There was only one witness to the tragic accident that took the lives of longtime Palisadians Louis Padula, 79, and his wife Daphne, 73, last Friday night. After parking their car on the west side of Temescal Canyon Road, the couple were apparently attempting to cross the street when they were struck by a black pickup truck, a Ford F150. They were on their way to the 8 p.m. opening of ‘Romantic Comedy’ at Pierson Playhouse. It is believed that they died instantly from ‘massive bodily trauma,’ according to LAPD detective Marie Tucker, who is handling the case. Olin Hyde, 38, said that he was driving his SUV north on Temescal towards Sunset shortly after 8 p.m. when the truck, with a single male driver, passed him on the right. While driving not far behind, Hyde said he suddenly heard tires squealing and saw a man’s body thrown into the air. He slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting Louis Padula, whose body was now lying in the street near the median strip. When he got out of his car, Hyde, a former Marine, saw that Padula had a severe laceration on his forehead and his breathing was labored. Noticing a woman lying nearby, Hyde immediately ran over to her. She had no pulse. Surmising that she was dead, he went back over to Padula, some 20 feet away, who was now struggling for breath. Within minutes he too passed away. Hyde then focused his attention on the driver of the pickup. ‘He was clearly in shock,’ Hyde said. ‘I asked him his name, where he lived. I suggested he contact his family immediately, which he did. He was cooperative and scared.’ According to the LAPD, the 18-year-old driver lives in Bel-Air and is a senior at Brentwood School. There is no evidence that he was driving under the influence. He was released by police, pending an investigation that will take up to six weeks. Should he be found to have been negligent, he could be charged with vehicular manslaughter. ‘The pedestrians died at the scene as a result of their injuries,’ Tucker told the Palisadian-Post. ‘It is not known if there was some inattention on the part of the driver. The cause of the collision is unknown at this time.’ (Continued on Page 6) Hyde, a writer for KCET, sees the accident as ‘almost as tragic for the boy. It’s the kind of thing that could, unfortunately, happen to anyone.’ Friday night, Eva Holberg, one of the founders of Theatre Palisades, was looking forward to the opening of the first play of the season, ‘Romantic Comedy.’ It would an evening filled with great joy, or so she thought. As house manager of Pierson Playhouse, she took her place in the lobby, greeting theatergoers, both old and new. Then minutes after the play began she heard a crash. She immediately ran outside, where she saw two people lying motionless in the middle of Temescal, directly in front of the theater parking lot. Several thoughts raced through her mind, she told the Palisadian-Post. Were these people I knew? Were they coming to the theater? Holberg asked herself. ‘I was worried about what would happen at intermission. How would people react when they saw what was going on outside? The police and fire trucks were there. We provided them with barricades to prevent exiting from the parking lot onto Temescal. We knew they had identified the woman but they wouldn’t tell us who it was. We were frantic with worry. Who could it be? I didn’t find out until Sunday that it was the Padulas, who are season ticket holders. Everyone leaving the theater Friday night could see what had happened to them. It is terribly sad. When I went home at midnight, the coroner still hadn’t arrived.’ It would be 24 hours before the Padulas’ two daughters would learn the fate of their parents. Their younger daughter, Lisa, said she last spoke to her mother late Friday afternoon when her parents offered to take her 13-year-old son, Taylor, to the movies, as they often did, but he had other plans that night. Lisa Phillips Visca was not aware of any dinner plans or that they had then opted to attend Theatre Palisades later that evening. Lisa called them the next morning but got only an answering machine. ‘I thought that they had maybe gone out for breakfast,’ said Lisa, who at the time was preparing for a very busy day at her skin-care boutique, Lilese, on Via de la Paz. She called her parents several times throughout the day and found it unusual when she was still unable to reach them. As she was closing up the shop around 7 p.m. she got a call from her pastor at Corpus Christi, Monsignor Kidney. ‘He told my sister and me. The only comfort I have is that they went together. I am sure she was holding his hand while they were crossing. She always did. My parents were totally tied at the hip. They did everything together, especially in recent months. My father hasn’t been too well lately. He had dementia and diabetes and required more and more care. My mother, on the other hand, was in perfect health. She worked out five days a week at the Spectrum Club and helped me here at the office part-time. Everyone called her ‘Yia,’ which is Greek for grandmother. You couldn’t find more generous, loving people than my parents.’

An environmentalist and lover of the outdoors, Dr. Roger Woods joined the Village Green Committee about seven years ago, when he retired from his private neurology practice. He had been taking a horticulture class at Santa Monica Emeritus College, where he met Margaret Jose, who was then president of the Committee. She encouraged him to join. ‘I really like the Palisades and feel privileged to have lived here for more than 30 years,’ says Woods, an Orange County native. ‘I wanted to give back to the community in some way, and it turns out the Village Green is a good way to do that.’ Instrumental in replanting and maintaining the Village Green rose beds, Woods says he learned gardening ‘by the seat of his pants,’ experimenting in his own backyard. ‘I enjoy gardening,’ he says. ‘A lot of people involved [in the Committee] don’t really have a knack for it.’ Hal Maninger, who nominated Woods for this year’s Golden Sparkplug Award, said in his letter, ‘Roger tended the roses, revived sickly plants and had a good time doing it, but there were bigger challenges awaiting him.’ Four years ago, the Committee elected Woods president, and he began redesigning and renovating first the drinking water fountain and then the decorative dolphin fountain’the centerpiece of the Village Green, which has been owned by the community since 1973. ‘The [decorative] fountain was badly designed from the outset and it was a backbreaker to maintain,’ says Woods, who has a back problem himself. ‘People suggested I just fill it with plants, but I liked the fountain’it’s a nice addition to the Green.’ According to Woods, revamping the plumbing system required a good amount of planning but the actual construction, which was completed in December, took only two months. Said Committee member Joan Graves, who also nominated Woods for a Sparkplug: ‘The money to buy new equipment was provided by the Junior Women’s Club, but the actual physical labor was accomplished by Roger.’ Part of the work required digging a four-ft.-deep trench and laying new pipes and electric lines so a new pump could be installed, as well as designing and constructing a wooden housing for the pump and a new cement foundation. ‘In spite of serious obstacles which had to be overcome, and hours and hours of manual labor, Roger, in his usual determined, quiet way, with very little help from anyone, successfully completed the project so that, once again, passers-by may enjoy our lovely fountain,’ Graves wrote. Woods admits that though the Village Green still has some problems, such as trash and graffiti, he feels his work has been worthwhile. ‘The Green sort of represents the community’it’s nice to see residents sit and read the newspaper there.’ A board member of Temescal Canyon Association and the Sierra Club, Woods hikes every Tuesday with Sierra Club members and every morning with his two 3-year-old Saint Bernards, Mozart and Portia. ‘When I was practicing [medicine], I’d take a week or two in the summer and go backpacking and camping in the Sierras,’ says Woods, who earned his medical degree from UCLA in 1964. ‘Now I hike every week.’ An opera aficionado, he also attends local chamber music concerts and is currently taking a Shakespeare class and a contemporary drama class at Santa Monica Emeritus College.

Thanks to writer Bob Jeffers, a 2004 Golden Sparkplug winner, the entrance to the Palisades along Sunset is a lot more appealing this spring. Jeffers spent nearly two years raising funds and working on beautifying the 600 feet of Sunset median strips near Chautauqua. ‘Like a lot of people, I would always drive by those asphalt median strips and, especially in the springtime, when the weeds would get up to 6 ft. high, I’d say to my wife, ‘I can’t believe we live in this beautiful area and we have this ugly median strip.’ She said, ‘Why don’t you do something about it?” So Jeffers came to Pacific Palisades PRIDE (Protect and Renew Our Identity and Environment) with his idea, and he was promptly made a new board member and put in charge of the project. ‘He was the heart and soul of the project’he made all the contacts, did all the legwork, and supervised the contractors all the way to the very end,’ said PRIDE president Naidu Permaul. The beautification group hired landscape designers Pamela Burton & Co. of Santa Monica to design the median strip and established a partnership with L.A.’s Adopt-a-Median program. The project was completed last fall and the medians are now planted with 120 five-gallon dwarf bougainvilleas, 800 day lilies, 200 red-hot pokers and 20 flats of gazanias. Jeffers was nominated for Sparkplug honors by PRIDE member Kurt Toppel. In his letter, Toppel wrote: ‘Total project cost was about $115,000 and required extensive City involvement and participation. To accomplish that by itself is worthy of an award!… I have worked closely with Bob as a member of PRIDE and consider it a privilege to nominate him for Sparkplug recognition to inspire others in our community to follow his example.’ PRIDE raised about $50,000 through a Donor Diner program. ‘Bob not only came up with the idea for the project, he suggested how to fund the project through the ‘Donor Diner Program,” said Permaul. ‘He went to the restaurants in town and talked them into it.’ Jeffers explained: ‘A lot of people want to give to PRIDE, but they don’t want to spend $450 for a tile.’ His idea was to also encourage smaller donations, and in return give donors two-for-one entrees at local restaurants. ‘It’s been successful and we’ve accomplished getting a lot of people to donate who hadn’t been before,’ Jeffers said. ‘It’s nice to give a thank you for donating.’ PRIDE is continuing the program, in which a $25 donation is good for a two-for-one entree at Kay n’ Dave’s, Mort’s Deli, Caf’ Vida, Terri’s and Tivoli Caf’. Fifty-dollar donations are good for two-for-one entrees at Modo Mio, Pearl Dragon and Hidden Caf’. Jeffers has lived in the El Medio Bluffs area for seven years with his wife Karen and their sons Dylan, 11, and Charlie, 9, both of whom attend Marquez Elementary School. He grew up in Denver and Bethesda, Maryland, and attended Duke University. After graduating, he moved to New York City and worked for large ad agencies, including Ogilvy & Mather and McCann-Erickson. After six years, he ‘got the film bug’ and came out to L.A. to attend USC Film School. He graduated with a master’s degree in film, wrote screenplays and for the last 14 years has worked as a freelance copywriter in entertainment advertising, specializing in writing movie trailers and television promotions for TV shows. Working from home, Jeffers screens a rough cut of the movie or television show and writes several scripts for the narrator. ‘It gives the editors of the trailer a road map of how to cut the trailer.’ Working from home has worked out well for him. ‘Luckily, the work has been good to me,’ Jeffers said. ‘The nice thing is I do have time to coach baseball in the afternoon and a little extra time for civic activities.’ In addition to coaching PPBA baseball, he’s an AYSO soccer referee. Jeffers had a positive experience working with the city on the project and found that their Adopt-a-Median program really streamlined the process. ‘I found everybody to be very pleasant and pretty informative’no trouble at all,’ he said. One potential stumbling block occurred when workers discovered multiple layers of asphalt under the median strip. ‘There would be 8 or 10 inches of dirt and then you hit the old Sunset Boulevard.’ Jeffers and others had assumed that there was dirt under the asphalt they could use for the planting. ‘That’s when Cindy Miscikowski’s office came to the rescue with funding for demolishing the asphalt,’ Jeffers said. Her office donated about $45,000. Jeffers scheduled the demolition work, which was done by the City, for two weeks, and was surprised it was completed in three days. Several large donors contributed to the landscaping project, including the Palisades Junior Women’s Club, the Palisades Lions Club, a bequeath from Lion Merry Richards, and Prudential California Realty/John Aaroe Division. ‘These people were really instrumental in getting us the funds we needed to accomplish this,’ Jeffers said. ‘Like every construction project, it got more expensive as it went along.’ PRIDE’s maintenance fund will be used for gardener Francisco Cervantes to maintain the median. ‘Palisades has really been a big part of my life lately. It’s a labor of love to improve the area,’ Jeffers said. ‘I’m pleased and honored to be a Sparkplug. It’s really a thrill.’ Now one of the vice presidents of PRIDE, Jeffers worked on replacing and upgrading the Christmas lights in the trees along Sunset last winter and is beginning to work on the Marquez-area commercial district improvement. Regarding community involvement, Jeffers said, ‘It’s habit-forming; once you get involved you enjoy it and enjoy the people. At our meetings we have a lot of laughs. ‘I’d just encourage people to do what they can, whatever time they can give to PRIDE or other groups,’ he said. ‘I think people are pretty generous. We all really benefit from it’just a little time and you can make a difference.’ Jeffers is looking forward to seeing the plantings in the median strip mature and bloom. ‘There are hundreds of yellow lilies that haven’t done their thing yet.’ PRIDE President Permaul told the Palisadian-Post: ‘Pacific Palisades is the beneficiary of the likes of Bob Jeffers. He exemplifies what it means to be a member of the community. He not only has vision but he works to bring that vision to completion.’

A tea house? A computer repair store? A wine shop? A linen store? An organic coffee shop? A Mexican restaurant? While none of these new businesses have yet to find a home in the Pacific Palisades, their prospective owners have been exploring the possibility for months, scouring our commercial districts for suitable retail space, which is currently leasing for up to $4 per sq.ft. While there were some first-quarter changes in each of the five business areas (the Highlands, Marquez and Sunset, PCH and Sunset, Santa Monica Canyon and the Palisades Village), only about six storefronts are currently available for lease. Even more difficult for prospecting business people, according to Coldwell Banker agent Gregg Pawlik, is finding a landlord who will actually rent to them. ‘Owners are being very cautious these days,’ said Pawlik, who has been leasing commercial property in the Palisades for 25 years. ‘Basically, they want a business that will complement all the other retailers on the street.’ Pawlik said a prime example of that is the former Emerson LaMay Cleaners site at 1045 Swarthmore, which has now been vacant for a year. ‘Here you have 1,600 sq.ft. of prime village space which the owners, representing four different family trusts, don’t seem to be in any rush to lease. I’ve put in at least a half-dozen proposals, including one for a bakery, a computer store, a linen store, and various kinds of clothing shops, including a jeans store. Since they also own three-quarters of the buildings on the street, I guess they really are looking for the perfect mix. What I do know, though, is they are not interested in putting a restaurant in the Emerson LaMay space. There have been numerous proposals, ranging from Thai to Chinese to American-style eateries, and they have simply said no.’ Also available for lease is the former 2010 Video store at 1022 Swarthmore, owned by the same group (which includes the John R. Wilson Trust, the Whittier Trust, et al.). The Palisadian-Post has learned that another prime location on Swarthmore’the former Il Sogno eatery’will have a new restaurant opening soon. However, we could not confirm that it will be an Italian restaurant, as is widely rumored, as we could not reach the new owner before going to press. o o o Since the new year, four new businesses have opened in the Palisades, two have changed hands, and two have closed down. ”In late January, the venerable Yamato Nursery on the corner of La Cruz and Alma Real closed to make room for Village School’s new performing arts/gymnasium/playground annex, which is expected to open in the fall of 2005. Demolition has already begun. ”The Haagen-Dazs ice cream store near the corner of Sunset and Swarthmore (in the historic Business Block building) quietly shut down sometime last month. Starbucks has already subleased the space for a Quizno’s Sandwich Shop, expected to open in the next few months once renovations are complete. A national franchise, Quizno’s is known for its submarine sandwiches, which are made with toasted specialty breads. ”Jiva Yoga Studio opened on January 2 in the 2,200-sq.-ft. space on Sunset formerly occupied by Kids’ Universe toy store. The town’s only studio dedicated exclusively to yoga offers a wide range of classes, including yoga for seniors and babies. Instructors William and Patty Asad’ s two-month-old daughter, Gabriella, is a participant in the weekly baby class. Patty taught kindergarten at Marquez Elementary from 1998 to 2000. ”In late January, Body Aligned officially opened in a space above Starbucks, offering Pilates exclusively, unlike other fitness studios in town which offer a range of (Continued on Page 3) services, from healing workshops to physical therapy. Partners Margaret Freiberg and Andrea Hackin, who both worked at the former Gym ‘n Tonic on Sunset (now called The Pilates Studio), offer private lessons, group sessions and courses for instructors. ”Pinocchio In Cucina, an Italian take-out deli located on the main level of the business building at 970 Monument between Contentment and Blockbuster, opened in mid-February to rave reviews. Palisadians Theresa and David Whitworth, who own La Luna in Larchmont Village, are partnered in this venture with La Luna chefs Guiseppe Barravechia and Robertino Giovannelli, who run the day-to-day operations in the former Cloud 9 space, which has been extensively renovated. Most popular are the pizzas, so much so that the owners will soon be upgrading to a larger-capacity pizza oven to accommodate home deliveries. For Easter they recommend one of their signature dishes: lamb shank braised in a Cabernet sauce. ”The town’s first tanning salon, Heat Boutique, also opened in mid-February in the lower Highlands Plaza in the space formerly occupied by veterinarian Dr. Henry Pasternak. Besides two regular tanning beds, the salon offers sunless tanning with a Mystic Tanning machine ‘which is UV free,’ said owner and manager Alle Tithof. ‘All you need is 14 seconds on the front, 14 seconds on the back, and you’re done.’ ”In March, Cafe Misto changed hands. David Williams, president of the Palisades Chamber of Commerce, sold his restaurant in order to concentrate on Mogan’s Cafe, which he opened last July and which is just three doors away. Starting this July, in addition to serving breakfast and lunch, Mogan’s will add a dinner menu. The new owner of Misto, which serves dinner only, will keep the Italian menu. Both eateries are located in the lower Highlands Plaza, off Palisades Drive. ”HiLites hair studio, located on Antioch, also changed ownership in March. It was bought by employee Lisa Simon, who got her hair dressing license in her native Ireland. After spending some time in New York, Simon moved to L.A. where she worked at Michele International for 13 years before leasing her own station at HiLites three years ago. She currently has one other hairdresser working for her, and is looking forward to expanding her business in the coming months. ”Contentment, which occupies one of the largest retail spaces in town at 970 Monument, recently shifted its focus. While owner Vicki Middleton still sells orchids, she now has only a limited selection of religious articles (role-model dolls, spiritual CD’s and DVD’s) and has opened the space for use by local groups. A prayer group meets there once a week and a grief group will begin meeting on April 22. Whether Middleton, who for three years has been subleasing the space from Kinko’s, will continue her business when her lease is up at the end of July, depends on whether the owner of the building, Equity Pacific, signs a major tenant to anchor the space. While there are rumors that there are plans to replace Contentment with a restaurant, Taryn Rudon, who manages the building, told the Post that while ‘we have had all kinds of inquiries, everything from Italian to Greek to Indian to Asian to Mexican’you name it’nothing is definite.’ o o o Anticipated in the coming months is the opening of Chefmakers, a new kitchen retail store and cooking school at 872 Via de la Paz, the former site of Sheila May, who plans to relocate her permanent makeup studio somewhere in the village this June. Soon to close is Anna Marie’s clothing boutique at 857 Via de la Paz (see story, page 7), and at the end of this month, Palace Fireplace is moving two blocks away to a larger space next to Emerson LaMay Cleaners, now located at 15333 Sunset. Emerson owner Helen Campbell, who relocated to Sunset after she lost her lease on Swarthmore, has apparently subleased some 700 sq.ft. of her store to Palace, which has been in business in the Palisades for 12 years and is currently having a half-price sale. Who will occupy the coveted Palace Fireplace space, located between Coldwell Banker and Philips French Cleaners? ‘Someone talked to me about wanting to open a running shoe store, someone else wanted it for a tea house’ said Palace owner Armond Vartanian, who also sells mailboxes and barbecue grills. He said he was moving because the landlord is raising the rent from $5,000 to $8,000 a month, ‘which is too much for a business this size.’ Meera Cho, owner of Philips French Cleaners with her husband Jeff, said Tuesday that they are in negotiations to lease the Palace space to expand their business. They plan to invest in some new equipment to provide more ‘environmentally-correct dry cleaning services.’ Cho did emphasize, though, that the lease has not yet been signed.