P erestroika and skateboards?Talk of freedom has...

P erestroika and skateboards?

Talk of freedom has spread from Eastern Europe to Venice-- our Venice--and to other satellite communities of L.A., where talk of cityhood is building.

“I really believe that with the Cold War ending, in some strange psychological way people are no longer afraid of talking about perestroika (restructuring), even cityhood,” said Arnold Springer, a longtime Venice activist and history professor.

Larry Sullivan, president of the Venice Town Council, recently went so far as to say, “Venice is a potential Poland” that could pave the way for others to revolt.

Analysts disagree on whether Venice would be more likely to align itself with L.A. or the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.

Meanwhile, dissidents in the San Fernando Valley, Westchester and San Pedro, complaining that they’re ignored at City Hall, have talked of cutting loose from imperial L.A.

San Pedro’s Chamber of Commerce has even set up a subcommittee to explore the idea of secession, somewhat in the spirit of Vincent Thomas, the late assemblyman, who once declared: “I’ve lived in San Pedro all my life and I hate Los Angeles.”

Gee, doesn’t Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” count for anything anymore?

The Times They Ain’t a-Changin’:

On March 5, 1855, an L.A. newspaper, the Southern Californian, reported:

“Last Sunday night was a brisk night for killing. Four men were shot and several were wounded in shooting frays.”

L.A. City Councilman Nate Holden is no stranger to running. He has run for mayor, Congress, the State Board of Equalization, the state Senate and the council--nine times in all (winning only the last two offices).

He’s running again Sunday--in the L.A. Marathon.

Holden, 60, is taking dollar pledges for each mile he completes to benefit a fund to buy sports equipment for area youths.

At 220 pounds, Holden isn’t predicting he’ll break colleague Zev Yaroslavsky’s legendary councilmanic record (3:54:39 in 1987).

In fact, Holden will only make one guarantee about his finish:

“It’ll be before nightfall.”

Nice segue by the traffic reporter who reported there was an accident on Bandini Boulevard, then said, “Speaking of Bandini,” and added that there was a fertilizer spill on a freeway.

Those weren’t RTD clowns washing off a bus in Huntington Beach. They were Circus Vargas clowns, with the help of a hose-wielding elephant named Colonel Joe. It was a reminder that graffiti, which costs taxpayers about $10 million a year in cleanup costs, is no laughing matter.

Stupid criminal tricks (cont.): Three robbers, impatient with the response from workers at a Santa Monica fast-food restaurant, jumped behind the counter and grabbed what they thought was the cash register. Actually, it was an adding machine. Noted Santa Monica Police Sgt. Barry Barcroft: “They aren’t real pros.”

Seventy-one years ago this month, author Edgar Rice Burroughs purchased 550 acres of pastoral land in what later came to be known as Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley.

Perhaps Burroughs was inspired by his surroundings when he wrote in “Tarzan the Terrible”:

“What a paradise. But would civilized man come? Tarzan hoped not.”

Sorry, big guy.