Outtakes from the "PEOPLE'S ENCLAVE OF MT. WASHINGTON"

File this under the "GOOD PEOPLE DO WIN" category.

"Friends of the Southwest Museum" co-chair Ann Walnum was the top vote getter in the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council re vote for the Mt. Washington area.

This re vote was called for when Eliot Sekuler challenge the previous election results siting faulty instructions printed on the ballots.

Results are below,

Averell Eshaghian / 35
Ann Walnum / 127
Hank Shaeffer / 119
Scott M. Folsom / 115

In other enclave news, "HUSBAND OF CAROL" Bill "Clinton" Rumble faces a crowded field in his re-election campaign for the 45th Assembly District Central Committee race, candidates are listed below.

William "Bill Clinton" Rumble
Scott Rufsvold
Hector Rivas
Paul Nueman
Robert Negrete
Robert Nakahiro
Renee Nahum
Ruby Yolanda Medrano
Carlos Jude Leon
Bill Kysella
Margaret Hoyos
Erika Gallos
Benita Duran
Colleen Colson
Cecilia Cabello
Christopher Arellano

This adds up to a bunch with illusions of power.

And lastly, is Jackie Autry the "Frank McCourt" of the Museum business?

For die heart Dodgers fans, we all know that McCourt bought the Dodgers with other peoples money. Now a report from the "Friends of the Southwest Museum" paints a picture of a cash poor Autry giving false information to the Board of the Southwest Museum about their financial standing during merger discussions. Thus do the Autry Museum have the financial standing to follow through on their commitment to the Autry Center Expansion Plans??

Makes more sense why the Autry set their sites on the collection at the Southwest Museum.

.....and the latest from Eliot

To: L.A. Weekly
From: Eliot Sekuler

Dear Editor,

When, in the story, "Villaraigosa's Autry National Center Hubbub," writer Max Taves glibly reported that Northeast L.A residents fear the historic Southwest Museum, the first museum chartered in the city of L.A., would become "a development of high-priced condos" he glossed over the current multi-million dollar restoration that is well underway at the Southwest Museum campus, a painstaking project that is being supervised by restoration architect Brenda Levin, whose work on City Hall, the Griffith Park Observatory, the Bradbury Building, Hollyhock House and the Wiltern Theater has won awards and the universal admiration of the historical conservancy community. (QUE?? Still waiting for Southwest Society fund raiser)

The story makes no mention of the plans contained in the compromise agreement brokered with the Autry by Villaraigosa and Councilmember Jose Huizar, a highly attractive and practical plan for reopening the 100-year-old Southwest Museum as a dynamic, rotating exhibition center for its original Lummis collection of Native Americana as well as a center for relevant contemporary art and performance.(Rotate out but never come back)

The Autry's plans and investment would result in Northeast L.A.'s most significant and compelling cultural attraction.Your writer missed the point completely in reporting that, as a co-founder of the dwindling Southwest Museum Coalition, I had "gone over to the over side."Instead, I joined with about half the original leadership of the Southwest Museum Coalition--activists from Eagle Rock,Glassell Park, Highland Park and Mount Washington--in creating a new group that would work in partnership with the Autry to help shape the Southwest Museum's future. (Dwindling = LAUSD math by Eliot, did Sierra Club just announce their support for the Museum??)

The Southwest Society, as the group is called, was joined by virtually the entire leadership of L.A.'s Native American community and the family of Museum founder Charles Lummis.

Neither I, nor the Native American community, nor Jose Huizar or Antonio Villaraigosa "went over to the other side." (lesser men would stand on their own and not hide behind Native Americans)

Instead, consistent with a successful negotiation outcome, the two sides met someplace in the middle.Rich in history and boasting some of L.A.¹s best-preserved architectural treasures, Northeast L.A¹s old streets, laced with their vivid patchwork of cultures and ethnicities, could become one of the city¹s most vibrant cultural and historic zones.(In the middle of Jon Grey's office)

In an era of dwindling public resources, the success of the Northeast's revitalization efforts will require partnerships with organizations that have the means and the motivation to put projects in motion.(Paragraph closet to the truth)

Partnering with the Autry to revitalize the Southwest Museum was a smart compromise, not a capitulation.(More like political calculation and contributions)

Eliot Sekuler
The Southwest Society
Los Angeles

March 25, 2008 1:12 PM