For those of us who grew up with Dennis the Menace and his grumpy neighbor, there is a déjà vu in our neighborhood. Recently the principal (spell it right!) of Wonderland Avenue Elementary School organized a Town Hall meeting at the school. So when Howie leaned over to me and whispered “Hey, Mr. Wilson!!!” I cracked up. Yup, the new principle is Mr. Wilson. Bet he gets a lot of flax about that.
It was nice of him to invite the entire neighborhood to meet him, and hear him say that he wanted the school to serve as a focal point for the community.
When all was said and done, it was a good meeting. Different community groups — Laurel Canyon Homeowners Association, Laurel Hills Homeowners Association, our local rep from the Neighborhood Council, etc. — usually meet separately, and sometimes share information. Residents from all over the hillside were there, voicing similar concerns.
Sonia Kwon from Councilman Jack Weiss’s office was there taking names and ready to deliver city services. She left us paperwork so she’d have a complete “to do” list.
Our BFF, LAPD Senior Lead Officer Ralph Sanchez was there. He gave us a quick lesson in “police prep lingo”; a “cat-burglar” gets his jollies from getting in and robbing you blind while you’re asleep. That’s his adrenaline rush. (I’ll spring for a YMCA membership so he can get his rush elsewhere.) A robber takes stuff from people; a burglar just “takes your stuff” —you don’t need to be there to participate.
There was a lot of chatter about locals aggressively zooming through the tiny hillside streets. Those using the neighborhood as short cuts were also vilified. Sanchez called their behavior “Road-ragious” — he is always very entertaining. He gave us a phone number to call so we can get particularly bad areas policed by the tin-men. So people, localize the time and place of this bad behavior and call 213 457-0215, ask for Officer Reed or Codero.
Paul Edelman from the MCRA was there to answer any questions about the purchase for public dedication of the six acres at the intersection of Mulholland and Laurel Canyon. I wrote an article about the project, "Can You Spare Me a Dime to Preserve Open Space?" [June 8, 2008]. We did point out that all of the local parks have been designated as "regional parks," so even though we have lots of local green space, we don’t have any places for our kids to play locally. We asked that the additional six acres not be turned into a “formal park” but rather be left as open space with no development. They liked the idea, but admitted if someone forks over $4.5 mil, they’ll get whatever they want on the space. Let’s hope for a compassionate angel.
Finally, we told Mr. Wilson that the school used to have unlocked playgrounds during the weekends. He thought that was a great idea. It would only cost us $5,000 a year to pay the required security guard to open and close the gates. There were lots of volunteers to help with this project. Call Mr. Wilson to be assigned to the committee at (323) 654-4401.
