ValleyVote Update for 11-12-01 |
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See 11-18-01 Cityhood benefit | Fair share or fair play | Valley VOTE calls on City to Negotiate in good faith | Apartment Complex Has Tropics in Its Backyard
November 18, 2001 2:00 PM (This Sunday Afternoon)
VALLEY CITYHOOD BENEFIT CONCERT AND CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION Featuring World Renowned Pianist DEXTER GREY In "Polonaise" his musical drama based on the life and music of Frederic Chopin When: November 18, 2001 2:00 PM (Sunday Afternoon)
Where: David Fleming Auditorium Valley Presbyterian Hospital Click for map
15107 Vanowen Street, Van Nuys (Just east of Sepulveda )
PROCEEDS FROM THIS BENEFIT CONCERT WILL GO TO HELP FOR THE VALLEY CITY HOOD PROCESS PLEASE SUPPORT THIS WORTHY AND VERY IMPORTANT EFFORT ATTACHED IS A FLYER FOR THIS EVENT.
Tickets are $50 per person, $90 per couple Make Checks Payable to Valley VOTE
14622 Ventura Blvd. #201-B Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 For more information call (818) 501-5862
RON Deaton -- the powerful master of our City Council -- neatly summed up his attitude toward secession, the San Fernando Valley and democracy itself with this quip last (11-8-01) week: "Just because you vote on it doesn't make it so."
The City Council's chief legislative analyst was, to be fair, commenting only on a single, narrow question: Should the Valley, if it secedes from Los Angeles, retain part ownership of regional assets such as airports and utilities?
Deaton's response was: No, even if the people vote for such an arrangement. The ultimate decision, in his opinion, belongs to himself and his fellow deal makers in City Hall. And the fat cats have no interest in giving up money-making assets, no matter what the public says or who paid for them.
That's been Deaton and City Hall's attitude toward the Valley and nearly every other community in Los Angeles all along, most nakedly whenever the subject of secession comes up. The Valley has long paid more than its fair share for its less than fair share of city services.
That's a big reason why there's a secession movement at all. Yet even in a democratic divorce, City Hall aims to impose a perpetual imbalance.
The tenor of secession discussions improved slightly last week, when city leaders grudgingly conceded that, under the right conditions, they might be so gracious as to let the Valley keep its own police and fire stations, libraries and other basic assets.
But even this concession was more symbolic than meaningful. City Hall is only willing to negotiate the transfer of assets after secession is approved. Secession, however, would never be approved under such conditions -- the public rightfully wants to know what it's voting for before it casts its decision.
In their phony attempt at negotiations, Deaton and fellow L.A. leaders just won't treat Valley residents the way they deserve to be treated. They refuse to give the Valley its fair share, and now they refuse to give it fair play, too. They just don't understand what sparked the secession movement in the first place.
) Valley VOTE calls on City to Negotiate in good faith. Valley VOTE is asking Mayor Hahn to live up to his pledge that the City of Los Angeles would constructively participate in the LAFCO negotiations in an attempt to create the best possible plan with sufficient details for the voters. The Mayor and other city officials have been critical of the LAFCO proposal, claiming that the proposal does not have enough details.
LAFCO intended that the negotiations to be an opportunity for both parties to resolve as many unanswered issues and address those details. Yet in the first two of the four scheduled negotiating sessions, the City of Los Angeles representatives have failed to put forth a single proposal. At the last session, the LAFCO negotiation facilitator repeatedly asked the City of Los Angeles negotiators for their proposals. The City once again had none to offer.
In each session the City negotiators found excuses not to discuss the real issues. In the first session they argued that secession could not occur due to approximately 185 administrative positions allocated to the new City out of 38,000 employees. In the second session they argued that a State statute allowing a new City to repay transition service costs “within” five years would be a hardship to the City. When Valley VOTE proposed reimbursing the City monthly for their costs, the City questioned LAFCO's ability to enforce such an agreement, even though it was demonstrated that similar arrangements are routinely a part of other LAFCO Terms and Conditions around the state.
Negotiations should be about making progress to agree upon answers to the questions posed by LAFCO, not just putting up obstacles. The test of Mayor Hahn's pledge is not whether the City shows up at the table, but is the City actually ready and willing to make progress in the negotiations. The City's tactics may serve the purpose of those City officials that want to block Cityhood but their intentional refusal to negotiate common sense solutions is potentially at the expense of City residents if LAFCO sets forth its own solutions.
At the last negotiation session, Valley VOTE put forth a sixteen-point proposal that provided precise details about how the transition period would work. The City refused to negotiate those details. Any agreements that resulted from the negotiations could have been made a part of the LAFCO terms and conditions and become legally binding on the parties.
Good faith negotiations are more than just showing up at the table. Valley VOTE believes that the City has an obligation to all residents of Los Angeles to negotiate in good faith a reorganization plan that presents to the voters in November of next year the two best new cities possible, a new Valley City and a new, smaller Los Angeles City. Valley VOTE believes that 75% of the issues can be resolved through these negotiations and be made a part of LAFCO's terms and conditions. We are calling upon the City to cease playing games and to come to the table ready to negotiate in good faith for the last remaining negotiation sessions.
By KRISTINA SAUERWEIN, Times Staff Writer
SHERMAN OAKS -- Beyond the palm trees, hibiscus plants and sun-bleached fake flamingos sits a 10-acre village on Magnolia Boulevard where the young and the old sunbathe, golf, dance, play tennis and toast each other with drinks at dusk.
It is a village, the locals like to brag, that a band built.
In 1940, big-band leader Horace Heidt Sr. bought the property when he settled in Los Angeles to work with Jimmy Stewart on a movie based on Heidt's successful radio game show called "Pot of Gold." Heidt Sr. also toured the world, hosting big-band variety shows and recruiting singers, dancers, musicians and comedians to perform with him.
His Sherman Oaks property, he reasoned, would house about 100 members of his band troupe.
"My dad looked at his troupe as family," said Horace Heidt Jr., 53, who has managed the property since his father's death in 1986. "He felt an obligation to take care of them. Everyone had show business in common, so people easily became friends."
Back then, the property, like much of the San Fernando Valley, was nothing more than a horse ranch and groves of orange and grapefruit trees. But Heidt Sr. looked at the land and saw Palm Springs. He imported palm trees, built two-story bungalows that faced sparkling pools with lounge chairs nearby and, in 1955, invited his band members to live in his village.
He put in a tennis court, an 18-hole, par-three golf course and a recreation room where he hosted parties and talent shows. He also added more bungalows and pools in an area--decorated with waterfalls and tiki statues--modeled after a Hawaiian village.
In an autobiographical pamphlet on Heidt Sr., one visitor described Heidt's one-of-a-kind estate, dubbed the HH Ranch, as a "combined circus winter quarters, resort hotel and museum." Through the years, the ranch attracted a mix of residents beyond the band members, and Heidt Sr. added a series of two-story apartment buildings to accommodate more tenants. There are now 160 apartments and 20 other rental units in bungalows on the property.
Obscured to the public by a wall and tall eucalyptus, the Horace Heidt Magnolia Estate Apartments offer seclusion. And although pine needles fill the dry waterfalls and the decor looks faded and dated, the village resembles an all-inclusive resort for travelers in need of some rest and relaxation--not a place that roughly 300 people call home.
Coffee and pastries are served each morning in the recreation room. The bridge club plays on Friday. Others may meet for bingo or gin rummy. There's a health club, tennis and golf tournaments, spring concerts, movies, dinners, dancing and an annual luau with ukulele music and Polynesian dancers.
Heidt Jr., a former musical director for the Los Angeles Raiders and the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, has also hosted big-band variety shows reminiscent of the kind that helped his father earn two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and enjoy a career that spanned the 1920s to the 1960s.
"It takes me right back," said Mimi Hatton, 80, a legal secretary and longtime resident who used to sing operatic soprano with Heidt Sr. "The [estate] has so much to offer. There's always something to do, with loads of parties . . . It's the kind of place where neighbors know and like each other."
Which is exactly what Heidt Sr. wanted, said his son, who plans to write a book about his father. "My dad wanted a place with a strong sense of community," said Heidt Jr., who lives nearby and is president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce. "I want to carry on that tradition."
Although the village continues to lure those affiliated with the entertainment industry, residents are a diverse mix of retired couples, the working class, young professionals and struggling entertainers. Throughout the years, the estate has attracted celebrities such as Ed Begley Sr. and Ed Begley Jr., Dick Van Patten, Barbara Hale, Robert Cummings and Wally George.
The apartment village--where Heidt Sr. used to live before he moved his family to Santa Monica--honors the history of the big-band era. In the back room of the administrative offices, shelves hold dusty relics that dignitaries gave Heidt Sr. when he performed in their cities.
There's a piece of shrapnel from Los Alamos, N. M., a gum ball machine from St. Paul, Minn., a plaque declaring Heidt Sr. "The King of Mardi Gras" from New Orleans and steins from Germany. The room has old typewriters and music sheets, model ships, cowboy boots and a gold bowl with plastic grapes. Hanging on a wall is the old green-and-gold spinning wheel from Heidt Sr.'s radio game show that gave away thousands of dollars during the late 1930s.
Apartments range from a 479-square-foot studio to a 1,650-square-foot, three-bedroom home. Rents vary from $725 a month to $2,100 a month, and there is a waiting list for residents, the apartment managers say.
Village dweller Judy Hatch, 43, called the apartments a bargain. "It's so lush and tropical, I feel like I'm living in a resort," said Hatch, who moved into the village in April and frequently partakes of an informal "happy hour" with other residents. "Everyone greets me warmly and is happy," she said. "Some evenings I sit outside and watch the birds with my neighbors."
Hatch sighed with contentment. "The apartment complex is like our world," she said. "Every time I leave and return, I feel like I'm coming back to paradise."
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