Valley Talk

VALLEYTALK/1stjc/mark2nd Valley Helps Hollywood For decades, insiders have known that the real Hollywood or a good portion of it at least is located in the San Fernando Valley. With studios including Warner Bros. Pictures and Walt Disney Co. based here, the Valley has helped create the Hollywood myth. And now the Valley is helping to create Hollywood’s revitalization. The Valley Economic Development Center Inc. played a key role in developing an economic revitalization plan for Hollywood that is being released this month. The group was chosen because of its experience developing a similar plan for the Valley following the 1994 Northridge quake. A Different Kind of Fugitive It’s fast, dirty and invisible and if approval is given to Cal State Northridge’s University MarketCenter, it will be everywhere. It’s fugitive dust – technically known as PM10. What’s that, you wonder? According to the environmental impact report on the university’s proposed MarketCenter project, “fugitive dust” is the dirt that will be kicked up by construction. University officials aren’t planning to call in the FBI to deal with the problem, according to Frank Wein, the university’s consultant on the project. But they will cover the dirt mounds and water down the site twice daily. Down on the Farm Los Angeles may be the nation’s second largest city, but elements of the country life persist and, in fact, even constitute a public nuisance. City Councilman Richard Alarcon is pushing legislation aimed at regulating and controlling the noise generated from “farm animals, livestock and poultry.” According to staffer Annette Castro, Alarcon receives about 12 calls a month from residents of his Northeast Valley district complaining about animal noise mostly roosters and turkeys and has instructed the city’s Department of Animal Regulation to come back with recommendations on how to control the problem. That’s sparked some opposition from a group calling itself Stop Nasty Animal Regulation Laws, or SNARL. Headed by longtime Valley politico Walter Prince, the group’s motto is “Let the Animals Speak.” War of the Mayors Burbank city officials took their fight against expansion at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport to the grass roots last month, with a letter-writing campaign aimed at turning Glendale residents against the expansion. Burbank sent out 36,000 letters to Glendale residents asking them to “help end the stalemate” over the airport expansion by supporting Burbank’s scaled-back expansion plan. The letters, signed by five Burbank council members and one member elect, received nearly 2,000 positive responses within eight days of the March 20 mailing, according to a press release from the Burbank City Council. Not ones to be out-grassrooted, however, four former Burbank mayors and two former airport commissioners sent a letter to the Burbank City Council on March 25, objecting to the council’s ploys to “scuttle” the expansion and berating the council for misusing an estimated $27,000 to conduct the mailing. “They felt the time had come to assert themselves, and they decided to take the action,” said Airport Commission spokesman Victor Gill. Ovitz Watch The future of former super-agent Michael Ovitz, whose gigantic severance package following his resignation from Walt Disney Co. after only 14 months on the job infuriated Disney stockholders, has been a big question mark ever since he left the company in December. But scuttlebutt is building that Ovitz is planning to launch his own multimedia company, perhaps using some of the proceeds from his package of cash and Disney stock options worth an estimated $90 million or more. The Hollywood trade papers reported last month that Ovitz has hired David Maisel, former director of strategic planning and development at Disney, to act as his investment advisor.