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Atwater Village to Lose Its Vigilant But Tired Protector

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Times Staff Writer

For 20 minutes, slender, white-haired, hard-talking Ed Waite rolled out his tell-it-like-it-is monologue, the news from Atwater Village.

He recited every zone change, every variance, every building permit, every demolition in the works since the last time his group got together. He added a word about crime and dispelled the inevitable rumors that pass through an aroused community.

Last, he came to the rumor his followers were not prepared to deal with.

“Yes, I am going to leave Atwater, leave Los Angeles,” Waite said. “My house is up for sale. I divorced my wife.”

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A flutter of gasps went through the Glenfeliz School auditorium. Whether they were for the weight of the news itself or the bluntness of the delivery was impossible to distinguish.

Since Waite, now 62, founded the Atwater Village Homeowner Assn. in 1982, to block the construction of a church auditorium, he and his unyielding manner have been indivisible from its identity.

To his followers, Waite’s unexpected departure will be the loss of their eyes and ears, their voice in City Hall, their one, virtually unchallenged, authority.

Riding his bicycle through the streets of the old and determinedly static residential community between Glendale and the Los Angeles River, Waite had monitored change with a vigilant eye. He spotted crime, zoning violations, abandoned vehicles and illegal construction. He reported all with equal zeal.

In regular trips to City Hall, he tracked down the paper-work signs of coming development. He reported virtually every developer’s move to the 100 to 200 residents who consistently turned out at meetings. Those they didn’t like, he fought.

He kept the guard up to the end.

“Over at 4040 Edenhurst you’re going to have an eight-unit apartment house,” Waite said in his final monologue last week. “The man doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with the people in that area . . . We asked him to cut it down to four. He won’t do it. He doesn’t care about the community because he doesn’t live here.”

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Naturally, Waite made enemies along the way.

Waite’s opposition to a Los Feliz minimart owner’s request for a city beer and wine license left permanent scars between Waite and leaders of the Atwater Village Chamber of Commerce.

“I believe that Ed Waite was an integral part of improving this community,” said Gerald (Red) Meade, chamber president. “There were a lot of people who disagreed with him in the way he did it. I saw him persecute certain people and not persecute other people.

“He never really helped the business community in any form,” Meade said. “Whoever takes over, I certainly hope he fairly helps every part of the community and not just certain parts.”

Waite alluded to his detractors in his final monologue Thursday night.

“Councilman John Ferraro called and said, ‘Hey Ed, I hear you’re leaving town. They finally caught up with you, huh?’ Well, I don’t know who caught up with me yet. There hasn’t been anybody come to my door with a shotgun.”

Waite simply pleaded fatigue as his reason for leaving the town he lived in since 1955.

“I haven’t had a vacation in 20 1/2 years,” he said. “I’ve put in a lot of hours. I’m not complaining. I’m just saying I haven’t had any life of my own. So I’m going to go and start over somewhere. I’ll either go north or out of state.”

Waite told his followers that five people had already approached him about taking over the association after he is gone. He said he told them they would have to try it without his support because he didn’t believe they were sincere. “That’s the way I will protect the community of Atwater,” he said.

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Someone from the audience asked if he might change his mind and come back some day.

“I will never return to Atwater once I leave,” Waite said.

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