Grandmothers Unite!

Evidence that I believe in the sincerity and helpfulness of the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is that I publish this blog under my own true name. My conviction is that if I cannot be above-board, it is not reasonable to expect Mr. Antonovich and his deputies to be open and transparent with us. And maybe they will see my fool’s courage as a challenge, and resolve to be equally daring. Also, finally, if we are honest and they turn out not to be, what a public relations coup for our side!

Me. Just kidding around! Not really grumpy.

Sometimes I remind myself of the grandmother who refuses to move out of a drug-infested neighborhood, and who faces the personal danger posed by the dealers who want nothing more than to shut her up. When I see that I am the only one using my own truthful name, it makes me a little nervous. Am I a fool? But then, Norm Hickling and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich are using their own truthful names on this blog, too, whether they want to or not.

I got these from the internet:

County of Los Angeles Supervisor Michael Dennis Antonovich

Our Benefactor, Norm Hickling

 Back in November 2013 when I began this blog my intention had been to relate several of my neighbors’ stories, but soon more and more of them began telling me that though they were willing to help out with photos and news notes, they desperately wished to remain anonymous. When I built a website for our neighborhood some years ago, one by one they all begged me not to publish pictures of their houses. Most humorous to me is the neighbor who tells me that he cannot be known because he has so much to lose, and I don’t—he wants to be sure never to have as little as I do!

It’s not as if my neighbors are unknown to the powers that are besieging us; of course those authorities know plenty about every one of us. But apparently many members of the Briggs Road Community fear that being landlocked for a decade is not the worst that can be done to them. I have no idea what worse offense Los Angeles County or other agencies may be contemplating against these good people, but I do have great respect for the creativity of the designers of this landlocking plan, whoever they may be.

You hear weird rumors about “other” depredations allegedly committed by our own supervisor. And when a member of the media chooses not to run our story, some folks explain that choice by suggesting that the newscasters and commentators are afraid that our own county officials would shut them down or even get them fired.

Miraculously, we are at a point now where officials on the staff of County of Los Angeles Supervisor Michael Antonovich appear to be working toward freeing our community. In a blogpost to follow I will list the actions we find so encouraging. Right now, my focus is on our community and its state of mind.

Our next task is to shift gears a bit and prepare to take on a share of the financial responsibility for the roads and river crossings for which we have been pleading. We never dreamed these would be free of charge. They never have been in the past but we will now be required to construct a better road and a better river crossing. Gone are the days when a bunch of guys could reassemble the culverts after a gully-washer with a tractor and a case of beer.

Formerly not such a big deal

One tiny step for a man; one giant step for Briggs Road

Some of our neighbors may be a little hesitant to join the effort. Post-traumatic stress disorder is working on all of us, and we don’t know what or whom to trust.

You can’t beat someone nearly senseless for ten long years and then expect him or her to jump bravely to her feet, fully functional. Given all that has happened, and how long it has been happening, it may take a moment for all of us to shake it off and adjust to a new reality—if in fact the new reality is really real, which is our constant concern these days.

But “they” are not really out to get us, are they? The trouble is that when there is as little explanation as there has been—as little believable explanation—people naturally assume the worst. That is a very typical response, and often a good survival tactic. I can’t imagine why Los Angeles County officials and State of California officials would not enthusiastically proffer reasonable explanations for whatever was their role in the landlocking of a neighborhood. We are hoping that as they think about it, they have realized that whatever reasons they once had, those reasons are no longer feasible. Maybe they will divulge old motives, or maybe we will never know what was behind ten long years of an excruciating commute—four or five miles of the worst dirt road anywhere, according to UPS and propane delivery drivers. I’ve driven many dirt roads shuttling my canoes all over the United States, and I have to agree.

It behooves county officials to lend extra compassionate support to this community, in the aftermath of Goliath pounding David into the ground mercilessly for ten long years. I would like to refrain from accusations, but we all know that urging Los Angeles County’s support, even advocacy, for this community is fully appropriate.

Norm Hickling has been delivering the good news that he and the rest of the staff of Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich have been hard at work and reports a fair amount of progress. But we can’t quell this niggling fear that he will also say that we have just one more little obstacle to overcome. Then I will have to hear my conspiracy-theory-prone neighbors say, “See! I told you so!” to me, and I have no good comeback for that.

I just hope, please dear God and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, that the last little obstacles are things that can, and really really will fall away. And that they really do! And then we all drive out to Soledad Canyon Road blowing kisses! Scattering roses! Calling out, “We love you Norm!”

We love you Norm! Do yourself proud. Do us right!

The World Will Know

I am going to take a charitable approach right now, because I want to present the most upbeat interpretation of events I can manage. Our positivity makes it easier for the other players in this drama to be creative and flexible—and kind. So let me spin the events of the last nine and a half years in the most positive light I can imagine.

Dawn's Early Light

What if it really is a coincidence that four different obstacles to our property access were set up within about one year? Let’s resist the appeal of a conspiracy theory for a while, just to see what we come up with.

The new owners of Oasis Park had their reasons for closing our access over their existing road. Maybe they were a little nervous about getting their new venture going.

Maybe the Metrolink office misplaced the permit for the Briggs Road railroad crossing, and so closed one of the at-grade crossings that have a perfect safety record (not all of them do) kind of by accident. We were happy and grateful when Norm Hickling reported recently that a member of Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's staff has found that permit.

A Bad Sign at the Railroad Crossing

Maybe at about the same time, Los Angeles County officials decided that the best thing to do with a tax-delinquent parcel of land was to slip it quietly and very cheaply to a state conservation agency with a history that some find controversial. Maybe it is normal for one governmental body to sell things to another governmental body at an 80% discount. It would be wasteful to do otherwise. Unfortunately the far end of Briggs Road passes through that property.

Maybe California Fish and Game officials got mixed up when they threatened to arrest any Briggser who put a tire into the Santa Clara River, or to fine any minnow-killing Briggsman $2000 per fish. Maybe they were just having a bad day, and their more reasonable treatment of other Santa Clara River crossings could really apply to Briggs Road residents as well.

Whitewater in Soledad Canyon

Got the picture? Now let me tell a famous story—famous in the Briggs Road Community, anyway.

Once upon a time, after enduring their lack of proper access for four years, after receiving promise after promise from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich that he would work very hard to restore our access, and after winning the court case that county officials told us we would have to win first, the denizens of Briggs Road got fed up and restless, and began calling the office of Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s deputy, Norm Hickling. Mr. Hickling’s response was to ask, “What the heck do you people want?” In stingier days I might have poked fun at Mr. Hickling for an incredibly silly question, but maybe that would not be fair. Supervisors and their deputies have two million people to look after, and it might not be reasonable to expect them to keep track of a little neighborhood to which they had made—and broken—several promises.

We told Mr. Hickling that we wanted out and suddenly our hills were alive with surveyors and their trucks and equipment. We were going to get a new road, a wonderful straight and level road that would be our very own. There were some glitches, such as a cliff in the path of the roadway, but we were pleased and hopeful that these little problems could be worked out.

Our present route is neither straight nor level

Then came discussions with Mountains Conservancy and Recreation Authority, the state outfit that had bought that last parcel on Briggs Road at a stupendous discount. To summarize a bit, the conservancy attorney refused to grant an easement, even becoming verbally abusive to advocates of the community.

The entire project came to an immediate halt. The conspiracy theorists among us—most of us—chose to believe that the conservancy attorney was working under the instruction of her agency, that the conservancy and the county were working hand-in-glove (as they have been known to do), and that Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s office had simply come up with a plan that made them look good while still denying residents access to blacktop at either end of Briggs Road.

Norm Hickling told me in a recent telephone conversation that this impasse is now near resolution. The argumentative attorney is no longer with the conservancy, and more reasonable heads are prevailing. The diehard conspiracy theorists among us don’t believe it. They believe Los Angeles County to be inextricably bound up with the Mountains Conservancy and Recreation Authority. But I am very tired of that negative analysis, and prefer to believe that we really are near a breakthrough.

In that telephone conversation Norm also told me that a creative solution to the river crossing was under discussion, and assured me that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife was much easier to deal with than our conspiracy theorists have made them seem.

Okay. I want to believe Norm. He comes across as a very kind and caring man, especially if I choose to trust what he says. I am troubled that a recent news story by our local radio station KHTS has quoted him as reluctant to be optimistic, but anyone who helps supervise two million people has clout and help and resources beyond my poor imaginings. I believe with all my heart that Norm Hickling can make this thing finally happen.

When we from the Briggs Road Community tell our story to others, the most common response is, “They can’t do that! Isn’t that illegal?” And so, in order to tell our story in the most believable way I can manage, I refuse any credence in conspiracy or skullduggery. The most I will say about hidden agenda is to note the peculiar coincidence of events. I will tell, in other words, the most believable story I can manage, while still telling the truth.

Mr. Norm Hickling has demonstrated what I believed he could do all along. He has shown that he is capable of creating change, and that he is strong enough to publicize that change. I have immense respect for him for that. But you must understand this: there are folks around here who impute trickery to Norm’s actions. They insist on believing that the four besiegers of the Briggs Road Community are in tight cahoots, and that when one blockage fails, county officials will erect another one, until we all fall down. Some folks expect a disappointment of the nature of the Great Survey.

Join me, if you will, in the belief that Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and his deputies have the will and the power to accomplish what they said they would from day one. Join me in the belief that they are, and have been, sincere.

Red in the Morning

I can think of a dozen ways that Mr. Antonovich’s office, in the capable hands of Mr. Hickling and others, can negotiate and persuade our way out of this encirclement. I will not yet state any of my ideas, so that all of them will be available for ownership by the real movers and shakers. I have total faith, and absolutely no doubt that a supervisor of Los Angeles County can break the Briggs Road Landlock.

And so know this: if through some equally creative turn of events legal access for the Briggs Road Community is once again delayed, in the hope that we will once again be lulled to sleep for another seven years, we will know for certain that we were foolish and naïve to believe again. And the world will know, this time.

This time, the world will know.