Hometown Hero: Maureen Craig

Hometown Hero: Sister Maureen
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth

Maureen Craig had a plan to go to Paris and write the great American novel and be like Zelda Fitzgerald, minus all the mental problems, and then come back to America to be a nun. She went to talk to Mother Mary Ancilla, the brilliant leader of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, who suggested she be more realistic. Maureen decided she would “give up on Paris and get started on saving the world.”

She had always thought nuns were “kind of weird. But my college teachers, all nuns, were bright, articulate and committed to service. I so admired them. I wanted to be like them.”

Sister Maureen taught elementary and high school. One year, the star of the first grade creation play, who was supposed to play God, got sick. His substitute, and please remember that first graders are very truthful, faced the audience bravely and said, “I am not the real God, the real God got sick and threw up and went home.” Sister says that’s a story she often tells.

“I had been teaching for 35 years and was diagnosed with MS and teaching was getting harder. Sister Marie Madeline invited me to Saint Johns to write the history of the hospital, which I did. “The Golden Promise” was published in 1992 in honor of the golden jubilee of Saint John’s Hospital.

“Now, at 76, I’m not afraid of much. I’m not afraid of illness. I’ve been there and done that. I’ve had MS for a long time and I’m doing that and I’m not afraid of death. “I think we need a national health care plan. It is a disgrace that, in America, we have anyone without health care. Congress has great health care for themselves. Why aren’t they making sure we all have the same?

“I teach new employees at the hospital, and the center of my teaching is that respecting the dignity of each person is the core of care at St. Johns. Respect the dignity of each patient and each family and all who work here. “It’s an honor to be brought into people’s lives in a time of crisis. My title is, Chaplain to the Foundation, but I introduce myself as Sister Maureen, and say I’m here to help and I ask if there is anything they need.

“My father was an Irish immigrant who was put on the boat by the British police after the 1916 Easter Monday Rebellion and exiled to Canada. Father then walked across the border at Niagara Falls with a group of America tourists. He was an illegal immigrant with a PH.D in political science from Magdalen College at Oxford. He and my mother met when he was giving a speech about Free Ireland. They married and had ten children.

“We children were wild and happy. We played outside until dark when our daddy whistled for us to come home. Every father had a whistle that his children recognized. I think all children, by law, should have at least two hours a day to be free outside, to just look at the world and to play.

“I came to St. Johns in 1987, joining the nuns living and working at the hospital. There had been as many as 25 nuns at St. Johns in the early years. Now there are 5 nuns and we all live in the same apartment house right across the street from the new hospital.

“Every day I get up early, say my prayers, visit with patients and with the new babies and their families. It’s a privilege to be with people at profound moments. Then I go to mass and have lunch in the hospital cafeteria. After lunch I need to rest because of the MS. Around 4:00 the other nuns come back from work, we say our prayers, eat dinner together and spend the evening talking. It’s been a great life to live in community with women who are so smart, are wonderful leaders and care for one another and for the world.

“I love this City and I love my work and I love my life. I try to be a good citizen. I don’t litter and I vote.”

What Say You? Here’s to Your Health!

“Right now the rest of the developed world is spending less money and getting better health care,” said Marcia Angell M.D. testifying for Single-Payer Health Care at the Senate Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Hearing.

Health Insurance is on the national agenda because it’s breaking the national economy. But it is also a highly personal and individual problem. Are you worried about your health care? If you are, stay healthy. It’s your best option. Healthy people can buy health insurance. Anyone deemed a risk by the insurers pays higher costs for the same coverage. People who are ill often lose their health insurance.

Entering the debate is Physicians for a National Health Plan, a single-issue organization dedicated to education and advocacy for comprehensive, universal, single payer health insurance. Founded in 1987 by David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, both primary care physicians and both professors at Harvard. PNHP now has 17,000 members, 900 in the Los Angeles area. (www.PNHP.org)

Santa Monica physicians Matt Hendrickson, Gene Oppenheim, Geoff White, Nancy Greep and Steve Tarzynski, joining thousands of American physicians frustrated by insurance companies getting in the way of providing good care for patients, started a Santa Monica chapter of PNHP. Sheila Kuehl, the author of the groundbreaking bill for single payer in CA, twice passed by both houses of the CA legislature and twice vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, spoke at their first event.

Dr. Hendrickson, (matt@singlepayer.org) says, “We need single payer. We are the only developed nation with a for profit health insurance system. The current proposals in the House and Senate bills do provide some relief. They will remove pre-existing conditions as an opportunity for health insurers to refuse coverage and there may be a public option open to some people. At the same time most Americans will be required to buy insurance, which will hugely benefit the insurance companies.”

“Tragic and touching,” is how Dr. Hendrickson characterized his volunteer work at the Forum for the RAM (Remote Area Medicine) event. “People waited all night, sleeping on bleachers that had been set up in the parking lot, for a chance to get free medical service. This was a sad first for California and we must do better.”

“The American health system in uniquely expensive and inflationary. Last year we spent about $2.5 trillion on health care and costs are growing much faster than the background inflation rate. Our system is unsustainable. And, if that weren’t enough, we don’t get anywhere near our money’s worth.” said Dr. Angell, PNHP member, Harvard Medical School Faculty and former Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine.

The Health Insurance debate is central to our nation’s economic future and to our personal futures. In this country with its well-trained physicians, its great medical schools and its impressive history of contributions to medicine we have every reason to expect the best in health care. But we need more than training the best doctors; we need the best access.

Speaking to that point, on May 5, 2009, Dr. Margaret Flowers and seven other doctors went to D.C. The Senate Finance Committee had convened a round table of 15 experts. PNHP had requested a seat at the round table and Committee Chairman Senator Baucus had refused. He did not include any advocate for single payer. So they went to our nation’s capitol to testify. Not only were they not allowed to speak, they were arrested. You can watch the un-American spectacle of Senator Baucus calling in the Capitol police to arrest the physicians as they stood at the hearing and requested to speak to the committee. (YouTube)

Our president said, on July 22, 2009, “I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is unless you have what’s called a single-payer system in which everyone’s automatically covered you’re probably not going to reach every single individual.” Barack Obama

What Say You? Are you healthy? Do you worry about health insurance?
What do you think we should do?

Hometown Hero: Fran Pavley

“The budget is a disaster. School cuts are just a tragedy. Higher tuition costs limit access for students and cost us our future.” State Senator Fran Pavley www.franpavley.gov

Fran, who represents Santa Monica in the California Senate, talks about the real cost of doing nothing to reduce global warming and the real cost of doing nothing to protect our environment in a ‘just the facts, Ma’am’ kind of way.

Her priority problems: the melting snow pack; the rising sea level; the effect of temperature on both human health and our crops; the loss of watersheds, wetlands and our water reliability.

As to the ‘Cost of Doing Nothing’ Fran says, “Opponents claim a false choice between the economy and the environment. The fact is the state will suffer tens of billions of dollars per year in direct costs to real estate assets alone due to sea level rise, wildfires, and to intense weather events.”

But with Fran there is no such thing as doing nothing. Famous for her groundbreaking legislation on curbing emissions from autos, she is equally adept at working on water quality as air quality and as Chair of the Natural Resources and Water Committee in the Senate she shepherded a comprehensive package of Water Bills and Bonds.

The bond money, if the bonds pass, will clean contaminated ground water; build the infrastructure to promote the use of recycled water; make money available for regional, integrated watershed management programs;
provide funding for the reuse of stormwater; and, of importance to the LA Region, fund $50 million for the restoration of the Los Angeles River.

“The smartest, most cost effective strategies we can adopt for reducing our dependence on imported water are all based on local solutions, on infiltrating stormwater, conserving water, and reusing water.”

To make sure that local communities have the money to build the ‘green’ parks and ‘green’ streets that are necessary to reduce our dependence on imported water; to have the money for water conservation and for water recycling and reuse, Fran authored SB 790. Sponsored by Tree People, this bill would make any project that captured and reused stormwater eligible for existing or future bond funding.

“Maybe today I would study environmental sciences but when I went to college opportunities for women were limited. More, I liked teaching and it linked to the future and had the possibility of making a difference in the world – in that way it’s like politics.”

In the classroom or in Sacramento, Fran is always a teacher. Her 28 years in a middle school classroom and taking students on outdoor environmental education trips to the Sierras serves her well in her work in Sacramento. In the Assembly she authored an education bill, sponsored by Heal the Bay and signed into law by Governor Gray Davis, requiring all K-12 science textbooks to include age appropriate information on environmental principles. This work is ongoing and is funded by a multi-million dollar grant from the National Geographic Society.

Fran, a native Angelino, credits her family’s love of hiking and camping, the many childhood days she spent on Santa Monica beaches swimming and playing beach volleyball, and her sailing on a 102’ schooner as a Mariner Scout, with teaching her the importance of environmental protection. “I liked sports but spent most of my time in the water. I knew that DDT caused trouble for pelicans. I knew that there were days when we were kept inside for recess due to smog alerts, and I knew that the smog was worse in the warmer months of summer, but mostly I loved being outdoors.”

Her husband, Andy, now retired after 31 years of teaching 7th grade science; her daughter, Jenny, who went to college on a Title IX scholarship and, after a stint as a firefighter, is now studying to be a Physician’s Assistant; her son, David, who is in a supported work position for persons with autism; all share her love of the outdoors and her concern for the environment.

Protecting the environment, improving our educational system, and being a voice for special needs children and families are Fran’s focus as a Senator. She added serving on the Select Committee on Autism to her responsibilities as “this year saw terrible cuts to non-profits. The economy is in the tank and the State budget is tied to the economy.”

Since 1982 Fran has been in public office, first as both a Council Member and Mayor in Agoura Hills, then as an Assembly Member and now as a State Senator. Fran says she “hopes to have seven more years in the State Senate to work on the problems of global warming: the projected sea level rise of 20+ inches by the end of this century, the impact of warmer ocean temperatures, the economic impacts due to decreases in the $46 billion a year ocean-dependent tourist economy. Then we’ll see what’s next, maybe non-profit work. Whatever it will be it will be good, local work.”

What Say You ? Santa Monica: Identity and Water

Gil Borboa, Santa Monica Water Resources Manager, is concerned that Santa Monicans, and even City Hall, turn down tap water in favor of bottled water. “In spite of the elaborate safety and health precautions taken with the City water supply Santa Monicans still buy bottled water. The choice is between bottled water, which is expensive and neither safer nor healthier, and Santa Monica tap water. When people understand what’s at stake, tap water will be the choice.” For anyone who doesn’t like the taste of the water as it comes out of the tap he suggests, “put the tap water into a pitcher and leave it in the refrigerator for an hour. Then drink it and I think you’ll find it’s good.”

Water is a constant theme in the history and identity of Santa Monica. Stella Zadeh, writing in 1975 for the Outlook, recounts the 1917 vote on annexation of Santa Monica to Los Angeles as Santa Monica faced water shortages and Santa Monicans were looking thirstily at Los Angeles and the water flowing out of the Owens Valley aqueduct. “City Commissioners had set the election as far in advance as possible, with the hope that they could improve the City’s water supply before the election and appease the pro – annexationists. They also hoped that nature might come through in time with rain.”

In a very Santa Monica footnote Zaleh adds that, “When an annexation leader claimed he had had no water in his home for 82 days the opposition arranged for the fire department to go to his home and record on camera as the fireman took a 100 foot stream of water from the fire hydrant in front of his house. Films of this were distributed all over town. The annexationists cried foul.” Fortunately for Santa Monica, Election Day 1917 was rainy, water flowed through the pipes and the vote was 4,555 to 3,479 against annexation. Santa Monica was its own city.

Three more major elections focused on water. In 1923 Santa Monicans, worried about an acute water shortage, voted more than $1 million in bonds to overhaul the water system. The city used the bond money to build a five million gallon reservoir at the Arcadia Plant, another five million gallon reservoir at Mount Olivette on Franklin Hill, and to buy water-bearing land on Charnock Road in West Los Angeles. Santa Monicans voted again, in 1948, approving a bond to build two more five million gallon reservoirs. One, a new reservoir at Mount Olivette on Franklin Hill, to replace the previous one and another under the San Vicente median between 24th and 26th streets. The third vote came in 1958, just ten years after the previous bond measure. The City voted 4 to 1 for a $2,700,000 bond to construct a 25 million gallon reservoir at Rivera Country Club under the tennis courts and parking area.

Until 1996 the wells and reservoirs that created the water system worked for Santa Monica. 70% of Santa Monica tap water came from local wells and 30% was purchased from the MWD. Then came 1996, during a routine test, Staff Scientist Myriam Cardenas, Asst. Manager for Water Production and Treatment, noticed that the water from the Charnock wells tested positive for MTBE. MTBE was a gasoline additive that improved air quality but which was a serious health risk when it emerged in the water supply after leaching out of underground gasoline tanks.

The Charnock wells were closed down. The City began long and complicated negotiations and legal actions against the oil companies. The State, in the form of CA EPA and the Regional Water Quality Control Board, intervened on the side of clean water and the lawsuits were settled in the City’s favor. In a reverse of previous water supply numbers, currently 80% of Santa Monica tap water is purchased from the MWD and 20% is from local wells. The City plans to reverse that ratio and return to relying heavily on well water when the Charnock wells are back on line in 2010.

As is well known, California continues to have water shortages, especially in Southern California. California has also seen the degradation of the water supply through pollutants and contaminants. Santa Monica has made a commitment to keeping storm water, with all its attendant pollutants, out of Santa Monica Bay and a commitment to conserving water as we address the State water shortages. “We reuse the cleaned water from the SMURF (Santa Monica Urban Runoff Facility) and we diverted outfalls at Montana, Wilshire, Pico Kenter and Ashland to the Hyperion Treatment Plant.

Because of the shortage of water we are focusing on building green streets to capture and infiltrate urban runoff. Bicknell was first and now Ocean Park Blvd. is being planned,” said Gil Borboa. The City is also investigating possible new reservoir locations for stormwater because of the new demand for recycled water to be used for landscape irrigation and for non-potable plumbing uses. Water, water shortages, water conservation, water quality are interwoven with the history of Santa Monica and with our future. Our identity continues to be defined by our care of our precious water.

City of Santa Monica Water Quality Report
http://www.smgov.net/Departments/PublicWorks/ContentWater.aspx?id=7358

Hometown Hero: Margaret Bach

Documentary filmmaker, historic preservationist, writer, interior designer: Margaret Bach wove her interest in film, history, architecture and the built environment into the pattern of her life work.

In the 1970’s she worked on the restoration and historic designation of the Horatio West Court; made the documentary film, “Landscape With Angels”; received her MFA from UCLA; worked at KCET on the LA History Film Series; and worked at LACMA producing a film series showing how movies have portrayed Los Angeles.

Margaret and her husband, screenwriter Danilo Bach, a young couple in 1973, were house hunting when they learned the Horatio West Court designed by renowned architect Irving Gill was up for sale. In spite of the terrible condition of the buildings and its frightening occupancy by drug addicts, the Bachs and three other couples decided to restore the buildings as a place to live. On the day escrow closed, City police, who were all too well aware of the problems on the site, showed up to oversee the safe transfer of the property from the squatting drug addicts to the proud and hopeful new owners.

When the City of Los Angeles planned to sell the Bertram Goodhue designed Los Angeles Central Library, Margaret worked on the LA AIA report, “The Light of Learning”, a history and defense of the Library. Out of the effort to save the Library, the Los Angeles Conservancy was founded. Margaret was both a founding member and, in 1978, its first president. An interesting historical footnote is that Ruthann Lehrer was the first Executive Director of the LA Conservancy and both Margaret and Ruthann now sit on the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission.

The first time Margaret sat on the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission, Clo Hoover was Mayor. Margaret turned her attention and support to the South Beach Tract, the General Telephone building on Barnard (now the Eli Broad Art Foundation building), and the 3^rd Street Development Corporation. That work contributed to the preservation of the South Beach bungalow neighborhood, the stopping of the faux facelift planned for the old telephone switching station, and the renewal of the 3^rd Street Promenade.

The Bachs moved from the Horatio West Court in the 1980’s and looked for another ‘fixer upper’ that could accommodate their growing family. They bought the house of the early 1900’s Santa Monica developer and realtor, Frank Bundy. Over the years they restored and added to the old house.

With two sons, Margaret focused on contributing to the schools, including serving as PTA President at Roosevelt and, after her sons went to college, working on the renovation of Barnum Hall. Margaret wrote grant applications, including the application for the restoration of the Barnum Hall fire curtain designed by the well-respected Southern California artist, Stanton McDonald-Wright, as part of the WPA artists program.

Continuing her interest in the built environment, Margaret agreed to be a grant writer for St. Johns Hospital after it was damaged in the 1994 earthquake. She also used her knowledge of architecture and her writing skills at the office of Santa Monica architects Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg.

She is the author of “Cottages in the Sun”, publication date March 2010, and now has her own design studio. margaretbachdesign.asidla.org “I have a clear, childhood memory of the Santa Fe Super Chief. Although I wasn’t old enough to know the train I was riding on was in the Streamline Moderne Style, I knew the train was beautiful and I was captivated by the colors of the train, the colors of the southwest. Being on the train I felt a complete sense of wellbeing and balance, which is what I try to accomplish through my work.”

Margaret names Palisades Park as “one of the great places in the world. It is a place that matters and the places that matter will only be preserved when people care.” And it’s just like “Maggie,” as her long time friends call her, that her favorite tableware, from the vintage Edwin Knowles China Company, is named the “Santa Monica” pattern.

What Say You: A City Defined By Its Landmarks

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, one of the original Ranchero owners and part of a powerful family, gave the City, then just a few years old, our now iconic Palisades Park. City Hall, designed in the streamline moderne style by Donald Parkinson, was a WPA project. Irving Gill, one of California’s most important architects, designed the Horatio West Courts.

Built in 1919 the Horatio West Courts on Hollister were a forerunner of the modern style in architecture. By the early 1970’s they had fallen into complete disrepair. As a young couple, Margaret and Danilo Bach, had the vision and the courage to move in and begin the restoration of the Courts. And by so doing saved the Courts for all of us.

Santa Monica now has over 90 landmarked buildings. This past Sunday,
I joined 25 other Santa Monicans on a Santa Monica Conservancy tour led by Marcelo Vavala, who is an architectural historian and a past president of the Conservancy. Among the 45 we saw: the Strick House on La Mesa, a mid-century modern building, designed by the world famous architect Oscar Neimeyer; the adobe house on 4th and Georgina, designed by John Byers; the Pier, another WPA project; the Georgian and Shangri La hotels; the Lido, an Art Deco hotel; Phillips Church, a cultural monument; the Spanish Colonial Revival Sovereign apartment hotel; and many bungalows and cottages.

A1901 beach bungalow is now home to Joel Brand, Kristina Deutsch and their sons. Joel Brand, also a past president of the Conservancy, only learned how important historic preservation was to him after he moved to Santa Monica. “Friends started to point out the importance of older buildings in our urban landscape, I realized that Santa Monica is defined by these historic treasures. This architecture plays a large part in fostering the small town, neighborly sensibilities that makes our community such a wonderful place to call home. I see that play out on my street, in my neighborhood and across the city and it's the silent foundation upon which is built so much that is wonderful about Santa Monica.”

“Santa Monica is one of California's most architecturally, culturally, and historically significant communities,” states Conservancy President Carol Lemlein. “The Conservancy is a strong voice for preservation. We train docents for the Beach House, we are working to provide a Preservation Resource Center in the Shotgun house, and, under a Cultural Affairs grant, will offer docent guided tours of Palisades Park this coming spring.”

Importantly, as advocates for preservation, the Conservancy speaks for preservation to be part of the new LUCE (Land Use and Circulation Element). Representing the Conservancy’s 400 members, Carol Lemlein has asked “that historic preservation be clearly articulated as a community value and that the LUCE specifically refers to historic preservation as an essential part of neighborhood preservation.”

In the LUCE workshops it is clear that preservation values have broad support among City residents. Margaret Bach, now a Landmarks Commissioner and the Founding President of the Los Angeles Conservancy, suggests that we join the goals of creating housing with historic preservation, “a rethinking of our existing housing stock to understand how we could express the City’s goals for affordable and work force housing through the preservation of existing buildings – preserving and enhancing a sense of place, landscape and green space as we create more opportunities for affordable and workforce housing at the same time that we protect the character of our neighborhoods.”

“The City is listening.” Francis Phipps, the LUCE consultant on Historic and Neighborhood Preservation, explains “the LUCE treats historic preservation as a central measure to protect the character of Santa Monica as it has evolved over time through preservation of landmark buildings, in a formal process, and through the creation of Conservation Districts, in a neighborhood process.”

Once again, Santa Monicans have spoken in favor of the buildings and places that create our sense of place, our collective past and our desire to carry our values into the future. So what say you? Sunday brunch on the porch of a bungalow, a drink at the Shangri LA, a family afternoon on the Pier, toddler story time at the Ocean Park Library, a run in Palisades Park?

Hometown Hero: Kesha Ram, Member, Vermont House of Representatives

Montpelier, Vermont. “I remember walking with my grandmother, who lived with us, to the Big Blue bus stop on 14^th and Montana. We took the bus to Douglas Park with its pond and swings. On Saturday, if there was a show for kids, we walked to the Aero.”

Now Kesha serves in the Vermont legislature. “Half of the eight thousand registered voters in my district are between 18 and 25. I feel strongly about involving young voters and I feel I know and understand what the community needs. Also, being at the bottom of the ticket, when Obama was at the top, definitely helped.”

Winning meant a seat in Vermont’s 150 member House of Representatives. Pay is $10,000/year. They are in session five months of the year. “Because it takes some personal sacrifice, only people who really want to serve run for office. Vermonters wouldn’t have it any other way, they feel strongly about direct democracy.”

The other seven months of the year Kesha works as a legal advocate at “Women Helping Women”, a domestic violence non-profit. “It’s wonderful work and it’s enough salary for me right now.”

Kesha got her start in public service in her first grade class at Roosevelt Elementary in Santa Monica. She was a proficient reader and her teacher asked her to work with the students who needed help because English was their second language. “She knew that my father had immigrated from India to study engineering at UCLA and that made her think I would be sympathetic to the immigrant children. I loved helping them. I loved how it made me feel.”

Kesha joined the choir in 4^th grade and stayed in the choir all the way through her years at Lincoln Middle School and at SAMOHI. She never missed a Stairway to the Stars. She was the Environmental Affairs Coordinator on SAMOHI Student Government and worked with the PTA to start the school recycling program.

Graduating in 2004 from SAMOHI in a class of 1200 students she wanted a new experience and so applied to colleges in Alaska, Canada and New England. “The good news for me is that these schools were all interested in having a young, woman of color from California in their school. I chose University of Vermont (UVM, Founded 1791). I felt I could be the person I wanted to be there and they gave me a full scholarship.”

She took her Santa Monica values with her to Vermont; first as a freshman activist, then as a member of student government in her sophomore, junior and senior years. “Student government had lots of slots for class representatives and so it wasn’t overly hard to be elected. “

In 2006 then Sen. Obama came to UVM to give a speech in support of Bernie Saunders in his bid for the US Senate. “They asked me to introduce Obama as everyone else on the dais was going to be male and they wanted to have a female student leader on the dais.”

In her senior year, she ran for student body president. “It was a seven-way race. Other candidates put their energy into fliers and signs. I put my energy into making personal contacts. I would stand on campus and stop every tenth student to introduce myself and ask them about their experience at UVM. I won that election and was the first person of color and the seventh woman to be student body president.”

Kesha graduated UVM in 2008 with a BA in political science and a BS in natural resource planning after four years of study and student activism.

In the Vermont Legislature she is sponsoring a green jobs amendment to the Economic Development Omnibus Bill and is working to get the Abenaki Tribe officially recognized so they can label crafts as authentic products of the Tribe and can also seek Federal Grants.

Her roots are in Santa Monica going back, through her mother to the rich, cultural and political heritage of the Jewish community of Eastern Europe; through her father to the democratic movements of India; and through her Great, Great Grandfather, Sir Gunga Ram who was the Chief Engineer of India. He is remembered as a philanthropist who built schools for girls and who built hydroelectric dams at a time when India was in desperate need of infrastructure.

“Since my first elected office as Student Council President at Roosevelt (5^th grade) I’ve always had a passion for politics. There are no term limits in Vermont, so I will seek reelection in 2010 and then, we’ll see. At age 23, I’m so very happy to be where I am and to see where it takes me. It’s an exciting feeling. Who knew that a 23-year-old young woman from Santa Monica could be elected to the Vermont House. Yet, here I am. And if I can, so can you.”

What Say You: The Stone Whisperer

The stone whisperer is what Vermonters call Hiram. A Vermonter descended from the Abenaki, an Algonquin tribe, he taught himself to build the stonewalls that make him so respected in this community. “The hardest part is letting the rocks be what they are, because they’re not going to fit the way we want them, they’re going to fit the way they want. It took me a long time to learn that.”

If the stonewalls are the iconic image of old Vermont, wifi is still in its future. There is definitely no wifi in my cabin at High Lake (and no phone and no cell phone reception). However, the beautiful, historic Morrill Memorial Library is in Strafford, a few miles away, through forests of oak, maple and birch and past open meadows with grazing horses, and all Vermont libraries have wifi.

With no Vermont address, no Vermont phone number and no one to vouch for me, the librarian loaned me the “Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”. It was a perfect book to read on the screen porch overlooking High Lake.

On the way to the library is Rose’s farm stand. I’d want to go in, but no one would be there. One day I saw people inside, went in, introduced myself, and said how glad I was they were open.

“Open, what do you mean?” asked Rose. She then told me the door to the screen porch was always open. I should help myself to whatever fruits, veggies, home made pies and whatever else I wanted and leave my money on the table. Are you in shock yet?

When I returned to the library to check email again and to return the book, there was a small group of people sitting around the fireplace. Looking at the gray and white haired men and women I thought, at first, they were all elderly. They were discussing “The Reader”, a book I had read, and I shamelessly eavesdropped. There was a white haired man who well remembered WWII and there were people many years younger with gray and white hair. Vermonters, at least in this part of Vermont, don’t color their hair no matter what age they are when they go gray. I stopped thinking about hair and dual-tasked, answering email and paying attention to their comments on the book. When they were leaving I confessed my eavesdropping and told them I had learned a lot from listening to them. They protested that I should have joined them and invited me to their next meeting.

I miss Santa Monica, my friends, my neighbors, the beach, everything that’s fun and interesting and great about Santa Monica. But it wasn’t that long ago that Santa Monica was so much easier to navigate than it is now. We had fewer rules and, even though it’s hard to believe, we had more people, yet we had less traffic.

I know we can’t make Santa Monica into rural Vermont. Nor do I want that. But I wonder if we couldn’t reclaim some of the personal, some of the helpfulness that we seem to have discarded when we made the hyperspace leap to hip and cool. Those are the kind of thoughts you have when you spend two weeks in the quiet of the forest on a lake with water clean enough to drink.

It’s early morning. The mist is clearing. The ducks are still here, and the herons, and the hawks. For any of you who wonder whether this is time travelling or vacationing, the next ‘What Say You’ will have a Santa Monica byline.

Hometown Hero: Mark Gold

“I was a loud mouthed planning student at UCLA in 1986. Dorothy Green, the founder of HTB, was a guest speaker and she asked for volunteers. I was working toward my Environmental Science and Engineering Doctorate at UCLA’s School of Public Health and I threw myself into fieldwork on public health, storm water pollution and sewage pollution issues. Dorothy then offered me the organization’s first paid job.Her amazing act of trust and faith set me on the path I have followed ever since. Dorothy became my role model, my mentor and the closest of friends.” Mark Gold, now the Executive Director of Heal the Bay. (HTB)

HTB became a constant driver of water quality improvement in the Santa Monica Bay and in California. California established criteria for water quality protections: requiring monitoring, public notification of water pollution and, most importantly, setting standards to protect public health.

The Federal Beach Act of 2000 followed the California model and both HTB and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) worked with EPA to implement the Act. HTB, NRDC and the Santa Monica Baykeeper have also worked with the State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards on regulations (called TMDLs) that set standards for reducing bacterial, pathogen and trash pollution of the beaches and ocean. “Due to the TMDLs, water quality, at local beaches, during the summer, is much cleaner than it was 5 years ago. Winter is a longer term success, as we clean up fecal bacteria and toxic metals, that’s the last piece of the puzzle in healing the Bay.”

Mark’s community contributions include his 18 years as Chair of the City
of Santa Monica Environmental Task Force. The Task Force has been the incubator for much of the important environmental work done in Santa Monica. The Green Building program, water conservation, storm water infiltration, and Measure V all started with the Environmental Task Force. “Being on the Task Force allowed me to learn from the people who are experts in green energy, sustainable building practices, sustainable landscape and climate change.”

Santa Monica is now working to implement green infrastructure that captures stormwater and infiltrates it back into the aquifer. “The Beach Green is a great example. People are always there, playing and picnicking and it keeps polluted water out of the Bay. The public loves the Beach Green. Bicknell Street is another example of green infrastructure that captures and infiltrates rain water, improves air and water quality, and provides habitat while fulfilling its basic use as a street. All Santa Monica streets should be green streets.”

“We have focused successfully on City policies and it is past time for us to tap into the energy and commitment of the residents and the business community. I went to SAMOHI; my son is going to SAMOHI. It’s great to be a part of a community for that long and I know the talent and resources that the community is ready to bring to environmental and sustainability issues.”

“Polluted runoff remains the largest source of pollution to our nation’s coastline. I was fortunate enough work on the first ever health effects study on swimmers at urban runoff contaminated beaches. We found that people who swam at runoff-contaminated beaches were far more likely to get stomach flu and upper respiratory illness. That epidemiology study was truly impact science – science that changes the way decision makers make decisions to protect public health and the environment,” Mark said during a commencement speech he delivered at UCLA urging the graduates to get involved.

“My experience at Heal the Bay has demonstrated that science combined with activism can have a beneficial impact. Yet, never in my lifetime, has there been greater American disdain for science with such tremendous potential local, national and global consequences.”

Heal The Bay. http://www.healthebay.org

What Say You: “Stadium to Sea” LA Marathon 2010

Do you dream of being a Marathoner? The time is now to buy your (eco friendly) running shoes. LA Roadrunners, the official training program for the LA Marathon starts its 27-week training program on September 12. 2009. Registration online begins September 1, 2009 for both the LA Marathon (www.lamarathon.com) and LA Roadrunners (www.laroadrunners.com).

For the first time in the LA Marathon’s 25 year history the victors, and the anticipated 25,000 other racers, will cross the finish line in Santa Monica, at the sea.

“Stadium to the Sea” is the historically evocative and geographically descriptive title of the 2010 LA Marathon, Dodger Stadium, home of the LA Dodgers, and the site of the historic shame of the Chavez Ravine evictions will be the starting place for the March 21, 2010 Los Angles Marathon.

Along the route, up to 1,000,000 fans will line the streets to cheer on runners as they run past the famed neighborhoods and iconic sites of Los Angeles, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica. The proposed course has runners entering Santa Monica on San Vicente at 26th turning south on Ocean Avenue to Pico and then continuing south on Barnard to approximately Ocean Park Boulevard. The race will end with celebrations and a festival in the beach lots. The Council has approved allowing the Marathon to come to Santa Monica but the final racecourse is still to be negotiated between the cities and the race organizers.

In keeping with the City commitment to sustainability, the 2010 LA Marathon has announced it will be the world’s first major-city marathon to achieve green certification with the Council for Responsible Sport (ReSport). Bruce Rayner, Chief Green Officer for Athletes for a Fit Planet, worries about “green wash” (the practicing of talking an environmental talk, but not walking an environmental walk) promotes the ReSport certification process establishing standards race organizers and athletes must meet. “I’d like to see the day come when athletes demand that event organizers and the companies that support them are environmentally responsible.”

Green certification will be complete after ReSport officials observe the race day for ridesharing and the use of public transportation, beach cleanup, the use of bio-diesel power generators, compostable paper cups, no plastic goody bags, and recycling throughout the event. Marathon organizers say this will do away with a staggering 50,000 plastic bags and nearly 1,000,000 pieces of paper.

LA Marathon organizers are guaranteeing to pay the full cost of all Santa Monica City services from the day the contract is signed to the taking down of the last barricade on race day and guaranteeing a substantive community outreach effort to establish services and resolve conflicts for businesses and residents along the route. They are also holding out the promise of more than $20 million in revenue to City businesses, over a five-year period, with a focus on hotels and restaurants.

Santa Monica’s own Heal the Bay, Sojourn Shelter and Our Students Run LA (a regional program which includes PAL members) are already part of the official charities program. In past years Marathon runners have raised more than $1.5 million for charities.

Look for this item to be on the Council agenda in early September as the City discusses short and long-term benefits as well as short and long term impacts, and works out the policies and practices needed to participate in the production of an event of this complexity and magnitude.

Hometown Hero: Gene Oppenheim

When Gene Oppenheim goes grocery shopping in Santa Monica, people often come up to him and stick out their tongues. It’s not a sign of disrespect, it’s because he has been a family doctor in Santa Monica since 1980.

Gene received his M.D. and Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from UCLA. After residency he and his wife, Patricia Hoffman, went house hunting and bought the house they still live in on Harvard Street in Santa Monica.

He decided to open a solo practice and for ten years his offices were on Yale and Wilshire. During those years he also served on the Ocean Park Community Center Board and was a physician for the Sojourn Battered Women’s Center and for Stepping Stone, a center for abused and deserted children. Gene was appointed to the City of Santa Monica Commission for Older Americans and remembers holding a press conference, with then Assemblyman Tom Hayden, but no reporters came! Just as they ended, the reporter from the Evening Outlook rushed in and so they had a redo of their speeches. The next day, the banner headline on the paper read, “Santa Monica Nursing Homes Refuse Medi-Cal Patients.”

At the same time that Gene had his medical office and was doing health care volunteer work, the insurance companies were creating managed care organizations. Gene said, “the work of dealing with the insurance companies was resource and time consuming and doctors formed group practices in order to be as efficient as possible in the administration of their offices so they could focus on the practice of medicine.”

When he looks at medicine today he sees “Wasted money, money that isn’t used for health care. It goes to profits for company executives and stockholders, the costs of underwriting – which are all the expenditures spent by insurance companies to identify only the healthiest people to insure, and administrative costs.”

He saw the managed care organizations as making it more difficult for him to give his patients the quality of care he wanted to provide and he decided to become a Kaiser doctor. “Kaiser is the way medicine should be practiced. It is an integrated system and more efficient. Doctors are on salary and so not paid by the number of patients they see or the number of tests they order. It is a good way for patients to get better care and to save money at the same time.”

His concern for the quality of health care in the U.S. made him decide to join the California Physicians Alliance, part of the National Physicians Alliance. They support single payer health insurance for all Americans as they think it is the only realistic answer to the question of how to deliver high quality medical care and keep the costs of health care from harming the national economy. As part of this group he has visited Congressman Waxman’s office to talk about single payer health insurance. Members of the National Physicians Alliance attempted to testify in the Washington Senate hearings.

All three of Gene’s sons do volunteer work. Jed at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Lucas on Civil Rights and First Amendment cases for Santa Monica Attorney Carol Sobel, and Jonas as a writing mentor for the Virginia Avenue Project. Gene’s wife Patricia currently chairs the Community Corp of Santa Monica, an affordable housing provider and is Chair of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights. She is a former President of the Santa Monica Malibu Board of Education.

Gene remembers looking out the window of a west facing birthing room at Santa Monica Hospital at a spectacular 4th of July fireworks celebration. He is no longer delivering babies, but he continues to practice medicine and to work for high quality health care.

What Say You: Santa Monica Votes for Single Payer

Santa Monica City Council, acting on motions introduced by Council Member Kevin McKeown, voted this year, as they have since 2003, their unanimous support for single payer health insurance. By doing good, they also did well. They voted for all Californians to have health insurance and learned that, if we had single payer in California now, all else being equal, the City would realize a savings of $6.0 million.

So, if offered the choice, would you prefer to give your doctor a State of California Health Insurance Card and have your health care costs be covered with no copayments and no surprises as to what might or might not be included or, would you prefer to keep your current insurance? That choice, according to the organization Health Care For All, is the reason to join with the over 700 professional groups, unions, civic groups, and organizations working diligently and enthusiastically for Senate Bill 810, the “California Universal Health Care Act.”

Originally proposed by former State Senator Sheila Kuehl, twice passed by both Houses of the California legislature and twice vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, single payer insurance for California has been introduced, in its third iteration, Senate Bill 810, by Senator Leno. Senator, Fran Pavley and Assembly Member Julia Brownley are among the 35 Members of the State Legislature signing on to the Bill.

According to the City Finance Office, Santa Monica could see a potential savings of $6.0 million annually. Here’s what the City Finance Office wrote: “If the City were to pay the entire 16 percent of health care costs under the single payer plan, it would incur $21.8 million in annual expenditures. Projected medical costs for FY 2008-09 for the same salary level were $27.8 million, which indicates an estimated savings of $6.0 million over current medical, dental, and vision costs.”

If that is what the City would save, imagine the potential savings to the State, the Country and to each individual American. How is it possible we can have better health care and save money? To begin to understand that, look at SB 810, California Single Payer Health Insurance, “The California Universal Health Care Act.”

SB 810 describes a State in budget crisis with “one-third of California's State Budget devoted to health care insurance and direct payment costs, an estimated 6.6 million Californians uninsured, 763,000 children uninsured and health plans and insurers competing to construct patient pools consisting of the healthiest segments of the population, leaving higher risk patients to public programs or uninsured.

“The U.S. spends more than twice as much as other industrial nations on health care, both per person and as a percentage of its gross domestic product. Yet U.S. healthcare outcomes consistently rank at the bottom of all industrial nations. One-half of all bankruptcies in the United States now relate to medical costs, though three-fourths of bankrupted families had health care coverage at the time of sustaining the injury or illness. More than one-half of all Americans report forgoing recommended health care because of the cost.” Doesn’t it seem that if we solve our health costs crisis we will also be solving a large part of our national economic crisis?

Here’s what Kevin McKeown said, “Single-payer is the clear answer to our healthcare crisis, allowing each of us to choose private doctors and facilities, but routing the payments through one government plan. There's a reason why existing insurance interests oppose even the partial "public option" proposal: they know that the inefficiencies and administrative overhead insurance companies introduce can't compete with universal single-payer.” What say you?

Hometown Hero: Allan Young Boys and Girls Club

Allan Young got his first job at the Santa Monica Boys Club. He had been named the 1963 “Youth of the Year” and a part time job went with the award. 2009 will be his last year at the Club. He has personally worked with thousands of boys and girls and their families. “I’ve loved every minute of being here. I never felt this was a job. I felt this was my family.”

His dad brought him to the Boys Club in 1955. Membership was 50 cents/year and that included everything the club had to offer. Allan went to Roosevelt Elementary and his dad felt Allan needed to play with kids from all kinds of backgrounds and that his elementary school didn’t give him that experience. “My dad was ahead of his time.”

From his “Youth of the Year” job to being Assistant Athletic Director he continued to work at the Club all the way through high school at SAMOHI and college at SMC and Northridge. In 1966 he was drafted and went to the Naval Dental School and then served, as a dental tech, in both Guam and Vietnam.

When he returned, Cyril Gale, a Santa Monica dentist and President of the Boys Club Board, said he would help him go to dental school. But Allan wanted to work at the club. By 1969 he was the Club’s Athletic Director. In 1977 he became the Executive Director.

There are now Boys and Girls Clubs at Lincoln, Samohi, JAMS, McKinley, and at several Community Corps housing projects. Membership is $10/year for all the club has to offer including: homework labs, tech labs, athletic activities and academic counseling. Allan feels it is a “mistake for the schools or the city to try to duplicate the work of the non-profits.”

The first Boys Club, started in 1860 by a small group of socially concerned women, was called the “Dash Away Club”. They wanted to create opportunities for the boys they called ‘the urchins’. For over a hundred years the clubs served boys across the US and on US military bases.

Not until 1990, and then only with argument and challenge, did the Boys Clubs of America officially become the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. When Allan came to realize that he “had to change with the times” he met individually with each of the 45 Santa Monica Board Members to get agreement because he didn’t want to go to court over the issue. Now Allen says, “one of the things I regret most was not serving girls sooner. Girls are in every sport and activity and they make the club a better place for everyone.”

This summer Allan is taking twelve, 16-18 year old, teenagers, of diverse backgrounds, to Kenya on a program run by “Free the Children”, a Canadian organization where his daughter works. “The purpose is to teach our kids that they can make a difference. But I believe this experience will change them in a good way. The kids will build a school and the adults will build a medical clinic. Real progress gets made one person and one project at a time: one more school, one more clinic, one more water purification plant.”

Retirement doesn’t mean not working for Allan. He will be at the Pacific Youth Foundation working on global problems of youth, poverty and education. “In Brazil there is an estimated population of 15 million street children. Tupperware employs about 10,000 people in Brazil. Their CEO has talked with us about starting Boys and Girls Clubs in Brazil. That is a project I intend to work on. I intend to keep working on the same issues and toward the same goal of educating children. The only way out of poverty is through education and respect – whether you live in Africa, South America or the US.”

What Say You: The Council on the Budget

‘City Staff scrambles to meet required 5% reduction in department budgets on top of previous 3% reduction.’ ‘Residents worry about safety and services during hard economic times.’ These might be headlines in articles about the City budget debate. While the State is reeling from huge shortfalls and our nation is grappling with bank and corporate failures, high housing foreclosure rates, and higher unemployment numbers, the City of Santa Monica seems to be coping comparatively well in spite of downturns in standard sources of income such as auto sales taxes, hotel occupancy taxes and property sales taxes. How can that be and what is the City going to do about the reductions it needs to make? Here’s how City Council Members answer those questions and what they say about how they’re going to decide where to make cuts. To contact Council Members with your concerns and suggestions email:>council@smgov.net

Ken Genser.

“For me, public process is a very important part of the process. But people have been surprisingly quiet on this issue and that says to me that, at least so far, there are no apparent, major problems with the proposed budget. I feel we need to look at the entire City Budget and make sure it is in the black at the same time fee increases should not be such that make it harder for people, especially young people, to participate and we need to be extremely careful.”

Richard Bloom.

“The City wisely put 8.2 million dollars into a rainy day fund and we now plan to use that fund over a 2 year period hoping that the national economy will recover sooner than that. That will allows us to maintain essential services such as police and fire and keep any necessary cuts as far away from where residents will feel them as possible.”

“We are very lucky that the City is not in the same desperate straits as the other cities in California because our sources of income are so diversified.

Although we do have to make certain reductions and we have instituted a hiring freeze, reduced the use of consultants and limited other expenditures, that is preferable to eliminating services to residents. If the economy remains bad then the next budget cycle will be more difficult.”

Bob Hollbrook.

“This is the most difficult financial year in all my 19 years of being on the Council and we don’t know how long this recession/depression will last. Right now we can do what we need to do with hiring freezes, less frequent rotation of the 600+ vehicles in the City fleet, longer intervals between tree trimming, alley repaving and other non-essential services. My idea of the last place to cut is public safety or services like the public library. We need to get through the next couple of years by relying on the City’s rainy day reserves and by keeping things going so that we protect the people of Santa Monica.”

Kevin McKeown. “Unlike the State we are, at least, partially protected by previous prudence and are able to draw upon short term reserves. I think we need to take this as an opportunity to think through how we can provide needed resources in a sustainable way. We also shouldn’t price out valuable services through fee increases. We wouldn’t, for example want to want to raise fees that would price out the 12 step programs that save lives, increase public safety, and save the city money. We need to keep good programs viable so we don’t lose experienced and dedicated staff and so that we continue to serve the needs of the people of the City.”

Hometown Hero: Joel Reynolds

Say Joel Reynolds; think music, family and the environment.It was his family, especially his generous mother, who taught him a sense of service but it was Bobby Kennedy who most influenced his political beliefs.“He conveyed values and a sense of purpose with a charisma that reached across barriers.I admired him and planned to work for his election when I returned from our family’s sabbatical year in Copenhagen.” Landing at LAX, Joel learned of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. It was 1968.Joel was in high school.He still knew what he believed but he no longer knew what he was going to do.

College was at UC Riverside where his father was a founding member of the Music Department. Joel majored in music and political science. It was when he interned at EPA that he decided to become a lawyer. "I wanted to be able to pursue my own ideological agenda and the practice of law would enable me to act on the issues I cared about.”

After graduation from Columbia Law School he soon focused on environmental law and his work at the Center for Law in the Public Interest and the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant case.In 1989 he joined the National Resources Defense Counsel (NRDC). www.nrdc.org He is currently Director of its Southern California program and one of eleven lawyers working at the Robert Redford NRDC Headquarters Building in Santa Monica.

He didn’t win the victory he wanted in the Diablo Canyon case but when NRDC joined the international campaign, started by the Mexican poet Homero Aridjis, to defend the breeding ground of the California Gray Whale at Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California, it was an all out win.

At NRDC he sued the US Navy to block a five-year underwater explosives program near the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Joel successfully argued that the “Navy could test and train in an environmentally responsible way that would both protect our national security and the environment.”

He also won when he sued the Los Angeles County Sanitation Department.In a case that marked the beginning of an ongoing series of legal and political battles to clean and protect Southern California coastal waters, County Sanitation was required to meet secondary treatment standards before discharging to the ocean.

The Cornfield and Taylor Yards, located between downtown and East Los Angeles, are part of US Government land grants given to Union Pacific to support the development of the railroad and were recently proposed for industrial development. The proposed development would have further divided Los Angeles and caused environmental harm. NRDC sued the City of Los Angeles and the Yards are now 72 acres of dedicated parkland.

Continuing the land conservation strategy, NRDC and other environmental groups negotiated the largest conservation agreement in California with the Tejon Ranch Partnership. Its importance comes not only from its scale but from the fact that four major ecosystems, the southern Sierras, the Coastal Range, San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, come together in Tejon Ranch.

“Having a child often opens up your creativity,” is how Joel introduces the songs he wrote for his children, Sam, Ellie and Amelia.He and his five siblings and all eleven of the cousins get together often and making music is a continuing family tradition.

But he fears for the future. “Scientists disagree about how much time remains to prevent an irreversible shift in our global climate. We have no time to lose and we know where to begin. “From the mundane to the grand, act as if the environment matters.From choosing a job, to raising your children, to joining an environmental group, to buying a fuel efficient car, to voting for candidates who take the environment seriously, act as if the environment matters.”

What Say You? City Budget Uncertainty

“We’re responding every day to new information,” said Santa Monica City Manager, Lamont Ewell, about the economic uncertainty that surrounds this year’s budget. “We’re building wings as we jump off the cliff.” The budget will be a clear expression of our values. It goes without saying that there will be difficult decisions. There could also be potential opportunities and benefits.

Hard facts. Fewer tourists are staying in hotels. The transit occupancy tax was minus18 percent in December and minus 28 percent in January. Fewer people are eating in restaurants. Receipts from auto sales and leases, which account for over 20 percent of our sales tax revenues, are down. Business incomes are down and so business fees are down. Only 40 percent of homes on the market have sold, many at reduced prices, and so the property transfer tax is down. Unemployment rates in Santa Monica were at 4.3 percent one year ago and are now at 7.2 percent. Budget problems at the State Government level mean reduced funds for Santa Monica.

City response. The City Manager required departments to reduce budgets by 3 percent in 08-09 and by an additional 5 percent in 09-10. 70 percent of the city budget goes to salaries and benefits. Cuts will come in hiring freezes, except for sworn personnel (fire, police) with exceptions made on a case-by-case basis and the same holds for hiring consultants. City employees aren’t traveling to conferences. Building inspectors are on contract and, if there is less building, there will be a reduction in building inspection staff. Cuts will also come from deferring maintenance and deferring projects that are funded through City funds.

New income. The City is working with Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer and Congressman Waxman to aggressively pursue Federal Economic Stimulus Package funds. Eligible Santa Monica projects include the California Incline and the Palisades Park bluff stabilization. These projects would bring jobs and income to Santa Monica.

Opportunities. We have talented staff supervising the work of consultants. Now is their opportunity to show their skills and expertise. We have places in City Hall where there is too much bureaucracy. Cleaning up the process of applications and decision-making could result in a financial savings and in making life easier for a lot of people – both in and out of City Hall.

Benefits. An unexplored, at least publicly, set of possibilities might exist in opening up City Staff benefits to the community as long as it doesn’t add an expense line to the City budget. One thought is to open the City fiber optic system, where possible, to residents. This was done in Vermont, which provides free access in many areas. Another possibility is to allow residents to buy into the health care the City offers employees, such as the City contract with Saint Johns. And more.

Opportunities. The Community could take care of their own street trees and parkways, with advice from the City Forester. Neighborhood Watch Groups could find out what to do to be helpful to the Police and Fire Departments. Volunteer more in the schools and at the library and hospitals and the animal shelter. And more

Benefit. We’ve had a tension between City Hall and City residents that a lot of folks would like to see mended. Finding ways to help each other and working together to keep the City whole and healthy during difficult times might just be a good start.

Hometown Hero: Karen Blanchard M.D.

The office of Karen Blanchard M.D. and Associates opened in Santa Monica on July 13, 1977. The decision to start her own practice came after no one in Santa Monica would even interview her. Her medical degree from Johns Hopkins and being Chief Resident at UCLA weren’t enough in 1977. She was told, “women wouldn’t go to a woman doctor.” The President of Santa Monica Bank, Joe Walling, must have believed she would be a success. With only her signature as collateral he gave her a loan. But even docs who thought she was a good doc told her, “be prepared to sit on your hands for up to 2 years because there are so many well known docs with medical prestige in Santa Monica that no patient will want an unknown woman doctor.”

By the time she’d been in practice for 6 months she was delivering 20 -25 babies a month. All the predictions about the failure of her office had proven false. But Karen was having so many problems with the hospitals that other people worried she would leave. Instead, she, with the support of the nurses, worked to change the hospital culture. “There are three things I tell the Residents I’m training. One is that they must care. Two is that they must listen. Three is that, if they don’t care and can’t listen, then they need to do something other than be doctors. I wanted to follow my own rules.”

“I had planned to go into academic medicine. I was a Fellow in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. I had trained Residents. But I wanted to change the way hospitals cared for pregnant women. I went into private practice wanting to find out if my ideas had merit. I wanted to center medical care on what my patients really wanted and really needed.

“Time has passed and now having fathers present at the birth of their child, having fathers cut the umbilical cord, having comfortable rooms with beds for family members to sleep over, letting siblings come to see their new baby are all taken as a matter of course. To me they were part of the proper practice of medicine, but they were hard fought ideas when we first began to put them into practice. I am very grateful that I happened to be in the right place, at the right time, to help make the difference in how babies are delivered.”

Soon, Karen had privileges at St. Johns and Santa Monica/UCLA and served on and chaired the Bio-ethics Committees at both hospitals. “Almost every issue we faced came up against the question of what treatment could we give and what treatment should we give. We often choose to stave off the natural progression of death at great emotional, personal and physical cost to our patients and to their families. These are not decisions based on economics, nor should they be. These decisions are part of the ethical practice of medicine and providing the best care possible for the patient.”

Karen will now leave her practice in the able hands of her partners and move to New York with her life-partner, Anne. She hopes to be a hospice doctor in New York. “I see Hospice Care as the last frontier of medical ethics. To be by the side of the dying patient, to care about them and their families is a gift I, as a physician, can bring to this vulnerable group of patients.

What Say You: Trees of Santa Monica

Cities, like families, continue discussions over generations in ways that are unique to each generation and time. One major such discussion in Santa Monica today is about our City trees. Trees help create the iconic image of our city. Trees provide shade and beauty. Trees protect our environment.

We’re talking about them again, in a formal way, because the downtown Ficus trees, now more than 40 years old, were tagged for removal and replacement as part of a 2007 plan. The 2nd and 4th St. Ficus trees were planted in the 1960’s under the advocacy of Jacqueline Girion, Head of the City Beautification Committee, and Clo Hoover, a respected Mayor and a highly successful businesswoman.

Continuing the tradition of protecting our City trees, a group of Santa Monica residents got together and started TreeSavers, an ad hoc committee originally formed to oppose the demolition of the 2nd and 4th St. Ficus trees. In fact, Jerry Rubin, one of the co-founders of TreeSavers, chained himself to a Ficus to prevent it being taken down. That was part of a demonstration that mobilized public opinion.

Eventually TreeSavers petitioned the Council to form a City Tree Commission. This being Santa Monica, the Council took the challenge to heart and at the April 7, 2009 City Council meeting they voted that the first City Urban Forest Task Force be formed to provide oversight and public participation in decision making about Santa Monica’s Urban Forest.

The Staff recommended “that City Council establish an urban forest master plan task force to advise staff on the development of a long-range urban forest master plan, review specific urban forest issues related to the master plan, and serve in an advisory capacity to City Council.” Councilmember Bloom moved the staff report recommendation. There was a brief discussion about membership criteria, followed by a unanimous aye vote of the Council Members present. TreeSavers supports the Task Force idea. They see it as ‘a good start’ on the way to a formal Tree Commission.

The Task Force will formulate its goals. Optimally they will include: giving the public a voice; protecting and enhancing our existing urban forest; helping to craft a master plan that creates beautiful urban design; designing each street for environmental sustainability; and making sure that, while we’re on our way to a new urban forest master plan, we make good decisions today, decisions that reflect our values.

For the Task Force to do the job well it will need, among its members and on its staff, people who have an appreciation of trees, a knowledge of water and air quality and the role of trees in protecting and cleaning the environment, and a knowledge of a sustainable plant palette. If that weren’t enough, our City Urban Forest is a major contributor to the quality of urban design in the City. Oh, and trees provide shade and are beautiful.