It's Another Honor For George Barris

By Neil Rubenstein

Observer Columnist

One recipient of the Southern California Motion Picture Council’s 79th Annual Founders Day Golden Halo Award was Culver City Car Show’s “Mr. Good Guy” George Barris of Batmobile fame.

Oh, my . . . My favorite steak house (when I was eating meat), the Buggy Whip on La Tijera Blvd in Westchester, has closed and the site will probably be apartments soon. One plan calls for 94 units and the most recent proposal calls for 39 studios, 45 one-bedroom, and 10 two-bedroom units.

Are you one of the 25,000 who are appealing their Los Angeles County property tax assessment? Hard to believe some have been waiting as long as three years, but help could be on the way. The new Assessor, Jeff Prang, is asking the Board of Supervisors for an additional $144 million to hire more people. Now that makes sense, but why so much money?

By the way, I am a proud veteran and my oath of enlistment has no expiration date. The Jewish War Veterans meets on the first Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Elks Lodge, 11160 Washington Place, Culver City (free parking in rear).

Theodorsia and I attended the 54th Assembly District Democratic Club Annual Awards Luncheon on Sunday, June 7 at the Proud Bird Restaurant in Los Angeles. Almost 200 people witnessed the much deserved awards bestowed upon the Honorable James Butts, Mayor of Inglewood; the Honorable Dr. Saundra W. Davis, former President, Culver City Board of Education and community advocate; and Ms. Olivia Mitchell, Assistant Chief Grants Administrator for the City of Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department. The Susan B. Locker Volunteer Award was presented to Commissioner Gail A. Willis, South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission.

54th District Chair Rosa Russell did her usual fantastic job along with both Master of Ceremonies Councilmember and former Mayor, Meghan Sahli-Wells, and Culver City Councilmember Jim Clarke.

Addressing the club were Congresswomen Karen Bass and Diane Watson, California State Treasurer John Chang and, representing our Assembly member, the Honorable Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, was the very capable and knowledgeable Maya Douglas who gave a brief but thorough rundown on four bills in the Assembly. Culver City Democratic Club Executive Board member and membership chair Diane Rosenberg was there with her husband, Herb. Herb was appointed by the Council to the Los Angeles International Airport Advisory Committee.

Have you heard about the Elio? The car is built in a former General Motors plant in Shreveport, LA. It will cost about $7,000, has three doors, gets 84 miles to the gallon, will get up to 100 miles per hour, and has standard air conditioning, power windows and AM/FM radio. The company hopes to make over 200,000 cars by the fall of 2016.

Have you ever awakened one morning and said to yourself, “I haven’t seen so and so in the longest”? Recently driving by the Culver City Senior Center I realized that a good buddy was AWOL. For years Les Silverstein was a fixture doing the hard tedious jobs that made the system work for the majority. Les, Barbara’s husband, has a sense of humor that appeals to me – a big smile behind a dry wit. No matter how busy I was, and I can really get busy, I always had time to hear about the military from another veteran. Les, Barbara, Susan and Charles are just the very best.

In 1962 President Kennedy started the memorial celebration to honor those police officers who died in the line of duty. Six from the Culver City police ranks went to Washington, D.C. on May 15 and took part in honoring those 117 fallen heroes. Society needs good, honest decent cops . . .

I am soooo happy to learn about recent developments in Glendale. The Glendale Police Department spent almost $100,000 on 20 handheld machines that will speed up writing traffic tickets. A lot of time will be saved because officers will no longer have to manually enter tickets into police department records. Now it’s swipe the driver’s license, punch a few buttons and take off looking for another lawbreaker.

The Justice Department secretly kept a database of Americans calling foreign countries for more than 10 years according to a new court filing and officials familiar with the program.

Tiger Woods, the man who had many of us watching golf on television, had a disappointing tournament. The greatest pro in my senior years, a person who won 79 career victories including 14 major championships, fizzled as he was the last to make the cut with a 71.

Troy Aikman, an All-American at UCLA who spent 12 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, winning three Super Bowls and making six Pro Bowl teams, has sold his home in Texas for $5.4 million. He bought it two years ago in 2013 for $4.25 million.

Since the fall of 2012, South Georgia Technical College, with classes in Americus and Cordele, has offered free textbooks to all students. If I remember correctly, the community college district in Ventura County has the same program.

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.com by placing Rubenstein in hat website’s search box.