MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2012
Volume 11 Issue 121
Santa Monica Daily Press
HUNGRY TO DOMINATE BOX OFFICE SEE PAGE 3
We have you covered
THE DID YOU LAUGH? ISSUE
At SMC, veterans on the front lines of their new lives BY AARON SCHRANK Special to the Daily Press
and doing a “California roll” at a stop sign is a citable violation. Phillips argued that the punishment — a fine that cost more than the bicycle she used to commit the deed and a point on her driver’s license — didn’t fit the crime, and in fact acted as a deterrent to people thinking about getting on their bicycles rather than in their cars. “If you have to dismount at every single stop sign, you’re not going to ride,” she said. It’s a problem that more cities have to grapple with as they strive to attract bicyclists to cut down on traffic and improve air quality — how do you balance laws with reality?
Ask any Los Angeles driver, and they’ll tell you that traffic is a nightmare. But for Diego Villalobos, that nightmare is about more than car horns, brake lights and the worry of being late for work. Gridlocked in a sea of commuters on the I10 freeway between his Palms apartment and Santa Monica College, Villalobos’s mind darts to his days behind the wheel in an Iraqi war zone, where potholes were mementos of roadside bombs and any obstructing vehicle was a potential ambush. The 30-year-old SMC student and Iraq War veteran says he walked into a cloud of depression and anxiety as soon as he returned from deployment in 2005. “I’d just spent a year in a different place, I didn’t think that would completely change who I was, but it did,” Villalobos said. “Coming back, you have to adjust to a lower level of security, and that can be a little strange.” After a few years of liberally self-medicating with alcohol, he turned to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder — a condition that continues to affect his daily life, he says. About one-third of the troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, battle major depression or experienced a traumatic brain injury during deployment, according to a 2010 RAND Corp. report. As the national conversation shifts from Iraq’s end to how to best care for the hundreds of thousands of men and women returning from war, early detection and treatment of mental health issues is among the leading concerns of the VA and community-based organizations. For many returning veterans who use the Post-9/11 GI Bill, community college is the first step in a trying transition into a civilian life where everyday activities are hampered by memories of war. Villalobos’s last day in Iraq is burned into his memory — as enemy combatants spent
SEE BIKES PAGE 10
SEE SMC PAGE 11
IN OBSERVANCE
Ray Solano news@smdp.com Parishioners observe Palm Sunday at St. Monica Catholic Community Church on Sunday. The date marks one week until Easter.
Police, bicyclists balance road safety with education BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
11TH STREET Grace Phillips thinks of herself as the “perfect target” for Santa Monica’s Bicycle Action Plan, a recently approved document that unrolls massive changes over the next 20 years to make novice cyclists feel safe on the city’s roads. She’s not the avid lycra-clad bicyclist that zooms through the streets of Santa Monica at speeds rivaling cars, but the person who runs small errands on two wheels rather than four. But Grace Phillips won’t ride anymore. On Feb. 9, she was pedaling back from a shopping trip Sears. At 11th Street approaching Pearl Street, Phillips coasted
through a stop sign after checking for oncoming traffic. Immediately after, she heard the “whoop whoop” of police sirens. The result: A $250 ticket, topped by a $69 court fee and a point on her license. Phillips was incensed, and made more so when she finally saw the ticket, which described her offense as passing through a stop sign at 5 miles per hour. “If I’d been endangering somebody, running someone down, creating havoc on Lincoln Boulevard, I would understand,” Phillips said. “Tottering down 11th with numerous stop signs, no.” Under California’s rules of the road, Phillips and her bicycle bear the same responsibilities as a car to obey traffic laws,
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
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