|
www.ushollywood.net A Coalition of
residential
organizations devoted to:
|
|
www.ushollywood.net A Coalition of
residential
organizations devoted to:
|
|
Chamber to Honor a Distinct
Woman By ANNA SCOTT 10.MAY.07 The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce hosts its annual Women of Distinction Awards luncheon next week, honoring women in the community who have made a strong commitment to Hollywood, including Renee Weitzer, chief planning deputy to City Councilman Tom LaBonge. Weitzer, who has more than 20 years of experience working for the city, got her start in urban planning as a community activist more than three decades ago. The stay-at-home mother was president of her local homeowners association in Encino when a neighbor asked her to join a group of residents at a City Council meeting to protest a nearby development project. “I never knew City Hall existed prior to that,” Weitzer said. “It was the first time I’d ever been to City Hall and I somehow got taken by it.” Not long after that first visit, Weitzer led the opposition against another proposed project that threatened to uproot her local playground. Other causes followed, and Weitzer became her neighborhood’s de facto spokeswoman. “I knew all the councilmen because I would go down [to City Hall] and lobby for the homeowners association,” she said. In 1980, then-Councilman Joel Wachs offered her a part-time job on his planning staff. “I decided that volunteering was getting old because people don’t appreciate it. … So I decided, OK,” she said. Since then she has worked under 4th District Councilman John Ferraro and now his successor LaBonge, transitioning to a full-time hire along the way. Despite her professional status, however, Weitzer says her philosophy is still rooted in her days as a community activist. “I learned all my zoning and planning just fighting issues in Encino,” she said. “I find a lot of planners who come out of school are very theoretical. … I don’t think a lot of it is practical. I look at it like I decorate my home; I just kind of decorate the buildings.” One of the projects Weitzer is most proud of is the Grove, which she was closely involved with from its inception. “The one thing I said was … I didn’t think that it should be a closed mall. I took the developers to Fashion Island in Newport Beach,” another outdoor, landscaped shopping center, Weitzer said, and with the exception of “a couple of elements” she thinks the Grove “came out great.” She added, “There’s some criticism, obviously, with everything you do,” and admitted that traffic is an inescapable issue with every project. Currently, Weitzer is involved in several mixed-use developments proposed for the Hollywood area and is particularly enthused about NoHo Commons, a North Hollywood project in the Lankershim Arts District slated to include live/work lofts along with a seven-screen Laemmle Theater. “I feel really, really lucky to be working and to have this job that I love,” said the grandmother of two. “Today, who would hire a person who’s 69 and a half? Nobody. I feel very lucky to get to have this job and keep it. I just had some recent surgery and I was out for a month and I couldn’t wait to get back to work. I’ll never retire.” The other recipients at this year’s Women of Distinction Awards luncheon, to be held May 15 at the Globe Theatre at Universal Studios, include Gay Blackstone of the Academy of Magical Arts; Kaiser Permamente’s Gail Koretz and Christi Van Cleve of Roschen Van Cleve Architects. The Women of Distinction fundraiser is the largest fundraiser of the year for the Hollywood Community Foundation, which has given more than $30,000 in grant money to Hollywood charities since 1998. Yours, for a nicer Hollywood, John
Ehretz [ Index ] |
