entitled, "A Face," was selected to be included in a special student art exhibition that will be on display in the U.S. Capitol for the next year.

Congresswoman Karen Bass personally congratulated Bac on her Facebook page, stating: “I’d like to congratulate Michelle for submitting her phenomenal artwork to win Congressional Art Competition and recognize all of the other students for their hard work on the other great pieces of work our office received. It is extremely important that we give students a positive outlet to express their creativity, so I am delighted to provide youth a means to support that effort.”

In a prepared statement, Bass said, “Michelle will have an opportunity to attend an unveiling ceremony with Members of Congress and special guests this summer in Washington, D.C.,"

Since 1982, each spring the U.S. House of Representatives sponsors a nationwide high school arts contest designed to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of young artists. Any high school student in the 33rd Congressional District of California was welcome to submit their artwork to the Los Angeles district office. Bac’s piece was chosen by a panel of judges and in an online competition on Bass’ congressional website.

Bac was also recently featured in a Culver City Patch article as one of five CCHS Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program students currently interning at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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Summer is almost here and there are a slew of camps available for local Culver City kids. But how do you choose which one?

Well, if your child has a penchant for tumbling, cartwheeling and leaping, then maybe a gymnastics camp is the way to go.

Find out if you and your kids are interested in a gymnastic summer camp when The Los Angeles School of Gymnastics at 8450 Higuera St., opens its doors on Sun. May 20 from 1–3 p.m. for the school’s annual Summer Camp Open House.

The free event will allow visitors to tour the facility, meet the instructors, sample camp activities, win freebies and even meet and greet members of the USA National Team: Heather Chan, Shirley Gon-Gibbs and Elizabeth Petrosyan, who will perform on site. 

The 2012 summer camp program will run from June 18 – Sep. 7.

“Our goal is to offer a healthy summer camp for children, which will get them away from videogames, computers, phones and right into physical activity,” Tanya Berenson, the school’s general manager stated in a release. 

Among the facilities available at the largest gymnastics facility in California are the three 3,000-foot spring tumbling floors, full-size trampolines, multiple beam bar stations, spotting belts and a foam filled pit.

The facility also offers camp activities beyond gymnastics, including hip-hop with world-renowned dance instructors from UCLA, yoga, swimming and rock-climbing.

“Whether your child is interested in gymnastics for fun, recreation or has high ambitions in the sport, we provide an educational, healthy, safe and professional environment for the kids,” Berenson said.

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

One of our area's vintage cars, spotted in Santa Monica

One of my pleasures of living in the relatively dry SoCal climate is our thriving classic car culture. Part of that culture will be on display this Saturday, as downtown Culver City hosts its “Crusing Back to the 50s“ car show right out on Culver and Washington Blvds. from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. I was there four years ago, and it was loads of fun.

In addition to a selection of over 400 classic cars, expect to see some of the world’s most famous tv show custom cars and their creator, George Barris (Batmobile, Munster Koach, etc.). There will be food, music, and car-related merchandise on hand as well. Oh, and did I mention that admission to the show is free?

As part of its commitment to young musicians, the Culver City Symphony Orchestra will showcase the talents of 12-year-old cellist Nathan Le, and 16-year-old cellist Leah Hansen at a concert this Sat. May 12 at the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium.

Parness Concerto Competition sponsors the annual concert, and Le won the competition’s junior division, while Hansen was an intermediate division winner.

The concert, entitled, ‘A Concert of Firsts,’ will take place at 8 p.m. under the direction of Conductor Frank Fetta.

General admission to the program is $15 and $10 for members of the Westchester Symphony Society. The performance is made possible in part by the Culver City Performing Arts Grant Program with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The evening’s complete program is as follows:

A Concert of Firsts

Frank Fetta - Conductor

Saint-Saëns: Concerto for Cello, No. 1, a minor, (1872), Nathan Le-Cello 

Shostakovich: Concerto for Cello, No. 1, (1959), Leah Hansen-Cello 

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1, C Major, (1800)

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Last month, Patch sat down with playwright Danai Gurira to talk about her new play The Convert, currently being staged by the Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

A review in  Variety calls the play, "the most Ibsenesque American play in years, a three-act melodrama unafraid to proclaim its themes in block letters as an independent minded woman is trapped in a tightening noose set by patriarchal authority.

You can read the full review in Variety here.

The Convert runs through May 19.

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

Click here to read the full story on the Huffington Post.

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

The Navy is San Diego Gas & Electric's largest customer, and the utility has been working on an agreement under which the Navy would temporarily reduce its energy consumption if regional supplies get scarce. In exchange, the Navy would receive a break on electricity rates.

The company has similar agreements with large industrial customers, which can slash the demand for power at critical times and keep the lights burning.

State energy officials say Southern California could be hit by rotating blackouts this summer if a heat wave hits while San Onofre's twin reactors remain dark, though some activists insist adequate reserves are on hand.

The plant, which can crank out enough electricity for 1.4 million homes, has been shut down for nearly three months while investigators try to determine the cause of excessive wear on hundreds of alloy tubes that carries radioactive water in its massive steam generators.

The loss of the nuclear plant also makes it harder to import power into the San Diego area, where reliable energy transmission has long been a thorny issue.

"If the (San Onofre) units remain down, you obviously have less power supply down there. If you have a transmission line go down, or another generator go down, you are in a very tight situation," said Bruce Kaneshiro, a supervisor at the state Public Utilities Commission.

Capt. Dora Lockwood, a Navy spokeswoman, said the company is working on a target for power reductions, if needed, at the numerous Navy installations in San Diego County, which include Naval Base San Diego, the Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

"We will do our best, while preserving our capability to carry out our mission responsibilities, to support their request," Lockwood said.

SDG&E spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp said a deal could be finalized shortly.

"The military is aware of the challenges this summer," Ramp said.

State energy planners have been working on a strategy to find replacement power in the region and reduce demand if hot weather hits while the nuclear plant is sidelined. Those plans include restarting two retired power plants in Huntington Beach, urging conservation, such as using air conditioners sparingly, and seeking temporary power cutbacks, if needed, from the military and public agencies.

On Friday, Southern California Edison, which operates San Onofre, asked state regulators to approve a plan to promote conservation among its commercial customers in Orange County – they can earn a 10 percent rebate by cutting consumption by 10 percent during the summer, when demand is high.

No date has been set to restart either reactor, which are located between San Diego and Los Angeles.

It takes power to move power, and the restart of the Huntington Beach plants will allow increased transmission into the region, said Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the agency that operates the state's wholesale power system, the California Independent System Operator.

The loss of the nuclear plant can restrict power imports into San Diego area by up to 30 percent. The San Diego utility hopes a new, $1.8 billion transmission line will be completed by summer, which would help fill any shortages.

The twin, natural gas-fired plants in Huntington Beach were retired earlier this year. The gas line feeding the plants was severed and 3-foot holes were cut in the boilers, a requirement after taking them out of service.

Eric Pendergraft, president of AES Southland, which operates the Huntington Beach plants, said Thursday that repairs to the boilers and other equipment would begin shortly. He predicted the plants would be ready to restart in mid-May.

The company has to strike agreements with the state wholesale power system before returning to service.

Some officials in nearby communities have been calling for San Onofre to shut down permanently, and last week the Irvine City Council urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to thoroughly review safety conditions at the plant before it is considered for relicensing in 2022. The city requested in a letter that the evacuation zone be expanded to 50 miles, from 10 miles.

The trouble at San Onofre began to unfold in late January, when the Unit 3 reactor was shut down as a precaution after a tube break. Traces of radiation escaped, but officials said there was no danger to workers or neighbors. Unit 2 had been taken offline earlier in January for routine maintenance and refueling, but investigators later found unusual wear on tubing in both units.

The excessive tube wear has raised questions about the integrity and safety of replacement generators the company installed in a multimillion-dollar makeover in 2009 and 2010.

The plant's four steam generators each contain nearly 10,000 tubes that carry hot, pressurized water from the reactors. The tubes are a critical safety barrier – if one or more break, there is the potential that radioactivity could escape into the atmosphere. Also, serious leaks can drain cooling water from a reactor.

Test results show that two types of wear have occurred at both units – tubes are rubbing and vibrating against adjacent tubes, as well as against support structures inside the generators.

Federal and company investigators are trying to determine why that is happening.

An environmental group, Friends of the Earth, has claimed SCE misled the NRC about design changes that it said are the likely culprit in excessive tube wear and has urged more detailed study before the reactors are restarted.

S. David Freeman, an adviser to the group, said last month that warnings about blackouts are unnecessary, since power can be managed to avoid any customer outages, even without San Onofre.

"California is not and cannot be one power plant away from rolling blackouts," Freeman, a former general manager at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, wrote to the Independent System Operator.

He said it was disturbing that state energy officials are "warning of a return of blackouts unless a very troubled nuclear plant is rushed back into operation."

SCE has said safety remains its priority.

The plant is owned by Edison, SDG&E and the City of Riverside. The Unit 1 reactor operated from 1968 to 1992, when it was shut down and dismantled.

Click here to view the full photogallery.

In just a few weeks, Clive Wilkinson Architects will become the newest business in the Culver City Arts District, when the firm behind the 10 Palms condos opens its new 12,500 square foot headquarters at 6116 Washington Boulevard. The firm expects to start moving in in mid-May. It looks like the building, designed by CWA, natch, will live up to the firm mantra of "Building creative communities"--a firm press release announcing the project completion date describes the new double height office space as a "bespoke cube-like structure," with a ring of collaborative work spaces on the 6,500 square foot second floor, which will overlook a mezzanine lounge and a roof terrace. The building will also include "a solar panel canopy and solar tube daylighting throughout."

The ground floor of the building will include a 700 square foot retail unit that "addresses both the street and the front courtyard." Cognoscenti Coffee has already signed a lease to operate in the space--it will be the first "brick and mortar" space for architect Yeekai Lim's formerly pop-up coffee shop (you can currently find the coffee at Proof Bakery in Atwater Village). Coffee aficionados should look for that to open this summer.

And of course there's an Expo angle! CWA calls the project "Serendipitously well timed with the late April launch of the Expo rail line serving stations at Jefferson/La Cienega and Venice/Robertson." The firm's soon to be former location is on Robertson in West Hollywood.
· Clive Wilkinson Archives [Curbed LA]

[Photo from last year's event taken from the STAR Eco Station's Facebook page.]

Maker produces and partners with content creators, distributing their webisodes through YouTube. On Youtube, Maker has over 70 million subscribers and 650 million monthly views across more than 400 channels.

Culver City detectives have arrested man in connection with the theft of five vintage guitars belonging to members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from a studio last week.

The guitars were stolen from a sound stage at The Culver Studios in Culver City, according to the band’s website. A reward of $7,500 with “no questions asked” was offered.

No immediate details on the arrest were available and the Culver City Police Department is holding a press conference at about 3 p.m. to discuss the case.

The guitars were reported missing Thursday while Petty was rehearsing at the studios in advance of the band's 2012 North America-Europe tour, which kicks off Wednesday in Broomfield, Colo.

The guitars include Petty’s 1967 12-string Rickenbacker and Gibson SG TV Junior, Ron Blair's Fender Broadcaster, Scott Thurston's 1967 Epiphone Sheridan and Mike Campbell's blue Dusenberg, which was built for Campbell to commemorate the band's 30th anniversary.

Petty, originally from Gainesville, Fla., first recorded in Los Angeles in 1974. At the time, he was an unknown, living in seedy hotels and on advances when he got the phone number of Shelter Records one day while eating at Ben Frank’s on the Sunset Strip.

After signing with the record company, he was playing one night in a studio when the descending chords of the hit “Breakdown” came to him.

In 1977, the song got air play on KHJ, squeezed in with songs by KISS and Andy Gibb, and it eventually landed on Billboard’s Top 40. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

On an unrelated video posted to the band’s website, Campbell spoke a little about his affection for the guitar. “I fell in love with the guitar when I was 15.  I still love the guitar as much as I did then. There are only six strings and 20 frets but there is a whole world of mystery and inspiration in this instrument,” Campbell said.

ALSO:

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Tax Day rally in downtown L.A. aimed at 'corporate tax-dodgers'

-- Andrew Blankstein

twitter.com/anblanx

Photo: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform at a benefit for KCSN radio at the Plaza Del Sol Performance Hall on the campus of Cal State Northridge on Oct. 29. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times