After over-coming drug addiction and a near death accident that left him a paraplegic, Gabriel Cordell, a Palestinian, became the first person to travel across the United States using a manual wheelchair. “Roll with Me”, a new documentary film, recounts Gabriel’s 99-day journey across America. The public is invited to attend a special screening and meet Gabriel on February 16 at the first of Congregation Am HaYam’s 2017 lecture series, “Empowering, Provocative, Thoughtful.”
The series also includes a lecture on March 22nd by Rebecca D. Costa, socio-biologist, recipient of the E.O Wilson Biodiversity Technology Award and author of “The Watchman’s Rattle”. On April 30, Ronni Sanlo, LGBTQ activist, educator and author of “The Soldier, The Avatar and the Holocaust” will speak about her new young adult book based on her parents’ correspondence during the liberation of Dachau.
Tickets are available at www.amhayam.com/events for $15-18 each or $36 for all three lectures, and on www.eventbrite.com. 4839 Market Street Unit C
I am a volunteer with Buddy Nation, a registered non-profit organization in Ventura whose mission is to work with the county’s homeless people and their pets. Our goal is to give practical help to those who need it – both 2 and 4 footed. We provide pet food and bedding, spaying/neutering, vaccinations and licenses, microchipping, veterinary services – both routine and emergency and specialized.
To accomplish this we collaborate with S.P.A.N. (Spay/Neuter Animal Network), the Ventura County Animal Services, C.A.R.L. (Canine Animal Rescue League), The Humane Society, S.P.A.R.C. (Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center), Ventura Avenue Luxury Boarding and our local veterinarians.
We work with churches and hospitals and hospice to help get people back on their feet and back into regular lives. We have had wonderful success stories: a young woman was hospitalized for 9 days with a serious illness. While she was in the hospital, the kennel kept her Pit Bull safe and loved – at no expense. The woman and her beloved dog are now re-united in another state with her family and doing well. All she needed was someone to help her back on her feet. We did that, with the help of our aforementioned friends.
Our experience from being on the streets, at the river bottom, at cars, vans, trucks is that most of the homeless people are folks who are down on their luck and trying to get back on their feet. They are middle class, middle aged, are not crazy, drunks or junkies. They have lost jobs, fallen behind on house payments, had catastrophic medical bills that have wiped them out. They don’t want to be living on the streets, in their cars or vans but ended up there.
Sure, there are the people who drink or use drugs. Sure, there are the wild and crazy ones … but that is not the face of homelessness here. The people we work with want to get back to normal lives – they want housing, food on the table, safety and security. They want to be warm at night, and they want their beloved pets with them.
We have had people die and we do what we can to help make this final transition easier – even if it means pulling someone out of the river bottom and booking him into a high-end motel until his hospice bed became available. The person I’m referring to did pass away, but he knew that people cared for him at the end, and that his little dog is in a loving home (mine) .
Buddy Nation does what we do to give dignity back to people who have been reduced to none.
We all must remember that any of us could become homeless, given the right circumstances. Think about this the next time you see a homeless person – and smile and say hello – and be , it’s not you.
Kirby is excited about seeing older neighborhoods re-bloom with developments like the Cannery.
by Randal Beeman
[Note: The author owns a home and lives at the Cannery]
Is it occupied? Are they condos? Can I rent there? For residents of the Cannery condo development in downtown Ventura these questions accompany the acknowledgement that you indeed live in the 78- unit collection of studio to three bedroom condos.
Conceived several years ago and a survivor of economic downturns and other challenges, the Cannery has now reached 75% occupancy, which triggers a turnover of managing the complex from the developer to the tenant owned housing association, an event set for some time in late-Spring.
The Breeze recently sat for an interview with Kirby Ram, the Sales Manager, to discuss the significance of high density infill projects like the Cannery, which got its name from the former lima bean cannery that existed on the site before developers began to clear the area several years back.
When asked if she had taken any criticism for “gentrifying” the area at the edge of downtown on Ventura Avenue, Ram suggested that while some people are uncomfortable with change, the revival of Downtown Ventura in recent years is partially contingent on the influx of new residents to the area.
am, a UCLA graduate in her early 30s, has worked on several real estate projects in Southern California and she is excited about seeing older neighborhoods re-bloom with developments like the Cannery. “Look at Venice 10 or 15 years ago” Ram stated, “very few people could see that it would become an upscale enclave of galleries and eateries…we believe Downtown Ventura is undergoing a similar upsurge.” While the condos were initially conceived as a remedy for Ventura’s limited housing inventory, Ram has been surprised that many of the buyers come from the inland regions of Southern California.
Several of the units still left unsold were set aside as part of the city’s “inclusionary housing” program for those residents who meet the guidelines for subsidized housing. Some of the market rate units have been purchased by retirees and young professionals, while others have been bought by investors as rental units or for summer or weekend second homes. Additionally, dedicated retail space was also part of the city’s requirements for the developer, though no companies have yet to sign a lease for the retail units available on Ventura Avenue.
The Cannery is the third condo development in the downtown area in recent years, with several more either slated for construction or in the planning process. With some of the lowest prices in the coastal region in a tight real estate market, Ram expects the remainder of the Cannery’s units to sell in the near future. Downtown Ventura continues to change and grow, and the addition of new residents will bolster the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of Downtown Ventura.
While your network at home or at work may be secure, you should assume that any network you connect to when traveling cannot be trusted. You never know who else is on it and what they may be doing. Here are some simple steps that go a long way to protecting you and your data before you travel:
The safest information is information you don’t have. Identify what data you need and only bring that information. This can significantly reduce the impact if your devices are lost, stolen, or impounded by customs or border security.
Lock your mobile devices with a strong passcode. if it’s stolen or lost, people cannot access your information on it. Also, enable full disk encryption. For most mobile devices, this is automatically enabled when you use a screen lock.
Install or enable remote tracking software. Some kinds can even remotely wipe the device.
Update all your devices’ applications, and anti-virus software before leaving. Many attacks focus on systems with outdated software.
Do a complete backup of all your devices. This way, if something does happen to them while traveling, you still have all of your original data in a secured location.
Once you begin your travel, ensure the physical safety of your devices. For example, never leave your devices in your car where people can easily see them, as criminals may simply smash your car’s window and grab anything of value they can see. While crime is definitely a risk, according to a recent Verizon study, people are 100 times more likely to lose a device than have it stolen. This means always double-check that you still have your devices when you travel, such as when you clear security at the airport, leave a taxi or restaurant, check out of a hotel room, or before you disembark from your airplane. Remember to check that seat back pocket.
Accessing the Internet while traveling often means using public Wi-Fi access points, such as ones you find at a hotel, a local coffee shop, or the airport. There are two problems with public Wi-Fi: you are never sure who set them up and you never know who is connected to them. As such, they should be considered untrusted. In fact, this is why you took all the steps to secure your devices before you left.
In addition, Wi-Fi uses radio waves, which means anyone physically near you can potentially intercept and monitor those communications. For these reasons, you need to ensure all of your online activity is encrypted. For example, when connecting online using your browser, make sure that the websites you are visiting are encrypted. You can confirm this by looking for ‘HTTPS://’ and/or an image of a closed padlock in your address or URL bar. In addition, you may have what is called a VPN (Virtual Private Network), which can encrypt all of your online activity when enabled. This may be issued to you by work, or you can purchase VPN capabilities for your own personal use. If you are concerned that there is no Wi-Fi you can trust, consider tethering to your smartphone. Warning: this can be expensive when traveling internationally. Check with your service provider first.
Cappi Patterson lead the discussion on helping the homeless and their pets.
On Monday, Jan. 30 a group of more than twenty concerned citizens held a luncheon at the Spaghetti Factory on Loma Vista to discuss how to best serve the homeless and their pets. It was organized by Cappi Patterson and Debi Reeves on behalf of Buddy Nation.
Buddy Nation was formed by Debi Reeves to address the large population of homeless people and their beloved pets in Ventura. The homeless and their pets live in river bottoms, bushes, cars and trucks or wherever they can find shelter for the night. The economy has forced more and more people to lose their homes, and some end up on the streets. Many are there because they won’t give up their pets in order to find housing.
Attending the event were Buddy Nation volunteers and representatives from Supervisor Steve Bennett’s office, Ventura County Animal Services, Project Understanding, Mission Church, Humane Society, and several other organizations and individuals.
Those attending learned that there are many services available for the homeless and their pets that they were not familiar with. Breeze publisher Sheldon Brown volunteered to gather information (including their emails)from the various groups so that it and available to all of the various organizations dealing with the homeless population and their specific needs.
An interview with Ally Gialketsis, co-founder and Board Chair, Ventura Food Co-Op
Tell us about yourself.
I work for a non-profit called Food Forward which rescues produce that would otherwise go to waste and donating 100% to people in need. I grew up in Santa Paula but have lived in the city of Ventura for 4 1/2 years.
Whose idea was it to start the co-op?
Two of my climber friends, Erin McQuilkin, Nicole Cornell, and I were discussing the idea of having a co-op grocery store back in 2013/14.
Why?
We were unhappy with the current places to shop. We wanted bulk options, local, organic produce, and transparency.
When did you actually start to put it together?
We began watching webinars in January 2014 to learn more about what it entails to create a cooperative grocery store. After 6 months, we pulled together an advisory/steering committee and started having regular meetings. Much of the work up to now has been learning, building the internal structure of the organization, working on legal documents, and doing outreach.
What is the progress so far?
We are currently in the organizing stage. We hosted our first public meeting in March of 2015 and our first large fundraiser in April of 2016, a partnership with Slow Food Ventura County. In October of 2016, we launched our membership drive.
How many members do you have?
We currently have 49 member-owners.
Who else is on your board?
Melissa Rubin, Ron Whitehurst, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Crawford Coates
What are the next steps? What is your vision?
Next step is to raise funds, to do feasibility and market studies to determine the best location.
We envision having a brick and mortar grocery store that is owned by the people who shop there. We also hope to provide a community space for people to gather, learn, share, and organize. Some ideas expressed by co-op supporters, members, and Ventura residents are to host gardening and cooking workshops, to have local non-profit meetings, to open the space for anyone to come and hang out, relax, eat, socialize, etc.
How do you propose to raise the funds? Do you have a timetable?
We will raise the funds through a combination of membership dues, preferred shares, donations, grants, fundraisers, and loans. We will open the doors when we have enough community investment. The timeline is dependent on community participation.
Why should someone join if the actual store is a long ways away?
When people become member-owners, they are getting behind the larger movement of promoting local, organic food production (& consumption) in Ventura County. By supporting a project like the Ventura Food Co-op, we are investing in our health, our environment, and our community.
How does someone join?
To learn more and become a member-owner, visit venturafoodcoop.com. With questions, email [email protected].
A recent meeting was held at school district headquarters to discuss racism concerns.
by Sheli Ellsworth
Since the January 13 tweet by two Buena High School students containing altered images of themselves holding nooses around two black men, the community has erupted in protest. The school district is fielding phone calls, the students are facing discipline, and a group of local organizations have called for the district to take steps against racism and discrimination.
The group demands the district adopt three resolutions: safe haven status for all students; ethnic studies classes; adopting a program called restorative justice, in which people involved in a dispute talk about it. The group spoke at a meeting of the Ventura Unified School District board.
“Sending an apology letter isn’t enough anymore,” Ocil Herrejon, a youth organizer for CA– USE, the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy. “In the current political climate, we need to address these issues, make a safe haven for students of color on campus.”
Yes, school should be a safe place for all students. But is it possible that one incident isn’t a fair representation of Buena students or district policies?
In the seventh grade, my best friend, Dawn, and I were bored. It was the seventies, a decade— without cell phones, internet or satellite TV. But hey, we were capable of entertaining ourselves. We weren’t spoiled rich kids. We could sew, cook, and be creative—and stupid.
One winter day, we were discussing rumors that our single male history teacher was dating our single female PE teacher. Tame stuff by today’s standards, but I was a Perry Mason fan who understood extortion, my friend—a gifted writer. Together we were middle school morons who regaled ourselves by writing a blackmail letter. We exorcised our boredom by imagining our teachers’ faces when they found out that someone was on to their little tête-à-têtes. Would they be embarrassed? Would they pay for our silence? It was all in the wording: careful, adult-type wording.
Did we send the letter? Nope. And thank goodness there was no Twitter or Instagram.
Did we ever plan to extort money from our teachers? Nope. But Dawn and I became steeped in scandal. My mother found the letter. The torn, discarded pages were discovered by my mom who was certain that I was a budding sociopath—a criminal in the making—a peccant, penitentiary-worthy juvenile delinquent! She was prepared to call the police, the school and the district attorney.
How did I get off death row? A levelheaded, loving adult spoke up on my behalf. My grandmother talked my estrogen-challenged mother off the ledge. Grandma was a wise woman who knew that kids did stupid things— like writing blackmail letters and pretending to be white supremacist racists. (Isn’t it Dr. Phil who says, “never expect children to deal with adult issues?”) We now know that our brain is not mature until our mid-twenties, but my grandmother had figured it out long before neuroscience did.
I didn’t grow up to be an extortionist or even a criminal. My friend Dawn now owns an insurance agency, so I guess you could say that she is “still in the extortion biz.” Neither of us have ever been jailed or have ever made money illegally unless you count the money we found in change slots. Maybe doing stupid things is just a part of being a kid . . . maybe taking it down a notch is another way to approach the problem.
Sheli Ellsworth, a former school guidance counselor, has a master’s degree in psychology. Her latest book, Ex Parte: Episodes of existential fiction from BeachHouse Books has recently received a five-star review from Book Junkie Reviews.
Evan Carpenter with Cathy Peterson and Brad Bauer on KPPQ.
It’s here at CAPS Media by Elizabeth Rodeno
Lots of things are springing anew at CAPS Media this month! Out with the old and in with the shiny new HD cameras! At CAPS Media we’re saying goodbye to the old SD cameras that have long served CAPS members in our studio and bringing in HD cameras and upgraded equipment. Although the studio will be shut down for upgrades for the month of February, we’re still lending cameras and equipment. Come back in March to check out the new studio!
Also coming up in March are our regularly scheduled classes. Become a member this month, when you take the March Orientation Class, happening Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 6:00 PM. We will also be offering HD Camera Class on Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 6:00 PM and Final Cut X Edit Class on Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 6:00 PM. Once the studio is up and running we will schedule studio classes – a 2 session course on Saturdays. More information can be found at http://www.capsmedia.org/events. Registration begins March 1st.
As we do every year, we’ll be covering the St. Patrick’s Day parade live from Main Street on March 11 at 10am with our hosts, Tim O’Neil and Jerry Breiner. If you can’t make it to the parade, tune in and enjoy the festivities from home or your mobile device!
CAPS Media has 6 video programs that are finalists in the the Alliance of Community Media West’s 2017 Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) Awards and winners will be announced in March. ACMW’s Mission is to promote civic engagement through community media and CAPS Media could not be happier to have these programs nominated. We’ll keep you posted on the results.
And the very most exciting news of all- Ventura’s newest radio station has launched! Thanks to all the staff, in particular Evan Carpenter, with the support of the board, members and the city and local contractor,Eagle Pride Construction Inc., our long preparation and an exciting Friday installing the radio antenna, the “ON AIR” sign is lit up! Have you ever wanted to host your own radio show? Do you think that vinyl sounds better and your old collection hasn’t seen enough use lately? We invite you to share your stories and voice on KPPQ-LP 104.1 FM. Or just tune in! What could be better for your commute than local radio programming, created by and for your community?
As always, you can watch channel 6 to hear what the public has to say and watch channel 15 to experience the city’s vision to provide the best and clearest information for all. All programs are also available to the public via streaming service on our website.Go to www.capsmedia.org to see what our members are creating for you and sign up to be part of the story. A full year’s membership is just $25. Radio memberships are now available! For more information, contact us at [email protected].
A Christian group using scriptures and the 12 steps which ministers to individuals, their families and loved ones who suffer from the consequences of any addictive behavior. We recover together as we meet to study and grow with open discussions. The ministry is all welcoming, regardless of age, race, lifestyle, background. They meet weekly on Monday nights at 159 Barnard Way in Ventura from 6:30 – 8pm. There is ample parking in the Community Presbyterian Church parking lot. If you have any questions, please call Jeri Bendot at 804-2870 or Joe Bendot at 804-2871.
“Sending an apology letter isn’t enough anymore,” Ocil Herrejon, a youth organizer for CA– USE, the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy. “In the current political climate, we need to address these issues, make a safe haven for students of color on campus.”
