As a lawyer, business owner and civic leader who serves on the city, county and state levels, Angela Reddock believes her combination of business and civic skills makes her the best candidate for the 11th District City Council seat. The seat will be vacated by termed-out Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski in June. Reddock is running against fellow first-time political candidates Bill Rosendahl and Flora Gil Krisiloff in the nonpartisan primary election March 8. Appointed to the City’s Transportation Commission by Mayor James Hahn in January 2002, Reddock advises the Department of Transportation on traffic issues, but feels frustrated by the lack of resources devoted to mitigating traffic. As a councilperson, she would like to serve on the transportation, budget and environmental affairs committees and be part of redirecting the priorities of the city. Her campaign slogan is ‘Putting People and Neighborhoods First.’ A partner in the law firm Collins, Mesereau, Reddock & Yu, LLP, Reddock, 35, grew up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, in a close-knit extended family. ‘I spent a lot of time with my grandmother,’ she told attendees at the Palisades AARP meeting last week. She recalled joining her grandmother, an assistant in a convalescent home, on a picket line, fighting for fair wages. When she was 9, she and her mother, an administrative assistant, moved to Los Angeles, where her mother’s siblings already lived, ‘in search of the good life on the West Coast.’ They settled in Compton, where Reddock attended elementary school and began her involvement in student government. Her junior high school had a sister program with Brentwood School, where Reddock attended high school. ‘It was my first connection with the Westside and I’ve been on this side ever since,’ said Reddock who lives in Westchester. Reddock was encouraged to look into East Coast colleges by a Brentwood teacher who himself had attended Amherst College, where she ended up studying political science and English. She spent her junior year abroad at Oxford University. ‘I love the East Coast, but I love L.A. more, so I came back,’ she said. Immediately after college, Reddock was one of 12 Coro Foundation fellows, a year-long fellowship in examining different areas of government, from public affairs to nonprofits and government entities and, ‘how they work together to build consensus and get things done.’ Reddock worked on L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Burke’s campaign and interned with LAUSD, MTA and other governmental agencies. She interviewed civic leaders including Kenneth Hahn and Willie Brown. ‘It was my first opportunity as an adult to hone leadership skills, shine as needed but also learn the art of mediation and consensus-building in a group. I decided whatever else I do professionally, I’d be involved in government.’ After graduating from UCLA Law School in 1995, she began her law career at a boutique firm specializing in employment and labor law, and spent eight years at the L.A. branch of Jackson Lewis, a national firm. ‘I was on the partnership track, but I wanted the freedom to be involved civically and and to pursue my entrepreneurial passions.’ Currently, she is a co-owner of an executive transportation service on the Westside as well as managing partner at her law firm which specializes in employment law. The part of her work she is most proud of is the training she does for large companies’training workforce and management on preventing discrimination, harrassment and workplace violence. She also has served on nonprofit boards, such as the executive committee for Ability First. Supervisor Burke appointed her to serve on the County Small Business Development Commission in October 2002. Reddock was surprised when former Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson asked her to serve on the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology in 2003, since she has no experience in the field. ‘He said ‘The reason we need you on the board is that you understand how to create policy and regulation.’ It’s a heavily regulated industry and we fall under the Consumer Protection Agency.’ Her priorities while in office would be traffic, public safety, environment and development but first and foremost addressing the needs of the district’s residents. ‘Making sure I deliver in our local services that our tax dollars pay for’filling potholes, fixing sidewalks and trimming trees,’ she said. ‘These are the things we’re in business to do at the city council level.’ Traffic, she said, is a citywide issue. ‘To get to the root of the problem, we have to look at regional solutions, working with the 14 other councilmembers to get traffic moving on major thoroughfares’Wilshire, Lincoln, Sepulveda and Santa Monica boulevards’streets that go through multiple districts. A large part of our ability to make change within our city depends upon funding we receive on the county, state and federal levels. ‘I want to be sure we receive a better share of these dollars for public safety. I want to preserve and possibly build or enhance current open spaces. Everyone wants to build here, and we are starting to lose the quality of our existing neighborhoods. Planning is taking place in an ad hoc fashion.’ Reddock would like to call a summit, bringing together residents, stakeholders, business leaders and experts in planning and development to talk about development needs in the district and put together a strategic plan. ‘My goal is to involve as many interested members of the community as possible.’ In fact, this goal is pervasive in her campaign. ‘People feel distant from City Hall, that their voices are not always heard and that they don’t have full access,’ Reddock said. ‘People are frustrated. They want to feel as though they have a connection to their elected representative. This would be a priority for me and my staff.’ If elected, Reddock would hire a chief of staff, deputies on certain issues as well as deputies specializing in various neighborhoods. ‘Resident-constituents can have direct access. When they call our office, they’re going to get a return call within 24 hours by someone who knows their neighborhood and issues.’ She also plans to hold office hours throughout the district where people can meet with her one-on-one or as groups. She would continue to attend community meetings as she has throughout her campaign. Another of her ideas is to form 11th District advisory groups, made up of neighborhood and business leaders, which would meet quarterly. ‘Many of our issues are the same throughout the district. I want to foster the spirit that we all live in a common place, share common concerns and can work together to reach common solutions.’ Reddock began campaigning late last summer and her field team consists of director Pirikana Johnson and two top UCLA students. ‘It’s a family effort, my mother and aunt are heavily involved with day-to-day operations,’ she said. Reddock set up her campaign office on Sepulveda in Westchester a month ago. ‘Business associates who have known me and seen me in action are committed to helping me get the word out.’ Reddock, who is single, has a brother who is a senior at Southern Texas University. Her father, who served in Vietnam and is retired from the Army, also lives in Texas. As busy as she is in the political drama, Reddock still makes time for her spiritual life as an active member at Citizens of Zion Baptist Church in Compton. ‘I know firsthand what it is to be an advocate,’ said Reddock, who adds that ‘as a litigator, I spend most of my time discouraging litigation, because it is an enormous use of resources.’ She believes the City should use consensus and mediation more to work through problems. Two examples are Playa Vista development and LAX expansion. ‘The current litigation against these projects could have been prevented had elected representatives brought stakeholders to the table earlier in the process and said ‘Let’s talk about this and see what we can do to build consensus and address everyone’s concerns to the extent possible.” Living so close to the airport, Reddock is personally affected by LAX expansion, and opposes the existing plan. ‘If we’re going to spend dollars on anything, we need to spend it on taking cars off the street and not encouraging more cars. We’ve got to increase spending for the Green Line so it goes all the way to the airport. [Currently it stops a mile from the airport.] Reddock is interested in regional airport solutions and encouraging people to use airports in Palmdale, Ontario and Orange County. Reddock said she wouldn’t trade the experience of campaigning for anything. ‘No experience in my life has allowed me to work with so many wonderful people, to delve into so many issues that really affect our everyday lives. ‘Imagine what we could do if the city worked together. I want to focus on the big picture and not just putting on Band-Aids. Otherwise my time in office would be null and void.’

The IDEAS Studio could open by May in the building formerly occupied by Marquez Market, corner of Marquez Avenue and Bollinger. More than two years in the planning, the studio is an enrichment center which will offer science and technology-related programs for children up to age 12. The six-week-long courses, which will be competitively priced with other enrichment programs, will offer four basic learning modules’the environment, the ocean, space, and the human body. ‘It’s a new way of teaching, and of learning,’ said Palisadian Maurizio Vecchione, the IDEAS Studio chairman and co-founder. ‘Our programs, which will be inter-disciplinary, are designed to enrich children in a new exciting, exploratory and participatory format.’ Vecchione, whose son attends elementary school in Santa Monica, said the 2,500 sq. ft. studio is inspired by the belief ‘that the journey of learning is just as much fun as the great ideas that are the result. Remember the last great idea you came up with? Remember what it felt like? What stimulates great ideas? We see the IDEAS Studio as a place where kids can imagine anything, and explore a world filled with adventure and surprise.’ He said the idea for the studio started when he and another Palisades dad, Zac Hartog, got to talking about the need to provide a unique learning experience in the area of science and technology, especially for younger children. The two men met when their children attended preschool at Kehillat Israel. ‘We wanted to create an environment where children enjoy bringing their ideas to life at their own pace, in a fun atmosphere where their surrounding becomes a third teacher,’ said co-founder and CEO Hartog, who is a producer and director of television commercials. He has two young daughters, the oldest of whom attends Marquez Elementary. ‘Unfortunately, we tend to think of science and technology as being for boys,’ he said. ‘At IDEAS, there will be no gender barrier.’ Course content will provide children the opportunity to take a virtual walk on the moon in a glass-enclosed, state-of-the-art computer lab designed to resemble NASA’s Mission Control. At a module known as gadget central, home to the LEGO Robot Family, kids will build, program and race robots in the Robo-arena. The high-tech science lab will offer a variety of opportunities, from making colored slime to analyzing a strand of hair under a digital microscope. Plans also call for a fully outfitted art/media lab, which will combine traditional arts and crafts with digital art where children can make their first movie, create their own art show, or launch their own family Web site. For the youngest explorers, there will be a colorfully padded arena filled with developmental toys and a gigantic soft block climbing pyramid. ‘When the kids walk in the door of IDEAS they’ll know this is not an ordinary studio,’ said Zac’s father, Michael Hartog, who is vice-president of design and development. ‘No matter what their age, there will be a lot for the children to explore.’ In the module on the ocean, for example, children will learn not only what makes a submarine float’and sink’but how it is built. And instead of children just playing video games at home, at the studio they will learn not only how these games are made but how to create their own. Quoting Albert Einstein in a company press release sent out this week (‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’), Vecchione, himself a physicist, said that IDEAS ‘will provide the opportunity for children to discover both. We believe that children need to explore, learn and enjoy at their own pace. Our teaching technologies are also being incorporated into programs being offered to private and public schools, as well as software, smart toys and interactive media.’ Class descriptions, schedules and pre-enrollment will soon be available on the IDEAS Studio Web site (www.theideastudio.com). Classes will be offered for toddlers during the day and for elementary and preteen students after school. Weekend courses are also planned, as is a summer camp.

Palisades PRIDE’s efforts to revitalize and beautify the Marquez Avenue business block got off to ‘a great start’ last Friday morning when three aging rooftop signs were taken down, reported project leader Bob Jeffers. Engineers from Tako Tyko sign company cut through the steel supports and lifted the signs off with a huge crane as several local officials watched. ‘For not much money, we got maximum impact,’ said Jeffers, a vice-president of PRIDE. ‘The block looks so much better already.’ Other improvements to the business district, which will be named Marquez Village Shops, include new signage, antique lampposts, benches and trash cans, as well as landscaping of the sidewalk and the island triangle at the corner of Sunset and Marquez, which is currently covered in cement. The retaining wall on the opposite side of the street will also be planted with flowers and shrubs. In addition, a stop sign will soon be installed at Marquez and Bollinger ‘to slow down traffic and allow pedestrians to cross,’ said Jeffers, who won a Golden Sparkplug Award last year for his role in creating landscaped medians on Sunset at Chautauqua. Total cost of the project is estimated at $95,000. In early January, the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion that allocated $89,000 in City discretionary funds for the Marquez beautification project and waived associated planning fees for the median. ‘We’ve had such great support from everyone’the landlords, the merchants, Marquez homeowners and, of course, Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski,’ Jeffers said. He credited Monique Ford, the councilwoman’s chief deputy representing the Palisades, with working ‘really hard with us to get things moving. Now, we’ve got the money in our pockets and are dealing with several different City departments,’ including Street Lighting, Building and Safety’s Sign Inspection Division, the Bureau of Street Services, and Public Works. PRIDE, which will maintain the improvements until a formal maintenance association is formed, envisions that the block will ‘become a quaint commercial hub for the Marquez area,’ Jeffers said. ‘It’s a big project. Within six months the block will be transformed and look more like Swarthmore and less of a time warp with the 1950s signage gone. The ‘Drugs’ sign is very retro.’ Landlord Don Haselkorn remembers the ‘Drugs’ sign being there when he bought Knoll’s Pharmacy in 1961. If there is enough interest, PRIDE will hold a public auction in the next week to sell the vintage sign. Anyone interested in purchasing it should contact Jeffers at 230-8914. (Editor’s note: Moving into the prime retail space at the corner of Marquez and Bollinger formerly occupied by Marquez Market, which closed down at the end of December, is a childhood education center which will provide tutoring and after-school enrichment activities. That space is owned by the Wilson Family Trust. A martial arts academy is expected to occupy the former D & T Studio, which also closed down in December. Accessed through the alley, below Marquez Avenue, the space is owned by Haselkorn.)

The 16-member Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting next Wednesday, February 16 at 7:15 p.m. at the Palisades Recreation Center. At this meeting, which Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski will attend and is open to the public, ‘everyone will be brought up to speed,’ said George Wolfberg, head of the advisory committee. ‘We can then lay the groundwork for the work that needs to be done.’ Two major tasks face the advisory committee, which was selected by Miscikowski and Community Council chairman Norm Kulla to work with advisors and the city. One is the completion of Potrero Park itself, a mile-long expanse which extends from the recreation center to Pacific Coast Highway. Currently, plans call for a riparian habitat and a hiking trail with limited amenities to be built. This final part of the project (Phase III) is expected to cost from $7 million to $12 million. The second challenge for the advisory committee will be how to handle the sale of the city-owned lots in Potrero. To date, the city has spent at least $13 million to acquire 35 landslide-impaired lots and another $17 million to buttress and fill the canyon. However, work was brought to a halt over two years ago when the city lacked the $1.2 million needed to complete Phase II. In an effort to break the logjam, Miscikowski put forth a motion which was approved by L.A. City Council in December to sell two of the lots’both of them on Alma Real (at 615 and 623), both with houses that the city currently leases. These lots have now been declared surplus by the city, with 100 percent of the net proceeds to be deposited in a designated Potrero Canyon Trust Fund. The proceeds, expected to be as much as $4 million, will be used exclusively for completion of Phases II and to ‘begin’ Phase III, explained Miscikowski at the motion hearing last fall. However, the city cannot offer the two lots, which will be sold at public auction, without California Coastal Commission approval, which is currently pending. When the Coastal Commission originally approved Potrero in 1986, it placed restrictions on the sale of the city-owned lots until all three phases of the project were complete and funding for inspections and maintenance had been identified. When it became clear last year that these conditions would be impossible to meet, negotiations began with Coastal staff to clear the way for the immediate sale of the two Alma Real lots to finish Phase II, where work is 95 percent complete. Two landslides still need repairing and there is final grading to be done. The other 33 city-owned lots, which were condemned starting in 1964 when the canyon was first found to be too unstable because of landslides, are located on Earlham, De Pauw, and Friends Street, where nine buildable pads already exist. ‘As soon as all the lots are deemed to be stable [a two-year process], they can be certified by the city and gradually sold off as funds are needed for Phase III,’ Miscikowski said Wednesday. ‘Not only are we going to have to look into the existing deed restrictions and CC&R’s for each lot, but we will have to ensure that they are sold off in an orderly fashion so as to not create problems in the neighborhoods where they are located.’ Another question is whether developers will be permitted to buy the lots and what kind of houses can be built on them ‘so as to not affect existing views,’ said Wolfberg, former chairman of Community Council. ‘Will they still step-down the hillside, as was originally discussed with the Civic League? The advisory committee is also going to look into how best to divide the public from the private space. Where do we end the plantings for the park, for example? There is also the larger question of who is going to be responsible for maintaining the park. As you can see, we have a lot of work ahead of us.’ The park was purchased in 1964 by the Department of Recreation and Parks to provide coastal access to and from Palisades Park. The canyon historically included a natural watercourse through which run-off from the Santa Monica Mountains and runoff from the Palisades community was carried to the Pacific Ocean. Abnormally high runoff from storms in 1978 and 1980 caused extensive erosion, landslides and slippages that led the City of Los Angeles to acquire the privately-owned properties along the canyon rim. Since then, the Departments of Recreation and Parks and Bureau of Engineering have worked with the California Coastal Commission to remediate the problems, which included the installation of a storm drain and subdrain system, as well as landfill to support the canyon walls. (Editor’s note: Ron Weber, an attorney who lives adjacent to the Recreation Center, is on the community advisory committee. His name was inadvertently deleted from the list of members in last week’s article: ‘Advisory Committee to Tackle Potrero.’)

Palisades Charter High School’s petition to the Los Angeles school board to renew its independent charter for another five years has cleared a vital hurdle. The draft petition was delivered to the LAUSD Charter Office on January 31 with the signatures of 73 percent of the permanent teachers (52 of 71), far exceeding the required 50 percent support by permanent teachers, according to Jack Sutton, the school’s executive director. Another 47 non-permanent teachers and staff members also signed in support of the petition. ‘Our board of directors’three teachers, three parents, three community representatives, a classified employee and myself’committed itself to successfully renewing the charter as well as addressing important issues raised by teachers when it passed the following motion at its January meeting,’ Sutton said. The motion read: ‘The PCHS Board of Directors is committed to charter renewal being submitted as a 501(c)3 California nonprofit public benefit corporation. The PCHS Board of Directors is also committed to, through the amendment process prescribed in the Charter, examining the governance structure once the charter has been renewed and labor negotiations are completed.’ In the weeks leading up to the vote, teachers union representative Alex Shuhgalter rallied a small contingent of faculty in criticizing the school’s current governing model. They argued that the board under the 501(c)3 structure did not give teachers enough say in governing the school. At a public meeting in January, Sutton argued that the backbone of the school’s governance is the seven standing committees, each comprised of 50 percent faculty members. But, Sutton added, if the faculty wants to make changes to the governing structure, there is a mechanism to do so in the charter. The amendment process requires 75 percent of teachers and two-thirds of the board support. The teachers have also criticized the board for making no headway on class-size reduction. While there is no dispute over the need to reduce class size, doing so necessitates more long-term considerations, Sutton said. For example: Should there be a new building? Should there be more on-line courses? What would each option cost? The next step in charter renewal is for the LAUSD charter office staff to review the draft and send it to other departments (e.g., budget, special education, and facilities) for review. After feedback is received, changes will be made in the final draft that is submitted to the school board for approval. Sutton estimated that the board will take up the charter renewal sometime in April or May. ‘We hope that all the stakeholders will recognize the value and responsibility of remaining an independent charter high school,’ said Sutton, quoting from a January 27 Palisadian-Post editorial. ‘We ask that the community support our efforts toward that end.’

VIEWPOINT

By NAHID MASSOUD Special to the Palisadian-Post I heard Ustad Mahwash’s splendid voice on Saturday, January 15, at the Getty Center’s Harold Williams Auditorium. The sound took me back to my adolescent days in Afghanistan. Tears rolled down my eyes as memories of Kabul flooded my consciousness. The first song, ‘Mullah Mamad Jaan,’ was one of the most popular numbers of its time. It was always played during Afghani New Year, Nowrose, which is the 21st of March and the beginning of spring season. Radio Kabul played this and other Afghan songs over and over. The sound of music filled streets of the city and the narrow lanes of the bazaars, while shopkeepers hustled and hawked their wares. You could hear the voice of Ustad Mahwash everywhere as part of a kind of perpetual background music to the activities of men, women and children, all wearing colorful native Afghan clothes as part of the seasonal festivities. Nowrose is a particularly exciting time. The smell of spring was in the air, the scent of plants and budding trees mingled with the smells on the streets, everyone making mewai (our special Nowrose fruit dish). In the streets, farmers in from the country seemed excited, ready for the new planting season. All that seems a long time ago, the peaceful Kabul of my youth when people listened to music and lived peacefully despite their differences. It has vanished into a landscape devastated by war and destruction. Yet musical experiences can take you to a past that has gone, as Ustad Mahwash did for me, bringing what was repressed so vividly alive in the present. The powerful lyrics of her songs of god, love, and loss touched another part of me that I had forgotten. The ghazals penetrated my soul, made me remember my favorite composer, Ustad Naynawaz, who wrote wonderful songs that were often sung by the handsome, great and very popular Ahmed Zaher, whom I heard in person many times (he was the brother of my best friend). Unfortunately, both Naynawaz and Zaher were casualties of the Soviet war, assassinated while still in their prime. The melodies sung by Ustad Mahwash at the Getty in both Dari and Pashto languages were representative of popular Afghan music of the sixties and seventies. Their beauty was underscored by the excellent musicians who accompanied her’Aziz Herawi on dutar, Ehsan Ahmadi on tabla, and Ahmad Khalil Rageb on harmonium. As the first woman Ustad (maestro) in Afghanistan, Mahwash is not only a master musician but was in those days a role model, a strong woman who managed to turn her talent into a brilliant career against all the obstacles that usually prevented women from succeeding. I left the Ustad Mahwash concert full of sorrow over the years of war and destruction of my homeland. It’s so hard to imagine how, during the Taliban regime, such a musical people had to live without music. Mahwash’s powerful voice was a reminder of how much the Afghan people have suffered and lost in this last quarter century. The concert taught me how in exile you can come to appreciate in a new way the meaning of a past that is forever lost, but can be resurrected momentarily through the power of music and song. Palisadian Nahid Massoud, a native of Kabul, is a psychiatric nurse who works at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute. She came to America on a student visa in 1977 and was given political asylum in the U.S. after the Soviet invasion endangered her family, all of whom later escaped to the U.S. With the aid of her husband, history professor and author Robert Rosenstone, Nahid directs Sharq, an art space at her home devoted to contemporary works by artists from the East. The next exhibit, ‘The Fire Next Time,’ opens March 5 and will feature Persian artist Kamran Moojedi.