Report Misses the Mark on Art Needs

L.A. Times Archives

Nov. 8, 1993 12 AM PT

Your editorial “Report Has Some Hits, Some Misses” (Oct. 31) summarizing the concerns raised by a recent UCLA report may also have missed something.

After reading the report myself, I found it most confusing, particularly when defining and/or clarifying quality-of-life dimensions of “culture.” I am skeptical of the numerous “findings” based on a handful of biased individuals in very few Valley locations. I also found humor in the “cultural discovery” portion of the report, particularly when it lumped bowling alleys and rock bars with traditional art forms such as live theater and related creative disciplines as cultural expressions. The report missed the mark on arts needs for the Valley.

I question the undocumented conclusions over the so-called need for cultural diversity, and conferring equal status and acceptance to all cultures regardless of their contribution to “collective quality of Valley life” or artistic merit.

If not so socially disruptive and divisive, I would find humor in this planning view of our region. It diminishes traditional American values of interdependence and shared social responsibility, while enforcing Balkanization and extreme ethnocentric behavior.

If the Valley “lacks a collective consciousness” as the report suggests, the recent tangent in public planning policy to reward public diversity in the arts has fostered greater cultural and community polarization. Our “planners” appear to be naively following inappropriate, outdated and unscientific community quality-of-life studies. Unfortunately, the results are also distorted by obeisance to ethnocentric Populists at a time when “togetherness and intercultural collaboration” is becoming more critical to Los Angeles.

The education establishment, both public and private, is far ahead of our city planners. Arts teachers from elementary school through college level have long recognized the power of arts to cross cultural boundaries and bring people and students closer together through shared arts expression and appreciation experiences. Despite Draconian cuts to arts programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District, children continue to reach out movingly to each other and express unusual respect through interracial and interdependent arts projects.

Those of us laboring in the “arts vineyards” have always known the mystical power of arts expression, whether in words, drama, dance, film, music, visual and even new computer technologies. From the dawn of history, the artist has been acclaimed irrespective of race, color or creed. I share the view of Cornell West, Thomas Sowell and others that emphasis on cultural diversity must be balanced with cross-cultural independence and take place in a context of shared common American values.

Our projected and widely endorsed “People to People Via Arts” approach uses arts as a means to facilitate “togetherness and interdependence” of both artists and audiences of all ages, colors, and creeds in the Valley region. Celebrating people via arts will help forge a Valley “collective consciousness.”

J. JERRY DOMINE, Woodland Hills. Domine is president of the San Fernando Valley Arts Council.

Restaurant Critic Needs a Good Map

I’m glad that your restaurant critic’s knowledge of gastronomy exceeds his knowledge of geography.

When Max Jacobson chose Downtown Cakes and Company as one of the best eateries in the region, he evidenced an appreciation for simply wonderful food. But when he located the restaurant in the Santa Clarita Valley, he was off by at least one mountain range. Lancaster’s Downtown Cakes and Company is in the Antelope Valley. And that makes it all the more miraculous.

If my husband and I feel low and in need of comfort, we go to Cakes and Company. If we feel celebratory, we go there too. Best of all when we want to escape from our temporary home of 30 years, we go to Cakes and Company, which is in, but not representative of, the Antelope Valley.

After all, no other restaurant in the area features Mozart as background music. According to recent research, listening to his symphonies can raise IQ scores. But apparently Mozart is of no help in map reading.

ETHEL BLACK, Lancaster

Questions About Parental Rights Case

I am discouraged with two aspects of your coverage of the case of Catherine Thomas, who lost parental rights to her 5-year-old daughter after a former friend of the family was granted parental rights.

First, what about her other two children? What kind of a mother would run off to Las Vegas in violation of a court order and leave the other two children behind? What happened to them? Who took care of them? Why didn’t she think of them when she risked incarceration by fleeing? Who is taking care of them now that she is in jail?

Also, the court records have been sealed, so the public and the newspapers are not privy to all the facts that the judge reviewed to make this decision. Court records are sealed to protect the parties’ psychiatric records. Although this is helpful to the person with psychiatric problems, it is often unfair to society as it is sometimes necessary to make decisions with a person’s mental capacities in mind.

Having been through a contested custody suit where the records were sealed, I am very well aware of the kind of events that are not publicly disclosed. I don’t believe that Kevin Thomas would have been awarded custody without very good reason, no matter how much money he spent.

LYNNE A. PLAMBECK, Newhall

Honesty, Decency Aren’t Dead Yet

Just a half hour after I had lost my wallet somewhere between my home and the doctor’s office, the phone rang. “Are you Kathy Frumkin?” a voice asked. “Yes I am,” I said, getting ready for yet another sales pitch. “I found your wallet,” she said. “My name is Dvorah.”

Dvorah said she would leave the wallet at a restaurant where she usually had breakfast, in an envelope with my name on it. I picked it up--pristine, untouched, all the money and cards there, and I left a few flowers and a “thank you” note for Dvorah, whom I still haven’t met.

How I wish that there were more people like her, doing what is right simply because it is the right thing to do, being honest because that is the way people should act.

At a time in 1993, when all decency seems to be overwhelmed by a wave of selfishness and brutality, in a California and a Los Angeles that appear to have lost their way, thank you, Dvorah, for restoring my faith that there is some decency and honesty left.

KATHY E. FRUMKIN, Studio City

Suspicions Over Chick’s 3 Panels

I read with great interest and skepticism the Oct. 30 article about City Councilwoman Laura Chick’s proposal to set up three citizen panels to advise her on local planning issues “which she hopes will be an antidote to the bitter land use squabbling that has marked her first months in office.”

While the plan appears to have some merit, I can’t help but wonder what her real motive is.

I take strong personal issue with Chick’s comment, “Why should I only hear the voices of homeowner presidents; I want to spread the power around.” It’s exactly this attitude that prompted the “squabbling” among Chick’s constituents. They felt their voices were not being heard by the council office and we share their feelings that we were all left out of the “behind closed door” negotiations between the council office and the developer/applicants, in spite of the fact that our homeowner association was the appellant of record.

In both cases where our homeowner association locked horns with Chick, the opposition was absolutely not limited to only the president of our association. She heard from an extremely large number of residents. We all met with Chick and expressed very legitimate reasons for opposing each project, either in part or entirely.

In both cases, the voices were those of people who live within very close proximity to the projects in question. In both cases, Chick was presented with petitions of opposition signed by hundreds of nearby residents. Her office was deluged with phone calls in opposition. The councilwoman publicly said she didn’t care how many people signed petitions or called her office--making it clear that she would be the one to make the final decision.

After wrongfully assuming that I had orchestrated this opposition, Chick informed me that she didn’t appreciate all the phone calls because they tied up her staff. (Wasn’t she elected to listen to constituent concerns, regardless of which side she supported?)

I would hope that these citizen panels are not Chick’s way of hand-picking “yes men” to silence homeowner association leaders just because they know the inner workings of City Hall or because they add strength to the voices of aggrieved residents. These residents look to their homeowner association for support, guidance and protection when they feel they’re not getting it from their elected officials.

One of the planned citizen panels will group together the communities of Van Nuys, Reseda, Encino and Tarzana. This combination concerns me because Van Nuys and Reseda do not have the same problems or ills as Encino or Tarzana.

Neighbors who live closest to a proposed project are the very best representatives to judge how that project will impact their neighborhood and their quality of life--not a committee of hand-picked individuals who don’t live in the neighborhood or even the community in question.

DON SCHULTZ, Van Nuys. Schultz is president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn.

20 Excuses for Not Having a License

I enjoyed your article “Traffic Cops Have Heard Them All” (Oct. 13). I am a 26-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. Many years ago I, along with several other officers, compiled a list of 20 reasons that people give for not having their driver’s license with them.

Here are the 20, not necessarily in order of popularity:

1. I left it at home.

2. It’s in my other pants.

3. My girlfriend has it.

4. I’m just going to the store.

5. I have a Texas license but it’s in Texas.

6. I lent it to a friend of mine.

7. This isn’t my car.

8. My mother is sick. I’m just going out to get her some food.

9. It’s in my other wallet.

10. I flunked the driving test but at DMV, they told me that I could drive until I passed the test.

11. It’s in Sacramento.