February 15, 2018 Page 3
Hawthorne Happenings
News for the City of Good
Neighbors from an Old Guy
named Norb Huber
THE PLAZA MALL
Okay, so the proposed redevelopment
of the very heart of downtown
Hawthorne has fallen through. Our
crown jewel, the Hawthorne Plaza
Mall, has lost its luster and then
some. (Kind of like me, but you have heard
that one already.) So, where do we go from
here? For the good of Hawthorne, the longtime
owner needs to sell it off. If he doesn’t
sell the property outright, the City needs to
use whatever means possible to force him to
relinquish ownership. But, then what? Do we
have any creative ideas for the final solution to
this eye-sore of a problem sitting right smack dab
in the middle of our city? More housing? That
doesn’t seem like the answer. Mr. Gabay was
approved to build 600 housing units a year ago
and that didn’t pan out. How about asking
Elon what he thinks? He is good at solving
the world’s problems. Why not ask him to
help us solve Hawthorne’s problem. I like the
idea of a terminal for the Boring Company’s
traffic solving tunnel system that would whisk
commuters to their jobs underground. I like the
idea of building a practice facility for both the
Rams and the Chargers to use really close to
their future home stadium. I’m not so keen on
building thousands of small cottages for the LA
County homeless population to call home even
if we are the city of good neighbors. That would
displace all of the feral cats that have called
the site home for close to 20 years. Is the site
large enough for SpaceX to recover their spent
rockets? Then they wouldn’t have to transport
them very far to recycle them. Maybe a tourist
attraction will work. Maybe we should talk to
Disney about a park and fly to Disneyland to
shuttle tourists there from LAX since parking
seems like a problem out in the happiest and
most expensive place on earth. Every major city
has an extra tall tower or building that people
pay $30 a pop to go to the top of to get a 360
degree view of the city. Let’s build a tower on
the boulevard, at the very least it would keep
the LAX jets from flying over our houses in
the middle of the night. How about a national
aerospace museum on the west coast since the
roots of aerospace run deep here? Okay, I will
stop. We have to think outside of the box. We
should call a meeting over at the LA Ale Works
brewery and have some cold ones. There is
absolutely nothing that cannot be solved over
a cold one or two. Now there is an idea, let’s
open up the world’s largest craft brewery in the
world at the mall site. It’s wouldn’t be Miller
Time it could be Hawthorne Time.
LIFE AND DEATH
We received word this week that two longtime
residents of Hawthorne have passed away
recently. Eleanor Escalante and Bill Shultz
both were very involved in the Hawthorne
community. Eleanor was a teacher, principal
of Yukon Intermediate School, and
then after retiring served as a school
board member with the Hawthorne
School District. Bill was a Class
of ’63 grad of Hawthorne High
School and outstanding baseball
player. He volunteered many
hours to help with the local youth
baseball leagues and stayed active
with the Historical Society. He has
many friends who will sorely miss him. Both
of these fine people were neighbors of mine in
the Ramona Tract, the best part of Hawthorne.
HAWTHORNE KIWANIS CLUB
SPECIAL GUEST DAY
Want to get involved with your community
and help make Hawthorne a better place to live
and work? The Kiwanis Club of Hawthorne is
having a Special Guest Day luncheon on Friday,
March 2nd starting at 12 noon at the Hawthorne
Memorial Center. I am an honorary member of
this club and I can say that membership is full
of fun, service and great comradery with others
who share my passion for making Hawthorne
better. Interested in attending? Contact Don
Harris at 310-293-6580 or hollyglendon@
sbcglobal.net. The special luncheon is an
invitation to potential members who may wish
to join the club.
HAWTHORNE’S “HOMETOWN
PANCAKE BREAKFAST”
Mark your calendars. Tell your cell phone to
send you a reminder. Make a point to get out of
bed early and come on over to the Hawthorne
Museum on St. Patrick’s Day morning, Saturday,
March 17 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11
a.m. The Hawthorne Historical Society will be
holding our 4th Annual Hawthorne Hometown
Pancake Breakfast. How much better can it get
than hot cakes, bacon, sausage, orange juice and
coffee? Bring your friends and family. The price
is right, $5 is all that you pay. After having a
great breakfast you can enjoy all of those green
cold ones in celebration of our Irish heritage.
I was wondering the other day why Germans
don’t have a holiday designated in America to
celebrate their lineage. Cinco de Mayo is for
Mexican culture, African-Americans have MLKJ
Day, there is a Chinese New Year, but I guess
the closest thing we have for Germans is the
entire month of October being a “fest”. I have
to admit that cold ones for a month is pretty
good. So there, I don’t feel so left out. My
name, Norbert Huber is pretty Germanic. The
German pronunciation of Huber is “Uber”. Just
don’t call me if you need a ride, I’m sure you
can understand why, especially if it’s October.
“STATE OF THE CITY”LUNCHEON
Mayor Alex Vargas promises to keep his
speech shorter than President Trump when he
delivers his annual “State of the City” address
on Wednesday, March 21st over at the Memorial
Center. Tickets to the luncheon are $50 per
person and can be obtained by calling the
Chamber of Commerce office. – I love to hear
from my readers. – email me – norbhuber@
gmail.com •
Wiseburn School Board Narrows Search
for Superintendent, Contemplates Bond
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening’s 90-minute open
meeting of the Wiseburn School Board revolved
around the only special presentation on the
truncated agenda – discussion of a possible
bond measure that could face voters on the
June 5 ballot. The presentation came courtesy
of representatives of the research firm EMC
Research, based in Oakland; and East Shore
Consulting, also based in Oakland, which
specializes in polling, focus groups and public
opinion research consulting.
Prior to the bond presentation, the assembled
board members met in closed session to winnow
down the number of applicants to take over the
Wiseburn Unified School District superintendent
reins from Tom Johnstone, who announced his
plans to retire at the end of the school year.
Over 40 candidates expressed interest in
the position, with 28 applications received.
Although the board members Thursday evening
did not divulge how many of the applicants
made the final cut, the winners will take part
in face-to face interviews on the Feb. 23-24
weekend.
EMC Vice President Jessica Polsky and East
Shore’s Michael Riemenschneider made the
45-minute presentation (and answer session) on
the results of a survey they recently completed
of likely voters in the district and the feasibility
of getting a $39 million school bond passed
when the voters go to the polls on June 5.
The telephone/Web hybrid survey conducted
Jan. 18-30 included 220 interviews. Among
the key findings, respondents have positive
opinions of Wiseburn Unified and Da Vinci
schools and give the District high ratings. A
majority of the respondents trust the District
to properly manage tax dollars. Initial support
for a bond measure is at 59 percent, which is
four points above the 55 percent threshold for
passage. High priorities include maintaining
STEM classrooms/labs and updating technology,
keeping property values strong, and continuing
citizen oversight of bond spending.
The survey showed Wiseburn’s ratings as
very positive, especially regarding the quality
of buildings and grounds as well as the quality
of education. Seventy-six percent of those
polled feel that overall the District is doing
an “excellent or good” job.
Riemenschneider, noting the positive
responses, posited that now is the time to take
advantage of public relations opportunities
in spreading the word to voters. Nearly twothirds
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of the respondents trust the District to
properly manage tax dollars and are willing to
tax themselves to maintain top-notch schools,
but there is a substantial anti-tax sentiment.
Fifty-three percent of those polled strongly
or somewhat agree that they are generally
opposed to property tax increases, regardless
of the reason for the increase.
The proposed measure to provide innovative
K-12 classrooms; 21st century technology,
upgraded facilities to prepare students for
college/careers; new athletic facilities; solar
panels to reduce costs; and the ability to
continue improving school facilities is on the
table. Despite the early 59 percent approval rate
for the potential bond, it also has the caveat of
lower-propensity voters included in the polling.
This means that those respondents answered
the poll questions, but might not actually vote.
While younger voters are “highly supportive,”
less than half of those who are Republicans
and voters between 50 and 64 would vote yes
on the measure. More than seven in 10 renters
said they would support the bond, while parents
polled a 71 percent approval rate.
Among the bond components included in
the outreach to June 5 voters were to maintain
K-12 STEAM classrooms and labs, and to keep
schools well-maintained. Those items were
deemed top priorities. Providing new athletic
fields and solar panels, not so much.
Support for four previous bond measures
in Wiseburn was higher than the numbers
shown in the current polling. The consultants
concluded that while passage of another bond
measure appears feasible, it may be more
difficult than it has been in the past given the
concern that there are already too many taxes.
They noted that turnout in a June election may
have a significant impact since lower-propensity
voters are substantially more supportive of
the possible bond measure. An independently
funded campaign is recommended to ensure
voters understand the benefits of strengthening
local schools.
Not much occurred with the rest of the meeting
agenda, though the new timeline for Phase 2
of the Wiseburn construction project has been
moved down the road to Sept. 12, according
to Johnstone. Director of Facilities Planning
Vince Madsen emailed, “We are starting to
get good traction on the work at the aquatics
center now that we have resolved most of the
soil challenges on site, which is our Phase 2
project. With all of the challenges we have
had in both phases of the project, we are still
working within the original budget funds and
are working very hard with the design and
construction teams to keep us on budget. Even
though we have had change orders going to the
board monthly, we have not gone over budget
yet. The approvals the board have taken action
on recently are simply reallocating our already
approved contingency funds to our individual
trade contractors as needed. I am very proud
at where we are with this very unique and
challenging high school project and how we
have managed the problems as a collaborative
team and managed the originally allocated funds.
We are not out of the woods on budget yet,
but I am still very hopeful that at the end of
the day we can keep the overall $160 million
cost for this state-of-the-art high school under
control and have less than a 1 percent budget
increase when we are completed.” •
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