Socal Mom by Donna Schwartz Mills

VIP Treatment and a Reality Check

Today has been one of those days that can only happen when you are a mom blogger in Los Angeles.

it began with an email from Daphne Brogdon, a writer I was aware of through the LA mom blogging community, but had never met.

"Dear Fellow Bloggers: Some of you I know well, others not as much, but I wanted to invite you all to lunch I'm going to host July 10th at my husband's restaurant, Campanile. "

Hold on. I know the wife of one of LA's star chefs? (because now that we're emailing one another, I can call her a friend, right?) The man behind one of the city's best restaurants I've never dined at?

I let that news sink in a little before reading the rest of the message.

"It will be a small group and give you an opportunity to get to know City Councilman Eric Garcetti. I'm not raising money, but I want women of influence in the city to talk to him, ask him questions, voice concerns. He can get to know you as well. We have known him and his family for years and are impressed with his character and vision for Los Angeles."

Well, there you have it. As a member of the MOMocrats, I couldn't turn down an opportunity to meet the man who may be the next Mayor of Los Angeles. And a meal at Campanile had (almost) nothing to do with it.


So that's how I found myself in a private room with the Councilman and some of my favorite LA bloggers. He was charming and smart, and interested in hearing the concerns of a room full of local moms (including the Councilman's own mother, who is a kick in the pants).

And he does indeed have a vision for Los Angeles: as a city of neighborhoods where the people and businesses and public institutions work together instead of against one another... as one that makes good use of technology (instead of relying on the current antiquated methods that didn't work all that well 50 years ago). Garcetti is known for implementing new technology when he was president of the LA City Council, and said he would be interested in pursuing an alliance with Code For America. He wants to be L.A.'s "high tech Mayor." 

But the conversation really got intense when we talked about the one subject that will ALWAYS engage a room full of moms: what to do about our public schools.

Councilman Garcetti used to teach public policy at Occidental College and USC, so he has some first hand experience with education. We also learned that he was a Rhodes Scholar. He told us of inroads he made with poorly performing schools in his council district, and how he believes schools need to be re-integrated as the centers of community in our sprawling, complicated, multi-ethnic city.

He gave each of us an opportunity to talk with him one on one; urging us to contact him to continue the conversation. And I think he really meant it; that if I email him with more questions (and I have a bundle), he'll actually answer.

As for the restaurant: every morsel we tasted was delicious, from eggplant burrata to Chef Mark Peel's famous grilled cheese sandwiches. Dessert was a parfait of lavender-infused chocolate ice cream with the best chocolate chip cookies I've tasted in a long time. I was proud of myself for taking just a few bites. Let me tell you: it wasn't easy.

And Daphne couldn't have been any more gracious - and funny. (It turns out she is not just a blogger but a comedian, too. And now that we've met in person, I've decided I get to start referring to her as my friend. Because that is the rule.)

I walked away feeling very important: after all, I had just enjoyed a meal in one of the city's best restaurants with the man who may be our next Mayor.

Then it was back to reality: Megan and I stopped off at home to check on our dog before running back out to grab some groceries... And we locked ourselves out.

With no way to get back into the house, we decided to walk to the air conditioned, wi-fi enabled comfort of Starbucks. (Did I mention the uncomfortable boot protecting my broken toe? Or that I'm wearing an uncomfortable lady shoe on my other foot? Or that it is frickin' 100 degrees out?)

And let me tell you: it wasn't an easy walk, not with trying not to trip over the uneven sidewalk on my street, which is dotted with shallow-rooted trees. Earlier this year, the City Council declared that LA homeowners are now responsible for sidewalk repairs in front of their property (not that the City has been taking care of it anyway, even though by law, they were supposed to).

I guess I should have asked Councilman Garcetti about that. Good thing I know how to reach him.

Learn more about Eric Garcetti's campaign for Mayor at http://www.ericgarcetti.com/.

DISCLOSURES: As impressed as I was with the Councilman, I have not yet decided who will get my vote in 2013. But this meeting gave me the incentive I need to begin researching the candidates who are in the running -- and Garcetti definitely has a head start. In fact, the more I read about him, the more I like him.

Those of us who attended the luncheon received a gift card that will enable us to return to Campanile for some appetizers. I can assure you that as I've wanted to sample the food there for something like 20 years, I would have written about the restaurant anyway.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Social Media Road Trip

Yesterday, I described our very long drive back to Los Angeles after spending Independence Day up in Sacramento.

This is something we're beginning to do with some regularity: My husband and I took 101 back home on a visit last year -- and our Spring break college tour also concluded with a road trip down the coast (although that time, we were leaving from San Francisco).

Gareth and I enjoy these trips -- but we've also had some of our biggest fights on the road, and over the silliest things: Navigation, especially when we get off the highway in search of a place to eat. The fact that we're already hungry doesn't help.

This time, when I realized that we would be passing through the Bay Area around noon, I decided to try something new: I tweeted a shout-out to some of my friends who live in Silicon Valley, asking where we should stop for lunch.

It didn't take long to get an answer:

Just in case you aren't already following Stefania, a.k.a. CityMama: She is a woman who knows good food when she tastes it. She also cooks it and shares her recipes. I would follow her blindly into any establishment with a kitchen -- her recommendation is golden. 

We usually set a course that passes us through San Jose before we get onto 101 -- but since we were still early in our journey, it was just as easy to re-route ourselves to Palo Alto. 

We arrived in Palo Alto exactly when we expected: 12:30 p.m., in the middle of lunch hour. The town, as always, looked beautiful.

We easily located the Sprout Cafe, which was just as wonderful as Stefania said it would be -- and crowded (which was to be expected). I noted that Sprout has its own iPhone app you can download to place take-out orders (not surprising, as Palo Alto is the epicenter of Silicon Valley) -- something to keep in mind for the next time we do this trip.

Gareth loves piers, and has been aching to visit one for quite some time. Once we hit Palo Alto, our route snaked through northern California's coastal farmlands, where we passed fields upon fields of crops like garlic and lettuce, and cherry and peach orchards. It did not make sense to head back to the coast until we hit San Luis Obispo, which is only a hop, skip and a jump from Avila Beach.

We located the Hanford Pier using a navigation app -- and had an encounter with some lively pelicans, who were stealing scraps from the local fishermen:

We explored the pier for a while. Children were dancing to Beatles songs performed acoustically by a local entertainer at one of the pier's seafood restaurants. It was 6ish and we were not yet hungry -- but I knew we would be in a couple of hours, when we would hit the Santa Barbara area.

So I sent out another tweet:

And before long, I had a number of good replies: places with great reputations, like Los Olivos' landmark Mattei's Tavern and The Hitching Post, just outside Lompoc. We were in the mood for Italian, and so we took my LA Moms Blog colleague Romy's advice and stopped at Trattoria Grappolo in the little town of Santa Ynez.

The place was intimate, elegant -- and resoundingly popular. We were underdressed. We had to wait outside about 40 minutes to get our table... but it was absolutely worth it. (NOTE TO SELF: Next time we are asking for road trip recommendations, it wouldn't hurt to call ahead to make a reservation.)

The meal wasn't cheap: But it cost a helluva lot less than a night in a hotel anywhere along the California coast -- and this year, that's an important consideration.

As we embarked toward Santa Barbara -- launching the final leg of our long journey home -- my husband uttered a phrase I never thought I'd hear from him: "This Twitter stuff is kind of useful, after all."

That alone made this road trip memorable.

My Million Moms Can Beat Your Million Moms: Shopping at JCP in Support of Ellen

As this is a Presidential election year, I shouldn't have been surprised that the "culture wars" have heated up again.

What has surprised me is how virulent it's been.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been consumed by tasks related to my work over at the MOMocrats -- much of it having to do with Susan G. Komen's phenomenally badly received decision to defund breast cancer screenings by Planned Parenthood. And then came last week's brouhaha over contraception.

So I was already weary when I heard that an organization calling itself the "One Million Moms" was organizing a boycott of JC Penney for contracting Ellen DeGeneres as their new spokesperson.

I remember this "Million Moms" group for their previous boycott of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, because they created a flavor called "Schweddy Balls" -- after the old SNL sketch with Ana Gasteyer, Molly Shannon as NPR food hosts and Alec Baldwin as an artisan baker. It's a silly sketch with an obvious joke -- and it never fails to make me laugh...

...unlike the "Million Moms," who apparently have no sense of humor whatsoever (which in my book, is even worse than trying to bully the rest of the country into receding back to some 1930's Hays Code existence).

The "Million Moms" are "fed up with the filth [of] many segments of our society," specifically with our entertainment media. They don't think Ellen DeGeneres is a good role model for their children because she happens to be a lesbian. It doesn't matter that she's kind, and personable, and smart and funny.

That's their opinion and they've got a right to it, and they even have a right to organize their silly boycott. Thank goodness that most of the country appears to have made the transition into the 21st Century.

JC Penney refused to bow to the pressure. For one thing, the "Million Moms" only seems to consist of a few thousand. But the bottom line is, Ellen DeGeneres is a beloved entertainer, and who the hell cares how she lives her personal life? She was hired to sell JCP as a shopping destination. I don't see how her presence in their advertising does anything to contribute to the nation's moral decay (unless you are of the ilk that gays and lesbians should not visibly contribute to society -- in which case, you probably feel the same way about Jews and Hispanics and anyone else who isn't exactly like you).

Anyway: most people I know are appalled by this, and blogger Tracey Gaughan-Perez (a.k.a. Sweetney) came up with an easy way to take action and show JCP our support for their choice: a shop-in. 

I was one of thousands of people around the country (many who had never stepped foot in a Penney store) who took part in this yesterday -- and I even got my friend GiGi to join in, as you can see in my little vlog below:

By the way: The "Million Moms" are also angry at Macy's for running a commercial that features two grooms on a wedding cake. I may have to use them as an excuse to do a little shopping there, too.

The Kohl's School Contest

Liza Elcayam was my daughter's wonderful teacher in kindergarten, second and fourth grade.

After years of working online, it seemed like just another attempt to gain cheap publicity on the backs of moms who use social media. The money is significant... unfortunately, there are thousands of schools in this country who are hurting for funds. How do you pick the 20 most worthy?  Certainly not through a popularity contest.

Then I received an email from the PTA President of Megan's old elementary school.

Out of thousands of eligible public and private schools throughout the country -- somehow -- Darby Avenue Elementary had garnered enough votes to make it into the Top 100. And it was the only LAUSD school to make that list (just one out of nearly 800 in the District).

It had a shot.

So I went to the Kohl's Cares Facebook page and cast five votes for Darby Avenue Elementary. I liked the fact that you get 20 votes to allocate any way that you like to as many schools -- but are limited to five per school. So I was able to vote for Megan's former middle school and current high school, as well.

Then I checked the rankings. At the time, Darby Avenue Elementary was number 80 with about 5,000 votes. The Top 20 schools were almost all private parochial schools on the East Coast, with 50,000 votes a piece. I think there was one public school in the entire list.

Obviously, there are folks at these private schools who have been engaging in some sophisticated social media campaigns to garner that volume of votes.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, that's how Darby's PTA managed to get 5,000 of its own votes out of a school population of about 300 students. And it's exactly what I did by tweeting news of the campaign to my 4,500 followers... and writing this post here.

Since then, Darby's stock has gone up on the Kohl's leaderboard: At this writing, they're ranked #52 with 9,402 votes. But the top vote getters are in the astronomical range: The number one school has nearly 83,000 votes. Eighteen of the top 20 are private parochial schools -- and now, there are some on the West Coast, including one I've never heard of that's right here in my community. There are only two public schools in the entire Top 20.

I would love to see a report on how those schools campaigned for those votes. That will probably come when the competition ends (after September 2). In the meantime, I was pleased to see that Darby Elementary was getting some media assistance of its own today, by staging a rally that included a visit from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. And it was covered by all of the local news stations, including Fox, which set up cameras at the school at 4:30 AM this morning.

My fingers are crossed that in this huge metropolitan region of 24 million people, some will be motivated to get onto Facebook and vote for this little elementary school in Northridge. As Villaraigosa pointed out, all they need is for 10,000 of those people to cast five votes and they'll hit 50,000. (OK - so now they will need 20,000 people to do that... but that's still a tiny fraction of the people who will see the news coverage.)

At the same time, I see the irony in going all out to support a school that's already doing better than most in our troubled school district. Darby has some really good teachers and an energetic PTA. They don't have as many English learners and low income families as other schools in the district. Their API scores are high. At first glance, this is a school that doesn't need help.

Unfortunately, there isn't a public school in the district that doesn't need financial help. Every year, LAUSD squeezes the budget belt tighter. Every year, our schools lose teachers and support personnel. Five years ago (when my daughter attended Darby), there were classroom aides and janitorial services. Now, I'm told that parents are being asked to donate the most basic supplies... like toilet paper.

Half a million dollars could bring back instruction in the arts... music... science... a school nurse...

I keep hearing on the news that while money is tight and unemployment is high and banks are not lending... at the same time, corporations are sitting on big piles of cash. Kohl's is spending $10 million on a social media campaign that is getting everyone with a child in school to talk about them, engendering good will in the community and ultimately, garnering them new customers. It sounds like a pretty good return on investment.

What if more major corporations followed suit? I'm not talking about more popularity contests -- but what if Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Federated, Kroeger, McDonald's, et al each threw some real money at our nation's schools?

I can dream, can't I?