Activist Hospitalized After Hunger Strike

A Santa Monica environmental activist remained hospitalized Thursday after collapsing this week at the end of a 26-day hunger strike protesting the giant Playa Vista development.

Jerry Rubin, director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Survival, was rushed to Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica on Tuesday night suffering from starvation and dehydration. Doctors placed him on intravenous fluids and ordered him to drink some juice. Rubin remained in stable condition Thursday and said he hoped to be released from the hospital this morning.

Rubin, 53, began his water-only hunger strike Feb. 14 in an effort to force a meeting with the principles of DreamWorks SKG, a multimedia studio venture by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg that is a key tenant in the proposed development.

Rubin said his group and 72 other environmental organizations have formed a coalition to oppose the massive project, which they contend will damage the fragile Ballona Wetlands.

Andy Spahn, a DreamWorks spokesman, said the project will help restore more than 340 acres of the saltwater wetlands. Spahn said he has been meeting with environmentalists about their various concerns during the last month and is scheduling a meeting at the end of the month with Katzenberg and environmental leaders, including Rubin.

“I don’t entirely understand his hunger strike, but I hope he’s being well taken care of,” Spahn said.

Rubin complained that only he and two others in opposition to the project were invited to the meeting.

“This is an issue that’s affecting DreamWorks’ entire future and the entire future of the wetlands environment,” he said. “Why should we be pleading and begging the DreamWorks executives to hold a fair and balanced meeting?” If he hadn’t collapsed and been hospitalized, Rubin said, he would have ended his hunger strike today at noon, when he plans to participate in a flower-planting ceremony at the Ballona Wetlands.