A Confrontation Retold

The issue at an Encino school Aug. 17 was not a rough confrontation between two affluent communities, but whether the Santa Monica Mountains should be preserved for all people as a national recreation area or should be destroyed by roads, housing pads and county dump sites.

Under the pretext of easing congestion on Hayvenhurst Avenue, two Encino homeowners groups advocate extending Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive and paving Mulholland. Developers and the city of Los Angeles support their view. The Friends of Caballero Canyon opposes it. Extending Reseda and paving Mulholland is a violation of state parks policy and the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Plan, which Councilman Marvin Braude says he supports.

The Encino groups hired burly security guards to prevent anyone from Encino or Tarzana entering the public school who did not support building the road. The guards manhandled an elected official of the Sierra Club and a woman board member of Friends of Caballero Canyon.

Rob Glushon, head of one Encino group, tore down signs that proclaimed support for the park. He tried to punch a UC student who was holding a sign. When he was in the process of breaking a banner that children had spent hours painting in our garage, my son tried to restrain him and was thrown to the ground and injured.

The Encino groups called the police before the meeting and when they arrived late, they found a peaceful, but shocked, assembly of kids, retirees, hikers and citizens who had just witnessed the violent and effective repression of free speech.

Braude entered this rigged affair with the developer’s men. He was neither jostled nor pushed.

JEAN ROSENFELD

Tarzana