Dumping Poisons Into The Sea No More

My normal run route along golf course

My favorite part of the run from my mom's to the beach - along Rose and the tree lined Penmar golf course - was blocked with cement borders. There was this sign explaining why.

Click to make it more readable

  So, the water and other wastes that go down the gutter into the sewer has always just been flowing, completely untreated, into the ocean at Venice Beach.  And now they are going to treat the water.  This is a good thing since pollution going into oceans isn't good.   The LAProp O website explains:

"The voters of Los Angeles overwhelmingly passed Proposition O, which authorized the City of Los Angeles to issue a series of general obligation bonds for up to $500 million for projects to protect public health by cleaning up pollution, including bacteria and trash, in the City's watercourses, beaches and the ocean, in order to meet Federal Clean Water Act requirements"

There are eight other LA projects.  The website also explains why Penmar is one of the projects:

"Existing Conditions
Currently, urban runoff and rainwater from the area flows into the Rose Avenue Storm Drain. This pipe carries untreated stormwater and dry weather runoff to the surf zone at Venice Beach."

The new system is designed so

"up to nearly three million gallons (per storm event) of stormwater from this watershed that is currently untreated will be kept out of the drain that flows into Santa Monica Bay;"

This is the drain that the water comes out at Venice Beach at the end of Rose Avenue.  It's summer here, so I'm not sure if they've blocked it already or there just isn't any water. 


I took the picture below from on top of the drain out to where it flows when there's a flow.

"The major project components consist of a stormwater diversion structure, pumps, storm drain sewer pipes and sanitary sewer pipes, and an underground storage tank;"

West end of golf course

"Project location: Along portions of Frederick St. and Rose Ave. in Venice, adjacent to the Penmar Golf Course and under a portion of the Penmar Recreation Center Park play fields. Other project work will take place in a few local streets;"

Map from LAPropO website

I seem to have deleted the picture of the large hole and dirt pile at Penmar playground (the green circle in the map above.)  You can see from the map, it's going to be a storage tank. There's still a year to go before it's done. [UPDATE Aug 30:  I found the missing photo, see below.]

And the water in the tank, after being cleaned, will be used to water the golf course instead of being dumped dirty into the ocean.  

Following the first phase of work, a disinfection system will be built to treat a portion of the stormwater flow. The safe, treated water will be locally reused for landscape irrigation at the Penmar Golf Course, Penmar Recreation Center Park, and Marine Park.

I still found a manhole in Santa Monica on my run that suggests their waste water is still going into the ocean.  And we have similar warnings on Anchorage sewers.

I'm not  sure how much of an impact this will have.  It seems that Ocean Acidification is a much greater threat to the oceans, and no one (except maybe the invisible hand that market economists claim controls the economy) is serious about cutting back on carbon dioxide emissions. I guess every little bit helps.

For a different mindset on all this, here's Science Friday's video of the week.  This guy build an eco-friendly sustainable floating toilet.  It's worth a look.

Seldovians - You Get Jason Farnham Next

The Seldovia Arts Council arranged for a pianist Jason  Farnham to give a concert in Seldovia Saturday night, and we got a sneak preview at Out North in Anchorage last night.








He's a very good pianist, but he's also an entertainer.  This is good piano playing, but definitely not high-brow. 

The Seldovia Gazette gives the specifics:

Saturday, August 20th, 7:30pm at the 

Sea Otter Community Center! 








Yes, if I had shut my eyes and just listened,  I wouldn't have known he was lying down on the job.

"Let justice be done, though the world perish" - Kantian Philosophy and the No-Tax Pledge

Note:  It's always dangerous to blog about philosophy because a) I will always be forced to simplify complicated and nuanced ideas  and b) My own understanding of philosophy is limited.  But I'm offering some links for anyone interested to pursue the nuances.  Those who know more are, of course, encouraged to correct, clarify, or otherwise improve what I've written. 

Robin Young talked to Howard Gleckman this morning on "Here and Now" about "the bi-partisan Congressional “super committee” for debt reduction."  Gleckman, at one point, says

"The reason that Wall Street is having such a bad time is, not because it's worried about the long term federal deficit, but because it's worried about a recession."

He goes on to say we need a combination of short term spending (and revenue raising) and long term deficit reduction.

(And if we want support for this position, there was another story (Jim Zarolli) today about how investors are putting money into Treasury bonds, despite the credit downgrade and even though they are at the lowest interest rate in 50 years or so.) 

But all the Republicans on the bi-partisan committee (and most in Congress), Robin Young points out, have taken Grover Nordquist's No-Tax pledge.  So they feel they must stick to that pledge. 

And that's where Kant comes in.

"Kant's theory is an example of a deontological or duty-based ethics : it judges morality by examining the nature of actions and the will of agents rather than goals achieved. (Roughly, a deontological theory looks at inputs rather than outcomes.) One reason for the shift away from consequences to duties is that, in spite of our best efforts, we cannot control the future. We are praised or blamed for actions within our control, and that includes our willing, not our achieving. This is not to say that Kant did not care about the outcomes of our actions--we all wish for good things. Rather Kant insisted that as far as the moral evaluation of our actions was concerned, consequences did not matter" [from a Woford.edu webpage]

What does that mean?  In the simplest form, Kant thought people should follow their principles without regard to the consequences. You stick to your principles no matter the consequences. 

A competing philosophical position is called utilitarianism which argues that one should weigh the consequences of one's actions.  For example, for Kant, if telling the truth is a maxim one follows, one must never lie.  For utilitarians this causes a problem if, say, a Nazi in 1940 Germany asked if you were hiding Jews in your house (and you were.)  Utilitarians would argue that there are times when there are conflicting values - and one has to know which values one holds are the most important.  Is the value of the lives of the people you are hiding greater than the value of telling the truth?

And that's when we get to things like No-Tax pledges.  Politicians promise to never vote for a tax increase.  All other consequences are irrelevant because they are keeping to this pledge.  Is breaking that pledge a greater harm than causing huge economic harm, like renewing the recession? 

Kant was no fool.  You can read the complexities of his ideas at Wikipedia.

But I suspect that few of the politicians who have taken the no-tax pledge have read Kant, or even know that their stand on the pledge follows Kant's position.

Rather, it seems that many of them are actually doing this for a very unKantian reason - they fear that if they break their pledge, they won't get reelected in the Republican primaries.  If that is the case, then they are, in fact, taking consequences into consideration.  But the consequences they are considering are their own personal benefit, not the benefit of the US economy.

"Under the Counterfeited Zeal for God.. ."

We saw Henry IV Part 2 last night.  It was a performance filmed at the Globe Theater in London - an authentic replica, according to the introductory film, of the first Globe Theater.  This is the theater that Shakespeare wrote for and the people quoted in the film - actors, directors, stage designers - all agreed that the 600 members of the audience who stand during the whole performance change the experience of the actor radically.  (Another 900 or so sit in boxes.) The fact that they perform in natural light means the audience is very visible.  Someone even said they are performers in the play.  And as I watched the movie my eye wandered to the audience from the actors in the beginning, but not at the end.  (I wonder if they had fewer shots of the audience at the end.)

This was rather like the movie theater showings of the Metropolitan Opera - with higher ticket prices and an audience that is probably not your average audience.  No cell phones went off, but the smell of garlic and jalapenos interrupted the performance for me.  I imagine in Shakespeare's time, people ate during a three hour performance like this so I get over it.  (OK, I'm over it.)

Technically, I was occasionally distracted by a dip in the volume as, I'm guessing, the actor moved from one microphone to another.

Oh yes, then there was Shakespeare's play itself.  Even with the introductory film, it was hard to keep track of all the characters and, at times, to track the meaning of the words.  But a couple themes jumped out at me near the end, reminding me that underneath our modern veneer, we are just humans who aren't much different from humans long ago.

"We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone."

. . . it is the time,
And not the king, that doth you injuries.

This debate lingers today.  Is Obama doing injuries?  Or is it the time?

And using one's devotion to God for earthly gains is nothing new.  Below, Lancaster speaks to the Archbishop of York:

Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us the speaker in his parliament;
To us the imagined voice of God himself;
The very opener and intelligencer
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven
And our dull workings. O, who shall believe
But you misuse the reverence of your place,
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of his substitute, my father,
And both against the peace of heaven and him
Have here up-swarm'd them.

Selling Poetry at the Beach

Jeffery Martin at Venice Beach

On my run down to Venice Beach yesterday (we flew home last night, so no beach run today), I ran across poet Jeffery Martin peddling poetry among the Venice Beach kitsch.  It was one of those classic cartoon moments as I slowly jogged by and then my head swiveled back as the words "poetry sold here" finally registered in my consciousness.  I circled back for a long chat with Jeffrey.

He had a list of awards he'd won so for the blog I looked up the first one, but I couldn't find anything on the New Jersey Beach Book Festival (well, I did find it on Jeffery's website) which got me to thinking, hey, Steve, where's your crap detector?  Maybe this is like the Alaska International Film Awards - but they at least have a website.  But he was there on the London Book Festival (2008 Honorable Mention Poetry) website and the New York Book Festival (2008 Honorable Mention Poetry) and the San Francisco Book Festival 2011 (Honorable Mention Poetry AND Children's Lit).  Relief.  I couldn't have been fooled that badly.  His awards are real. 

Another page on his website listed it as just the Beach Book Festival and that one found him (2008 Winner Poetry.  It's all one url, so go to past festivals - 2008)


He also writes children's books - as the San Francisco award suggests.  The inspiration for that is his other job - working with autistic children in the LA School District.  The funding was cut, he said, for the summer program this year, which freed him to spend his summer at Venice Beach selling some books and much more important, he said, meeting interesting people from all over the world.

I didn't buy anything because I don't usually have money with me when I'm running.  So I asked if he had a poem on racism.  (Does that make me a racist because I assumed a black poet would write about racism?  In this case, we had talked a little about the topic already.)  He had to think before asking if Epithets, from Weapons of Choice, would fit. 

As I read it more carefully, I'm thinking this probably isn't about racism as much as greed and capitalism gone bad.

Final note: My style is generally to be understated and to hope that the reader catches the irony or outrage under my matter of fact statements. But here I hope nobody missed the point that California's unwillingness to deal with the 30 year bleeding caused by Prop. 13, means that this year, among other things, LA's autistic kids and their parents, are on their own this summer.

Sazón

"There isn’t a word like Sazon in the English language. In its romantic, dual meaning in Spanish, Sazon is both: “just the right taste”, and “the perfect moment” . . ."

This definition comes from the Sazón Light who delivers meal plans to people in Chicago.


I mentioned the LA restaurant Sazón in an earlier post, but I hadn't brought my camera.  We went back last night with friends from Juneau who've moved down to the LA area.  


Here's part of the front room before it got more crowded. (Sorry about the fuzziness. It was fairly dark, but I think the mood comes across better without the flash.)

Claudia is the owner and server and a wonderful host.  (For my readers back home, her sister has worked quite a few years in Dutch Harbor.)  She can tell you about the food, about the decor, and we felt, on our second visit, like she was an old friend.  Though when she sees this picture, who knows how she'll treat me next time?

The chef peeks out of the window when he has a plate ready to be served.

And this Pescado Tropical was, hands down, the most photogenic dish of the evening. 




I think my regular readers know that I do posts on places I like (or less often I think deserve to be called on their poor quality) and that I don't get free meals or other special favors.  I don't even have an editor gives me an expense account.  But I like to let people know so they can enjoy it too.  And keep it in business so I can go back. 

Sazón is on Washington Blvd, just west of Centinela (we're in LA).  There's parking in the back and our dinner for five which included a wine and some fruit drinks, empanadas for all and a dessert was under $20 each. 

Industrial Revolutions - Wow!

It takes a really amazing video for me to just post someone else's video here.  But Bicycles and Icicles put up this video Monday that's too good not to post.  The subject is amazing enough, and the videography and the music make it even more so. Bicycles and Icicles just wrote:

"There are no words  (except go to full screen.)"

Dep. Commissioner of Natural Resources Says Climate Change Regulations are Biggest Danger of Climate Change to Alaska

Joe Balash is Deputy Commissioner for the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources.  At the Classrooms for Climate Conference at UAA on May 5, 2011, he talked about the consequences of global warming for Alaskans.  I posted his and the other opening panelists' talks as they gave them.

I got two videos up of that first morning panel, but just didn't manage to get this one up as well.  But I did get rough notes of his talk up (along with the other speakers) here.  So I'm finally getting the Balash video up now.

He began by mentioning that climate change means the ice roads on the north slope are melting earlier and freezing later, so they may need to be rebuilt as gravel roads. 

Then he started talking about how federal regulations to control global warming were a serious threat to Alaska. I only caught a bit of his speech on video, but you get the drift. I didn't edit anything out.  This is just the only video I got. But if you've ever tried to live blog, putting up text of what the speakers are saying, photos, and video as it's all happening, you'll understand that you can only keep up so long. 





 My notes, from the earlier post, have him ending discussing the use of science.

We try to make our decisions as often as possible on the best science.  We also rely on scientists.  Will continue to manage those resources with ever changing climate in mind.

[The more recent developments where state scientists were required to espouse state policy contrary to the science, suggests that what he meant by "as often as possible" was 'only when the science supports the administration's policy.']

Larry Hartig, the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation followed Balash.  Hartig seems to take a related stance, but he was much more sophisticated about it.  He said there were two paths for dealing with Global Warming:  mitigation (trying to slow it down) and adaptation (trying to live with the consequences.)  He strongly defended the Palin administration's work on Climate Change.  My notes on his address are in that same post of the conference.

The fact that we will have to do a lot on adaptation comes from, as I see it, the very strong campaign of the global warming deniers.  They staved off changes that might have minimized the damage by taking stands like Balash who says the regulations to mitigate climate change, not climate change itself, are the problem.  And now that they've done all  they could to prevent mitigation, they blithely jump to adaptation as though they had nothing to do with why the adaptation is going to be so difficult and costly. 

My other posts from the Classrooms for Climate conference are here.

Sam: Johnson's Bookshop (Why the colon?) [UPDATED May 1, 2019]

[UPDATE May 1, 2019:  An LA Times article today tells us this store is closing:

"Hernandez knows well the Darwinian map of gentrification, commerce, parking battles and changing lifestyles that are altering the geography and spirit of neighborhoods across the city."

Lots more history in the article.]



As soon as I walked into this bookshop, just down the street on Venice from the Mar Vista Farmer's Market on Sunday, I knew this was not your average used book store.

There was a small group of people sitting there talking (one chose not to be in the photo.)


There was an unusual, casual intensity.  I was asked what sort of book I was interested in.  I really hadn't come in with anything in mind and asked about their specialties.  I hadn't paid good attention to what it said outside.

Their website, which confirms my initial reaction (well, maybe all private book shops are unusual in their own way), offers this history:

"Sometime in the `50’s two kids from Westchester High School found joy in ransacking Los Angeles’ second-hand bookshops together

Larry Myers, the precocious kid who knew all about everything.

Bob Klein, the unprecocious kid who didn’t.

Fired by fantasy, they’d root up whole bookshops hunting rarities by H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood—the list goes on. And what bookshops the city boasted in the 1950’s. Particularly in Hollywood. Pickwick Bookshop had a huge used book section upstairs; Cherokee Bookshop specialized in fantasy; Larson’s, in the ghostly and occult. The magic of THE BOOKSHOP cast a glamour that has not faded.

Some years later Bob went on to become a teacher.

Larry went on to become—but no one quite knows what he went on to become. Probably he is still becoming it.

Years later still, in 1976, in order to augment his meager academic earnings Bob decided to become a bookseller. His girlfriend of the time—the lovely Sheryl (whose hips stopped traffic)—backed him all the way. Otherwise he might have ended up selling aluminum siding. Not anxious to fail alone, Bob browbeat Larry into becoming his partner. For opening stock, each was responsible for amassing 5,000 books—exclusive naturally from the sacrosanctity of their own private libraries."

There were lots of interesting books in a variety of areas.  It would be a good place to hide out now and then.  I even bought a book because it raised issues in 1951 or so, that sound very current.  A philosophy book that I might post about later. 

I didn't ask about the name or the colon in the name.  That's for the next visit I guess.  But, of course, I have to check more on their website before I go on.  It turns out they address this on their website.

"Why the colon? It’s a little like asking Durante who Mrs. Calabash is."

They warn it takes a bit of the mystery out of life to know.  But if you must, it's here.

Mar Vista Sunday Market

We had a request from my mom for Walnut Raisin bread from the Sunday market at Venice and Grand View, near the Mar Vista post office.  Here are some pictures.

Chocolate and Strawberry Crepe

We ate here, at Nana's

Health rules, I guess, mean plastic wrapping