Braude Runs on the Right : Side of Issues

By ALAN CITRON

April 5, 1989 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

In the annual Fourth of July parade in Pacific Palisades, which features a veritable bevy of beautiful people, one of the biggest crowd pleasers is a poorly dressed, slightly built man with the look of a befuddled professor.

The man who draws as much applause as any of the many featured celebrities is Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, a hometown boy who has been making good for nearly 25 years. Braude, 68, who reigns over the council’s wealthiest district, has gone unopposed since 1981. Eleventh District voters say the environmentally conscious councilman sustains their support by fighting for the things they believe in, such as slow growth, parklands preservation and clean air.

“He’s just perfect for this district,” said Roger Diamond, president of No Oil Inc., which, with Braude’s help, successfully opposed Occidental Petroleum’s plans to drill for oil on the coast in Pacific Palisades. “He’s right on all the issues.”

The councilman, once viewed as the odd man out at City Hall for his opposition to the “growth is good” wisdom that prevailed there for many years, has enjoyed a string of victories recently.

At the ballot box, there was Proposition U, the city’s 1986 slow-growth initiative, which he promoted. And last November there was Proposition O, which Braude co-authored to prevent the oil drilling.

On other fronts, Braude was behind city legislation that restricted smoking at restaurants. And the councilman, a board member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, was a strong proponent of the recently approved 20-year plan for bringing the region into compliance with federal clean air requirements.

He is not without his critics, however. Some San Fernando Valley residents say Braude has allowed too much development along Ventura Boulevard in Encino. Others say Braude, a dour man who rarely fraternizes with his council colleagues, is hard to work with.

But, for a politician first elected in 1965, Braude enjoys an unusually high measure of affection throughout his district--an influential area of wealthy, well-educated suburbanites that includes such comfortable communities as Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Woodland Hills, Encino and West Los Angeles.

“He’s familiar; he’s like an old shoe,” said one political consultant, who asked not to be named. “He’s on the right side of the issues and those people don’t ask any more of their representative. People there are intelligent. They know how to fight City Hall. And when they do, he’s usually with them.”

Stanley R. Lefcourt, president of the Brentwood Homeowners Assn., was even more succinct. “All in all, we’re pretty satisfied with him,” Lefcourt said. “We’d be finding another candidate to run against him if we weren’t.”

Braude, a self-made, successful businessman who has lived in the same Brentwood home since 1952, says that, after 24 years, he’s enjoying his job more than ever.

The councilman still puts in long hours, can still be seen riding his bicycle through the district on weekends and still pops up regularly at chambers of commerce and neighborhood meetings, even though he’s not running against anyone and has already donated most of his campaign funds to 28 of his favorite nonprofit organizations.

At a recent breakfast meeting in Encino, Braude told the Chamber of Commerce that congestion still looms as the biggest problem facing the city and warned that Valley residents must get moving on plans for a light rail system.

“If we are to control our own destinies, it’s important that we get our act together and figure out how we are going to do it,” he said. “Because other communities are vying for the (transit) funds that belong to us.”

It was a vintage Braude performance, long on doleful warnings and totally lacking in levity. But it is a style that has served him well. Braude says that the people of his district are satisfied only when he is getting things done.

“I act on the principle that everyone is entitled to my best efforts,” Braude said. “And I make a genuine effort to solve their problems.”

Braude sat in his West Los Angeles district office as he spoke, dwarfed by a huge round conference table that was built to his specifications. The former college professor is legendary for his iconoclastic ways. A finicky eater, Braude is known to bring his own meals to banquets in a Tupperware container.

He also favors loud, inexpensive clothing and tends to stumble over some of the more mundane aspects of life. At one point in the conversation with a reporter, after deftly describing his positions on urban planning, pollution, air quality management and other complex issues, Braude could not remember his own age.

“I’m 69,” he said. “No, I’m just about 70. Wait a minute, I’m 68.”

Those who admire Braude find such traits endearing. But others who have clashed with the councilman call him an elitist and a political phony. Gerald A. Silver, head of Homeowners of Encino, contends that, for all his slow-growth rhetoric, Braude has allowed developers to run rampant on Ventura Boulevard.

“We’re very unhappy with Braude,” Silver said. “All he does is pay us lip service. He talks a good game, but he has given us absolutely nothing.”

The leader of another Encino residents group paints a different picture of Braude, however. Richard Smith, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn., said Silver’s group has unrealistic expectations. “We have our problems,” Smith said “But there are no crises here. This is a well-run community.”

Peter Fleming of the Pacific Palisades Town Council said Braude makes people believe that he is trying, even if he does not always win the battles.

And Thomas M. Donovan, leader of a West Los Angeles residents group that briefly tangled with Braude over the commercial development plans for Olympic Boulevard several years ago, said Braude’s strongest quality is his willingness to listen and to compromise when neighbors voice concerns.

‘We have been trying to prevent our neighborhood from becoming another Westwood,” Donovan said. “And we have been able to do that because of Councilman Braude’s help. . . . You can’t ask for more than that.”

As Braude prepares for his seventh term, there are no bets out on his likely longevity. The councilman said he may run again in 1993. And those who have followed Braude over the years say that he shows no signs of fatigue.

“For a little guy he’s got a lot of energy,” Brentwood Homeowners’ Lefcourt said. “His hair even stands on end sometimes. There must be electricity there.”

11TH CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT

Los Angeles’ 11th Council District is the city’s silk-stocking district. It includes such well-heeled communities as Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Encino and boasts a median household income of $42,852. The district, which has been represented by Marvin Braude since 1965 and which spans the Santa Monica Mountains, is also environmentally oriented. Voters there overwhelmingly supported measures limiting growth citywide and prohibiting oil drilling off the coast of Pacific Palisades.

Population: 215,705

Registered Voters: 118,976

Household Income of Residents:

Under $35,000: 49.5%

$35,00 to $49,999: 14.5 $50,000-$74,999: 14.7 $75,000-$99,999: 7.3 $100,000 plus: 14.0 Race / Ethnicity:

White: 88.3%

Black: 1.3 Latino: 9.1 Other: 1.3 College educated

One to three years of college: 24.4%

Four or more years of college: 39.4 Home Values:

Below $100,000: 4.5%

$100,000-$149,999: 11.9 $150,000-$199,999: 13.9 $200,000 plus: 69.8 Owner Occupied Housing: 52.3%

Renter Occupied Housing: 47.7 Voting Patterns: