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Century City/ Westwood Apr. 03 – Apr. 16, 2020

NEWS CenturyCity-WestwoodNews.com

‘A Ticking Time Bomb’ Barrington Plaza residents takes legal action See more page 5

Photo: LAFD.

The Barrington Plaza apartment complex burns on January 29

Los Angeles COVID-19 Cases Surpass 2,000

We are asking every single resident in LA County to be prepared to isolate and or to quarantine.

By Sam Catanzaro

The director of public health for Los Angeles County is advising every resident to prepare for the possibility of isolation or quarantine.

“We are asking every single resident in

LA County to be prepared to isolate and or to quarantine. And that means have your plans in place because when you are quarantined or isolated you cannot go to the grocery store, you cannot go the pharmacy,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) Director.

On Wednesday, the LA County Health Officer issued a public order that requires the self-isolation of any person who tested positive for COVID-19 or is presumed by their physician or clinician to be positive for COVID-19. In

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addition, the order also requires the quarantine for all close contacts, including household members and caregivers.

For those tested positive in LA County, seven days of isolation is now required.

“This means staying at home for at least seven days and until your fever and symptomfree for 72 hours. Do not leave your home,” Ferrer said.

For people who test positive living in a multiperson household, Public Health is telling to avoid contact with other people in the home

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and to use a separate restroom.

People who test positive, or are told by a physician that they likely have COVID-19 must notify all close contacts so that they can begin a 14-day quarantine.

According to Ferrer, Close contacts include intimate partners, caregivers, people who live in your home, or people who you spend a significant amount of time each day face-toface with less than 6 feet apart.”

Quarantine, see page 6

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Los Angeles Closes Farmers Markets

All City of Los Angeles farmers markets temporarily closed

By Sam Catanzaro

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is suspending farmers markets in Los Angeles due to overcrowding concerns as COVID-19 cases in the county continue to rise.

“We have seen images of dangerously crowded farmers markets –– so I’m announcing the temporary suspension of farmers markets pending City review of physical distancing plans needed to keep communities safe. We will review plans immediately so markets can stay open this week,” Garcetti wrote in a tweet Monday.

Over the weekend TMZ captured an image of a crowded Brentwood Farmers Market.

The image we viral and provoked pushback, including from Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“The farmers market in Brentwood still being open seems like a huge issue when it comes to social gatherings,” Katherine Schwarzenegger wrote in a tweet.

According to Garcetti, farmers markets will be allowed to open once they submit plans to the city’s Bureau of Street Services that show how they will enforce physical distancing and ensure safe operations.

“Food is essential and I don’t want the closing of farmers markets to have even bigger crowds

Photo: Facebook.

Westwood Farmers Market in the past.

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at our grocery stores. I am going to require that all farmers markets submit plans immediately to our city’s Bureau of Street services that enforce physical distancing and ensure safe operations,” Garcetti said during a press conference Monday.

According to Garcetti, this will most likely mean one entrance with people safely lined up with distance between patrons waiting to get in. In addition, crafts and prepare foods will be stopped.

“We want people to eat well. We want people to get access to food but we cannot risk the spead of this disease,” Garcetti said.

In addition, last Friday afternoon the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health ordered the temporary closure of all public beaches, beach bike paths, public trails, and beach access points to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

“The County of Los Angeles and its Department of Public Health observed an unusually high volume of beach and trail users on March 21 and 22, which seriously impeded the beach and trail users’ practice of safe and necessary social distancing measures.

This heavy amount of beach and trail use by numerous groups of people does not allow for safe social distancing, and therefore seriously impedes community efforts to stem the local

transmission of COVID-19. Accordingly, this Order is necessary to both enforce social distancing measures and stem the spread of COVID-19 within the community,” reads the order.

Under LA County code, “‘Beach’ means a public beach or shoreline area, inclusive of all appurtenant areas such as, by way of illustration and not by limitation, beach facilities, bicycle paths, promenades, service and emergency roads, parking lots, pedestrian stairways and access-ways, landscaping, slopes, jetties, creek beds, revetments, drains, and all navigable waters within one thousand feet from the public beach or shoreline area, bordering the Pacific Ocean owned, controlled, or managed by the County, in incorporated or unincorporated territory.”

The LA County order requires the immediate closure of all beaches and trails, including Will Rogers Beach and Santa Monica Beach.

According to the County order, violation is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment, fine or both. In addition, the order requests the Sheriff and Chiefs of Police in all cities, and lifeguards to ensure compliance.

This order is effective immediately, beginning March 27, 2020 through April 19, 2020.

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APR. 03 – APR. 16, 2020

Recreation Centers Serving as Emergency Homeless Shelters Garcetti orders 13 city recreation centers to be used to house the homeless COVID-19 outbreak.

By Sam Catanzaro Emergency shelters for the homeless are coming to the Westside during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

On March 18, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a directive for 13 of the City’s recreation centers that are designated for use in emergencies to be used as temporary emergency shelters for the homeless during the COVID-19 crisis.

One of these recreation centers is Palisades Recreation Center.

Other Westside locations include Westwood, Cheviot Hills and Oakwood recreation centers.

On Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered that all city sports and recreation facilities close, and therefore all programming has been suspended at these recreation centers. The park itself remains open at the time of publishing.

As of Monday evening, the Palisades shelter had not been activated, according to the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC). Brentwood News has reached out to Garcetti’s office asking for more details on when the other shelters will open but they could not immediately be reached.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), people can leave the shelters under the same condition that any other person can leave their homes.

Nurses will also be posted at the shelter while mental health clinicians will rotate through the 13 locations.

The City is providing food for individuals in the shelter, which will be staffed by City employees and Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) service providers. Medicine will not be available at the shelter, according to the LAPD, who says sick individuals will be transported to hospitals.

Every shelter is inspected by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to ensure social distancing compliance. Individuals staying in the shelter are told of social distancing and hygiene rules upon check-in and are

supervised by staff, the LAPD says.

According to Garcetti, nobody will go into a shelter who’s exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. Vetting will happen with County health officials before anybody boards a bus and is transported to these areas.

According to the LAPD, the shelters are regional but when 41 planned shelters open City-wide, then the catchment areas will get more local.

This directive to comes amid an emergency hearing that took place last week in a federal lawsuit challenging what plaintiffs say is a lack of action by the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles to adequately protect homeless individuals during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The suit, filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of Skid Rowarea business owners, previously homeless and disabled residents, claims the alleged lack of services and negligence on the part of city and county lawmakers has led in a range of dangers.

At a lengthy hearing last week, City and County officials were questioned by U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter and prompted to finalize plans to house the homeless during the COVID-19 crisis.

At the hearing, Garcetti touched on the particular risks the homeless face during the COVID-19 outbreak, saying they are both the most vulnerable and the most susceptible.

“Most vulnerable because they’re much more likely to have underlying health conditions which the public health officials, of course, tell us makes them more likely to die, and most susceptible because of the way they’re living right now and where they’re clustered together,” Garcetti said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger touched on how the COVID-19 outbreak accelerated efforts the City and the County were already taking to address homelessness.

“What is being done at the City level and the County level was already in the works.

Coronavirus just accelerated and actually broke down barriers that we recognize were in place, whether it be CEQA and/or other issues that, quite frankly, given this virus, we have to think outside the box and recognize that asking for permissions not necessary — sorry, lawyers — but we’re going to ask for forgiveness because we have to get this done and we have got to get it down now,” Barger said.

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3rd Avenue in Venice Thursday, March 19.

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APR. 03 – APR. 16, 2020

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‘A Ticking Time Bomb’ Lawsuit filed on behalf of Barringon Plaza residents claiming negligence in January fire

By Sam Catanzaro

Los Angeles-based trial firm McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP has filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents of the Barrington Plaza Apartments after a January 29, 2020 fire killed one person, injured more than a dozen and displaced 339 residents.

According to the lawsuit filed against Douglas Emmett, Inc., one of the largest real estate companies in the world, this is the second fire at the property in less than seven years. The lawsuit claims these fires were a result of Douglas Emmett’s “conscious disregard for its responsibility to inspect, maintain and provide even the most basic mechanisms to prevent or mitigate fire damage in the building.”

Douglas Emmett Management, LLC and Barrington Pacific, LLC also are named in the lawsuit.

In addition, the lawsuit alleges that despite numerous resident complaints and a previous lawsuit putting Douglas Emmett on notice for failing to equip the property with fire sprinklers, pressurized fire escape stairwells, operable smoke detectors and operable

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fire alarms, Douglas Emmett continued to “recklessly” and “unnecessarily” endanger tenants by taking no action to implement these safety mechanisms.

“The Barrington Plaza Apartments complex was a ticking time bomb,” said Matthew McNicholas, Partner at McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP. “This property is fatally unsafe as a result of Douglas Emmett’s disregard for the wellbeing of its tenants. They have been aware of the fire safety issues for years and failed to take any action to implement the necessary safety mechanisms, which led to the chaos that ensued during the January fire.”

On January 29, 2020, a fire broke out on the sixth and seventh floors of the Plaza’s “A” Building and filled the entire 25-story tower with smoke.

The lawsuit claims the lack of sprinklers prevented the fire being put out before endangering others.

“Due to the lack of operable smoke detectors and fire alarms, many tenants weren’t notified of the fire and became trapped in their units. The lack of pressurized stairwells to prevent the fire’s thick black smoke from entering the stairwells resulted in tenants suffering injuries as they ran through the smoke-filled stairwells to escape,” reads a statement from McNicholas & McNicholas.

The fire left one person dead, 13 injured from burns and smoke inhalation, 15 that had to be airlifted from the roof by helicopters and 339 displaced.

“The 17 plaintiffs have suffered lifechanging emotional distress, physical injuries, and extensive personal property loss,” McNicholas & McNicholas said.

This was the second fire at Barrington Plaza Apartments the last six years. A October 18, 2013 fire resulted in five residents being transported to the hospital, including a child in critical condition.

According to McNicholas & McNicholas in that fire, fire alarms didn’t go off; the “defective” intercom system did not notify tenants of a fire and tenants were not warned by employees nor were they assisted in escaping.

In addition, Plaintiffs contend the following: fire escape stairways were defective and filled with heavy black smoke, causing the fire to proliferate; Tenants learned of the fire too late and could not reach the fire exit to safely escape because of the thick black smoke and not having been notified; The tenants could not access the roof because the fire exit door was locked, trapping the tenants in the flame engulfed building; and Douglas Emmett’s employees abandoned their posts instead of notifying the tenants that the fire existed.

“The defendants were aware of the fire safety issues and had received complaints of the lack of safety mechanisms prior to the 2013 fire, yet took no action. Despite a subsequent lawsuit putting the defendants on notice for their misconduct, and for greed and failure to meet the minimum standard of care for tenants, the defendants still failed to take appropriate action to make vital repairs.

These fire safety issues were still known and in existence as of the January 29, 2020 fire,” McNicholas & McNicholas said.

Brentwood News has reached out to Douglas Emmett for comment but the company could not immediately be reached.

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CENTURY CITY-WESTWOOD NEWS

Quarantine, see from page 1 “You must stay home, isolated from others for a 14-day period. That is the incubation period for COVID-19,” Ferrer said. “Even if you were to get tested in that period and the test is negative, you still have to stay home the entire 14 day period. It is really important people understand 14 days is what is required because it can take up to 14 days for you to develop any symptoms of COVID-19 from your exposure.”

“What is critical now is to understand we have a lot of people infected in the county. We have people we know are infected and we have a lot of people we don’t know are infected and that means everyone has the potential for either becoming infected or infecting others. And if we all walk through our days with that mindset

I think we’ll be able to take the steps we can to slow down the spread,” Ferrer said.

While Ferrer noted that LA is not seeing the same rate experienced in New York City and Italy, she said that the county needs to be prepared for the possibility.

“We are not seeing the same rate of acceleration cases as in New York City. This does not mean we will not see many more cases and that we won’t in fact experience an acceleration once testing capacity increases,” Ferrer said. “New York and Italy are examples where they were both very rapid accelerations in the number of cases and we would be foolish to not prepare for a similar scenario here in LA County.”

As of Monday, there are 2,474 cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, including 44 deaths and 26 confirmed cases in Westwood.

APR. 03 – APR. 16, 2020

Photo: Los Angeles County.

COVID-19 tests. As of Monday, March 31 there are over 2,000 confirmed cases of the virus in Los Angele County.

OPINION

Get Ready For Biggest Budget Crunch In 12 Years TOM ELIAS CCWN

As of the end of last year, California’s budgetary rainy day fund amounted to about $20 billion. That sounds like a lot, and the last two governors both put more cash than legally required into the fund.

Now the rainy day has arrived. Skies are dark, figurative rain clouds loom over the Sierra Nevada and other mountain ranges. It’s almost time to tap into the rainy day fund. But it would be unwise to take all the money at once, just as no family should exhaust all its savings in one fell swoop, if at all possible.

For the coronavirus pandemic, now about six weeks old in California, brought with it enormous personal and corporate financial losses, which will soon translate into vastly lowered revenues for state government. That may last awhile.

Personal income taxes for 2020, mostly to be paid next year, will be much lower than this year’s and last year’s unless the stock market rockets back up at the same extended record pace it has lost ground over the last two months.

With most businesses shuttered and restaurants, bars, sports teams and their arenas all idled to avoid disease contagion, corporate taxes will also skid. Income tax revenues will fall, too, because of the layoffs and unemployment the closures have brought.

The last time anything like this happened to California, in the fiscal crisis of 2008-11, these same types of tax receipts nose-dived, and quickly. In 2007, for one example, the state took in $11 billion worth of capital gains taxes. The very next year, capital gains tax receipts came to just $2.3 billion, a drop of about 80 percent.

Capital gains taxes paid to the state were about 50 percent higher in 2018 and 2019 than in 2007. They will likely come to about $15 billion this year. But they will certainly drop in 2021, and by at least as much as in 2008, barring a miracle stock market recovery.

The rainy day fund can make up some of this, but not all. And that won’t account for the anticipated income and corporate tax dollars the state will not be getting.

All of which means anyone or any program

“All of which means that anyone who thought the far-reaching ripples of the viral threat were already pretty bad now needs to get ready for further crises to come,” writes Tom Elias in his latest column.

dependent on state budget support needs to get set right now for serious belt-tightening on a scale unseen in more than a decade. The days of relatively easy money are over.

This means the $2 billion Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to contribute toward housing the homeless probably will be cut or will simply evaporate. It means plans for the massive tunnel the governor would like to bore beneath the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers may not advance nearly as fast as expected. It means schools must prepare to spend far less in the 2021-2022 academic year than they have lately. It could mean a big cut in state support

for the University of California and the Cal State system, both of which saw such backing sliced dramatically during the last fiscal crisis.

Many more programs and proposals will also be affected, but it’s hard to pinpoint Newsom’s priorities and the Legislature’s.

They probably don’t even know those priorities today, and will likely spend months hashing it out. If Newsom is wise, the scheduled May revision of his proposed 2020-21 budget will slash many categories even if the state begins to pull out of immediate crisis mode by then.

That way, state government could spread the

harm from the coronavirus financial crisis over at least two or three years, rather than imposing all the needed cuts at once a year from now. Yes, this would be bitter medicine for a state already disrupted by the pandemic, but it would be easier to take than the kind of massive slashing that would come next year if everything is left intact in budget negotiations this spring and summer.

All of which means that anyone who thought the far-reaching ripples of the viral threat were already pretty bad now needs to get ready for further crises to come.

APR. 03 – APR. 16, 2020

CENTURY CITY-WESTWOOD NEWS

Rated TV-MA 4 of 5 Seasons now Available on Netflix 10 one-hour Episodes per Season

FILM REVIEW: The Crown: ‘A Very Sophisticated Soap Opera’

BEHIND THE SCREEN

By Kathryn Whitney Boole Our television screens have taken the place of movie theatres during this time of self-isolation and there extraordinary shows available for streaming. Much of the fare on television has production values that equal or surpass many feature films.

For example, The Crown, a panorama of history as seen through the eyes of the venerable Queen Elizabeth II, now 93, who has witnessed more than six decades of our world history from a unique position that affords her both power and a painful lack thereof.

This limited series (5 seasons) is beautifully conceived and written by screenwriter/ playwright Peter Morgan, whose past work includes masterpieces as varied as Frost/Nixon (2008,) and Bohemian Rhapsody (2018.) The Crown is told through pivotal anecdotes.

Each narrative gives a detailed look into personalities and dilemmas through superbly constructed dialogue, and the pace is slow enough to absorb and process real history.

You will gain deep insight into people who seem a world apart because of their perceived separation from normalcy. In the end, they are real people with typical family squabbles.

Morgan has meticulously researched the history of the royal family and gives us deep insight into incidents hidden from daily publicity that drive the machinations of the British government and provide the tabloids with scandalous peeks at their lives.

The ensemble includes some of the finest actors of our times. In the first two seasons, covering Elizabeth’s ascension to the crown and her life from 952 5o 1964, Claire Foy is Queen Elizabeth II, Matt Smith is Prince Philip and Vanessa Kirby is Princess Margaret. The third season brings Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham Carter. Erin Doherty and Josh O’Connor bring life to Prince Charles and Princess Anne. The change of actors may seem a bit abrupt, simply because each brings so much to their character. That strangeness will quickly disappear. Season 5, covering the 90’s into the early 2000’s will also begin with a change - Imelda Staunton as the aging Elizabeth.

Just this past week, on Thursday, March 19th, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip issued this comforting message

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her subjects: “As Philip and I arrive at Windsor today, we know that many individuals and families across the United Kingdom, and around the world, are entering a period of great concern and uncertainty…

At times such as these, I am reminded that our nation’s history has been forged by people and communities coming together to work as one…now more than any time in our recent past, we all have a vitally important part to play as individuals…I am certain we are up to that challenge. You can be assured that my family and I stand ready to play our part.”

Perhaps the US could do with a stately figurehead right now to “keep the calm and carry on.” I strongly suggest that you watch The Crown. You will see the personality of this resilient figure gain in wisdom and grace through the kinds of mistakes and triumphs that form all of our lives.

The Crown plays like a very sophisticated soap opera – easy to watch and establishing hunger for the continuation of the story.

You become invested in the characters, all meticulously researched by Morgan. Added bonus: You WILL learn history, whether that is your intention or not.

Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com

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