Deane Dana Wins Chutzpah Oscar

Tuesday was the day that the entire country was supposed to be riveted by the goings-on in California--not Monday, Tuesday.

The politicians had it planned: a wakeful, white-knuckle nation would await California’s judgment in a critical primary election that would forever tilt the balance of politics westward.

Oh, they were watching, all right. But on Monday--Oscar night, not election night.

Hollywood always manages to outshout politics and out-glitter politicians. It must be frustrating, having to labor in the penumbra of world-renowned performers who wouldn’t know an EIR from the MTA.

Consider, for example, Deane Dana. He leaves office in December after 16 years on the county Board of Supervisors. He represents more voters than some U.S. senators do, passes judgment on bigger budgets than do whole state legislatures.

But how many of his constituents know his name? Who would recognize his face? On his last at-bat reelection, when Dana had already been in office for 12 years, as long as FDR, a woman who has lived in Dana’s 4th District for 40 years told her son-in-law that she was voting “for that woman candidate. De-anne Dana.”

And yet he and some of his colleagues traveled in armor-plated sedans with evasion-trained chauffeurs. They had bulletproof desk blotters, presumably in case the terrorists got past the chauffeurs. Salman Rushdie, whose face and name probably hang in every post office in Tehran, should have such security.

Sixteen years has not been time enough, it seems, for Dana to make himself recognized and remembered. So the fiscal conservative and his board colleagues voted $4.4 million of park funds for a “Deane Dana nature center” at the crest of a near-pristine county park that straddles San Pedro and Rancho Palos Verdes.

That is a million dollars more than it cost to make “Leaving Las Vegas,” a million dollars more than it costs to run East Valley Community Health Center for a year.

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Friendship Park is 125 beautiful, roller-coaster acres of virtually nothing.

As late as World War II, its 360-degree cyclorama view of the San Pedro harbor, Catalina and the Palos Verdes peninsula, was commonplace enough for garbanzo farmers to enjoy. Now, among our crowded millions, it is a rare pleasure.

Here is a place to remember what silence is like. The seasons bring lupine and coastal sage. Just now, the fennel fronds are bent by the creeping weight of stripe-shelled snails.

To reach the summit takes a short walk up an easy trail. Fay Woodruff of the Friends of Friendship Park has walked it so often she could probably hike it in the dark. It won’t be dark much longer, if plans proceed, for they include a two-lane road to the summit, illuminated by 17 street lights.

There, on the choicest 17 acres--some of it a state-listed 5,000-year-old Gabrielino/Tongva Indian village site--the Deane Dana Nature Center is to be erected.

Covering 6,600 square feet and standing 28 feet high, the center would offer patios, a fountain, carpeted offices, barbecues and fireplaces. There will be space for wedding receptions and conferences--and for the Deane Dana Room, three of its walls reserved for memorabilia of 16 years in office.

Woodruff stands in the middle of the proposed site, her arms spread wide in outrage: “It’s not a nature center--it’s a convention center.”

The money comes from Proposition A, a 1992 county park bond. On page 4 of Proposition A’s 16 pages, Section 8, Article a, part 2, subsection M sets aside $4 million for trees, trails and a nature center at the “passive park.”

Woodruff is one of those radicals Dana must have had in mind when he wrote in a memo last September: “I believe this plan will be defensible in court if the few radical opponents who want the status quo contest the plan.”

It has come to court. A lawsuit has done what 200 letters and 2,000 signatures of protest could not do: temporarily held up the project.

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Everyone wants to be remembered, and remembered fondly. Even with a reputation among environmentalists for never having met a developer he didn’t like, it is natural that Dana wants to be remembered in his coastal district by a fragment of its coastal beauty.

But Friendship Park was a park for 20 years before Dana became a supervisor. Two years ago, he added his name to it. Isn’t top billing enough?

Let’s take a cue from Hollywood: the Chinese Theatre. In the forecourt of some public building, departing public officials could press their handprints and shoe prints into wet concrete, and perhaps loop a witty message, like, “I stamped out budget shortfalls!” Generations of civics-struck kids can come along and fit their extremities into those of the political immortals.

In any case, an official retirement shouldn’t cost us more than the price of a brass plaque. Although thieves have been stealing the brass of city and county buildings lately to sell to recyclers, there’s nothing to fear. As long as politicians have egos, we will never run short of brass.