Lawndale Tribune AND lAwNDAle News The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - March 24, 2016 “The Wizard of Oz” Delights For the past 10 years, the Lawndale Elementary School District (LESD) has enjoyed a ten-year partnership with P.S. Arts, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing arts education to underserved public schools and communities. Audiences were delighted to view the most recent collaboration between LESD and P.S. Arts, a reinterpretation of the classic “The Wizard of Oz”. Photo by Enrique Pivaral “I’ve enjoyed hearing the positive things that are happening in the city, but reality is this [city] has far more crime than any other city in the South Bay.” Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................6 Classifieds............................3 Food.......................................5 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................2, 6-7 Looking Up...........................4 Police Reports.....................3 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Hawthorne Residents Express Concern on Crime and Proposed City Developments at Council Meeting By Derrick Deane “There were a lot of car burglaries, just a Crime and proposed commercial lot of different things and I don’t come from developments took center stage at Tuesday’s that environment and I didn’t want it anywhere Hawthorne City Council meeting. near me so we did start a neighborhood watch Early on in the meeting, residents addressed group,” Cannelli said. the council to discuss criminal activity in their Cannelli asked the council in light of Prop neighborhoods. 47 and AB 109, two state legislative measures “I’m thankful to the Hawthorne Police that would ease sentencing time for convicts, Department for cleaning up 129th Street. if the Council was doing anything to increase When I initially moved in there was open the police force. drug deals, drug usage, and open containers,” Dolores Ramos Castianos said before telling the council about a neighbor who lives in a storage unit. Castianos said that the black Jamaican male brings back groceries and women while homeless males have keys to the storage unit. “Code enforcement has been called out and management just gives me attitude,” Castianos said. “No one cares.” Castianos said that the male threatened to “We have less police than Manhattan kill her after she called the police to which Beach and we are a far more crime-ridden she said, “then it’s my time to die, but I’ll city,” Cannelli said. “I’ve enjoyed hearing the never stop reporting the wrong that they do.” positive things that are happening in the city, She added a separate incident in which her but reality is this [city] has far more crime driveway was blocked. Castianos was told to than any other city in the South Bay.” “give the illegally parked driver a little more “I think we’re being soft on crime when time.” Three hours later, the car was moved it comes to sentencing,” Mayor Vargas said from driveway. who directed Police Chief Robert Fager to “Why should I be inconvenienced? If I look in to what the city was doing to submit don’t pay my rent, would the owners say, legislation to oppose Prop 47 and AB 109. ‘Take all the time you want?’ No, I’d be The other major topic of the evening evicted,” Castianos said. “I have to tolerate centered on the continuing development of crackheads, alcoholics, drug dealers, drug the Hawthorne Mall area. Residents addressed users, but as long as nobody cares, where the Council to express their concerns with the does that leave me?” proposed project that was announced at the “People, if you want to call them that, are previous Council meeting. the reason certain parts of the city are called “When we talk about the mall, we have to ghetto,” Castianos added. “I will continue look back at our city’s history,” resident James through my efforts to keep my street decent Raddick said. “When we had Northrop, we but a little enforcement would be nice.” said, ‘We have to build apartments,’ because of One Hawthorne resident, Joy Cannelli, Northrop employees. Northrop left, apartments started a neighborhood watch program stayed. The mall, we say, ‘We have to build after crime began to creep closer to her townhouses and condos for Space X.’ What neighborhood. happens when Space X moves?” Raddick also expressed concern about lowincome high-density housing being proposed along Rosecrans adding that, “Hawthorne is the fifth poorest city in the area. If we keep building, we will become number one in something and that is the poorest.” Raddick continued by urging the Council to stop building low-income housing in the city stating that, “when big businesses want to open in our city they look at the income of the community. We have to really look at what we’re building and where we’re going to go. Is this Council going to be the one that drives us into the ground?” While the Council later touted the various new restaurants opening up in the city, Mayor Alex Vargas addressed resident’s concerns about proposed developments in the city. “What we’re trying to do is not what was happening in the 60s and 70s when people who had real estate businesses sat up here and zoned for condominiums, without consideration of city services,” Vargas said. “Whatever future developments that take place in the city are intelligent and take the city in a positive direction. Our first priority is to the residents, not the developers. If it’s a good idea, we’ll allow it.” He continued using an analogy to describe development plans that seemed luxurious and wonderful on paper but in reality didn’t make much sense for the city. “People put this notion out there that it’s going to be great, but if you put a diamond in a pile of rocks, is it going to make it worth more? We are the first line of defense for the city,” Vargas said. Later in the evening, City Attorney Russell Miyahara was confirmed by the council for another term of employment. The meeting ended with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Brussels terrorist attack that happened earlier that day. “May God bless their souls,” Vargas said as he closed the meeting. • Friday Mostly Sunny 66˚/55˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 70˚/57˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 68˚/56˚
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