SECONDS—ALL IT TAKES IS SECONDS TO DESTROY LIVES: THANK GOD IT WASN’T THEIR DAY OR MINE – OR ANYONE ELSE’S TO DIE

By Diana L. Chapman

I was headed home happily, ambling along Paseo del Mar coming from a glorious afternoon tea, my spirits high. Glimpses of the swirling, pearl-silver seas lulled my senses into a smooth calm near Point Fermin Park.

In a few seconds, all that blew up in my face.

Headed west, a red sports car pulled alongside me in the same direction – buffeting back and forth in the strong gusts and then uncontrollably swerved, nearly sideswiping my vehicle. The car then peeled off, weaved back and forth across the road ahead, and roared off at a furious speed -- leaving me in bits of floating dust.

I had no idea I knew all three women in the car – not just yet.

Irritated, I tried to spot the license plate but the car had gunned ahead; it was fruitless to try and catch up. To do so, the accelerator would have had to fly up to 60 mph. I couldn’t do it – not on Paseo del Mar where there were scores of walkers, joggers, dogs, bicyclist and kids playing still long before the sun closed down her day around 6 p.m. Wednesday.

All I could do was pray no one would get killed as the erratic driver sped off.

In a few more seconds rounding the bend that hedges Angel’s Gate Park, witnesses said the car hurled across the sidewalk, sliced through a neatly manicured city park lawn and landed in a grassland area across the street from the residences near Roxbury Street -- where just moments earlier a mother said her two two little boys had been playing.

The car eerily missed two towering palms by a few feet.

The smoking vehicle, when I saw it, sat upright on its side, bringing out crowds who raced to save those inside. Jumping out of my car, I looked at the passengers and the driver who were all alive, standing and bleeding.

I guess it wasn’t their day to die – and thank God, it wasn’t mine or anyone else’s. I was overcome with fury, however, when it dawned on me how reckless the driver was. As I approached, one of the passengers threw her arms around me as I yelled: “What were you guys thinking?” You almost hit me.”

“I’m so sooooooooorry, Diana,” the passenger cried, hugging me and crying with remorse, while she bled on her arms and down my shirt. She hugged me tightly and wouldn’t let go. “I’m so sorry. Are you OK? Are you OK?”

“I’m OK,” I said when she suddenly began to hyperventilate and folded in my arms, collapsing. Fortunately, a kind neighbor helped, holding her hand and talking to her soothingly; a lifeguard administered oxygen. Firefighters and police hadn’t arrived yet and then came the next irritant.

The driver hung over us, chiding the passenger that she “was fine,” and “there’s nothing wrong with you.”

“She’s not fine,” I shot back at the driver. “Just back off.”

The driver then basically told me to “f” off which made me broil. “You know you almost hit me,” I shouted. The kind man intervened asking the driver to leave. She sulked off and plunked down on the grass next to the other passenger. The two contended everything was fine and that the driver was not speeding or drunk.

What was even more horrific was that the young woman I was holding passed out and was carted off to the hospital. I still do not know the extent of her injuries, but I was shocked that the driver and friend didn’t seem to take much notice of their friend’s departure.

One complained: “My clothes are in that car.”

In some ways, I’m a tolerant person – as I’ve made so many mistakes in my own life – that it’s hard to make judgments on others in this regard. But there is not one time I can remember being such a fool to drive down any location peppered with people – especially as a woman in her late 20s or early 30s.

There appeared to be no regard for human or animal life.

Had I caused this wreck, I would have been horrified that I could have killed --- or maimed someone especially one of the tots who had been hopping around there a few minutes earlier – instead of trying to cover up the speed issue.

This morning, I was still steaming. This afternoon, I’m still angry as l write this with this near-miss etched in my head. I still wonder if the young woman who went to the hospital is alright. When the cops arrived twenty minutes later, they didn’t have time to talk to me so I handed them my card and added: “Call me if you need me.”

You’d think it might be a lesson. But on that day, I left with a bad, gut feeling that for this driver, it wasn’t going to leave a blip on her morality chart or anywhere else. And I can’t help but feel: just how sad is that?

SOME KIDS STORIES GIVE US A WHOLE NEW VOICE WITH THEIR WRITING; TRY THIS ONE ON FOR SIZE

Dear Readers: In this exercise, students were given stickers to write about and in Keli Mezin’s case, she picked a butterfly sticker. It’s interesting what unfolds when kids are allowed the shot at creativity. Diana

MY BUTTERFLY

By Keli Mezin,

My butterfly is orange, black and white. It is a girl. She loves to fly everywhere, everyday. She lives in a big pine tree on a cliff. She smells the ocean and some days, she flies down to the ocean to meet other butterflies.

Her name is Leila. She is a very graceful butterfly, indeed. And so is her name. Every male butterfly she sees wants her. But she never takes. She is happy how she is living in a tree on a cliff where she happily practices her daily flying routines.

Even though Leila was sweetly beautiful, she had a nastier side.

She was snippy and if someone started a fight, Leila liked to make it worse.

But one day, she met a lonely deer picking at the tree that Leila lived in. “I’m trying to get some sleep,” Leila snapped. “Sorry," the deer grunted, but he didn’t stop.

“Why do you keep hitting and picking at my trees?,” Leila moaned.

“Why don’t you come out here and live?” asked the deer “and see what it’s like to be without a home.”

“I bet I could stay out there for a whole week!” Leila said.

“OK, you start NOW!” the Deer exclaimed.

“OK, I’ll get my furniture,” Leila said with a grating voice.

“NO furniture!”the Deer yelped.

“Oh, fine,” Leila yelled. Leila stayed out in the wild for a night, and soon she was hitting on trees. She hit on the trees a lot because she missed her tree.

One day the Deer walked out of a tree he now was living in. Leila was hitting it. “What are you doing?” he asked grumpily.

Leila said with an attitude, “You hit on a tree when you were frustrated, not having a home.”

“Now you know how I felt,” the Deer said. “It was a good lesson for you, Leila.”

“I guess,” she said, and fluttered away.

Brandon Currey, 14, and Alec Launtanen, 15 build pirate kite

Tiffany, a junior paints trash cans, while other students help make kites

Flying kites next to impossible due to little breeze

A Starbucks family joins in the clean-up effort


Juliet, 2, helps weed

Principals daughter's, Teel, 7, left and Taylor,9

Wyland Kelly, 14, rakes

A COMMUNITY DAY OF SERVICE AT SAN PEDRO HIGH SCHOOL BRINGS OUT STUDENTS, STARBUCKS EMPLOYEES, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS AND KITES – EVEN THOUGH THE DUD WINDS FAILED TO GET THE KITES UP IN THE AIR, CHILDREN SEEMED TO ENJOY BUILDING THEM ANYWAY

By Diana L. Chapman

With a day of warm Santa Ana winds and a bit of haze Saturday, San Pedro High students along with community members – including more than a half dozen Starbucks employees – came to weed, clean up trash and paint trash cans to beautify the school.

With a nearly 32 percent dropout rate and a campus with three-quarters of its students on some type of lunch subsidy, the beautification plan was expected to attract scores more residents after school official, Sandy Alvarenga, sent out notices to every single, local elementary school and sent out hundreds of fliers.

Despite that disappointment of low attendance or little winds , the 35 students who attended, along with the principal Jeanette Stevens, Los Angeles mayoral staff, Starbucks employees and Kiwanis Club members still seemed to enjoy the 9 a.m. to noon event.

Even with perkless winds – and few kites taking to air – several San Pedro High students not only helped little ones make kites – they tried to fly them as well.

“If only the wind would have cooperated, we would have seen more kites in the air,” the principal said. “Regardless, kids were thrilled to run around the field with their home made kites trying extremely hard to get them to stay up in the air! It was a great day for family, community engagement, and fun!”

Starbucks employee, Kelly Soto, who works at the Peninsula Center, said she was thrilled to be back at her alma mater where she graduated ninth in her 1997 class. She was saddened, she said, because of the large dropout rate and hopes to do future work with the students.

“I love it,” said Soto, as she raked up weeds and plunked them into bag. She holds a degree in marine biology. “It’s wonderful and I feel I really connected to the kids. I’ve enjoyed coming and chatting with the teachers and the kids aren’t used to having adults around them. We are happy to help out.”

“It’s so wonderful to give back to our school,” said Isaiah Gutierrez, who manages the Golden Cove Starbucks and hopes to do more community service at the campus where he too graduated. “I hear things aren’t going so well, so we want to help.”

All the students who attended worked hard weeding, repainting tired trash cans and picking up trash. Even Wyland Kelly, 14, in 9^th grade, said he came “because I needed community service hours, but it’s not that bad.”

Two high school students came all the way from Manhattan Beach’s Mira Costa High School to receive community service hours.

“It’s not a bad way to get community services hours,” said a seemingly happy 15-year-old Alec Lautanen after he and his friend Brandon Currey, 14, finished building a pirate kite.

Community member James Weston, along with the Kiwanis Club, provided kites and brought professional fliers to the event. But even with the poor winds, Weston said: “See all the kids playing out there and being outside even if they can’t get their kites up.

“That’s what it’s all about.”

AS LOS ANGELES COUNCILWOMAN JANICE HAHN RUNS AROUND CAMPAIGNING FOR THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR POST – THREE YEARS BEFORE HER TERM EVEN ENDS – SOME ARE QUIETLY KEEPING AN EYE ON HER COUNCIL SEAT AND ARE CONSIDERING MAKING A GRAB FOR IT

By Diana L. Chapman

In the race for the Lieutenant Governor’s seat – likely to be an intense campaign now that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom decided last week to duke it out with Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn -- a cast of usual – and not so usual -- suspects have quietly eyed the potential opening of Hahn’s council seat.

The Democratic primary on June 8 will determine which candidate – Hahn or Newsom – will run in the Nov. 2 race against one of three Republican candidates who also filed to run for the state office.

If Hahn wins, her Los Angeles council seat, a four-year-term post that can be filled three times by the same person -- will be up for grabs, and a remarkable cast of folks from San Pedro are aiming for it, including a former council member and an information technology manager.

While some say they have no plans to run, such as Mike Lansing, a former Los Angeles Unified school board member, others say they are determined to enter the council race.
Sitting on the fence, several candidates explained they are waiting for what the June election reveals.

However,, the residents who have admitted their interest in the council seat are offering us a sneak preview as to what’s likely to come, since no matter what happens, Hahn’s Los Angeles term ends June 2013.

It was Hahn’s decision to run for the state job that fueled all sorts of speculation about who is shopping around for 15th District council seat. The district spans from San Pedro to Watts and includes, Wilmington, the Harbor Gateway and Harbor City.

Having been horribly disappointed by all our former council members during my time in Los Angeles, here’s what I’ll be looking for from our council candidates:

• --Honesty, being upfront with your constituents and the media
• --Follow through: Making sure the staff follows through with the actions you promised to take, a rarity among our council members
• --Listen and act; don’t wait on your haunches and sit around for someone else to do the job
• --Take care of your community first instead of getting caught up in the glitz, glamour and political forces in the sweeping metropolis of Los Angeles
• --Improve over your predecessors, who failed us routinely in their dealings with the Los Angeles port and city council
• --Bring back the public lands to us, such as the Cabrillo Beach Youth Camp, that has been run by the Boy Scouts for years and has failed to share that facility with the public – even though it’s on public port property.
• --Breathe life into our dead Ports O Call, a sea side retail village, modeled after New England, that has withered on the vine with few open shops and an utter embarrassment to our community.

Done in an alphabetical listing, on the “definite” list are:

• Doug Epperhart, 53, a member of the Coastal Neighborhood Council for eight years, has served as president twice and publishes newspapers and newsletters for many organizations, such as Chamber of Commerces. In the 17 years he’d lived in San Pedro, he has donated a vast pool of time to community service, first serving on the Palisades Residents Association and becoming an ongoing activist.

The underpinnings of his campaign, he said, include that he will bring a message to “the people that they are in charge,” and to transform Los Angeles from being one of the “most business-unfriendly city in America.”

His reasons for running stem from his love for San Pedro and wanting to leave it a better place for his children.
“The philosophy of Fiorello La Guardia that “the essence of municipal government is good housekeeping; to make a city clean and keep it that way” sums up what the office of city council is about,” Epperhart wrote. “Public safety, public works, public service is the job of local government. I believe L.A.’s politicians are too often out of touch with the reality of their constituents’ lives. Being the highest-paid city council doesn’t guarantee quality. I want to change that. The city is on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s the legacy we are left. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

• David Greene, 48, an information technology manager, who has lived in San Pedro for six years, holds the president position for the San Pedro Democratic Club and has since 2007. He’s held a various number of posts over the last several years, currently sitting on the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports and as a board member for the Harry Bridges Institute and an LAUSD human relations commission.

He’s partially running his campaign on acquiring more leverage for Neighborhood Councils including in the areas of land use and planning and “strengthening and invigorating them” with the power they deserve. Also, Greene argues that schools need to become a central focus of our communities to bring on board the next generation of successful workers.
“This is a real time of crisis,” Greene wrote. “The city is broke. And that situation is likely to be with us for years to come. Out of this crisis must come opportunity. There is too much at stake. We need to bring our government closer to the people.
“On paper, the Neighborhood Councils were meant to help do that. In practice, they have been hobbled and ignored, and now are being slashed. We need to develop a greater sense of community throughout the city. Neighborhood Councils do that now and we need them to do more of it, not less.”

• Rudy Svorinich, Jr., 49, former Los Angeles City Councilman, who has lived here nearly his entire life, explained he will run again partly because of the city's financial crisis and to ensure our area receives its fair share from downtown Los Angeles.

"The reason I am running for office again is because I believe what the city needs right now (because of the our current budgetary issues) is a steady and
experienced hand at the wheel," he emailed.

"We need an experienced officeholder that knows how to fight for our communities at City Hall in a tight economy while knowing how to exercise fiscal restraint. Moreover, we need an experienced officeholder who already "knows the ropes" in regard to obtaining our basic city services."

Svorinich – who owns a government affairs/public relations firm in San Pedro - served in office from 1993 to 2001. A few years ago, he moved to Palos Verdes and is now in the process of moving back to San Pedro. Prior to running for office, he owned Industrial Paint Co. in Wilmington and served on both the San Pedro and Wilmington Chambers of Commerce as a vice-president. He also served as president of the Dalmatian-American Club.

According to Svorinich, he was responsible for bringing $1.2 billion in new
programs, facilities and services back to the 15th District during his tenure -
without a tax increase.

On the maybe list:

• John Delgado, a 40-year-old senior account executive for the International Transportation Industry, currently leads as the president of San Pedro’s Central Neighborhood Council. He has sat on the council for the past three years. With a handful of other parents – wanting to rescue ailing baseball fields and ailing facilities in Los Angeles parks – he started and became president of the non-profit San Pedro Youth Sports Association.

The association has since negotiated various deals with Los Angeles to help pay for and repair baseball and other Los Angeles owned recreational facilities.
As a volunteer, he sits on these advisory boards: Leland Park, Leland Street Elementary, Port of Los Angeles and served on the committee studying what should stay at controversial Knoll Hill Park.

In a paid position, Delgado coordinates the sports programs for Bloch Field under the auspices of the YMCA and says, as a father of four, children will always be a part of his council agenda in both organized and unorganized sports.

“My vision is to generate community support from within,” Delgado emailed. “I’ll work to establish relationships between community members and the City of Los
Angeles and focus on team building and trust. I want our communities to take pride and have a sense of identity. This of course will take hard work and again....
trust.”
----------------------------

• John Mavar, 33, a lifetime resident and San Pedro Longshoreman, said: “The city of Los Angeles budget is out of control and this is due poor leadership of past elected officials.

“Our economy always has ups and downs and what we need is strong leadership that will not pass any issues on to the generation of city leaders. Pension and salaries out of control and since planning was not established, layoffs will now happen.”

As a vice president of the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council, Mavar explained he intends to make sure the councils are here to stay even with the budget crises – and keep them moving forward on projects such as enhancing or curbing developments to what streets need paving.

For 15 years, Mavar –who served as the honorary mayor of San Pedro in 2002-2003, currently is a YMCA board member and volunteered for many other non-profits. He also held staff positions with Assembly Member Alan Lowenthal and Mayor Jim Hahn.
------------------------

• Anthony Pirozzi, 44, a Boeing chief engineer who has lived in San Pedro nearly all his life, currently sits on the board of the San Pedro Chamber and is the vice president of Eastview Little League and touts his knowledgeable background in regards to the port of Los Angeles.

“No longer should the inefficiencies of local government be a barrier to local entrepreneurship,” he emailed. “The future of the Harbor Area is well positioned to attract knowledge based jobs in clean technology and research and development. Just as the Port of Los Angeles evolved from the canneries to containers in the 70’s and 80’s it must evolve to clean and efficient port operations.”-

If he runs, his plans include attempting to create more jobs in the Harbor Area through the port and to focus on making the streets safer and clean so residents can be proud of their community.

The city, he said, must lower taxes, fees and licensing costs that make it difficult for small business owners to even open their doors in Los Angeles. With one of the largest ports in the world, its time to move ahead to provide a cleaner environment for residents, which in turn, will aid in the production of more jobs.

• --Anthony Santich, 48, a West Coast Marketing and Sales Manager for Vopak Terminals North America, said the first item on his agenda will to be planning “a community mindset” and making better relations with the port.

“I am the former marketing manager for the Port of Los Angeles so I am very familiar with the business and community issues involving the port,” he said. “I have a good working relationship with the port's staff and management team and I have a thorough understanding of the operations, challenges and economic and environmental impacts of the port.

“ These are two things our community has lacked for many years from the council office,” Santich wrote.

As a former San Pedro Chamber of Commerce member for six years and president in 2006-08, he wants to establish bring everyone to the table to work on collective goals for the community and fight for the fair share of city resources.

• James Weston, 33, an eight year resident who has managed Signs & Graphics Co. worked in San Pedro for 12 years , and plans to do many “feel good” community events for free – such as kite flying. He plans to run if he doesn’t find a council candidate to back and that he believes will do a good job.

In order to see the community unify, he plans to bring together a myriad of groups -- rather than keep them isolated – to improve the region and make the community whole.

“Most important to me, the councilperson has to have a passion for our community and the desire to work hard every day to improve it,” Weston said.
“This position is a great honor and should be a selfless one. This is not negotiable. Any candidate that does not exemplify this trait has to be ruled out no matter the resume they bring.”

He would bring that honor to the district, he said.
Diana can be reached at hartchap@cox.net