Brentwood News 8.28.20

August 28 – September 29, 2020

Annual Brentwood Coral Tree Forum

grass versus ground cover and a new Brentwood Community trees, sprinkler system.

Lining Cleaning San Vicente Boulevard, coral trees Curtain & forum Upholstery Done Council hosting are fast-growing and suffer from weak wood, making them susceptible to collapse unless September 1

By Sam Catanzaro The Brentwood Community Council (BCC) will host its annual coral tree forum soon to discuss the state of the iconic trees lining San Vicente Boulevard.

The forum will be held virtually via Zoom on September 1, 2020 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

For the Zoom link, visit 90049.info.

Lisa Smith (a Registered Consulting Arborist) and Stephen Billings (a landscape architect) will panel the discussion which will cover the state of Brentwood’s coral

In Your Home

pruned regularly but cver-pruning, however, causes the trees to “sunburn.” Furthermore, San Vicente’s coral trees have not been spared by the impacts of California’s recent, record-breaking drought. Although coral trees thrive on little water, the drought forced the city to turn off irrigation to the median, posing a problem to future tree upkeep.

Compounded with the effects of neglect and unfavorable weather, Brentwood’s coral trees suffer from a fungal infection spread by gophers. Oak Root Fungus is a common plant disease in California that thrives in moist conditions — the fungus has spread

Photos: Sam Catanzaro

A coral tree on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood.

through the San Vicente Corridor through

gopher damage.

Armenian Priest Sues LAPD for Excessive Force at Brentwood-Area Protest 55-year-old Armenian priest Father Armen stomach.

Father Armen Bagramyan claims that he was struck in the In According to the LAPD, on July 21, at Curtain & Upholstery Cleaning Done Your Home Curtain & Upholstery Cleaning Done In Your Home stomach with the butt of a gun and kicked around 2:00 p.m., a protest, sponsored by Bagramyan claims in the chest by an LAPD Officer Ruiz, even the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), though Bagramyan says he was assisting the took place at the Azerbaijan Consulate. that he was struck in police to keep the protest peaceful.

A large crowd of Armenian protesters “At no point before this attack had Officer stomach by police gun showed up to the 11700 block of Wilshire

By Sam Catanzaro

An Armenian priest is suing the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for alleged use of excessive force at a recent Brentwood-area protest.

According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on August 12,

Ruiz or any LAPD Officer commanded Father Bagramyan to correct any actions or warned him that he was not in compliance with any orders,” reads the lawsuit.

Bagramyan was sent to UCLA Medical Center for treatment following the incident.

According to Bagramyan’s attorney Greg Kirakosian, the priest had been blindsided

by Officer Ruiz when he was struck in the

Boulevard, estimated at one point to be more than 500 people. A counter-protest, held by Azerbaijani protesters, estimated to be between 30-50 people, was held directly across the street. During the protest, the two opposing groups became increasingly agitated which resulted in a physical altercation.

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Photo: Harout Kioudjian (Facebook)

A Brentwood-area protest sponsored by the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), that took place at the Azerbaijan Consulate July 21.

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Iconic ‘The Golden Girls’ House Sold in Brentwood Sold for $1M over asking price

By Staff Writer

The Brentwood house that served as an exterior in the TV show The Golden Girls has sold for one million dollars over the asking price.

The sale of $4,000,260 closed August 14.

The buyer has not immediately been identified.

Though fictionally located in Miami Florida, the 2,901 square-foot, four-bedroom home is actually located at 245 N Saltair Ave in Los Angeles, California.

The manor is listed for a mere $2,999,000 through Douglas Elliman real estate.

This is the first time the home has been placed on the market and is exciting for many people.

Though technically the inside rooms were never viewed on Golden girls episodes, it is a part of television history.

The home does have a 50s exterior with an array of palm plants, but the interior features several modern upgrades with Japanaese and Hawaiian influences. In fact though made to look like a Miami luxury home, the property was actually constructed in 1955 and custom built by a Hawaiian architect as a tribute to relatives.

Photos: Brandon Valente, Brandon V Photography / Courtesy of Rachelle Rosten, Douglas Elliman.

Brentwood Resident in White House?

Brentwood resident Senator Kamala Harris running for VP

By Sam Catanzaro

Could a Brentwood resident soon be in the White House?

With presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s announcement of California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, this could be a possibility.

While her political roots are in Northern California, Harris is a resident of Brentwood.

As reported by Forbes, Harris, 55, lives in a four-bedroom, 3,505-square-foot house Brentwood with her husband Doug Emhoff.

According to Forbes Emhoff intellectual property lawyer for Venable LLP in Century City. In addition, Forbes says that Emhoff is the official owner of the house. With a $4.8 million price tag, the report states that the property was the most expensive of any among Democratic nominees’ residences.

If Biden and Harris win the November election, it would not be the first time a Brentwood resident was in the White House. Prior to calling the White House home, former President and First Lady Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon lived in Brentwood

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home at 901 South Bundy. In addition, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has a Bel Air home and sends his children to Brentwood School.

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also calls the hills above Brentwood home.

Harris, the former attorney general of both California and San Francisco, is the first Black and South Asian woman to run on the ticket of a major political party. In addition, Harris is the first Californian candidate on a major political party’s presidential ballot since 1984 when Ronald Reagan ran.

Compounded with the effects of neglect and unfavorable weather, Brentwood’s coral trees

Photo: Getty Images

suffer from a fungal infection spread by gophers.

Oak Root Fungus is a common plant disease in California that thrives in moist conditions — the fungus has spread through the San Vicente Corridor through gopher damage.

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Getty Experiences Number of COVID-19 Cases Among Staff Staff members at both Getty Center and Getty Villa test positive for virus

Serving Area since 1996 Locally Owned Business

By Sam Catanzaro While both remain closed to the public, a number of staff members at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

According to the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, there have been six confirmed of COVID-19 among Getty Center staff. In addition, three staff members tested positive at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades.

“We filed a report to the County, which is required of any workplace that has three cases reported among workers in a 14-day period. Our protocol is to do an immediate investigation and our own contact tracing. None of the individuals contracted COVID-19 in the workplace, and none had come to work with fevers,” said Lisa Lapin, Vice President of Communications at Getty.

“For privacy reasons, I cannot specify in what area these individuals work, but they do not work together.”

The Getty Center.

Photos: Sam Catanzaro

According to Lapin, while the Getty Center and Getty Villa sites are closed to visitors and most staff have been working from home, it has had some employees on-site throughout this closure period to protect and maintain the collections and grounds.

“Any ill worker remains home and quarantines. We practice social distancing and workers wear masks on our sites. If there is an individual who tests positive, we immediately inform any employee who may have possibly been within a distance,” Lapin said, noting in addition the presence of temperature monitoring stations on-site and protocols requiring employees remain physically distanced from each other.

Flooding Topples Sunset Boulevard Trees 30-inch water line breaks in Westwood-area

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By Sam Catanzaro A 30-inch water line broke over last weekend on Sunset Boulevard with gushing water toppling trees on Sunset Boulevard and flooding vehicles.

According to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), the incident was reported at 1:37 a.m. Sunday, August 23 at 10630 Sunset Boulevard when a large, 30inch subterranean water line broke.

LAFD and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) crews arrived on the scene to find rising floodwater toppling two trees and beginning to enter UCLA property to the south, as well as one residential property on the north side of Sunset Boulevard.

Though no injuries or missing persons were reported, LAFD performed a comprehensive search of flooded subterranean sections of the UCLA Lot 4 Parking Structure as the floodwaters subsided. No other UCLA facilities, including nearby Pauley Pavilion,

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Photos: LADWP

An excavator on scene at Sunset Boulevard removing a large tree stump.

sustained substantive damage.

The LADWP finished the shutdown of the 30-inch water main around 7:45 a.m.

At least 10 vehicles were flooded by the break, according to CBS2.

According to the LADWP, the pipe that ruptured was not the same pipe that ruptured in 2014 causing significant damage to UCLA. “We have many large diameter pipes running thru this area of City,” the Department said.

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Back to School 2020

A New School Year with a New Approach

By Nick Melvoin – LAUSD Board Member, Board District 4

The Los Angeles Unified School District welcomed our families back to school, but it is a new year unlike any other as students logged on to learn from home. In the face of this year’s nearly impossible challenges, we have rolled out unprecedented new efforts to meet the needs of the students and families I represent on the LA Unified Board of Education, while also working to safely reopen schools as soon as possible.

After hearing feedback from families about the emergency transition to distance learning in March, I pushed for a plan that would ensure this year’s instruction will be more rigorous and equitable than last spring.

This includes daily, real-time instruction, time in smaller groups to personalize learning and provide social-emotional support, consistent schedules, more support for English Learners and students with disabilities, and attendance tracking to reach all our students. Administrators

will be able to observe virtual classrooms to help teachers facilitate a semester of learning like we’ve never seen before.

We have also reached agreements with our other staff to help with our “all hands on deck” approach, filling holes and helping us provide more small group instructional time, troubleshoot connectivity issues, and facilitate childcare options for staff at school sites. We have also implemented specialized professional development for remote teaching, prioritized content standards, a tutoring pilot, and more.

As we work to keep our kids learning, we are also busily preparing for the day we can welcome them back safely. We are working to set campuses up with the resources needed to reopen and have completed construction projects like the campus upgrades at Brentwood Science Elementary and critical repairs at Kenter Canyon Elementary. LA Unified is also rolling out a first-of-its-kind widespread COVID-19 testing and contact tracing system for school communities.

Our Grab and Go centers have served over 50 million meals to people in need.

Our schools have distributed devices and hotspots to hundreds of thousands of students to bridge the digital divide. And I

am advocating for free childcare for District families with the hopes that we can create a public “learning pod” option.

We will continue these efforts, and others, to address the challenges that

come our way. This semester will not be perfect, but we will do our best to step up and support our kids and families to make it through this crisis and prepare them to learn and thrive.

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Screen Sitters Helping Busy Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Photo: Getty Images

Creating an enriching experience for virtual learning

By Toi Creel

As millions of parents across the world have been forced to work from home and take on new childcare responsibilities, father Mark Kapczynski found himself in the same

Screen Sitters, see page 8

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Screen Sitters, From page 6 predicament: home, with his kids, a full work schedule, and a spouse who works too.

“My wife Erin and I, we just needed a break from the madness to simply get some work done,” said Kapczynski. “On top of that, we wanted a healthier, more engaging alternative to online gaming and streaming video for our children,” he added.

However, looking at other virtual child participation options, the father found that “screen” time still required a lot of parent time.

He wanted his kids to have an enriching experience, without taking up too much of his or his wife’s time. So, they started Screen Sitters on March 15 of this year.

“Our company mission is to give parents

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freedom while enriching children. Kids 5-12 get to connect with a trusted, vetted adult outside their household who can give them a breather from the routine we’ve all fallen into, entertain them with activities especially geared towards the individual child, or just chat,” Kapczynski said.

You might even call it kid therapy—one of the parents described it as that after a session his nine-year-old daughter had with a sitter on the platform.

In an effort to address more demands put on work-from-home parents, in the fall Kapczynski plans to launch “Homework Sitters” to help children ages 10-18 understand and stay on top of their schoolwork. It’s not a tutoring service; more like “project management” for homework.

Screen Sitters aims to help as many parents

as possible with school-age children and they don’t just focus on individual parents.

“We started to get a lot of interest from establishments. Our first corporate client was a publicly traded company with a fairly large employee base. We’ve also seen interest from startups and mid-size companies in many industries—from technology and entertainment to banking,” Kapczynski said.

By partnering with businesses, Screen Sitters hopes employers continue to reallocate their in-office perks budgets going unused, such as for snacks and commuter incentives, to instead add on their program.

“It’s all about supporting remote workers right now,” Kapczynski said.

To book some time for your child or expand employee benefits, you can visit the website at ScreenSitters.com.

Zoom Boom in the Classroom -- the Lowdown on ‘Distance Learning

By Simone o. eliaS

(Editors: Following is a guest column written by Simone Elias, 10-year-old granddaughter of columnist Thomas Elias.

A rising fifth-grader, she is a veteran of California’s first attempt at mass distance learning, which will involve millions of kids this fall.)

When the virus started, I was in fourth

grade in a Berkeley public school. I have one sister, who is three years younger, and we both got free laptops from the school district once everyone had to stay home.

They call it distance learning, but they might as well call it laptop laziness. It’s so easy to just go to another website or watch a video.

Since this started, it’s been more fun and better learning to do my own projects without

any teacher. For example, I set up Zoom calls with friends or relatives on my own, and I wrote a bunch of short essays about amazing places in the world. Lately I’ve been working on a podcast with my sister and a friend called “Street Spies,” which anyone can listen to on the internet (www.anchor.fm/simone-elias).

School was not so good, though. My

Distance Learning, see page 10

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Distance Learning, From page 8 teacher even told us she was not comfortable teaching on the screen. When I thought about it, that made sense because teachers are used to being there with the kids in person. There also always seemed to be problems getting the Zoom code or the sound to work. A lot of kids were constantly leaving and joining the meetings at different times, for various reasons like bad wifi. Things were even harder for my sister, who was in first grade—she says she couldn’t even see or hear the teacher some of the time.

I’ve also heard parents say kids from less privileged homes didn’t show up for the virtual classes as much.

Kids can leave the room or turn off their video—and the teacher can’t do anything about it. Students can mute themselves, and they can also mute the teacher by turning off the sound. Then they can do whatever they want—get a cookie or anything else their parents let them do (if a parent is even there).

That’s not true in school where kids get sent to the principal’s office if they won’t do what the teacher says.

My teacher used a set-up for doing homework called Google Classroom. It had problems, too. The teacher puts “tasks” up and then students can just ignore them, and the teacher can’t do anything about it. This set-up also made me feel stressed because there were all these tasks with due dates lined up on the screen that I hadn’t done.

Whatever the project, you can’t really do

Photo: Getty Images

anything social. Only one person can talk at a time on Zoom. You can’t have a separate discussion with a student, teacher or small group. Even to get to a “breakout” room— where you can do a video chat with less than all the people—you have to ask the “host” to do it for you.

A lot of school is normally about hanging out with friends and being social, and you miss out on that, too. In person, school is longer, and it’s easier to share ideas and finish projects.

One specific area where online learning

seemed harder than in-person learning involved paper workbooks. My teacher told students to scan their work and email the scanned pages to turn them in, but that was an extra step and not a lot of the students even had a scanner.

There are also some good parts of online learning, though. For one thing, there’s not as much distraction from the other kids, so you can focus on the subject and learn about it.

For example, I wrote some essays about the California Gold Rush for online school last spring. Did you know that Margaret Frank

made the equivalent of $400,000 in today’s money by making pies and selling them to miners?

Overall, school online is not as much fun as it would be if everyone were there in person.

I guess it’s true that something is better than nothing. But distance learning definitely takes some getting used to. Everyone is still figuring it out.

(To respond, email Simone’s granddad, longtime California columnist Thomas Elias, at tdelias@aol.com.)

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August 28 – September 29, 2020 | 11

Local Students Win Prestigious Scholarship and Mentoring

By Sam Catanzaro

Two Brentwood high school students have won prestigious scholarships for their respective work in artificial intelligence and ethics.

The Milken Scholars, a joint initiative of the Milken Institute and the Milken Family Foundation, has chosen 11 talented students from greater Los Angeles for its 2020 scholarship program after a rigorous nomination, application and interview process.

Open to college-bound high school seniors in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York City, Milken Scholars are selected based on academic performance, community service, leadership and their ability to persevere in the face of personal challenges.

Among these 11 students are two students from Brentwood’s The Archer Schol for Girls.

As senior chair of the Honor Education Council at The Archer School for Girls, Lena Jones was an ethical compass for her school community. She led discussions about ethical behavior and presided over hearings for violations of the honor code, writing and presenting the council’s recommendations for disposition. The council also created

educational scavenger hunts to honor National Coming Out Day and the International Day of the Girl, and gave presentations to students and faculty throughout the year. Lena’s moderate, collaborative approach led to her selection as a delegate to the American Legion Auxiliary California Girls State, a civics training program, where she campaigned for and won election to the Supreme Court. Lena was one of two students chosen to represent California at ALA Girls Nation, where she was elected Senate Chaplain. She was asked to serve as a Girls Nation junior counselor in 2021.

“Learning I’d received the Milken Scholarship was an electrifying start to the never-ending journey offered by the tightly knit community of Milken Scholars. Mere months into becoming a Scholar, I found myself surrounded by myriad mentors who were more than willing to give me advice and guide me to open doors of opportunity. As a witness to the benefits of my mother’s mentoring program, I am already looking forward to becoming a mentor to future generations of Scholars and giving back however I can,” Lena said. “I plan to attend law school after graduating, and I cherish every cent given toward that goal.

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be fully expressed. Still, from the short time I’ve been a part of this group, I can tell you that Lori and Michael Milken built something greater than a scholarship fund. Money and connections draw the eye, but I believe the inner workings of the Milken Scholars Program will change lives.”

Hannah Kim believes artificial intelligence (AI) holds the key to our planet’s future. As an intern at the University of Southern California Bridge Institute, Hannah helped create detailed 3-D model of the pancreatic beta cell, key to understanding diabetes and creating targeted drug therapies; her team’s work was published in Cell, a Cell Press scientific journal. For her honors research project at The Archer School for Girls, Hannah developed a convolutional neural network that analyzes Doppler-shifted sound waves to let hearing-impaired drivers distinguish emergency vehicle sounds from background noises. Her prototype mobile app and windshield-projected display won an honorable mention from National Center for Women and Information Technology and an Archer RISE Award in engineering and technology. Hannah researched biodegradable manufacturing and recycling as an intern at Los Angeles Sanitation & Environment, presenting her conclusions to members of the

Photo: Courtesy

Hannah Kim (left) and Lena Jones (right).

Los Angeles City Council at City Hall.

“Being named a Milken Scholar is a true honor. The mentorship and support network that this program offers is unparalleled. I’ve already made connections with my fellow scholars and advisors, and I look forward to developing profound friendships so that we can collectively make positive change in the world as future global leaders,” Hannah said.

Hannah will study computer science at Stanford in preparation for a career in scientific research.

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August 28 – September 29, 2020 | 13

Pali High Mourns Death of Shane Thomas: Soccer Player and ‘Beautiful Soul’ 17-year-old Shane Thomas passes away while practicing soccer

By Sam Catanzaro

Palisades Charter High School mourned this week the death of 17-year-old Shane Thomas, a member of the Dolphin soccer team, who passed away likely due to heat while practicing in triple-digit temperatures.

Thomas– an All-City soccer player set to be the Dolphins’ captain next season–was training last Saturday at a park in Chino Hills with FC Golden State, a club soccer team.

According to Thomas’ sister Cheyenne, he left the field to take equipment to the coach’s car. When Thomas did not return, teammates began searching for him before finding him unresponsive.

“He was found after practice away from the field and we are all devastated here at the club,” said Jimmy Nordberg, executive director of FC Golden State, in an email to Patch. “We are truly saddened by his loss and our thoughts and prayers are with his family,” According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff Coroners office, Thomas was discovered collapsed at 12:15 p.m. He died at 1:13 p.m. after being transported to Valley View Medical Center.

“I started crying, I didn’t want to believe it. I know he was training, doing what he loves best. He was really excited for this season,” Pali High soccer coach Marvin Lemus told the Los Angeles Times.

The Coroner says Thomas’ death was

Shane Thomas.

Photo: GuFundMe.

likely heat-related but a final determination won’t be known until the autopsy is completed. At noon last Saturday, temperatures in the area reached 111 degrees, Patch reported.

Following Thomas’ death, a memorial was set up in front of Pali High in his honor.

“I will miss you so much. You always made me smile when I was down. I will accomplish many things for you. You always motivated me to do my best. I will forever love you,” reads a note written on a poster at the memorial.

A GoFundMe was created this week to help Thomas’ family raise money to cover funeral costs.

“A young 17 years old boy who was doing before his passing. what he loved Shane was determined, hardworking, graceful smart and all-around a beautiful soul. He touched the lives of so many and it’s our turn to give back to his family in their time of need,” GoFund me to cover the cost of [the] funeral,” reads the GoFundMe.

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City of LA’s Top Homeless Advisor Resigns

Christina Miller stepping down at end of month By toi Creel

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s top advisor on homelessness Christina Miller has told her colleagues she will be resigning at the end of the month.

Deputy Mayor Christina Miller has held the position since December 2018. Miller did comment on her resignation, saying the following in an email to those working on homelessness around Los Angeles.

“It has been an incredible journey and unique privilege to serve under Mayor Garcetti who has been and continues to be deeply committed to solving homelessness in our region,” Miller wrote. “From growing the homelessness budget for the City exponentially, to banner initiatives such as HHH and A Bridge Home, it has been a meaningful and exciting time to be part of the City’s work to address this crisis.”

Under the 2016 bond initiative Measure HHH the city was able to raise $1.2 billion to relieve homelessness. A Bridge Home is a program that aimed to have homeless shelters built in every council district.

At her new position, Miller is going to

Homeless Advisor, see page 15

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A Time of Transition Founding Publisher Stating the obvious, life in Brentwood these days is not what it used to be, thanks to COVID-19.

Some things are actually better, in my view.

People seem friendlier, there is less traffic than before, it’s much more possible to find a parking space these days.

I really like how restaurants are setting up sidewalk dining areas. It brings our town to life a bit more.

The V.A. has, for the first time in memory, done more to set up tents for homeless veterans on the V.A. property. And while nobody likes homeless encampments on public streets, the tents along the V.A. at least look clean and uniform in appearance. I see now there are some portable toilet units along the fence, as well.

But there is sadness in the air.

Businesses we used to know and love have gone under. Pro Gym is gone, Souplantation will never return, I saw the other day that Brentwood Art Center, at the corner of 26th and Montana, is now shuttered.

There are lots more “for lease” signs than ever before on commercial buildings all around Brentwood.

Oddly, here we are in a near-depression, and Westside housing values – and rents – are going UP. It almost doesn’t make sense – except that demand for housing far outstrips supply.

Clearly there is a housing crisis all across Los Angeles. There isn’t a lot of land to build on. In the era of coronavirus, some are questioning the formerly popular idea of building high-density buildings near public transportation.

Things can only get worse. Many who

haven’t paid rent in months are about to get evicted. Where will they go?

Landlords are people, too. If they can’t collect rent, they can’t pay the mortgages on their properties and might themselves be forced to go out of business.

But if landlords kick out all the non-payers, will there enough new renters with incomes ready to take over the vacated units?

There is a bill in the California State Senate, SB 1120, that would allow homeowners to subdivide their own properties and build additional housing units.

This idea is wildly unpopular among homeowners who cherish their single-family residences and neighborhoods, but SB 1120 does beg the question: If not SB 1120, then what?

Maybe many commercial buildings – now empty – can be converted into housing.

Maybe more tent outposts for homeless individuals can be established on city or state parks. If centralized, services like healthcare, sanitation, food distribution, mental health care and job training can be more readily provided.

We have a lot of cracked and uplifted sidewalks the city will never get around to repairing. Why not put the homeless to work fixing sidewalks and filling potholes? In return for that, they could receive food and shelter in the new tent cities.

In communities like Brentwood, many domestic servants like nannies, gardeners and house cleaners drive in and out of our communities daily – sometimes driving over an hour each way.

Maybe we could build small villages throughout the Westside where many of these individuals could live in super-affordable housing. That would reduce traffic and stress

A Time of Transition, see page 15

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A Time of Transition, from page 14

Homeless Advisor, from page 13 do more policy work. On September 1st she will become a senior policy fellow with the Washington-based National Alliance to End Homelessness on Sept. 1.

In an interview, Miller told the community “Homelessness is going up across the state.“ She also said highlighted how much can be done at a local level.

“There’s so much stuff the mayor can do and has done, but if we can’t figure out a regional plan that originates in some respects from Sacramento, we’re just holding our head above water.”

Through her tenure, Miller was able to advocate for additional state funding and has also been present with Mayor Garcetti during the lawsuit filed against the city by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights to help reduce encampments.

After departing the Mayor’s Office, Miller will take on a leadership role with The National Alliance to End Homelessness, where she will continue contributing to the battle against homelessness across our country.

Garcetti recently named longtime homelessness services advocate and provider, Jose “Che” Ramirez, as the new Deputy Mayor for City Homelessness Initiatives.

“When COVID-19 reached our city, we doubled down on our work to deliver housing, healing, and hope to Angelenos experiencing homelessness — and we remain laserfocused on putting a roof over the heads of our most vulnerable neighbors,” Garcetti.

“Homelessness has long been the most urgent moral and humanitarian crisis of our time, and Che’s life experience and professional

August 28 – September 29, 2020 | 15

Photo: Yo! Venice Archives

expertise make him the perfect person to lead our efforts to confront it.”

Before joining the City, Ramirez was the Executive Director of the St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco, where he took the helm of a landmark institution’s work to feed, clothe, serve, and house homeless residents from the surrounding community.

“I’m excited to come back and work in Los Angeles with an amazing team and Mayor who are dedicated to serving our homeless community,” Ramirez said. “I look forward to leading a movement of compassion in Los Angeles to house and heal our homeless guests in these challenging times. We all have a role to play in solving homelessness, and it’s in these unprecedented moments that we truly learn what it means to be a community.”

Previously, Ramirez served as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer at St. Francis Center (SFC) in Downtown Los Angeles, where he led programs to connect people experiencing homelessness to housing, employment, medical needs, and referral services.

Now is the perfect time!

on the individuals who serve us.

Their kids could go to local schools in the area – very possibly an upgrade from where they go to school now. If we really care about racial inequities, making it more possible for these people to live among us could be a step in the right direction.

We should do the same for our teachers, nurses, police officers and firemen.

Older homeowners should be allowed to build “granny flats” on their properties,

A new set-up in front of Vincente Restaurant. More to follow?

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making it possible those who provide services to the elderly to live close by.

Most elderly, I’m guessing, would prefer to stay in their homes (as opposed to moving off to some retirement facility far away). And with nursing homes facing greater risks from COVID, we need to think differently.

Anyway, these issues are complex and I’m not claiming to have all the answers. But we need to ask the questions.

We surely can’t solve the many crises facing us by not facing them.

If not SB 1120, then what? We can’t be against everything. What are we FOR?

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