We live in a time where acts that were once considered harmless and innocent, such as photographing children at play, are now judged by some to be prurient and perverted. The same is true now for shooting pictures in certain public locations.

Photographing people in public has been part of the photographer’s arsenal for over 125 years. The “terrorism” bug that has been up this nation’s ass since 9/11 has provided an excuse to employ thousands of security badge wearing goons to enforce a sense of security in every location from public libraries to train stations. Most of these very bored officers have nothing to do all day, and they seem to relish the excitement of exerting their authority and making innocent people feel powerless. In the end, nobody is actually any safer, and our civil liberties and right to freely roam and create pictures is hampered and harassed.

In reality, photography is one of the best ways to defuse terror because it opens up understanding and communications between people all over the world. Flickr is where the Israeli photographer befriends the Pakistani photographer. Photography only puts fear at risk.

We finally came around, after ten years, to correct an irrigation defect on our property.

One side of the driveway has never had working sprinklers. When our 100-year-old Oak tree fell down and collapsed two months ago, it seemed to open up a new sense of possibility in how the front yard might look. But we needed water for planting.

Norberto Miguel offered the most economical estimate. He started work today, and surprisingly, he worked alone.

This was a dirty, wet, muddy, filthy, sweaty, exhausting job of shoveling, digging, and trenching. Grabbing with one hand, PVC piping, and attaching it to a garden hose, he threaded the pipe underneath the 20-foot wide concrete driveway and basically soldered the plastic pipes into one connected and fused line. He laid out sprinklers and ripped up ornamental grasses that had stood in the way of the new plan.

Tomorrow, he will return to replace aging valves and install new siphons in place of those that had leaked water.

He did all this work smiling, covered in dirt. His jeans, hands and face were soaked and stained in mud and dust. He left in moonlit darkness.

Travel around Los Angeles these days, and you might come in contact with those sullen, skinny, banana-spined brats who work in boutiques on Abbot Kinney or sit in coffeehouses twittering texts all day. And then you encounter Spanish-speaking gardeners, day laborers, carpenters, painters and tree trimmers who work like slaves, seven days a week.

Can you guess who are the happiest and least complaining?

Historic Home Demoltion., originally uploaded by Here in Van Nuys.

On June 20, 2007, the Daily News printed an article about the efforts of preservationists to save the oldest home in Van Nuys from destruction.

On the morning of June 21, 2007 I went to the site of the Whisett Home to take photos and found that a bulldozer had already done its work.

Here is an interesting comment I received today on this blog from the developer. The spelling is his:

“That is not true. Merabi & Sons was waiting for the permit to built 18 units APT building, with three affordable units for the elderly people.
The comment the writer has made on the above artic about Merabi and sons is unfair.We help comminutes, and bring prosperity to Van Nuys we would never abandon it .”

Kami A. Merabi

Mad Men’s Don Draper and Suzanne Farrell
Photo courtesy of AMC

A story in the NY Times today reports that British courts sentenced a young woman to prison for texting while driving, an act that unintentionally caused the death of another young woman, whose car had broken down by the side of the road.

Driving in Los Angeles, I am acutely aware of how many drivers continue to talk on hand-held phones and may also be texting. On the freeway, I estimate about 1 out of 2 are talking.

Dazed and Confused on Magnolia

The other day, I was driving west on Magnolia near Van Nuys Boulevard. A woman in an SUV, with a car full of dogs, was plodding along in the right lane, at about 20 MPH. As I passed her, I could see she was texting.

When my car reached the red light at Van Nuys Boulevard, I tried a little experiment with the SUV texting woman behind me.

I did not accelerate when the light turned green. She was right behind me, and completely absorbed in her texting. In my rear view mirror, I watched as this utterly self-absorbed driver did not honk or care that the light had turned green. Her only reference as to whether it was time to accelerate was my bumper. She had no compelling need to drive, because she was texting.

For years, I have wondered why the LAPD allows drivers to speed through red lights. The only intersection where the law is enforced is at Van Nuys Boulevard and Burbank, and the mustached motorcycle cop who writes tickets here, at the least crowded time of day, has an easy job, pulling over motorists who make a right turn on red without stopping. (I was one of these last year). It is an easy way to boost revenue. But in terms of danger, it does not measure up with the 60 MPH red light runners who run through Chandler at Woodman.

I’m still waiting for the real enforcement of the motoring laws. We all drive in safer cars these days, but in terms of our safety, it is as dangerous on the roads now as it was when a gin soaked Don Draper got into his ’62 Cadillac and headed up the Taconic State Parkway.

Photo Credit: http://www.you-are-here.com/building/fire_department.html

A burning desire to save Van Nuys’ Station 39

Los Angeles’ oldest operating fire station is outmoded for today’s equipment and needs, officials say. Its fans seek to rescue the classy, Depression-era building.

By Catherine Saillant

October 27, 2009

Station 39 is cramped and outdated. It’s a tight squeeze getting the trucks in, and there’s not enough room for the larger rescue ambulances that have become standard over the decades. There isn’t any on-site parking, forcing firefighters to walk three blocks from another city lot.

But the firefighters at the oldest operating station in Los Angeles could soon be moving to new digs, sparking concern about what will happen to the Depression-era building in Van Nuys and raising questions over whether a new location is even needed.

Critics worry that the edifice, built as a public works project in 1939 and now adding a touch of elegance in an otherwise tired neighborhood, could wind up as little-used business offices, another drug rehab facility or — even worse — torn down.

Ron Hay, who is on the local neighborhood council, wonders whether it doesn’t make more sense to modernize and enlarge the station rather than relocate it.

“It’s a densely populated area. There are a lot of apartments,” Hay said of Station 39’s current location. “When you get a lot of people packed in and sleeping together, there is always the possibility of increased incendiary events.”

Dr. Robert Fields, whose dental office has operated half a block from the station for 38 years, thinks Van Nuys has grown so much that Station 39 should stay put and another firehouse should be added somewhere else.

“We’ve gotten to the point where we need a second location,” Fields said.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials say relocation is necessary because Station 39 is too small and outdated to accommodate modern firefighting equipment and resources. An internal analysis of the department’s aging firehouses placed it at the top of the list for replacement.

Services to the community would be enhanced by a move, fire officials say, because a larger building would allow the station to expand its emergency medical response. The current quarters on busy Sylvan Street sometimes make it difficult for trucks just to get in and out.

“It’s the oldest operating station in the city,” said Battalion Chief Jose Cronenbold, who oversees department facilities. “It’s too cramped for the apparatus there.”

Across the street from another Valley landmark, the Art Deco-style Valley Municipal Building, Station 39 cuts a graceful profile on a street otherwise filled with bail bond offices, insurance outlets and low-budget attorneys’ offices.

From the start, it was a busy station. During its dedication July 29, 1939, fire wagons screamed out of the building three times to put out flames, according to an account in the Los Angeles Times.

A city advisory committee last summer recommended that the station be moved to a new building to provide needed space for emergency medical squads, more parking for firefighters and upgraded truck bays, storage and kitchen facilities.

“It’s operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That takes a toll on infrastructure that’s already old,” Cronenbold said. “You’ve got 14 to 16 guys in there every single day.”

Councilman Tony Cardenas said he expected the mayor and the City Council to authorize a new station based on the fire committee’s recommendation. The cost of the project, estimated at $37.1 million, would come out of the Proposition F fire facilities bond issue approved by voters in 1998.

Cardenas said fire officials are looking for land close to Station 39’s current location near the Civic Center. Land that faces Van Nuys Boulevard would be ideal, he said, because trucks could easily pull in and out of traffic.

“We have some car lots within two to three blocks that are vacant,” Cardenas said. “There are a lot of buildings that are for lease. There is more opportunity today because of the economy.”

The city has replaced 19 other fire stations using bond money but had enough cash and interest left to build one more, the councilman said.

“We have the bond funds and the ability to improve the station, and it’s the lucky winner,” Cardenas said.

Residents say that if Station 39 does move, the city should preserve the building and perhaps convert it into a restaurant, or even a museum. Joel Horowitz, whose family has run a bail bond operation next to the firehouse for 60 years, thinks a Valley museum would be great.

Valley College and Cal State Northridge have collections of historical photographs and documents, but there is no central location where visitors can learn about the Valley’s agricultural past, its epic battles over water rights and its distinction as the nation’s first hub of suburban living, he said.

“We need our own cultural identity,” said Horowitz, whose shop includes large black-and-white historical photographs of the fire station, the municipal building and his bail bond business.

Cardenas, a former real estate broker, said the city probably would put conditions on the original property to ensure that its historical value is not destroyed. After a new station is built, in about two years, the old building would be declared surplus property by the city.

The city could then convert it into public offices or some other public facility. Or it could opt to sell the property to a third party, Cardenas said. Other retired firehouses have successfully been converted into restaurants and offices while preserving historical character, he noted.

Fields, the dentist, is among the local residents who say preservation is vital.

“It’s something we really can’t replace,” said Fields, who brought his children, and now brings his grandkids, to the station open house each year. “It would be very sad to lose a lovely old building to something that is cold and austere.”

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

People are being shot and killed all around this city and here in Van Nuys, where three fatal shootings in the last month are putting death to the lie that crime in down in Los Angeles.

This is a serious illness, one that boggles my mind. How can we speak of spending billions to police Afghanistan and Iraq while people are being randomly killed by domestic terror here in California?

Where is outcry for the loss of human life? Where is the humanity of Los Angeles?

Man Killed in Van Nuys Shooting

Updated: Friday, 23 Oct 2009, 6:02 PM PDT
Published : Friday, 23 Oct 2009, 5:37 PM PDT
Posted by: Tony Spearman

Van Nuys (myFOXla.com) – One male was fatally shot in Van Nuys on Friday. The shooting was reported at 3:50 p.m. in the 15400 block of Vanowen Street, near Sepulveda Boulevard, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police were looking for two suspects described only as males between 17 and 20 years old, she said.

The motive for the shooting was unknown.

Official looking letter from the 'Homeowner Property Tax Review Board'

Opening one’s mail, it seems, is as hazardous and risky as eating room-temperture chicken salad left out all day on the kitchen counter in 100 degree weather.

Today, a very official looking letter arrived from the “Homeowner Property Tax Review Board” which offers, for only $189, to submit to the County Tax Assessor’s office an application to reduce one’s property taxes.

A search on Google with the title, “HOMEOWNER PROPERTY TAX REVIEW BOARD” turns up articles detailing a scam that has appeared in cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. “BBB [Better Business Bureau] advises consumers not to send checks, cash, credit card or bank account information to an unknown solicitor.”

Now if we could only do something about that “scam” involving a company called AT&T: it promises $79.00 a month wireless service which ends up costing $145.00 a month.

Dad in hospital., originally uploaded by Here in Van Nuys.

Three years ago, October 13, 2006, I was on a plane traveling from Los Angeles to New Jersey to see my father and mother.

My father, at that time, was battling a neurological illness that was slowly robbing him of his ability to speak and walk.

There was, and is, no cure. And it eventually killed him.

But that October, back east, there was a slight glimmer of pharmaceutical hope: some drug that was given to Parkinson’s patients seemed to help my father. He was on it for a few weeks, progressing. And then he was not. One morning, he suddenly went into a stroke like condition and then into the hospital.

I took the red-eye the night of October 12th, and before I boarded the plane at LAX, my brother Rick sent me a text and said that his wife, my sister-in-law Pri, was giving birth. She went into labor that same night, the night I was on the plane traveling back east, back in time, back to Ridgewood and Woodcliff Lake and all those towns in Bergen County where my parents had lived since 1979.

When I landed around 6am at Newark, a car picked me up and took me directly to Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. I found my mother sitting next to my father, who was awake and resting in a room, in a bed, next to a north-facing window.

I broke down and cried and I think all of us were crying. I was so tired, and so happy to see my father alive, even as I was ripped up about his weakened condition.

I had just bought my first camera, a Nikon D70. I picked it up and shot a second of my father’s life in that weak and delicate sunlight that barely illuminated the room.

That he left this hospital within a few days was miraculous. Back at home, he had the after effects of the episode, and at times his hands would tremble like a post-earthquake after shock. Yet he would look down at his shaking with dispassionate objectivity and a faint smile.

In Los Angeles, my nephew Ravi entered the world and there was joy and new life on the other coast. But that October is indelibly marked on my calendar as a season of impending grief and the realization that an epoch and life and existence would end quite soon.

One Sunday, we took a car ride with my father, who could not walk, but used the walker and a portable wheel-chair. We drove across the Tappan Zee to Armonk and stopped for lunch in a town filled with pumpkins, white houses and children on bicycles.

Then we drove up some wooded road, lined with stone-walls, passing horse farms and parkland preserves. We were heading up to see where Bill and Hillary Clinton lived, in Westchester County, just as we once had stalked Nixon in Saddle River, NJ.

I apologize to Los Angeles, where I now make my home, but despite the efforts of “Mad Men” to create a fictional pathology of life in the suburbs on New York, there is still a sublime and natural beauty there, historic and meaningful towns and an un-crowdedness that soothes souls in pain. When you are sad back there, you can take a drive in the country past reservoirs, farms and fields. And that is just what we did that Sunday afternoon.

Those days, spent in autumn with my late father, were among the most meaningful of my life. I meant something to him and I will never ever have the time to spend with a living father again.