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CITY & STATE
80 YEARS OF AN L.A. INSTITUTION
Francine OrrLos Angeles TimesL.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti serves the crowd at Pink’s Hot Dogs on Friday as the La Brea Avenue eatery
celebrates its 80th anniversary with eight nights of selling 80-cent chili dogs for 80 minutes each night.Former LAPD Chief
Charlie Beck has been ap-
pointed as the interim police
superintendent in Chicago,
officials announced Friday.
Beck, who retired from
the Los Angeles Police De-
partment last year after a
career that spanned four
decades, will oversee the
Chicago Police Department
as the city continues search-
ing for a permanent leader.
Beck, 66, will oversee about
4,000 more officers in Chi-
cago than he led in L.A.
“Even though my stay
here will be brief, I look for-
ward to working with the
residents and people who
work in Chicago — meeting
them, learning about their
needs and making this a bet-
ter place — because at my
core, I believe that policing is
a key, fundamental piece to
making a successful city,” he
said.
The announcement
came during a morning news
conference the day after
Supt. Eddie Johnson an-
nounced his retirement as
leader of the second-largest
municipal police force in the
country, a job he held for
more than three years.
Johnson came under
scrutiny in recent weeks as
city Inspector General Jo-
seph Ferguson continues to
investigate an incident in
which police officers found
Johnson asleep in his car last
month.
The 31-year veteran later
told the mayor he had had a
few drinks earlier than eve-
ning, according to the Chi-
cago Tribune.
Speaking to reporters
Friday, Beck praised John-
son’s efforts to tackle vi-
olence that has plagued the
Windy City for years. Beck,
who followed in his father’s
footsteps in joining the
LAPD, saw some of the de-
partment’s most tumul-
tuous days.
He joined the agency dur-
ing a strikingly different era
of policing, becoming an offi-
cer just a year before Daryl F.
Gates — a name that for
many is synonymous with
the LAPD’s aggressive, ra-
cially charged past — was
sworn in as chief.
Beck’s career ended at a
time when officers are ex-
pected to be guardians, not
warriors, and when police
seek strong, trusting re-
lationships with their com-
munities. He has witnessed
some of the most defining
moments in the LAPD’s
past: the 1992 riots that
erupted after the officers
who beat Rodney King were
acquitted, the Rampart cor-
ruption scandal, and the
federal consent decree that
followed.
As Beck rose through the
ranks, he made his mark by
rehabilitating the scandal-
plagued Rampart Division
and forging better relation-
ships with residents as he
oversaw officers in South
L.A.
Beck was sworn in as
LAPD chief in 2009, an ap-
pointee of then-Mayor Anto-
nio Villaraigosa. It was the
capstone of an unexpected
career for Beck, who initially
aspired to be a professional
motocross racer before be-
coming a police officer.
“Beck is the ideal person
to shepherd the Chicago Po-
lice Department through
this next period,” said LAPD
Chief Michel Moore, who
worked closely with Beck for
years.
“His vast experience with
police reform, strategic ap-
proaches in reducing violent
crime and ability to guide
and inspire rank-and-file po-
lice officers will be invalu-
able as the Chicago Police
Department searches for
a permanent superintend-
ent.”
“After only a few minutes
with Chief Beck, you quickly
understand both his deep
care for the well-being of his
fellow officers, as well as his
interest in ensuring they are
conducting just policing in
the areas they serve,” Chi-
cago Mayor Lori Lightfoot
said.
Beck is
interim
chief in
Chicago
By Hannah Fry
and Mark Puente
A man shot and killed his
mother and the family dog,
scrawled a bomb threat on
the wall and then turned the
gun on himself inside a Simi
Valley home Thursday, po-
lice said.
The nightmarish mur-
der-suicide occurred in the
home of the man’s aunt and
uncle, where he also was liv-
ing, in the 500 block of Fair-
field Road. The man’s
mother was visiting from the
Las Vegas area, Simi Valley
Police Cmdr. Steve Shorts
said.
The victims’ names were
not immediately provided.
“We don’t know exactly
what happened inside the
home, but some sort of dis-
pute obviously occurred
and, ultimately, it turned
into a murder-suicide,”
Shorts said.
The man’s uncle arrived
home about 7 p.m. and
found his sister-in-law’s
body lying in a pool of blood.
When authorities arrived,
they saw a note scrawled on
a wall indicating there was a
bomb in one of the bed-
rooms. They evacuated ev-
eryone from the residence
plus a few nearby homes in
the gated community and
summoned a SWAT team
and bomb squad to assess
the situation, Sgt. Chris
Johnson said.
Ultimately, authorities
determined there was no
explosive device. Instead,
during their search, they
found the dead dog and the
man’s body upstairs, John-
son said.
The gun used in the
shootings was found inside
the house. There were no
witnesses to the violence, so
detectives are working to
piece together what led to
the slayings.
“The investigation will be
based on validating the
cause of death and trying to
determine what dispute
caused the incident to oc-
cur,” Shorts said.Son kills
mother,
himself
at home
A bomb threat written
on a wall also forces
evacuation of several
Simi Valley neighbors.
By Hannah Fry“We’re here to work! We
want to work!” shouted Eli
Petzold as he stood before
the locked gates of the Mar-
ciano Art Foundation. He
was quickly joined by a
crowd of almost four dozen
people who chanted, “Let us
in! Let us in! Let us in!”
Petzold and his col-
leagues, former docents and
visitor services workers at
the museum, staged a small
but vigorous protest in re-
sponse to the Marciano Art
Foundation’s abrupt deci-
sion this week to lay off
nearly six dozen workers af-
ter a unionization attempt.
This was followed by an an-
nouncement Wednesday
that the foundation would
close indefinitely.
Several dozen of the laid-
off employees, along with
supporters (including work-
ers from other museums),
showed up at the locked
Marciano on Friday morn-
ing, some bearing pickets
that read “Shame” and
“Union Now.”
“It is one minute to 11 and
this museum should be
opening to the public!” Pet-
zold shouted as the crowd
continued to chant, “Let us
in!”Somebody yelled, “We
want to see the Alex Israel!”
— a reference to the Los An-
geles painter whose work
was on view inside the Mar-
ciano, which has been shut
since Thursday.
It is the first public action
staged by the workers, who
had been attempting to
unionize with the American
Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees
when they were laid off en
masse via email.
The museum, which was
free to the public, attributed
the decision to low attend-
ance. The union’s organ-
izers, however, say it’s a
union-busting move in-
tended to prevent its work-
ers — many of whom make
minimum wage — from or-
ganizing. On Thursday, the
union filed a charge of unfair
labor practice with the Na-
tional Labor Relations
Board.
A representative for the
museum did not return a re-
quest for comment Friday.
As workers walked a
picket line in 80-degree heat,
an organizer with a bullhorn
led a chant of “Hey! Hey! Ho!
Ho! Marciano has got to go!”
Catrina Mendoza, a former
visitor services associate at
the protest, said she was in
“disbelief ” when she got the
news of the layoffs. “Theycouldn’t face us,” she said.
“They are being cowards. No
one has reached out.”
The museum, opened in
2017, was founded by blue
jeans magnates Paul and
Maurice Marciano of Guess
jeans, and largely show-
cased work from their per-
sonal collection. Neither has
made a public statement on
the layoffs or the shutdown.
At least two artists repre-
sented in their collection,
however, have made state-
ments in support of the
workers.
Installation artist Sadie
Barnette, who has a one-
woman show on view at the
Institute of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles, posted a
statement to social media
saying that she stood with
the Marciano Art Founda-
tion’s workers.
“In a moment where ‘the
wealth gap’ is actually a part
of the public discourse, the
Marciano Art Foundation
had an opportunity to take a
tiny step in the right direc-
tion by supporting the work-
ers,” she wrote on her Insta-
gram stories, “but instead
took an unabashedly anti-
union stance by firing em-
ployees.”
Los Angeles conceptual
artist Frances Stark also is-
sued a public statement of
support.“Is the closing a sham?”
she wrote. “Why would the
museum go out like this?
What’s really going on?”
The unionization and
subsequent shutdown have
raised issues about pay equi-
ty in the art industry, where
there are broad pay dispari-
ties between museum man-
agement and entry-level
staff.
Earlier this year, a group
of museum workers called
Art + Museum Trans-
parency launched a crowd-
sourced spreadsheet in
which museum workers
anonymously shared salary
information. It revealed en-
try-level positions at many
museums that hover in the
$30,000-a-year range — posi-
tions that frequently require
advanced degrees. For work-
ers in visitor services, the
wages are generally in the vi-
cinity of minimum wage. The
picket line at the Marciano
Art Foundation on Friday
was the first public protest
by its former workers. But it
it appears that it will not be
the last.
“We have other actions in
the works,” said Izzy John-
son, a docent who serves on
the union’s organizing com-
mittee.
“This has been an amaz-
ing.... People have really
shown support.”A vigorous protest of layoffs
Workers demonstrate outside shut-down Marciano Art Foundation
By Carolina
A. MirandaA pair of Newport Beach
philanthropists have prom-
ised $50 million to a group of
environmentalists that has
long worked to protect Ban-
ning Ranch’s 401 acres from
development.
Frank and Joann Randall
surprised the nonprofit
Banning Ranch Conser-
vancy with the gift at the
group’s annual gala Sat-
urday, seeding the conser-
vancy’s acquisition fund to
try to keep the property at
Newport Beach’s western
edge — one of Southern Cali-
fornia’s largest remaining
undeveloped swaths of
coastal land — as a nature
reserve.
“It’s a considerable sum
of money,” said conservancy
Executive Director Steve
Ray. “It’s not enough to buy
Banning Ranch in and of it-
self, but it’s moving us a long
way down the road.”
The potential price tag of
any attempt to buy Banning
Ranch is unclear. The Trust
for Public Land, which is
helping the Banning Ranch
Conservancy in its efforts to
negotiate a purchase from
owner Newport Banning
Ranch, will commission an
independent appraisal to
determine the current value
of the full property, said
Paolo Perrone, project man-ager for the Trust for Public
Land’s Southern California
region.
Newport Banning Ranch
did not respond to a request
for comment Tuesday.
Perrone said he didn’t
want to speculate on a time-
line for a possible purchase
but said the current position
is exciting.
“We’re doing everything
we can to make that gener-
osity into a reality for Ban-
ning Ranch,” Perrone said.
With the $50 million for
the acquisition fund, Ray
said, the conservancy will be
more attractive for public-
private partnerships such as
the Proposition 68 outdoor-
access and parkland grantsoffered by the California
Coastal Conservancy.
Proposition 68 was ap-
proved by state voters in
June 2018 to help create
parks, protect coastal
forests and wetlands and
provide funding for outdoor
access, reduced-cost coastal
accommodations and cli-
mate adaptation.
Ray said the Randalls
had previously promised
$5 million.
“Not that $5 million
doesn’t make a difference,
but $50 million makes a huge
difference,” Ray said.
Frank Randall, an 89-
year-old retired stockbroker
and commercial real estate
developer, said he had nevergiven such a large amount.
But Banning Ranch pre-
sents a unique opportunity,
he said, and he was ready to
try to speed up the acquisi-
tion process.
“I’m not young anymore,
so I intend to do more before
I leave this good Earth,” he
said.
Randall said buildings
can be removed, but land is
never the same once it’s built
on.
“Once open space is lost,
it’s really lost for good,” he
said.
Until recently, the con-
servancy had been in protec-
tion mode. Competing inter-
ests for some or all of Ban-
ning Ranch’s scrub andgrasslands have held the
attention of developers and
preservationists for two
decades.
The Coastal Commission
blocked the most recent de-
velopment attempt — which
would have brought 895
homes, a 75-room hotel, a 20-
bed hostel and 45,100 square
feet of retail space to 62 acres
of the property — in 2016 and
again in 2017.
Shortly after the com-
mission’s second denial, the
California Supreme Court
ruled that the city’s environ-
mental impact statement,
which was part of the local
approvals for the devel-
opment, was insufficient.
The Banning Ranch Con-
servancy sued the city after
it approved the devel-
opment in 2012, saying the
move violated the city’s gen-
eral plan that prioritizes
open space in West Newport.
The state’s high court
ruled that Newport Beach
had not considered the
area’s environmentally
sensitive wildlife habitat,
and the City Council
repealed the years-old ap-
provals under court order in
November 2017.
At least six endangered
or sensitive species have
been documented at Ban-
ning Ranch: birds such as
the least Bell’s vireo, Beld-
ing’s Savannah sparrow,
California gnatcatcher,
light-footed clapper rail and
peregrine falcon; and
invertebrates including the
San Diego fairy shrimp.Davis writes for Times
Community News.A big gift to preserve Banning Ranch
SUPPORTERS OF preserving Banning Ranch celebrate the Coastal Commis-
sion’s vote to reject development on the Newport Beach land in September 2016.Allen J. SchabenLos Angeles TimesThe $50 million will
assist conservationist
efforts to buy the
Newport Beach land.
By Hillary Davis