Monday, December 7, 1998
Community Briefs
Westwood Village expands holiday lights
Westwood Village’s holiday lights have gone up, and they’re
bigger and more numerous than before. Six 70-foot archways of
lighted decorations have been strung along three blocks of Wilshire
Boulevard, between Veteran and Malcolm avenues as a holiday gateway
to the Village.
In addition, there are white twinkle lights placed in trees
along the center divider of Westwood Blvd, and in the palm trees on
the Kinross and Westwood pedestrian plazas.
Holiday banners have been installed on about 130 light poles
throughout Westwood Village, including the Westwood Boulevard
median and the 28 historic lamp posts on Broxton Avenue.
"This will be a pivotal year for us in developing our long-term
holiday decoration program," said Kam Hekmat, chairman of the
Westwood Village Community Alliance. "Providing a lovely and
colorful atmosphere … is part of the rebuilding of Westwood
Village."
Glendon Manor declared historical, avoids destruction
A 42-unit apartment building on Glendon Avenue has been declared
eligible for listing on the California Register of Historical
Resources.
The building, which is owned by developer Ira Smedra, was slated
for destruction to make way for the developer’s much opposed
Village Center Westwood project.
The building was nominated by Save Westwood Village, which has
been a longtime opponent of Smedra’s project. The group was
supported by various other local groups, including the Westwood
Homeowners Association and Friends of Westwood, as well as local
state Senator Tom Hayden.
"We looked at the building and the history of the building and
felt it was a definite candidate for historic preservation," said
Sandy Brown, Hayden’s deputy chief of staff.
The four-story building was built in 1929, making it one of only
12 remaining original buildings in the Village.
Because of the building’s new status, Smedra’s plans to demolish
it must now be put on hold for several months because of the
paperwork involved in demolishing a historically designated
building.
Climate changes could cause more wildfires
Against the backdrop of concerns raised in the aftermath of this
year’s El Nino weather anomaly, researchers with the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) have released the first-ever analysis of the
potential effect of global climate change on wildfires in
California.
"In most cases, climate change would lead to dramatic increases
in both the annual area burned by California wildfires and the
number of potentially catastrophic fires – doubling these losses in
some regions," the researchers conclude. "These changes would occur
despite enhanced deployment of fire suppression resources, implying
that climactic change could precipitate an increase in both fire
suppression costs and economic losses due to wildfires."
Commenting on the study, U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson
said, "This study is indicative of the mounting evidence that the
potential effects of climate change can be wide-ranging and very
costly."
Other parts of the country may as vulnerable as California,
according to Margaret Torn of Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences
Division, one of the three scientists who conducted the study. "Our
analysis shows how big an impact climate change can have, and
suggests that future climactic conditions in other parts of the
United States warrant concern and study," she said.
The other scientists who conducted this study were Evan Mills,
with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, and
Jeremy Fried, an associate professor of forestry at Michigan State
University. The study was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
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