A good-neighbor policy that includes home cooking.

BAKE SALE: If you crave fruit pizza or cream cheese in won ton skin, you can turn to “A Taste of Palos Verdes,” a cookbook published by a local nonprofit group.

The New Neighbors Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula is selling the cookbook to raise money for charities that include the Rainbow Shelter for battered women, the Harbor Interfaith Shelter for homeless families and the FISH Pantry, an emergency food center.

“We’re just housewives out scrounging up some money for those shelters,” said cookbook chairwoman Pat Calhoun.

The club, dedicated to welcoming new residents to the peninsula, sells the book for about $10 at Bristol Farms in Rolling Hills Estates and at Curt Wagner furniture in Redondo Beach. The book will be available soon at Brentano’s bookstore in Rolling Hills Estates.

Since October, the group has sold about 300 copies.

Club members donated the recipes, and other club members tested them before they were published, said Fran Mazzeo, publicity director.

For those lacking a taste for the exotic, the book also includes spaghetti carbonara, courtesy of Italian native Gloria Siriaco, and Betty’s Meat Loaf, courtesy of Minnesota native Betty Sawyer.

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FIRST STEPS: It seems the slow wheels of bureaucracy are starting to turn as plans to clean up an unsightly area in Wilmington got under way this week.

Early Monday morning, a team of city workers and members of the Port Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department were on the dirt streets of an East Wilmington business area (deemed the “Third World” by locals) collecting huge piles of trash.

“We’re going to have sewers laid, streets paved . . . That’s the big plan,” said Officer Donna Tuk, who is coordinating LAPD efforts. “We’re going to move the illegitimate businesses out and redo the whole area.”

On Dec. 9, Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who represents the harbor area, will hold a meeting of government, police, railway companies, businesses and other organizations involved in the area.

The total cleanup bill is expected to come to $13 million. Tuk said the money probably will come from the city and businesses in the area.

And just in case anyone doubts the degree of filth, drugs and prostitution in the area, the LAPD is compiling a videotape of activities.

Tuk calls it a “reality” video. “So we can show we have city streets that look like junkyards,” she said.

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CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH: Carwashes and coffee bars and chiropractors, oh my!

Owners of a Manhattan Beach carwash don’t put clean cars ahead of bad backs. While patrons of Red Carpet Car Wash wait for their luxury coupes to be scrubbed and waxed, Marie Cosgrove carefully examines patrons’ spines for imperfections.

Cosgrove works for a Manhattan Beach chiropractor who rents out a small room at the carwash. As the cars roll through the rinse cycle, Cosgrove asks patrons if they’d like a free spinal exam, and about 10 to 15 people take her up on the offer each day, she said. Sometimes, Cosgrove recommends the patrons see the chiropractor for a checkup.

It’s all part of the carwash’s kill-several-birds-with-one-stone philosophy. Patrons can sip java, have their loafers shined and have their spines examined over the whirring and swishing sounds of carwash spigots. Business at the carwash hasn’t gone up because of the additional services, managers say, but customers are responding enthusiastically.

As Eleanora Thomas’ 1988 Ford Tempo rolled through the rinse cycle recently, Cosgrove studied Thomas’ spine. The service is great, Thomas said, adding that her neck has been bothering her lately.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s too early to tell what the new Congress will be like. It certainly will be different.”

--Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills), who was leading Republican Susan Brooks by 546 votes with at least 1,000 votes left to be counted. J3