LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Fun Times Ahead

How come 95 percent of the Web Talk column about the Caruso Village is negative? That certainly doesn’t represent Pacific Palisades when 95 percent or more of us are for the new Caruso Palisades Village.

Only a few of our 20,000 population spoke out against it—in many meetings, trips to the courthouse and talks.

Most of us cannot wait to have a Village that is fun, experiential, has great shops and restaurants, and has our own movie theater.

Caruso’s taste in architecture and plans was more than many times approved by the majority, or he changed some plans because of concerns.

If you look around in the Village today, there are many not-cheap shops and restaurants, and even some that moved away were not cheap.

This is not a cheap town.

You can still visit a few inexpensive restaurants if you want to, so please quit the complaints and move on to a new time, a new village and new experiences.

You will have so many great memories and, yes, kids going alone to the movies.

Mary Kinzelberg | Alphabet Streets

Canyon Construction

I recently attended a meeting about replacing bungalows that were put in Canyon Charter Elementary School to address overcrowding. The school is currently overcrowded due to the admission of approximately 80-90 lottery students out of about 400 students.

I understand builders like to build. However, as a community member who resides near the school, I am suggesting that instead of replacing the bungalows and subjecting this residential neighborhood to three-plus years of the largest proposed construction project in four decades, stage the removal of the bungalows with the elimination of lottery students.

It is evident by the two-classroom separate kinder yard that Canyon is designed for fewer students (about 300). Eliminating the lottery and removing the bungalows will return Canyon to the enrollment level it was designed for.

Canyon’s assigned resident school area is very broad with hilly terrain and narrow roads. Already a large number of students are driven to the school. In fact, due to the terrain and large area of residential community, years ago, a school bus picked up children to bring them to school.

Eliminating the enrollment of lottery students will significantly improve what is already a bad traffic situation as lottery students are driven into the neighborhood. Eliminating 50-plus additional cars that create traffic snafus twice each day would be welcomed by all members of the community and commuters.

Many feel that the school committees are biased. The school committees are heavily weighted with being lottery parents and friends of lottery parents. The insights provided by them do not reflect the majority of the parents or the community at large. Although eliminating the lottery may not be popular with the volunteer groups, it may be the right solution.

The resources saved by no construction and eliminating the lottery program (millions of dollars) could be spent on new buildings in home school zones where lottery students originate. This will address local overcrowding and help with the massive traffic congestion citywide and in the canyon.

In short, Canyon can be adjusted to accommodate the students who reside in the home school zone and eliminate the overcrowding problem that these bungalows or new buildings are looking to address.

Bigger is not always better. This is an opportunity to return Canyon to a coastal zone community school.

Mark Landay

Palisades Past

After reading all the posts on Nextdoor El Medio Bluffs about Norris Hardware leaving, I felt very despondent. As a 50-year resident (growing up in WLA and Brentwood), we moved to the Palisades in 1970, raised three kids here, and now loving having our grandkids also love the town their parents grew up in, I would like to share what the Palisades once was!

When my kids were young, they played in front, walked to friends’ homes and “to town,” didn’t have cell phones, didn’t have computers, talked to each others and made their own fun with some imagination.

We had a hobby shop to buy models and art supplies, we had Mort’s Deli, Playcraft, Art Poole’s local café, a counter at the drugstore, a park overrun with moms (no nannies), Little League games, ballet at the park in the gym, movies at the Bay Theatre (where my husband and I had our first date in 1960 seeing “A Summer Place”), Barrera’s for pizza, Hacienda Galvan for Mexican food, Hughes Market, Will Wrights for ice cream and The Hot Dog Show for the best dogs in LA.

We all moved here for a slower way of life and it was wonderful.

Nothing in town was hard to get to and cars were a normal size. We could pass each other on the streets. Life was good in our little town tucked away here.

Sadly, as greed took over and rents went up, stores began to close and Caruso saw “a good thing.” Now, we’ve lost something very special to the “old timers” and the new, who came here for a small town feel.

It happened to Westwood Village and now us. Soon, we’ll be Rodeo Drive. It really is heartbreaking! Norris is the final blow. It was wonderful to run to Norris each weekend and get things for the home and garden. Everyone was friendly and helpful. Now, we’ll drive to a large, impersonal place in Santa Monica for a box of nails.

I know personally how losing a family business feels, as my family owned Westward Ho Markets for 50 years. My dad sold as he had cancer and the writing was on the wall for bigger chains to take over the grocery business. Whole Foods now stands on our location on San Vicente, the Brentwood Mart and the valley, and Bristol Farms is in Westwood, our first store, which opened in 1947.

Change is hard and not always good. You only realize what you miss after it is gone.

Judi Welch