Honorary Mayor Steinfeld Says ‘Don’t Quit’

Jake Steinfeld exhorted his Chamber of Commerce audience to shout his mantra: “Don’t quit!” When the response was rather feeble, the new honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades asked for an encore, and the room at the Riviera Country Club rocked.
Steinfeld, known for his Body By Jake program and as a national spokesman for youth fitness, may not be as famous as some of his predecessors—Jerry Lewis, Peter Graves, Walter Matthau, Rita Moreno, Steve Guttenberg and Anthony Hopkins come to mind—but as he began his two-year reign last Thursday night, he displayed a motivational spirit that should serve the town well.
Succeeding legendary boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard, Steinfeld said: “This is a huge honor and I’m so excited. I just want to make sure that this is an honorary position. Over the past few weeks, people have been coming up to me. One person said, ‘The traffic lights on Sunset are out of synch—can you take care of business?’ Another person said, ‘We once had a great movie theater here—if anybody can bring one back, you can do it.’ And at Gelson’s yesterday, a woman complained that she has to sit on a bus bench that has weeds and cockroaches. ‘Jake, can you do something about this?’”
Steinfeld, a 19-year resident who is married and has four children, told his business-oriented audience, “I love entrepreneurs. I’m a big believer in ‘take a shot.’ If you have a dream to do something or a passion or an idea, take a shot. I don’t like seeing empty stores in the Palisades, but I love that there are small-business owners here. That’s what makes this town so special, and if we all help each other, we can get things done. So don’t quit on this great community!”
With Brad Lusk serving as the emcee, the Chamber’s annual Installation Dinner got off to a good start. World War II veteran Emil Wroblicky and Brian Shea, co-founder of the Palisades-Will Rogers 5K/10K Run 36 years ago, led the flag salute and Pledge of Allegiance, and Rabbi Amy Bernstein of Kehillat Israel provided the invocation.
“L.A.’s a big town, a big city, but we have the great honor and opportunity to live in a small town where people have solid relationships and know one another and where community matters,” Bernstein said. “Bless all of you who work on behalf of the community.”
Three annual Chamber awards were handed out (see story below) and then Ray Leonard presented the Mort Farberow Businessperson Award to Gerry Blanck, who has operated his martial arts studio in the 881 Alma Real building since 1994. The award honors a business person who supports the three C’s that Mort (the late owner of Mort’s Deli) held dear: community, Chamber and children.
Blanck, who presented one of his favorite framed photos of Mort to his widow, Bobbie, explained that when he moved to Los Angeles in 1982, he stayed with friends in Topanga Beach who brought him up to Swarthmore to eat at Mort’s Deli. “I was a promising kick boxer and I met Mort’s son, Stuart, who talked Mort into sponsoring me, which meant I could eat for free. And a year later I won the world kick-boxing championship. When I was later interviewed on television, I wore a Mort’s Deli T-shirt.”
The traditional Year in Review speech was given by outgoing Chamber president Nicole Howard, founder of the ThisWeekinthePalisades Web site.
“Thanks to the tireless efforts of our board,” she said, “all of our events went very well this year”—the Village Fair, the polo tournament, Holiday Ho!Ho!Ho!, the Mr. and Miss Palisades contest and the Expo, plus monthly mixers and quarterly networking breakfasts. She cited the success of the first Food Truck Friday held in November in promoting community and said that food trucks would return for the Chamber’s Annual Sidewalk Sale on July 6.
“I am turning over the gavel to Joyce Brunelle, who will do a stellar, stellar job,” Howard said.
Actor Gavin MacLeod, who served a record five years as honorary mayor, drove up from his new home in Rancho Mirage to install the 2013-2014 Chamber officers and directors (16 total). He also introduced Brunelle, who lives in the Highlands with her husband, Michael. They are co-founders, with fellow Palisadian Dr. Emil Kalil, of a local solar company, Suntricity, which was honored as Best New Business in 2010.
“I have several things I want to promote during my tenure,” said Brunelle, a graduate of Hamilton High, Whittier College and USC, where she received a master’s degree in communications. Brunelle was a teacher with LAUSD and later she and her husband owned a residential and commercial real estate development company, BCG, that built homes and business buildings throughout Santa Monica, Brentwood and the Palisades.
“I love the Palisades and I love the Chamber of Commerce,” Brunelle said. “I want to encourage people to shop locally and support our local businesses and restaurants, so they can continue to provide services needed by our community.
“The empty shops have been a nightmare and I would like to see these shops filled,” she said, and once developer Rick Caruso finally acquires the Palisades Properties holdings on Swarthmore and Sunset, “I want to set up a dialogue between the growth and no-growth people of this community so that we can have a healthy respect for the history of this community and enthusiasm for where we want to go in the future.”