Santa Monica Mirror 4.7.23

REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY

INSIDE

Santa Monica Ocean View Home Hits the Market for $9.65 Million PAGE 5

Members-Only Club San Vicente Bungalows Reportedly Set to Open in Santa Monica

Sources suggest the club will take over the third floor and rooftop of the building that houses Water Grill

By Sam Catanzaro

Santa Monica could soon be home to the latest location of San Vicente Bungalows, a membersonly club owned by hotelier Jeff Klein.

As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, the news comes as Klein continues with plans to expand the popular club, with Gabé Doppelt, the former maître d’ at Sunset Tower, joining the team to help navigate the launch of the new locations.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, sources close to the matter suggest that Klein and his team are in the process of finalizing an address for the new Westside location, with

plans for San Vicente Bungalows to take over the third floor and rooftop of the building that houses Water Grill on Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

When contacted for comment by the Hollywood Reporter, a representative for San Vicente Bungalows and Klein declined to provide any further details about the planned expansion. However, in a previous interview with the outlet, Klein had confirmed that the team was targeting a Santa Monica opening sometime in 2023, with a New York outpost set to follow in two years.

Doppelt, who has previously worked as a high-profile editor for publications such as Vogue and The Daily Beast, is expected to help spearhead membership at all of the new San Vicente Bungalows locations before eventually moving back to New York.

San Vicente Bungalows is a private membersonly club owned by hotelier Klein, known for its exclusivity and luxurious amenities. Founded in 2018, the club is named after the street where it is located in West Hollywood. The original

property was a collection of bungalows built in the 1920s, which were transformed into a chic, members-only retreat following a $50 million renovation. The club offers its members access to a wide range of facilities, including a restaurant, bar, pool, and garden, as well as private event spaces for meetings, parties, and

special occasions.

Membership to San Vicente Bungalows is highly sought after, with a strict vetting process. The club’s membership reportedly includes a who’s who of Hollywood elite, including A-list celebrities, top executives, and other industry power players.

Residents Forced to Jump into Pool to Escape Apartment Fire in Santa Monica

No injuries to residents in Sunday morning fire in Wilmont

By Sam Catanzaro

Three residents in Santa Monica were forced to jump into a swimming pool to escape a fire that broke out on Sunday morning in a three-story apartment complex on 4th Street.

According to the Santa Monica Fire Department (SMFD), on Sunday April 2 at 10:39 a.m. multiple 9-1-1 calls were received reporting a structure fire at 1011 4th Street in the Wilmont Neighborhood.

“Upon arrival, Firefighters were met with a well-developed fire within one unit on the first floor of a three-story apartment complex. Firefighters aggressively attacked the fire while simultaneously searching adjacent units

to ensure no occupants were trapped,” the SMFD said. “Three residents and one dog were forced to jump into the swimming pool to escape the fire prior to the fire department’s arrival.”

According to the SMFD, within twenty minutes, the fire was extinguished before it spread to the units above and was confined to the first-floor unit where the fire originated.

Due to the size and complexity of the apartment complex and the potential for fire spread and trapped occupants, SMFD requested resources from LAFD to assist along with assistance from Santa Monica Public Safety Communications, Santa Monica Police, Building & Safety, and McCormick Ambulance.

“Thankfully, there were no injuries to residents or first responders, and no residents were displaced,” the SMFD said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by SMFD investigators.

Santa Monica College Celebrates Opening of New Malibu Campus With

Open House

SMC’s first-ever campus in Malibu includes educational building, physical activity space, and Sheriff’s substation

By Dolores Quintana

Santa Monica College (SMC) will celebrate the opening of its first-ever Malibu Campus— which began serving students on February 13— with an open house later this month.

The event will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 22 at SMC Malibu Campus, 23555 Civic Center Way, located next to the Malibu Library. Ample parking is available on-site and along Civic Center Way.

The open house will include live class demonstrations, campus tours, with Malibu High School and Malibu Community Library participating to provide information tables for attendees and activities for children and more.

The three-acre campus, SMC’s first in Malibu, includes a two-story educational building with a dedicated art studio and a classroom for science; a multipurpose physical activity space that will double as an emergency operations center, should the need arise; a 100-

seat lecture hall with raked seating; a computer lab; and two general education classrooms. Designed by QDG Architecture with numerous sustainability features, the campus fulfills the city’s “dark skies” standards.

“I am delighted to announce the inaugural opening of SMC’s new Malibu Campus that is already serving over 400 students, enrolled in a wide range of classes: for-credit, shortterm skill-building noncredit, Emeritus, and community education classes,” said SMC Superintendent/President Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery. “I enthusiastically invite the public to help celebrate this historic unveiling. My sincere appreciation to the voters who approved the 2004 Measure S and the 2016 Measure V bond measures!”

“The new Santa Monica College campus offers opportunities for Malibu students to begin their college education and for adults to take a wide range of non-credit and community courses right here in Malibu,” said Malibu Mayor Bruce Silverstein. “The campus also brings public safety enhancements to Malibu with the EOC and Sheriff’s Substation, as well as community meeting and event facilities that will enrich our community.”

SMC also contributed $2.5 million for the acquisition of Legacy Park, which serves as a storage site for stormwater, and an additional $2.5 million towards facilities for the treatment of wastewater. The 15-acre Legacy Park— which opened in October 2010 immediately to the south of the campus site—is considered one of the most innovative urban runoff and stormwater projects in California, and has won numerous awards.

“Since the first moment the Malibu Campus opened its doors to students and community members, we have heard nothing but pure exuberance about this campus and what it means for the community,” said SMC Associate Dean for Malibu, Alice Meyering. “It’s a project 20 years in the making and it’s finally here and open to the public! Students are enjoying a world-class learning experience in this innovative building, at an unbeatable location. We see happy people coming through our doors daily, ready to engage no matter what disciplines they are enrolled in.”

The college’s history of providing educational offerings in Malibu—which, along with the city of Santa Monica, lie within the single-college district’s “boundaries”—extend as far back as the 1970s and early 1980s when the college offered a full program of about 70 general education classes. In the recent past, SMC

Better Neighbors LA report highlights the inadequacies of enforcement measures for short-term rentals in Los Angeles, calling for increased regulation

By Dolores Quintana

According to a report released by Better Neighbors LA, the regulation of STR or shortterm rentals facilitated by such companies as Airbnb, VRBO, Vacasa, Atraveo and others is failing after the passage of the City of Los Angeles’ Home Sharing Ordinance in November of 2019.

The ordinance reads, “Hosts and Hosting Platforms are expected to comply with the ordinance beginning on November 1. Anyone engaging in home-sharing must include a valid registration number in the rental listing. Anyone engaging in or advertising short-term rental activity that does not comply with the Home-Sharing Ordinance may be subject to daily fines.”

Better Neighbors LA’s report found that enforcement of the ordinance has dropped significantly in 2022. The report showed that there was a 54% decrease in warning letters, an 85% decrease in fines and a 25% increase in non-compliant listings identified by Granicus, which is a contracting service that monitors the 60 short-term rental companies operating in the city and sends reports to city government.

The report also found that in 2022, an

average of 4,272 monthly STRs were advertised on the 60 monitored platforms. More than half of those rentals did not comply with the Home Sharing Ordinance. From the 2,228 non-compliant monthly listings found by Granicus, the City only fined or sent warning letters to around 64 of those hosts per month. This means that the system was allowing about two-thirds of violators to operate while flouting the law.

Even more disturbing are the events that took place on January 28, 2023, when three people lost their lives and four more were wounded outside of an STR at 2799 Ellison Street in Benedict Canyon. These weren’t the only STRs that were involved in violent acts. There were two shootings at STRs in Encino and Studio City in 2022.

The Better Neighbors LA report found that the STR in Benedict Canyon had multiple violations of the HSO including the fact that it was an unregistered unit. BNLA was unable to find records for the STR at 2799 Ellison and the websites where the property was listed for rental did not have the legally required registration number.

We spoke with Allison Kriste, a representative of Better Neighbors Los Angeles about this issue.

DMQ: This sounds like a good stipulation that Santa Monica has set up.

AK: We’ve been advocating for that kind of standard or rigor for short-term rental ordinances in other cities that we’ve been trying to assist with passing their own. The hosted stipulation, or ensuring that the host is, has to be on-site for this day, is one of the

Film Director Marc Forster Puts Richard Neutra-Designed Santa Monica Canyon

Santa Monica Approves $9.7M Loan for Affordable Housing Development

Forster purchased the house in 2009 and hired restoration architect Mark Haddawy to restore the premises in accordance with Neutra’s original design

Film director Marc Forster has put his Richard Neutra-designed Santa Monica Canyon home back on the market for $12.7 million, a significant drop from the $15 million asking price three years ago.

Forster purchased the house in 2009 and hired restoration architect Mark Haddawy to restore the premises in accordance with Neutra’s original design. Originally built for actress Anna Sten and her movie producer husband Eugene Frenke, the “Sten-Frenke House” won the top prize in House Beautiful magazine’s competition in 1934.

The house is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark and was also featured in the movie “Laurel Canyon.”

The property includes a Bauhaus-inspired main house and a work studio/guesthouse with a total of five bedrooms and six baths in 4,300 square feet of living space. The gated property sits on a double parcel overlooking the Santa Monica Canyon and Pacific Ocean beyond and features a large swimming pool and a two-car garage.

The listing is held by Bjorn Farrugia and Drew Fenton of Carolwood Estates.

Berkeley Station to serve transition-age youth and low-income families, designed with NEST Toolkit by Brooks + Scarpa

The City of Santa Monica has recently announced a construction loan worth $9.7 million for a proposed affordable housing development aimed at serving low-income families and transition-age youth.

The funding commitment includes an existing acquisition and pre-development loan of $467,735 and will support the construction of an approved project by Community Corp. of Santa Monica at 1342 Berkeley Street. The four-story building will feature 13 onebedroom apartments, with five units set aside for transition-aged youth earning up to 50 percent of the area median income level, and the remaining eight apartments reserved for families earning up to 30 percent of AMI.

The project, named Berkeley Station, is being designed by Brooks + Scarpa and will serve as

a test case for the firm’s NEST Toolkit, which is a flexible “kit of parts” that can be used for affordable housing developments across the Los Angeles area. The new 11,000-square-foot building will consist of prefabricated modular units and will be clad in saturated blue cement panels. It will also feature upper-level outdoor space for residents, as well as space for a community garden at street level. Notably, no on-site parking is proposed.

This new construction loan follows less than a year after the City of Santa Monica committed $5.7 million in affordable housing trust fund money to the Berkeley Station development. The project is a promising development for those who are struggling to find affordable housing in the area, and it will provide muchneeded support for low-income families and transition-age youth.

Santa Monica Ocean View Home Hits the Market for $9.65 Million

4,200 square-foot home features a wine cellar, a bright kitchen with a La Cornue range, and an indoor pizza oven

By Dolores Quintana

In Santa Monica, a home with an ocean view has gone on sale for $9.65 million at 202 Georgina Avenue as reported by Patch. com. With 4,200 square feet of space, the tiles leading to the home are made of terra-cotta in a front courtyard. The house has a custom-made front door made by Architectural Iron Works. Inside there are three bedrooms and four bathrooms, a curved staircase, white French doors that have been smoked rather than stained or painted, a library with a fireplace, and Ingo Maurer lighting. The listing’s description says, “The house’s outdoor earthy hues are mirrored by interiors with walls made of plaster.”

The home’s amenities also include a wine cellar, a bright kitchen with a La Cornue range

and an indoor pizza oven. You will also find a media room with its own theater and the center of the home electronic systems like a Lutron HomeWorks lighting system and Savant Systems Personalized smart energy management and monitoring automated system.

Outside, if you walk out of the living room doors, you will find a spa deck and a Uzes pottery-lined pool with an outdoor kitchen and dining space. The estate also has a guesthouse that sits past the pool and has one bedroom.

Reframing the Murals

SMa.r.t.

Last year the City Council started a process to reframe the murals in City Hall. Many people do not even know these WPA murals exist because perhaps they have never been to City Hall or because they are essentially positioned beside and behind you when you enter the lobby. They are primarily visible only when you leave the lobby, often when you have completed your business and are hurrying to get out. The murals consist of two panels.

How Santa Monica got its name

The panel on the right depicts the creation myth of how Santa Monica got its name. When the original inhabitants showed the thirsty arriving Spanish explorers the Kuruvungna Springs (still flowing today at what became University High School), one of their number commented that the flow of water reminded him of the tears of Saint Monica since this primal encounter occurred on Saint Monica’s day. Saint Monica was a third-century CE North African saint known in popular Christian legend as a mother who cried copious tears every night for her wayward son. He eventually reformed his licentious ways and became the famed philosopher Saint Augustine. Incidentally the massive sculpture of glass “tears” coming from stone at the southeast corner of Colorado and Fourth refers to the same myth. Meanwhile the panel on the left depicts the leisurely life that Santa Monicans were hoping to enjoy with tennis, polo, sailing (our yacht harbor had just opened north of the pier), model planes, automobile racing, and of course the obligatory pet dog.

Famed muralist

The murals were painted in 1939 by Santa Monica resident Stanton MacDonald-Wright (1890-1973) who was the co founder of an artistic style of painting called Synchronism. While Stanton was known primarily for abstract paintings in this case he worked in a more realistic though idealized style. Murals have subsequently become ubiquitous in our City through the decade-long efforts of many artists. They are everywhere both on main boulevards and on the secondary streets.

Wilshire Blvd, for example has about 15 murals or about one every other block (https:// www.santamonica.com/things-to-do/artsculture/street-murals-wilshire-boulevard/) not counting the lost Millard Sheets mosaic at Wilshire and 26th Street.

The City Hall murals became controversial because they suggested oppression of the original inhabitants and an elitist leisurely lifestyle unavailable to most residents. Many felt such a negative or distorted history should not have pride of place in our City Hall. Council member Oscar de la Torre raised the issue and the Council agreed to put a screen

over them because the way the paint and plaster were combined made it impossible to relocate the murals without destroying them. When the cost to screen them was too high, the Council established a Working Group of 12 stakeholders to find an alternative to covering them. That Working Group has been meeting for four months conducting surveys and studying alternative ways of creating a more appropriate symbolic entry for the City Hall.

A point in time

Every public work of art reflects the values of the time it was created. When values change the art highlighting those values changes. With historical hindsight we can see how values embedded in the past have been superseded. One thing that jumps out at you in our creation myth mural is how unaware the actors depicted are of what is going to happen. The original tribes pictured leading the Spanish to the springs have no idea they will be caught up in a giant global imperialistic struggle. They will be enslaved in a mission system which had been “perfected” a century earlier in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. The veneer of religious conversion disguised the militant purpose to hold off pirates (Drake etc.) and to forestall the Russian encroachment down the California coast that was threatening this edge of the Spanish empire. As important as the churches were to the mission system, the presidios (armed encampments) were equally important in putting down rebellions of the local tribes and fending off other colonial powers. Jared Diamond describes this colonial process very well, from an ecological perspective, in his book Guns, Germs and Steel.

Likewise, the Spanish power, symbolized by the soldier and possibly by the man on a horse, have yet to learn that the Mexican revolution would overthrow their entire power structure in little more than half a century. Likewise, symbolized by the padre, the Church had no idea their hard-built mission system would be erased in about three-quarters of a century. Finally, the depicted participants (how could they know?) had yet to learn that the Anglos would overrun everything less than a century later.

Similarly, the mural the leisurely lifestyle participants on the left mural panel, have no idea their world is about to collapse under the weight of World War Two, that would kill millions of people, including many of our visitors and native Santa Monicans. It is not unusual for public art to emphasize the art patron’s view of what is heroic and avoid the complementary painful or uncomfortable truths.

What is our point of view?

The point is that if in, say 1839 (70 years after the encounter at the spring), Santa Monica had a City Hall, and that City Hall had a mural it would depict a very different cast of characters than this one done in 1939 or one that we might do today. The 1939 murals, born out of the great depression, had

a incomplete view of our past history and an idealized version of who we were as a City of leisure.

So the Working Group’s job is to develop a new way to show a more complete history embodying today’s values. Ironically two of the issues depicted in the 1939 murals are still incredibly relevant to today. The first is water: It is still the most precious resource in our parched LA basin. Our future existence is threatened by drought induced global warming which is inexorably choking us in spite of the rain reprieve we got this year. In fact the 1939 muralist panted an imaginary gushing waterfall in the Santa Monica Mountains suggesting we had (or needed?) an abundance of water. The second relevant issue is leisure. Are we a City of leisure for the wealthy visitor or do all our residents have sufficient affordable accessible parks, pools, libraries, art galleries, concert halls, playgrounds etc. where they can enjoy their times of leisure? While the aspirational 1939 vision of polo, tennis, auto racing and yachting might have been a good draw for a City trying to recover from the great depression, you know only a small number of residents actually participated directly in those sports. Likewise today our City is trying to recover from Covid and we need a new inviting aspirational tag line for visitors who will power our recovery. However, we have also learned that the tension between the needs of visitors and those of residents has to be resolved in favor of residents.

So we look forward to what the Working Group suggests as the appropriate historical response to the City Hall murals. The solution might include both a small corrective plaque and hopefully a more

ambitious art installation but we should aim high for such an important visible location.

By Mario Fonda-Bonardi AIA S.M.a.r.t Santa Monica

Architects

for

a Responsible Tomorrow

Thane Roberts, Architect, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Architect, Dan Jansenson, Architect & Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, Samuel Tolkin Architect & Planning Commissioner, Mario Fonda-Bonardi AIA & Planning Commissioner,, Michael Jolly, AIRCRE.

For previous articles see www. santamonicaarch.wordpress.com/writing

Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow

UCLA Study Finds LA County’s ‘Park Poor’ Neighborhoods Could Gain 900K Years of Life

Researchers propose blueprint for targeted green strategies that could increase longevity and reduce health disparities among Black and Latino residents in LA

By Sam Catanzaro

A new study conducted by UCLA public health researchers and colleagues has found that improving tree coverage and access to parks and green spaces in Los Angeles County, particularly in lower-income communities of color, could significantly boost life expectancy for local residents. The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Environment International, is the first

in the U.S to combine life expectancy data at the census tract level with data on parks, trees and overall neighborhood vegetation. Previous research has suggested that parks and greenery have mental and physical health benefits for residents of urban areas, providing clean air to breathe, shade during hot weather, and open and secluded areas for recreation and mental relaxation.

The study’s findings extend those potential benefits and, according to the study authors, provide policymakers with a blueprint for targeted green strategies that could increase longevity among predominantly Black and Latino residents of “park poor” neighborhoods and help reduce health disparities in the region. The researchers found that socially and economically disadvantaged census tracts tended to have far less tree canopy and green space than other neighborhoods –including many on the Westside – and that roughly two-thirds of the county’s Black and Latino populations live in areas with disproportionately less green coverage.

“If policies are implemented where they are needed most, there could be a significant

decrease in life expectancy disparities across Los Angeles,” said Michael Jerrett, professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and corresponding author of the study. Controlling for other variables that could impact life expectancy, the research team developed a model that quantified the relationship between life expectancy and the amount of tree canopy coverage, live green vegetation and accessible park space in Los Angeles County’s census tracts. The team made several predictions, including that if tree canopy and green vegetation were brought up to the county’s median levels in each census tract, residents in areas currently below those medians could gain between 570,300 and 908,800 years collectively in life expectancy. Additionally, if park acreage was increased to the median level of 54 acres in census tracts with below-median park space and

tree canopy, approximately 155,300 years in life expectancy could be gained across the county. However, the researchers found that increasing park access in areas already above the county median for green space and tree canopy would not have a significant impact on life expectancy.

The study’s findings could help guide proposals by the County Board of Supervisors and local city councils concerning Measure A funding allocations. Approved by county voters in 2016, the parcel tax measure provides millions of dollars annually, in perpetuity, toward the creation and improvement of parks. A third of those funds are set aside to improve park equity.

The study was supported by the Urban Institute through funds provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Visualizing and Powering Healthy Lives grant initiative.

Photo: Sam Catanzzro

New Wood-Fired Seafood Restaurant Isla Now Open on Santa Monica’s Main Street

Crudo e Nudo creators, Chef Brian Bornemann and Designer Leena Culhane, bring their Mediterraneaninspired dishes to Isla

Isla, the new wood-fired, seafood-focused restaurant created by chef Brian Bornemann and designer Leena Culhane, opened on Santa Monica’s Main Street on Wednesday, April 5. The restaurant has been developed as a side project from Crudo e Nudo, which specializes in raw seafood, and features a menu that takes influences from across the Mediterranean. Dishes include guinea hen and duck breast preparations, charcoal skewers, and classic California takes like whole roasted cauliflower and citrus salad. Isla eschews red meat but does offer some fowl, and has an extensive vegetable selection. The restaurant also features wines by the glass and bottle, and cocktails from Kent Thompson, including strong amaros, vermouths, and sherries as a nod to Spain and the booming Spanish restaurant scene in LA.

Designer Culhane has transformed the former

Rentals Violators, from

page 2

best ways that we’ve found to ensure that these units aren’t being taken off the housing market.

DMQ: That’s the critical point. What you trying to avoid a situation where say a large private equity company comes in, buys up a lot of property, and then just uses it as homesharing rentals?

AK: Exactly. We’ve talked to residents of the city who say, “I live in an eight-unit apartment building, seven of the eight units are short-term rentals, and I’m the only real tenant left.” That’s seven units that can be used for families, young professionals, and residents of the city. It really is disappointing to see that kind of affordable housing being taken up in that way.

DMQ: Can you give me an overview of what the report says?

AK: Every year we put out an annual report that gives a snapshot of how enforcement is going in the city of Los Angeles, how many short-term rentals exist, and how that’s changed from the prior year. This year, we’ve found that non-compliance is up. We found a high rate of non-compliance across the boards in the city of Los Angeles. In addition, we’ve also found that enforcement activity is down. We’re identifying more non-compliant listings, as compared to last year. The city is issuing fewer warning letters, they’re issuing fewer fines. They’re not doing a whole lot.

DMQ: So basically the trouble is that when they don’t enforce the rules, then the law has no teeth. The people who are disobeying the law are just going to continue flouting the law?

AK: Absolutely.

Santa Monica and Venice Sister Restaurants Collaborate to Create Pop-Up Dining Experience

pizza experience

Little Prince space to make it warm and inviting with pink and orange hues, deep woods, vibrant light pieces, gauzy curtains, and exposed rafters. Isla captures the essence of a farmhouse dinner with friends that’s been cooked on charcoal out back and served on speckled stoneware plates. The restaurant opens with lunch through dinner service from noon to 11 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Brunch will be added to the menu next month.

The opening of Isla comes after the restaurant’s journeyman’s approach to its development, including pop-ups and private events, to grow its menu stop by stop. The plan had been to partner with a different operator nearby to open something with fire and flash, but when that deal fell through, Culhane and Bornemann found their way to the former Little Prince space to partner with owner-operator Shane Murphy instead. For more information, visit www.isla-la.com

DMQ: So are there any concrete steps that BNLA and residents of the city can take to help the city government realize that they do need to enforce? I think that this isn’t the only issue where there’s like, some disconnect between the city, you know, the laws on the books and a lack of enforcement, shall we say, because, you know, they make a point of enforcing things that give the city money, particularly from people who are maybe like at lower levels of the economic strata parking. Giving out tickets for people with RVs or giving tickets for street cleaning, doesn’t even happen all that often. What do you propose to help get them to actually enforce this type of thing?

AK: I think the first and most important one for us is that the city should start to issue fines to those hosts and platforms, for violation of the home-sharing ordinance. As of right now, no citations have ever been issued to homesharing platforms for violations of the law. But the city is authorized to charge daily fines against the platform for a little upwards of $1,000 for each transaction of a non-compliant unit. Realistically, that could translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars that the city could be generating in fines against the shortterm rental platforms daily because their users aren’t following the law.

Short-term rental pltforms don’t have a lot of incentive to enforce the HSO because they are not having to pay the costs that should be associated with non-compliance. We think that if the City were to issue fines and initiate lawsuits against the platforms that could be an effective way to ensure compliance. Last year, the former City Attorney initiated a lawsuit against the platform VRBO regarding data

Venice and Santa Monica’s sister restaurant concepts, The Tasting Kitchen and Ghisallo, have teamed up to create a unique pop-up dining experience starting Monday, April 3. The Tasting Kitchen experienced a small fire on March 10, resulting in the need for repairs and temporary closure. The restaurant will be taking over the Ghisallo kitchen for dinner Mondays through Thursdays from 5 p.m.- 9 p.m. until repairs are completed.

The Tasting Kitchen’s Executive Chef Travis Passerotti is bringing favorite menu items to the Ghisallo kitchen and working alongside Ghisallo’s Executive Chef Stensland “Arnold” Smith to create a fusion of fine dining and wood-fired pizza. The pop-up will also include Jyan Isaac Bread, which will craft all pizza dough and bread on the menu.

Chef Arnold brings a wealth of experience to the Ghisallo team, having worked alongside

sharing and that could lead to a better rate of compliance from these companies.

DMQ: So you feel that the solution would be the city actually enforcing laws on the books? Anything else?

AK: We have a couple of other recommendations that would require an amendment to the home-sharing ordinance. One of them is that they have platforms enter a mandatory data-sharing agreement. Right now, every short-term rental platform is required to submit all of their monthly booking information to the city. Airbnb has entered into a data-sharing agreement where they use an API to share real-time information. Similar agreements with every other platform, we think could enable the city to ultimately collect more data on non-compliant listings and give a better understanding of the landscape which would empower them to better enforce the HSO.

DMQ: Is there anything else that you would like to say as a representative of BNLA that you think our readers should know?

AK: I think that short-term rentals as they become a very popular way to find accommodation when you’re traveling, I think a lot of visitors and guests who use the shortterm rentals don’t understand or consider the cost to communities associated with these rentals. STRs often cause a loss of housing and an increase in rents in neighborhoods and cities that they’re in. But they also fundamentally alter the fabric of the neighborhood, they displace long-standing residents. Our mission, in addition to ensuring that home sharing is happening in a way that’s sustainable for neighborhoods, and protecting residents, is also to show people that in addition to the

esteemed chefs such as Jean George, Hans Röckenwagner, Phillip Lee, and Robert Trester. He served as the opening Sous Chef for Lee’s Scratch Bar and for the Veranda Restaurant of the reopening of the historic Hotel Figueroa. The TTK @ Ghisallo pop-up menu will feature some of The Tasting Kitchen’s most popular items, such as Delta asparagus with burrata, parmesan fonduta, and chive, Taglierini with shrimp, serrano, lemon, and Striped bass. Additionally, the menu will offer Ghisallo’s standout pizzas, including Fennel sausage, Squash blossom, Funghi misti, and Cacio e pepe.

Reservations are available through OpenTable, and walk-ins are also welcome.

inconveniences that may be caused by fees on STRs that these rentals have this other side of them that damages neighborhoods and communities and most importantly, displaces residents. Enforcing laws that dictate the rules around STRs, it’s one of the best ways to ensure that housing is protected.

DMQ: Could you describe how short-term rentals displace people in a neighborhood or city?

AK: There are a lot of economic impacts of short-term rentals. McGill University’s Professor David Wachsmuth examines the economic impact of short-term rentals in Los Angeles in a report on the subject. He estimates that short-term rentals have raised the rent by an average of $810 per year for each rental unit in the city since 2015. As they contribute to gentrification, if rent goes up $810 per year that is definitely enough to push somebody who might be on the edge into homelessness. We do see that as the rent goes up, these people, longstanding members of the community can no longer afford to live in their building. Landlords often know that they stand to make more money using these units as short-term rentals, as they do when they rent them out to long-term tenants. It’s really hard to compete with that as a tenant, or resident of a neighborhood when you can’t offer that same amount of profit.

The Tasting Kitchen and Ghisallo join forces to offer a fine dining meets woodfired

National Geographic Speaker Series Comes to Santa Monica Featuring

Alizé Carrère

Environmental anthropologist and filmmaker presents on human adaptation to climate change at The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica

Environmental anthropologist and filmmaker

Alizé Carrère will be featured as part of the National Geographic Live touring speaker series in North America. The series showcases the aweinspiring stories of National Geographic experts, and Carrère will present “Adaptation” at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Centers’ Eli & Edythe Broad Stage, on Thursday, April 20 at 7:30 pm. The event is presented by BroadStage and tickets are available starting at $50.

Carrère’s presentation will delve into the remarkable ways people across the world are adapting to a changing climate. Through her work documenting stories of resilience, perseverance, and innovation, Carrère aims to offer a hopeful look at the challenges posed by environmental change. Her presentation will take the audience on a journey to Vanuatu, Bangladesh, and Ladakh, showcasing innovative techniques used by islanders, farmers, and engineers to combat the effects of climate change.

Carrère is a National Geographic Explorer and

Ph.D. candidate researching and documenting human adaptations to environmental change. Her work has received support from National Geographic and has evolved into a broader film and educational project on human resilience. She brings her social science background and extensive field experience to her filmmaking with the goal of elevating the human dimensions of climate change. Carrère received her B.A. and M.Sc. from McGill University and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Miami, examining the relationship between architecture, climate change, and ecological urban utopias. Tickets for the event can be purchased online at https://broadstage.org/, by calling (310) 4343200, or by visiting the box office at The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California. The box office opens two hours prior to the performance.

Santa Monica to Host Annual Arts & Literacy Festival for Kids

City collaborates with SMMUSD and YMCA Healthy Kids Day to

learning and

with a “Ready, Set, Build” theme at Virginia Avenue Park on April 29

The City of Santa Monica, in partnership with SMMUSD and YMCA Healthy Kids Day, is hosting the annual Arts & Literacy Festival at Virginia Avenue Park on Saturday, April 29, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This year’s theme, “Ready, Set, Build,” will showcase more than 30 community organizations offering games and activities that align with the Santa Monica Cradle to Career Building Blocks for Kindergarten campaign. The initiative promotes social and emotional development, self-care, physical well-being and motor skills, language development, and early learning to ensure all Santa Monica children are prepared to learn, both inside and outside the classroom.

Attendees can look forward to a variety of activities, such as the reDiscover Center’s Tool Petting Zoo and Carboard Construction Zone, the Cayton Children’s Museum’s Recycled City activity, and the Santa Monica Public Library Storytime Stage featuring construction-themed books read by Public Works staff in hardhats.

Additionally, the Under Construction Game Area will offer tool relay races, building blocks, truck obstacle courses, and more.

Roaming stilt walkers and Bob the Builder will also be present.

Furthermore, visitors can collect stamps from activity booths on the event’s Explorer Card, redeemable for a free book at the Santa Monica Public Library booth.

On the main stage, the festival will feature performances from the Santa Monica Youth Orchestra’s Mariachi Ensemble and Balkan Ensemble, Bollypop Interactive Dance Performance, Elemental Music’s Prelude Program, Santa Monica Ballet Folklorico, and the Psychic Buster Magic and More Show, hosted by emcee Sean Hill.

The

promote early

development

William Inge’s “Picnic” Poorly Staged at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

At The Theatre With…

Lady Beverly Cohn

Editor-at-Large

In the last century, America gave birth to the greatest playwrights of all time. Included in that rarified category are Arthur Miller (“Death of a Salesman,”) Eugene O’Neill (Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “The Iceman Cometh,”) Edward Albee (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “The Zoo Story,”)

Sam Shepard (“Buried Child,” “Fool for Love,”) Thornton Wilder (“Our Town,” “The Skin of Our Teeth.”) Neil Simon (“Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Barefoot in the Park,”) David Mamet (“Glengarry, Glen Ross,” “American Buffalo,”) August Wilson (“Fences,” “The Piano Lesson,”) and Tony Kushner (“Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” “Angels in America: Perestroika,”) and, of course, William Inge’s “Come Back Little Sheba, “Bus Stop’” and his timeless “Picnic,” for which he was feted with a Pulitzer Prize.”

To give you a historic perspective, Inge’s iconic “Picnic” premiered in New York in 1953 featuring Ralph Meeker, Eileen Heckart, Arthur O’Connell, Janice Rule, Reta Shaw, Kim Stanley and a very young unknown Paul Newman who wanted the leading role but was rejected because the director didn’t think he had the physique to fit the part but eventually he did take over the lead. Inge won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for that work and Logan received a Tony Award for Best Director. The play also won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play of the season. Eventually, Josh Logan directed the film starring William Holden and Kim Novak and was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, scoring two wins. The latest iteration is the subject of my review.

So, to be absolutely clear, this is not your William Holden, Kim Novak award-winning version of “PICNIC.” What you have instead, is a rather amateurish rendering of this American classic. I dare say that the playwright is probably turning over in his grave wondering how his play, under the spotty direction of John Farmanesh–Bocca, morphed into a high school or even a middle school version.

Briefly, the story takes place in a small Kansas town. It’s the day before the annual Labor Day celebration and a young drifter named Hal (Monti D. Washington) arrives in town and, in exchange for lodgings in a run-down boarding house, does odd jobs for the owner, Mrs. Helen Potts, skillfully played by Rosemary Thomas. He also wants to reconnect with an old college buddy, Alan Seymour, played by Ahkei Togun, who is in love with the beautiful Madge Owens (Mattie Harris Lowe.) Despite being rough around the edges, the women all practically swoon as they behold his shirtless arms and chest. Sadly, despite his physique, Mr. Washington did not get the guidance he needed from director John Farmanesh-Bocca who failed to help him navigate through the layers of a complex character, which is basically true of most of the performances. The only two actors who gave believable performances were Thomas’ character of as Mrs. Potts, who despite

being an older woman, registers sheer delight at the vision of this hunky young man performing odd tasks around the yard. The other excellent performance was rendered by Derrick Parker as Howard, boyfriend of the spinster school teacher Rosemary, played by Sydney A. Mason. Unlike Parker, whose performance is fully actualized, she has but a few moments of truth, which is mostly replaced with histrionics.

The two sisters, Millie and Madge were played by Symphony Canady and Mattie Harris Lowe, respectively. Millie’s characterization of a young girl was silly, pushed and not really believable. Sad to say that the weakest performance of the evening was given by Lowe who might be good cinematically, but definitely is not a theatrical actor. Most of the time she delivered her dialogue, which never transcended “line readings,” as though she was in front of a camera instead of on stage or as they say in the “biz,” she failed to leap the invisible footlights. Beautiful yes. But it would have been lovely if she had been directed to deliver a professional performance. Millie and Madge’s mom Flo Owens is played by Yolanda Snowball who sometimes gets under the text to deliver an actualized performance. As for the rest of the cast, the character of Alan Seymour, Hal’s old college buddy is played Ahkei Togun who is in love with Madge. The Boyish character of Bomber, who is smitten with Millie, is played by Rogelio Douglas III. Yolanda Snowball as Flo Owens manages to deliver a sometimes performance with most of the cast, delivering nothing more than line readings with the pacing so slow, you could drive a truck between cues. Other members of the ensemble include, Erika L. Holmes and Caitlin O’Grady, who alternates with Lowe in the role of Madge.

Mounting a production is more than blocking the actors, having them learn their lines, and excellent production values, which this production does have, starting with the excellent set design by Frederica Nascimento, lighting design; Chu-Hsuan Chang; Mylette Nora costumes, sound design, Farmanesh-Bocca, Jeff Gardner, and Adam Phelan, and choreography by John FarmaneshBocca and Briana Price. Clearly, the director has good technical skills but is missing the vital skill at guiding actors in developing believable, professional characters.

Don’t ask me why these words are spinning around in my head, but it’s the line Marlon Brando says to the undertaker when he brings his son Sonny’s battered body to the funeral director: “Look what they did to my boy” or if Inge were alive, he might say: “Look what they did to my play.”

“PICNIC”

Odyssey Theatre   2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90025

Written by: William Inge

Directed by: John Farmanesh–Bocca

Run: Friday, Saturday: 8:00pm Sunday: 2:00 pm Monday: 8:00 pm – April & May 8

Running Time 2 hours 10 mins including intermission

Closing: Sunday, May 28, 2023

Tickets: $$25-$40

310.477

-2055, Ext. 2

www.OdysseyTheatre.com

(Call the box office for information on post-performance discussions & complimentary wine and snacks.

FILM REVIEW: EMILY

BEHIND THE SCREEN

By Kathryn Whitney Boole

I don’t often write about films that are streaming, but this one deserves some attention. Emily the Criminal is what is called a “sleeper film.” It didn’t get a lot of attention when it was released in August 2022. This is guerilla filmmaking at its finest. The film was very low budget to make, shot in only 20 days, mostly in rough parts of LA where this story would really take place, only one name actor, Aubrey Plaza, and a couple of short cameos by recognizable names, a first-time director, and certainly not much spent on marketing.

However, this movie is a gem. It has gone on to win awards in 2023 from the Austin Film Critics Association, the Casting Society of America and the Directors Guild of America, as well as critic and audience approval. WriterDirector John Patton Ford had written the script and shown it to another director who passed it along for Aubrey Plaza to read. She liked it, so Ford rewrote the script, leaning into her qualities for the lead role. She agreed to star and also to help produce the movie. Her performance as “Emily” is almost scary – she plays someone who has been put through the ringer and knocked around in the spin cycle of life. Ford chose another superb yet relatively unknown actor, Theo Rossi, to play opposite Plaza. Rossi’s roles are usually very hard and tough. Here he shows vulnerability under a hardened façade, and the two have great chemistry.

Emily the Criminal is not a fairy tale. The prince doesn’t carry the princess off to the castle in the end. If you want that kind of ending you will be disappointed. The story is edgy and real, the characters are authentic and the whole ensemble of actors do a wonderful job of bringing them to life. The cinematography, editing, and soundtrack are exceptional. This is a movie worth streaming.

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

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME Case No. 23SMCP00093 Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles 1725 Main St. | Santa Monica, CA 90401

Petition of: Carolina Bezerra Eisenman, by and through Carolina Bezerra Eisenman for change of name.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME

To all interested persons Carolina Bezerra Eisenman

Petitioner: filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: a Carolina Bezerra Eisenman to Carolina Eisenman

The court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING:

Date: 07/02/21 | Time: 8:30AM | Dept: K A copy of this ORDER to SHOW CAUSE shall be published at least once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county:

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NUMBER: 2023047903 ORIGINAL FILING This statement was filed with the County Clerk of LOS ANGELES ON 03/03/2023. The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as 1. First Wave Health Advocates. The full name of registrant(s) is/are: