People and Events

The first results are in from the Chinatown wishing well poll and--as in several other surveys--George Bush is leading.

At least that’s the report from Walter Soo Hoo of the Chinatown Merchants Assn., who says that in the first 10 days after Dukakis for President and Bush for President signs were mounted on opposite sides of the pond, visitors tossed $190.84 at Bush and $176.16 at Dukakis.

Fuzzying the results, however, was the fact that some slugs were also thrown into the water on the Dukakis side. Whether the governor was attracting derogatory comments or whether his supporters don’t have a lot of money, Hoo wasn’t certain.

As part of Friday’s observance of Women’s Equality Day at Los Angeles City Hall (marking the 68th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the vote), City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter held a news conference to honor 29 Los Angeles policewomen.

Included among the honorees was Capt. Janice Carlson, highest-ranking woman in the LAPD.

Top-rated as far as Galanter was concerned was Officer Debra Kirk, whom the councilwoman described as “the one who saved my life.” Kirk was the first person to reach the scene May 6, 1987, after the then-candidate Galanter was stabbed by an intruder in her Venice home. Kirk administered first aid and called paramedics.

Galanter, by the way, has--with obvious pride--posted on the door of her City Hall office a sign reading “Tree Hugger.”

The term popped up in a recent controversial memo by political consultants Michael Berman and Carl D’Agostino as a derogatory reference to environmentalists.

Textile designer Susan Rosen says she spends from $500 to $700 a month feeding homeless people--and cats.

Because she does much of her business in the Garment District, she has for some time been carrying food to about a dozen men (and a woman or two) who are her “regulars” on Skid Row. She says she gets some of the stuff from a couple of restaurants that put their edible throw-away food in cartons for her. But the rest, she buys.

Since February, the 30-year-old Rosen has also been supplying a colony of cats--never fewer than 30--that live in an alleyway between a supermarket and the Santa Monica Freeway near Palms and National boulevards in the Palms area. They are descendants of seven kittens someone abandoned there four years ago.

Another woman had been taking care of the cats all along but couldn’t afford the bill. “I provide all the food, and she takes it to them a couple of times a week,” says Rosen, whose boyfriend helps with the project.

Lest anyone think these folks are adding to the problem of unwanted cats, Rosen said they catch them whenever possible and have them altered “to stop the process.”

She used to give to organized charities, Rosen says, “but I never knew where my money was going.”

Within the next few weeks, says Long Beach Police Sgt. Conrad Nutzmann, the patrol cops in his town are going to be driving around with stuffed teddy bears at the ready.

“Operation Hug.”

The Assisteens--who are daughters, kid sisters and whatever of the Long Beach Assistance League--have agreed to furnish the bears that are to be given to small, frightened children victimized by crimes or accidents.

Marge Huhta of the Assistance League says the 26-member group of teen-agers plans to purchase an initial batch of 300 teddy bears at about $6 apiece. “The girls have worked really hard,” Huhta says, noting that they raise money by selling poinsettias at Christmas time.

Adult Assistance League chapters have carried on such a program in other cities across the country.

“One thing we’re going to stress with the officers,” Nutzmann says, “is don’t just drive up to a corner where there is some cute kid and give the bear away.”