Stanley Bard, long time proprietor of the Bohemian Chelsea Hotel and a “Robin Hood” of innkeepers, dies at 82 in Florida
Arthur Miller at left, Arnold Weinstein center, and Stanley Bard at right
in photo by Rita Barros.
By Mary Reinholz
The old red brick building on the west side of downtown Manhattan was once home to luminaries like Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Joni Mitchell and any number of wannabes and miscreants who needed an affordable place to crash. This one time crucible of creativity is nearly empty now, a ghostly construction site as renovations at the world famous Chelsea Hotel drag on.
All the paintings and sculpture that once hung on the lobby walls or dangled from the ceiling, many donated by grateful residents in lieu of back rent, were put in storage years ago or reportedly sold after Stanley Bard, the Chelsea’s late long time proprietor, was ousted in 2007 from his position as manager and majority owner by the hotel’s board of directors. I knew Bard back in the day and believe that coup broke his heart. Read more
IT’S TIME FOR PACIFIC PALISADES TO BUILD ITS OWN WALL
Mayor Kevin Nealon: An accomplished crime fighter, but were his election results tainted?
By BOB VICKREY
After reading the latest crime report in our local paper, I’m calling upon the citizens of Pacific Palisades to come together and build a wall around our town.
Just the other day I read that two CD’s were stolen from a vehicle parked along Swarthmore Avenue. And twice last week my newspaper went missing from my driveway. This rampant crime wave is out of control and must be stopped before it gets even worse.
You may have noticed that we’ve been attracting a bad element recently from Santa Monica and Brentwood—not to mention the celebrity types from Malibu that are crossing our border. Many of these people are known stockbrokers, accountants, entertainment lawyers—and even worse!
I’m sure there are some good people from these places but they are not sending their best. Read more
MY PAL DIVAD SREGDOR
David Rodgers
By Tony Cloud
(Editors note: The writer remembers his boyhood friend David Rodgers here in this short essay. I’ve known Tony Cloud since we were young kids, so you can imagine my pleasant surprise in recently discovering his creative and fresh voice as a storyteller. You will notice no explanation is offered for the reversal of letters in the title—a subtle nod to their boyhood secret code of friendship.—Bob Vickrey)
Yep, Ole Divad was something special.
An old friend from way back in the Cub Scout days, he was.
Karen and I drove to Lake Charles to witness his hitching when we were expecting our first daughter fairly quickly
Sure was hoping all would work out and we could get back across the Sabine in time so I wouldn’t have to break the news later to her that she was a “coon-ass” by birth. Read more
Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative Holds Conference, Issues One-Year Progress Report
Leslie Evans
In February 2016 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted a 47-point strategy to combat homelessness under the title the Homeless Initiative. One year later, on February 8, 2017, they sponsored the First Annual Homeless Initiative Conference. Little reported (no article in the LA Times), almost 500 civic leaders gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for an all-day session.
Opening speakers included County Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Janice Hahn and the mayors of Inglewood and Whittier. Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke later in the program. There was an extensive review of the year’s progress, chaired by Phil Ansell, Director of the Homeless Initiative. Presenters were from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the County Housing Authority and Department of Mental Health, and the Sheriff’s Department. Read more
LUNCH CLUB WELCOMES A NEW MEMBER
All photos by Barry Stein.
By Bob Vickrey
In the last couple of years since our monthly lunch club began visiting some of Southern California’s most famous and historic restaurants, we’ve been pressured by many friends who have expressed strong interest in joining our four-man group.
We have managed to resist until now, but we finally realized that four senior citizens like ourselves could use someone with a good memory. Sometimes it takes all four of us to tell a story and recall all the events that took place. I think we may have found that person.
Her name is Siri. She is courteous. She’s quiet. She doesn’t speak unless spoken to, and she doesn’t take up much space at the table. You may know her as the voice of the Google app on your cell phone. Siri has become an important member of our team recently and has been an invaluable resource as we each struggle to remember a fact that once came to mind so easily. Read more
Honey on the road to San Francisco with some of the Spanish explorers
NOTES FROM ABOVE GROUND
By Honey van Blossom
(Honey is a Belgian Marxist former strip-tease artiste)
"Cities of the Golden Gate," Raymond Dabb Yelland, 1893. Most illustrations can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Prologue to the story of the Spanish exploration and settlement of California
Seasonal migrations of animals now extinct in California probably created the roads the native people used before the Spanish land exploration of California. “The heyday of giant mammals in North America was the middle and late Pleistocene, an epoch that started 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago, around the time the Earth was thawing out from the Ice Age. The gigantic beasts, which migrated from Asia across a now-vanished land bridge called Beringia, are known as Rancholabrean megafauna, after the famous La Brea tar pits in downtown Los Angeles — the graveyard of thousands of saber-toothed tigers, giant bison and other extinct animals.”[1]
The seasonal migrations of the large mammals may have created the substantial roads used by the indigenous people after their arrival.[2]
Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein argue that Paleoindian over-hunting led to the extinction of the megafauna.[3] Others argue that climate change was responsible for mammoth and mastodon extinctions. As the last major glaciation ended around 12,000 years ago, climate warmed too quickly for the megafauna to adapt.
