Home Blog Page 6870

Words really can harm you

By
13StarsManager
-
0

Anti-homosexual epithets have become a common part of high school students’ vocabulary, as a casual listen in campus hallways and athletic fields might indicate. Teens have turned such words as “fag,” “gay” and “homo” into all-purpose pejoratives to describe anything from an irritating person to a dreaded homework assignment.

“[Gay] has become a slang term,” said Malibu High School junior Lukas Mehring.

“When most people say it, they don’t mean it in a good way, but not in a derogatory way either,” added junior Joseph Bolter.

One MHS junior, who asked that his name not be used, said he often uses anti-gay terms as slang. “I don’t hate [homosexuals],” he said, but “I am just not comfortable with it.”

Other MHS students are not so apathetic to the use of such words.

“By using such words they are inadvertently denigrating homosexuality,” said senior Avi Mendelson.

Though senior Jeremy Johnson does not condone the use of anti-homosexual terms, he says that “it’s derogatory if you say it in front of a gay person,” but not in the way that the words are usually used by students.

While girls are not unknown to make anti-homosexual remarks, it seems to be more common among boys. Senior Grace Blauner sees this as a sign of common male adolescent insecurities.

“It is because guys are more insecure with their own sexuality,” said Blauner, who spent this past summer at UC-Santa Barbara researching heterosexual reactions to homosexuality. She found that “the male participants were exceedingly more homo-negative than the female participants.”

Gloria Martinez, vice principal at MHS, admits the use of anti-homosexual slurs on campus but does not see it as a major problem.

“When we [the MHS staff] hear it, we say it is not appropriate,” said Martinez. “If it becomes a problem, there are consequences, such as detention.”

“At the very least, the student will be warned and the parents called for any such harassment,” said Principal Mike Matthews. “Over the past eight years, I have suspended students for harassment.”

Many overlook the actual meaning of these words, failing to realize that they hurt.

“Throughout middle school I went to the administration every week in tears because people were calling me gay,” said Johnson. “The administration wouldn’t do anything because they said they had to catch the person in the act.”

Matthews vaguely remembers Johnson’s complaints. “I do not recall the exact follow-up from this student’s concerns from events that occurred six years ago, but I do know that we did meet with the student and his parents to discuss his concerns,” explained Matthews.

“Verbal harassment is greatly impacting young gay students,” said Marla Weiss, a teacher at Beverly Hills High and a member of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. She added that gay students are often unable to tell anyone about the harassment. The student “simply goes home, cries and then comes back to school the next day to hear the same thing over and over again.”

School districts across California have established programs aimed at preventing homophobia among high school students. In 1999, Gov. Davis signed a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity at California schools.

But establishing acceptance of gay students is far from easy. Anthony Colin, 16, of El Modena High School, was at first prohibited by the Orange County Unified School District to establish a gay/straight alliance on campus. After a year of court hearings and intense opposition from the school board, parents and students, Colin was finally allowed to establish the club. He was recently awarded the Spirit Endurance Award by Amnesty International for his gay rights activism.

A report by the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in 1993 found that 97 percent of students in public high schools report regularly hearing anti-gay remarks. And, according to a National Anti-Gay/Lesbian Victimization Report conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1984, 45 percent of gay males and 20 percent of lesbians reported having experienced verbal and/or physical harassment in high school due to their sexual orientation.

The great danger is that verbal abuse can lead to physical violence. Gays and lesbians, according to a 1995-1996 Human Relations Commission’s Report on Hate Crimes, comprise the second largest group targeted for hate crimes in the United States. Anti-gay hate crimes continue to rise, according to an FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which said that in 1998 there was a 14.3 percent increase in reported anti-gay hate crimes. It is suspected that most anti-gay hate crimes remain unreported.

And fear and hatred of homosexuals can be deadly. Who can forget the murder of young Matthew Shepard in the fall of 1998, who was targeted because he was gay?

Youth commission still in the works

By
13StarsManager
-
0

The Malibu Youth Commission, in its first year, is still trying to find ways to develop fun and safe activities within the city, which will hopefully appeal to Malibu youths as a substitute for Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, Hollywood clubs and high school parties.

“The reality is that any kind of commission takes a little bit of time to get on its feet,” said Paul Adams, Malibu’s director of Parks and Recreation.

Established in memory of late Councilmember Harry Barovsky, who first brought the idea to the City Council, the Malibu Youth Commission is made up of 15 teens, the majority of whom attend Malibu High School, with Adams presiding over meetings. The 15 teens replied early last year to an ad in a local paper.

According to Adams, other cities have such commissions to target the needs of youths. He added that the commission primarily serves as an advisor to the City Council about Malibu youth.

“The City Council recognized that there was an issue with there being nothing for the youth in Malibu to do,” said commission chair Alexis Bolter, a senior at MHS. “Our purpose is to create an environment for the youth in Malibu.”

“Our most difficult challenge has been trying to get things established, because this is the first year,” explained Bolter.

An early difficulty that the commission encountered was the sudden departure of Marilyn Stern, the City Council’s former recreation supervisor, who moved to San Diego earlier this year.

“We had Marilyn Stern helping us, who just left,” said Bolter. “We were trying to get some activities going, but due to her absence were unable to.”

The Malibu Youth Commission is not to be confused with the similarly named Malibu Youth Coalition. The main difference that sets the commission apart from the coalition, according to Bolter, is that the coalition is run by a group of parents whose focus remains more on middle school students, while the commission has chosen to focus more on high school students.

“The Youth Commission has a lot of potential with a lot of pull with parks and the city, but people need to get involved,” said MHS senior Jeremy Johnson, a member of the commission. He added that people are welcomed and encouraged to attend the Youth Commission meetings and submit their ideas.

Johnson says that the commission has spent the past months establishing a mission statement and official guidelines for the commission.

Events that the commission hopes to offer later this year include a basketball tournament, coffee clubs and a free concert for local teens in Malibu Bluffs Park later this spring. Funds for these events will be provided by the commission.

“Basically, we want to have events where the Malibu youth will be able to hang out,” said Bolter.

According to Bolter, the commission is conducting a needs assessment to aid it in better serving the youth of Malibu.

For those who want to submit ideas or attend a Youth Commission meeting, meetings are held at City Hall, in the large conference room, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month.

Clubs give library a lift

By
13StarsManager
-
0

Through the vision and generosity of Malibu clubs and associations, your Malibu Public Library now has a more beautifully landscaped public entrance. The Malibu Garden Club, the Malibu Optimist Club, the Malibu Kiwanis Club, the Malibu Rotary Club, and the Malibu Association of Contractors all contributed ideas and funds to re-do the planting outside our front door. It is a great improvement. We extend our thanks and appreciation to all those involved. You have helped to make our small corner of Malibu a more pleasing place to see.

Sherri Smith,

library manager Malibu Public Library

Dj vu all over again

By
13StarsManager
-
0

After reading the numerous comments on both sides regarding the attack on Sharon Barovsky’s possible past connection to Christi Hogin and the appropriateness of her involvement in a present appointment as city attorney for Malibu, I can’t help notice that no one seems to be addressing the more important issues: Why, indeed, was Ms. Hogin fired from this position two years ago? And what merits the doubling of her past salary if she is appointed again?

If there was any impropriety involving Sharon Barovsky, hopefully it will come to light and be dealt with appropriately. But I believe the citizens of Malibu should be far more concerned with Christi Hogin’s qualifications for the position than who does or does not endorse her.

What we should have access to read about is the details of her firing and the determination of the salary being offered our city attorney now. Am I alone?

Katie Delaney

No-growthers waiting in the shade

By
13StarsManager
-
0

In this week’s newspaper there is a letter to the editor from Efrom Fader, the president of the Malibu Township Council. I suspect that some of you who have been here for less than a lifetime may well be wondering just what the Malibu Township Council (MTC) might be and who do they really represent?

To answer that question you need a little history.

Many years ago, in the late 1940s / early ’50s or so, long before Malibu was a city, at a time when it was part of the outskirts of the county, a local organization called the Malibu Township Council formed to be a local voice. The Township Council communicated with the county supervisor and his local deputy to let the county know what the Malibu community wanted.

Over the years, the organization, being the only local political voice in the community, was relatively effective. It was part of the resistance to a massive overbuilding of Malibu, which was in county plans, and to help stop other things like a marina, a freeway over the top of the mountains and, its major accomplishment, stopping a nuclear power plant scheduled for our local shoreline. Serving on the Malibu Township Council allowed our future leaders to get politically seasoned. Many of our city’s leadership cut their political teeth serving on the MTC.

But then cityhood came along and many on the MTC gave up advisory power for real cityhood political power. The MTC sort of became surplusage, but continued to stumble on, looking for a role for itself.

Someone died and left it a little money, so the MTC soldiered on, running some programs like political forums. In fact, the MTC is holding a forum this Saturday to discuss the proposed Civic Center guidelines.

Theoretically, the members of the MTC, who come from different geographic areas of Malibu, elect a representative to the MTC council. But the reality is that very few people participate in the process and you tend to see the same faces associated with the MTC year after year after year. Since cityhood, the MTC heir political power has waned substantially.

Lately, it’s been a place that the zero-growthers group goes to wait, sort of a shadow government in exile, hoping some day to come back into the sun. While there, they typically take pot shots at whomever is on the council that they’d like to replace with one of their own. That’s what this nonsense is all about relating to Christi Hogin moving over from city manager to city attorney and this equally nonsensical suggestion that somehow she and Councilmember Sharon Barovsky were in cahoots five to 10 years ago in connection with a lawsuit.

The background on the lawsuit is that in the early 1990s Barovsky caught her foot in a hole at a construction site on Malibu Road and sustained a bad ankle fracture. It required two surgeries before it was finally set. I know it was a bad fracture because I tried personal injury cases for many years, and ankle fractures requiring surgery are usually fracture dislocations, typically requiring pinning and plates. Even if the surgeon does a great job, there are almost invariably long-term impacts — arthritic changes in the joint and lots of medical expenses. Also, at a construction site on a city street, there are loads of defendants, usually the contractor, the subcontractor, the city, and just about anyone else who touches the job.

When an injury occurs the insurance companies take over, select their own attorneys and direct the litigation. Large cities, like Los Angeles, may have their own city attorney staffs, but small cities typically let insurance company attorneys handle it. In fact, smaller cities generally have no choice since it’s the insurance carrier that pays the tab.

In this case the medical bills were very large and the final settlement was in the neighborhood of $75,000 with the City of Malibu’s carrier, I’ve been advised, putting in $7,500 of the overall settlement, which seems to me to be relatively modest. Settlements by governmental entities have to be approved by the governing body, the council for example, but those approvals are typically pro forma, because it’s the insurance company’s money that usually pays the settlement. And it is known, from experience, that insurance companies are fairly hard-nosed in deciding whether or not to settle.

This whole issue, to put it mildly, is a tempest in a teapot, with nothing more than a political agenda behind it. Someone is blowing a lot of smoke around because someone, or their friend, wants to run for the Barovsky council seat, which is up for grabs in 2002. This is just an early part of the political campaign.

Eleven Violations of HAZ-MAT

By
13StarsManager
-
0

 

Eleven Violations of HAZ-MAT

By
13StarsManager
-
0
 

With its themes of alienation, cultural excess, childhood nostalgia and reverence for the natural world, it’s clear the art muse has been working overtime in the stellar visions of 11 Pepperdine students whose works are now on exhibit in “Eleven Violations of Haz-Mat” at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum until April 27.

The varied and often provoking multimedia exhibit reflects choice works by Pepperdine’s senior art class in painting, photography, sculpture and pottery in a unified showcase highlighting the students’ keen sense of purpose and unapologetic originality.

This is the first major exhibition for Justin and Jason Herber, 21, Texas born fraternal twins who are represented in 17 of the show’s paintings. The brothers’ work is as contradictory and distinct as their personalities suggest, yet they assert, “We have the same foundational blocks, we just express ourselves differently.”

Deeply influenced by music, Justin Herber pays homage in two exhibit works to the musicians who have had an affect on his life and art. In “Sandman (Cure for Pain),” Justin offers a haunting black and white portrait of the late Mark Sandman, an almost expressionistic interpretation of the former front-man from a rock band called Morphine. Sandman, Justin laments, “died on stage.”

In a painting entitled: “Don’t Let Me Be a Painter (Because Everyone Comes to Look),” so-named from a line from a song by the band Phish, Justin’s distinctive brush-stroke technique comes to the fore in a blaze of color, bringing an energetic realism to the piece depicting Phish’s key vocalist.

“I attempt to create a portrait of the moods and energies of my generation,” said Justin, adding, “It’s a generation of boldness, freedom and desire for expression.”

Waters run deep in Jason Herber’s work. He is an artist who enjoys working with different materials and who says his paintings are characterized by the “passage of time in my own life.

“My life experiences have fueled my art ever since I stopped eating crayons,” said Jason. “The grid-like patterns throughout my work represent my own life and reflections, as minutes, hours and days that are all part of a single structure.”

Jason’s mixed media “Srpuce” (not Spruce) offers one of the most striking examples of his unique “picking” style. “My work is very topographical,” he said. “[My paintings] look like they have gone through a state of deterioration. I see them as imagined worlds or landscapes.”

As to sibling rivalry, Justin said: “There has never really been competition between us because we both excel in our own areas. There is a drive that we give each other. You learn from each other’s mistakes, you see what the other is doing. It’s like living two lives at once.”

Largely, the brothers agree that art should be “enjoyable for the artist” and say they are “both deeply involved in what each other is doing, thinking and feeling.”

The next three or four months will prove an interesting challenge for the twins as they embark on separate journeys after graduating. The two have rarely been separated from each other. Justin is going on a summer trip around the world and Jason is enrolling in an architectural program at Texas A&M.

In other intriguing works, the wistful nostalgia of Susan Fagan’s paintings, “San Simeon, A Honeymoon Evening” and “Still Meadow,” is perhaps only exceeded by the artist’s personal statement entitled: “Places in the Heart,” a collection of written memories so compelling, a writing career might be entertained.

Social angst is best illustrated in Melinda Budde’s self-portrait, and particularly in Budde’s, “The Wake,” which effectively conveys the black void of human alienation. Said the artist: “These works, painted during a time of stress and hardship in my life, reflect my feelings and concerns at that time.”

“Acknowledge the totality of your being” is a phrase from the book: “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff,” a line sculptor Cleta Renee Fussell said was the inspiration of her body of work. The artist’s declaration is embodied in a sculpture entitled: “Rene Reborn,” in which Fussell utilizes beads and natural material in a unique form.

One of the exhibit’s most arresting pieces is found in Jennifer Peery’s reverence for the environment in a massive oil painting entitled, “Big Blue,” wherein the motion of a wave cascades in a flurry of color. “Nature is very important to me and [has] given me much peace and solace in my life,” said Peery.

Other works include Rima Rackauskas’ black and white photography, Matt Thomsons’ “Organically Grown Painted Metal Sculpture,” Annie McKenna’s sophisticated ceramics and pottery, Emilie Fitzhugh’s “Sea of Reflection,” and Usha Wilbur’s strong use of color and organic shapes, as demonstrated in a piece called “Inner Workings.”

“All of these students worked very hard,” said Avery Falkner, Pepperdine professor of art. “It’s always a luxury to have more [work] than you can use. There is an interesting variety and media represented here in a strong and professional-like show.”

2001 Sales Start Off A Little Slower

By
13StarsManager
-
0

People like to ask, “What do you think of the price?” There are easier questions to answer. Today’s real estate market features new price levels we are all adjusting to. Added to the mix is a forecast of total uncertainty.

It is true that very few homes are on the market, relatively speaking. That bodes well for prices. But there are also hints that buyers are more resistant and the market, like the overall economy, may slow down. Some homes are selling quickly at impressive prices. Other homes? The owners wonder if they missed out on the best time to sell.

It is hard to know what the right price is.

Nevertheless, since the year began, Malibu homes described below found a buyer that agreed with their seller on price. Featuring a variety of neighborhoods, here are many of the most recent sales:

A fixer home along the bluffs across from Zuma Beach sold for a little under $2 million. The main feature of the property was about two full acres of usable land with great views. The property also had a guesthouse.

A home near the headlands of Point Dume sold for just more than $2 million, about 60 percent higher than its going price in 1996. The home is large, on an acre with a pool.

Far out in the western hills of Malibu, a contemporary two-bedroom home sold for $525,000, a little more than its last asking price. The home, near Boney Ridge, had some ocean view and views of Ventura County lights at night, as well as three-plus acres.

A small rebuilt home at the end of a cul-de-sac in La Costa Hills sold for about $800,000. It sits on a hillside overlooking the community tennis courts on Rambla Pacifico, and most of the Santa Monica Bay and coastline.

One of the older homes in the Malibu Knolls area sold for more than $900,000, featuring three bedrooms and a peek of ocean view.

The Malibu Cove Colony continues to do booming business. A home at the east end of the street recently closed for about $2.75 million. It has four bedrooms. Cove Colony has had at least 15 sales since the year 2000 began, though some were the same house selling twice and for much more the second time.

Meanwhile, in 2001 very few beach homes in the rest of Malibu have been reported sold so far. There are certainly fewer sales overall this year compared to the hectic pace of recent years.

An exception to the beach slow down, however, was a sale near Big Rock Beach of a home that sits with no immediate neighbors on a partially wet beach. The sale price was reported at $1,350,000.

And, this month, a house on Las Tunas Beach sold for $1,060,000, with two bedrooms, about 50 percent higher than its ’97 sale price.

A home in the hills of Big Rock sold for just under $1.6 million. Though that was one of the highest prices ever for Big Rock, the property was a full estate: it had a pool and tennis court and terrific views on a full acre of land.

A very large home on the beach side of PCH along Encinal Bluffs sold for $1,275,000. It has six bedrooms. The home sold for $300,000 less in 1997 as the market was taking off. The property also includes beach access a short walk away.

In the new development of homes on Sea Star, a new home has sold for $3 million. The Sea Star Estates, similar to the Sea View Lane homes of large Mediterranean flavor just up the hill, are beginning to market in that price range. Typically, the homes on both gated streets are more than 5000 square feet in size, with five bedrooms, pool and view on about an acre.

An ocean-view estate in lower Rambla Pacifico has had three sales in four years. Following sales of about $1 million in 1997 and $1.4 in 1999, it sold for nearly $1.9 million with closing escrow in February. With about an acre and a half and a newer home, the back area had a nice patio and pool with the view.

In Corral Canyon, a three bedroom house with a little guest unit in El Nido sold quickly for $650,000.

The latest sale in Latigo Canyon is a home about three miles up that also sold last year. It did better this time, of course, registering at $650,000 with three bedrooms and some ocean view.

Rick Wallace of the Coldwell Banker company has been a Realtor in Malibu for 13 years. He can be reached at RICKMALIBUrealestate.com

Fur flies in dog debate

By
13StarsManager
-
0

(The following letter was addressed to Daphne, the beagle.) Although you make a whimpering argument for equal civil rights and freedom from discrimination, the Constitution is clear that “all men (and now women) are created equal” and have the inalienable rights of life, liberty and property in the pursuit of happiness. Not animals! Human beings, not lower beings. Beatles, not beagles. We do not have tails, you do.

While your animal idolater owners may believe, desire, think and demand that animals should have all of the same rights and privileges as humans, animals do not, and in my humble opinion, should not. The anthropomorphizing of canines, or any animal, is a strange, no, deranged mental and emotional pathology. I know people want unconditional love and dogs seem to give it to those that feed them, but a replacement for kids or grandads or other family or friends, just because they do not talk back negatively or condescendingly, is twisted. (So is wearing ribbons for dogs – traditionally for AIDS victims’ or prisoners’ causes.)

One survey has shown that three-fourths of pet owners consider their animals akin to children, and a famous study found that nearly half the women surveyed said they relied more on their dogs and cats for affection than on their husbands. (The New York Times, March 25, 2001) I suggest their husbands be potty-trained.

You also misrepresent what I have written and believe. I am just talking about THE BEACHES should not have dogs on them. I suggested and encouraged walking, running, pooping, peeing, licking, sniffing and socializing on sides of roads, parks, and fields (under control and cleaned up after), and particularly on the dog owners’ property. But why do you insist on coming to my home yard or the public’s beach? Did you know that you can transmit disease to ocean mammals when you play in the water? Why should you get rabies shots? Should you be allowed to infect dolphins and whales because you want to hang at the beach? And you really expect me to believe you do not ever pee or poop on the beach, ever? Who cleans up your pee? (The reason that Malibu Road lady said she did not notice the 27 tons of poop, by her own meticulous calculations, each year made by only two miles of Road dogs may be because the ocean tide was the best flush in town, no monthly water company payments necessary and no bag carrying either, yuck.)

Unlike some difficult problems, there seems a real easy “win-win” solution here. In order for you to get mutual companionship and protection and security of home and property that dog owners love, and for us who want our own homes and the beach free of mongrels, just stay off it. Be at home (yours) or at some other public or consented-to private place. Is that so intolerable? It is not cruel nor neglectful to have one place off limits.

Last, I know you think that you’re harmless and would not bite (4.7 million per year of which 3 million are kids is contrary evidence to that false claim), or scratch or jump up or run by and knock anybody down, especially a small child, but that may change when other pooches come running around. As Sgt. Bonjiorno of Animal Control said when I asked him why he thought those three dogs attacked the woman in Decker Canyon recently when one the the dogs was acting friendly licking the woman’s hand, he said, “The other two came around and then they ‘packed’ on her.” I had never heard that expression nor thought about that concept.

Just like the dog idolaters who went to the City Council and viciously attacked Cookie Cutter with lies and false accusations. They ‘packed’ on her. Stay off the beach and have a wonderful life. In the meantime, we humans do discriminate lawfully against you and want you segregated because you do not have the same rights because you are not deserving of them, for the simple reason that you are not human. When you become one, call me up and we’ll walk on the beach together.

In the meantime, how did you type those words so correctly on the keyboard? Oh, you wrote it longpaw! Don’t forget, go on the beach and the long claw of the law will gitcha, I promise, even if your owner used a stupid pet trick to try to remain anonymous.

Sam Birenbaum

Planning Commission postpones ‘hot item’ appeal

By
13StarsManager
-
0

The Planning Commission postponed the hearing of an appeal by some residents on Baden Place who oppose a planning director’s decision to approve a 9,035 square-foot house in their neighborhood to May 21.

The house, located on a 3.48 acre lot, would include an attached four-car garage and two detached guesthouses, a swimming pool, a tennis court, fencing, a driveway and a motorcourt.

While staff recommended that the commission uphold the decision, thereby denying the appeal and approving the home, neighbors thought the proposed structure was too big.

They said the proposed home is not consistent with the neighborhood character because it is much larger than the other homes in the area. Other homes in the area are mostly under 2,500 square feet in size, according to the neighbors.

“It’s a hot item,” said Richard Carrigan, planning commissioner. “If the appellant sustains his position, it would be a watershed case with regard to neighborhood character.”

Therefore, the commission decided to give the appellants the opportunity to respond to issues raised in the staff report and the applicant’s attorney letter.

Previously, an application for the development of a 28-foot high residence was denied twice by the planning commission based on view blockage.

In mid-October last year, the applicant submitted a new application for the development of an 18-foot structure instead of the 28-foot one.

Except for the height revisions, the new application was essentially identical to the one previously presented to commission.

  • In other matters, the commission approved a staff recommendation to amend zoning text in the area of cultural resources.

The cultural resources segment of the zoning code is intended to avoid damage to or destruction of important cultural resources within the City of Malibu. It defines culturally sensitive areas.

In response to criticism that the process was taking too long, one of the amendments includes changes that will expedite the archeological process for construction projects.

“Now the procedures are in place to allow the review to be done fairly, giving some control to the applicant as well, while still protecting archeologically sensitive areas,” said Ted Vaill, planning commissioner.

Instead of only having city planning staff perform archeological reviews, builders can now also have an outside qualified person review archeology matters.

The Planning Commission also continued an appeal for a project on Zumirez Drive because neighbors objected to the proposal based on view problems, environmentally sensitive habitat areas concerns and septic matters.

The commission approved a request to build a 5,838 square-foot, two-story home on De Butts Terrace, granting a grading variance and allowing the applicant to put up two retaining walls.

1...6,8696,8706,871...7,113Page 6,870 of 7,113