Category: People Of The Green

A Walk Around the Green

11/21/2023

Story and photos by Matthew Archer

This morning I woke up early and started my day as usual. In the kitchen I prepared coffee, carried it upstairs and sat at my desk to check email. Then, I stepped out my front door in Court 10 and joined the concrete footpath leading to West Green. It was my first walk in several weeks, and as I strode into golden sunlight filtering through the olive trees, I felt bathed in a familiar tranquility. With each return to these walking paths, I wonder why I don’t do it more often. Yet here they are when I come back to them.

Alien Invades Village Green! Community Fights Back!

9/14/2023

By Patrick Comiskey

The sound started at night, after dark, interrupting the post-twilight hours in the days after the hurricane, when the whole property, verdant and lush, had been revived by the rains. Travis Lent (Court 5) and his wife Jess were the first to hear it: a weird chirping sound, rhythmic and regular, high pitched, and very, very annoying.

Lent is no stranger to rhythmic sounds—he plays percussion for a two-person band called Mirthquake—but this, like a cross between a birdsong and a smoke alarm, was just irritating. “It sounded electronic, with perfect intervals,” he said, “like a smoke alarm with a dying battery,” adding: “That’s a sound I really hate.” However if it was a smoke alarm, it was acting strangely: the device would chirp for just fifteen minutes and then go silent.

After two irritating nights he contacted Security, thinking they’d be able to help him track down which of his neighbors was too lazy to change a nine-volt battery.

Georgia on my Mind

8/10/2023

By Nat Hutton, photo by Lucy Fried

Photo of Georgia Lumpkin in her Village Green patio

Our neighbor Georgia Lumpkin died peacefully this past week, aged 101, just two years after her husband Ted passed away. Georgia and Ted moved to the Village Green in 2001; after Ted passed, Georgia was the Village Green’s oldest resident.

We will miss her tremendously. If you did not know this lady, you missed an experience that you will never capture with any other human being in life. If you ever visited Georgia on her wonderful patio garden, she would give you a lesson on plants, their life and how to care for all the wonderful things she grew. She often extended that knowledge to area schools and students; very few people could match her knowledge of plants and trees—those trees, and all the greenery on the property, were part of the reason she loved living here at the Village Green.

So long Georgia, you can never be replaced!

Tags: People of the Green, Remembrances, Online-only Stories

MEET LINDA POLLARI, VG FACILITIES ENGINEER

5/31/2023

By Lucy Fried

A registered architect, Linda Pollari, has been Village Green’s Design Review Committee consultant since 2018 and the Green’s fulltime facilities engineer since February. This interview introduces Linda and opens a window on the challenges of her job. It is the first of a series of VG staff interviews.

Linda Pollari by the olive allee near the Clubhouse. Photo by Zig

Resident Appointed to City Cultural Affairs Department

5/20/2023

By Molly O’Brien, Court 14

Court 14 resident Asantewa Olatunji was sworn in on May 3rd as a commissioner for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). She had been nominated by Mayor Karen Bass.

The DCA promotes arts and culture as a way to ignite powerful dialogue and ensure that LA's varied cultures are recognized, acknowledged, and experienced. Olatunji has been an integral player in shaping the cultural landscape of Los Angeles for 30+ years as General Manager and Director of Programming for the Pan African Film + Arts Festival (PAFF). She originated PAFF’s annual fine arts show, which attracts an estimated 75,000 people annually.

Closer to home, in summer 2021 Olatunji facilitated the VG Cultural Affairs Committee's screening of To Sleep with Anger and subsequent conversation with the film's renowned director, Charles Burnett.

"I am thrilled and excited about this appointment,” she said.

Congratulations, Asantewa!

Tags: Community News, People of the Green, Online-only Stories

Dear Reader, a Note from Highlights' Editor

5/18/2023

Dear Reader,

Did you enjoy May’s four-page printed Highlights newsletter? For June, as you see, we are back to two pages. This will likely be the norm for Highlights until someone with a knack for graphic design comes forward to help.

But there are more things that need to be seen. Thank you for visiting our new “News & Articles” webpage to read additional Highlights content!

While you're here, please be sure to read the other recent articles that didn't make it into the June newsletter: an interview with VG Facilities Engineer Linda Pollari, a City tribute to a VG resident, and a photo saga of a fallen Court 10 elm.

Please come back to this "News & Articles" page regularly for updates, committee news, interviews, articles, photo stories, and more!

Sincerely,
Lucy Fried, Editor

Tags: Communications Committee, People of the Green

Resident Appointed to Mayor’s Task Force

4/22/2023

VG’s Safety Committee reported that longtime Court Council chair Nat Hutton has been appointed to Mayor Bass’ Homeless Task Force.

Years ago, Nat operated L.A. Family Housing, the largest homeless shelter in the San Fernando Valley. Here at the Green, he informally monitors the homeless situation on our perimeters and stays in touch with LAPD officers.

Tags: Community News, Court Council, People of the Green

In Memory of Luther Stowe

4/16/2023

By Village Green Manager Sherri Giles

It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that Luther Stowe has passed away.

Luther spent 24 years working at Village Green, and he will be missed dearly by his VG family. He was at times stubborn and cantankerous, but those of you who knew him know that was his well-practiced exterior and that underneath there was a very sweet, funny, thoughtful, and caring person.

He will be remembered at a tree-planting dedication ceremony later this year.

Luther Stowe in 2014, Photo by Sherri Giles

Tags: People of the Green, Remembrances

fEBRUARY 2023 BOARD NEWS

2/28/2023

Compiled by P.J.C.

The February 28 Board meeting drew 38 people, including the nine Board members, staff, residents, and guests Gina Fields and Kathy Guyton from the Empowerment Congress West Area (ECWA).

Topics discussed include our new Facilities Engineer, serpentine wall repair, landscape restoration along Sycamore Ave., and more!

Kay Brown Memorial

12/11/2022

Please join family, friends, and neighbors at the Clubhouse on Sunday, January 22, to celebrate the life of our beloved Kay Brown, who passed away at 87 late last year.

"Remembering Morro Bay," Linocut. Edition by Kay Brown

Remembering Beloved Neighbor and Artist Kay Brown

11/13/2022

Photo by Deb Attoinese

Kay Brown succumbed to cancer on October 23 at age 87, a diagnosis that had gone undetected until a freak accident and hospitalization in September involving a fallen tree limb near her Court 16 home. On that day, neighbors rallied around her, and after the ensuing diagnosis they did so again, raising $11,000 on GoFundMe to help with medical costs. Because she was such a consummate neighbor, mother, grandmother, teacher and friend, we asked those who knew her to remember her in these pages, to remind us all that friendship is the connective tissue that binds our community. (Edited for brevity and clarity) –P.J.C.

New Benches on the Green

11/13/2022

By Lucy Fried

Good news! Village Green has two new benches: one is in Court 14 near the Sycamore allée west of the Main Green, and the other is between courts 3 and 4. Both face the Main Green.

The benches were donated by Georgia Lumpkin in remembrance of her husband, Ted Lumpkin, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed fighter group who broke the U.S. Air Force’s color barrier during World War ll. He died from COVID on December 26, 2020, just four days short of turning 101.

From left, standing: daughter Ellen Lumpkin Brown, grandson Theo Lumpkin, Carol Walker, Cynthia Singleton, Bernie Altman. Sitting: Georgia Lumpkin and Nat Hutton

Up to His Eyeballs: Board VP Joe Khoury’s Role in Repurposing Food Waste

10/22/2022

By Ted Robbins, Court 1

Board Vice President Joe Khoury was thrilled when the Village Green implemented California’s new law mandating household food waste be recycled. As Supervising Scientist at LA County’s Sanitation District, he knows exactly what happens to that
waste. “We collect it and convert it to fuel for cars,” he says.

Five Things You Don’t Know about Security Officer Issac Reese

10/22/2022

From the series “Get to Know Your Friendly Local Security Officers” - by P.J.C.

Get to Know your Neighbors, Halloween Edition

10/15/2022

By P.J.C. with help from Steven Chiu Liu, Feliza Kohan, Bob McGinness, and Jessica Lent. Photo assistance, Travis Lent.

Michael Myers, Court 3, is sort of a shy guy, keeps to himself; if you see him in the laundry room he’ll probably just issue a grunt in passing. He loves kids, especially teenagers, loves to hear them laugh and scream. In his garage you’ll find a vast collection of sharp objects; during the recent inspection, he was cited for the dark stain found in one corner.

Frida spends her days in her Court 7 flat painting ruminative self-portraits and sipping mezcal out of an orthopedic shoe. On the Dia del Muerto she plans to sing “Moon over Venice” in honor of her sister, Silvia, and light a candle in her memory. Look for her during the Halloween procession; she’ll be the one walking with a limp.

Returning from Irwindale some years ago, a man (let’s call him “Bob”) experienced an insatiable craving for hot sauce. Before long, he wouldn’t answer to anything but “Sriracha Man.” If you trick or treat his Court 2 home on Halloween, don’t expect any candy; Sriracha Man passes out packets of hot sauce. Suck it, wimps.

Hulk Hogan’s recent proposal to the Board to convert the clubhouse to a Crunch gym was narrowly defeated; he’s challenged the Board to a tag team cage match in response—details in the December Highlights. He plans to dole out moustache wax and kettle bells to the kids for Halloween this year.

Dear Neighbor...

8/19/2022

A new column from former HIGHLIGHTS editor Lucy Fried

It was a wonderful honor to be invited to write a recurring column for HIGHIGHTS, and I can’t think of any topic more import-ant to launch with than safety. I want to think that our Village is immune to crime, but of course it cannot be and never has been. In fact, back in the very early 2000’s, Don and I were burglarized, and I still remember the feeling of violation when I found my drawers and closets ransacked and precious items stolen.

Five Things You Don’t Know about Post Commander Al Johnson