Please join the Mar Vista Community Council Green Committee Saturday, April 21, 2012 for the 4th Annual Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase. Interactive Maps can be found on the MVCC Green Committee website.
Plan your route and spend the day touring the Greenest Gardens in Mar Vista!
Calling all Mar Vista’s Green Gardeners! The 2012 Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase has been scheduled for Saturday, April 21st from 10am to 4pm, as part of a City-wide Earth Day Celebration.
Mark your calendars to take the tour – and if you’d like your garden to be included, please contact the Mar Vista Green Committee and fill out their Garden Questionnaire.
Yes, you heard that right — FREE. The Mar Vista Community Council’s Green Committee received a grant from the MVCC Board in order to be able to offer this hugely popular — and very informative — workshop here in Mar Vista at no charge to participants. 
Sustainable Works has been running these 6-week workshops in Santa Monica for years, but not in LA until now. And if the response is positive, I’m sure this won’t be the last time, either.
The workshops will be held from 7pm – 8:30pm on 6 Thursdays, beginning on January 28th and running through March 4th at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 11000 National Blvd., 90064.
Check out the MVCC Green Committee’s blog for more info, and you can sign up by clicking here.
Today’s shopper is Birdie Mendoza, of Birdie’s Playhouse. She makes music for kids — and so much more. 
Today she’s shopping for a greens dish. (I think she heard I’m into greens these days!) She’ll start with Swiss Chard and Kale, and she prefers organic.
Clean and chop the leaves, separating them from the stems. But don’t discard the stems, she says; instead, chop them and add them to some chopped garlic, 
finely diced carrots 
and some olive oil and saute until they start to get soft. Then add the leaves of the greens and some stock — either chicken or veggie, your choice — and a little bit of vinegar — either balsamic or red wine — just a touch. Cook down the liquid and the greens will shrink down — a lot. At the very end, a little squeeze of lemon for a kick. Delish! Thanks, Birdie!
Also at the market today, the team from the coming-soon-but-I-wish-it-were-sooner Earl’s Gourmet Grub was previewing some of their sandwiches. Can’t wait to try them!
The Mar Vista Community Council Education Committee met today at the market, 
and in the Green Committee booth they were taking sign-ups for the upcoming — FREE — Sustainable Works workshop. 
More details on the workshop can be found on the Green Garden Showcase Blog. Did I mention it’s free?
The E-Calendar is a list of things happening in Mar Vista that comes right to your email inbox. 
The Mar Vista Community Council provides the info as a free service — and all kinds of events are listed, from the LAPD’s Santa Sleigh stops to the Green Committee meetings. Take a moment to sign up: From the MVCC’s Home page, click on Email Notification System. 
After you enter your pertinent info, you’ll begin receiving this helpful information right away.
Mar Vista has earned two honors this month, and they both deserve to be acknowledged. 
First, the Mar Vista Community Council was honored by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) during their Empower LA 2009: A Congress of Neighborhoods. The MVCC won one of only 8 First Annual Neighborhood Council Peer Awards given in four categories. (That’s out of 89 Neighborhood Councils in total.) 
The MVCC was chosen in the Environmental category, no doubt for the work the Green Committee has done this year on events like the Green Garden Showcase, the Wise Water Use Expo and the Rainwater Harvesting program. Keep going Green, Mar Vista! And Congratulations to the entire MVCC!
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The other notable honor Mar Vista can take credit for this month is the superior baking talent of another Mar Vista Mom, Barbara Treves. Barbara entered her Forever Favourite Apple Pie in KCRW’s 1st Annual Good Food Pie Bakeoff and it was deemed Best in Show! 
Congratulations, Barbara! And for those bakers in the audience, the recipe is available on request.
Yum!
The Mar Vista Community Council’s Green Committee has unanimously approved a motion to make Mar Vista the first clean electricity neighborhood in Los Angeles, with a goal of 100% clean electricity by 2018. The motion must be approved by the Community Council Board on November 10, and your support is needed! Please sign this petition, which will be presented to the board. It will only take a minute, I promise!
And check out Open Mar Vista’s GoSolar initiative to find out how you can go solar on your roof!
So much new stuff today! First of all, there is a shady dining area next to the Post Office, 
and the coffee cart, fish booth,
lemonade and nachos
have all formed an open area.
Plus the kids’ craft booth is in a new spot, behind the Vegan section,
and there’s also a new food booth: wood-fired pizza!
The Mar Vista Community Council booth has moved down the street to the corner of Pacific Ave.,
and the biggest news is that the Mar Vista Community Council Green Committee will now have a booth every week! Here’s Sherri Akers, co-chair of the committee,
and here are John Ayers and James Brennan, of Open Mar Vista,
who were promoting the Mar Vista GoSolar program, which launches next Saturday evening, 7/25, at 6:00pm. More info about the event can be found at Open Mar Vista.
Tuesday night, July 14, at the council’s monthly board meeting, Albert Olson, left, was duly elected as chairman of the board, replacing Rob Kadota, right.
The council decides many issues each month, and it’s worth your time as a community member to check it out once in a while. This month, issues like these were before the board: funding the LAPD Pacific Division’s Explorers program, honoring volunteers who’ve worked on community prjects like the Green Garden Showcase and the Fire Station 62 clean-up, funding Grand View school’s computer lab, and establishing funding guidelines going forward for other worthy projects. Representatives from the offices of City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, U.S. Representative Jane Harman, State Assembly member Ted Lieu, and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass were on hand to make reports, among others. Agendas for upcoming meetings are posted on their website, Mar Vista Community Council.
Plus if you come to a meeting, you might get some cookies, like these, homemade by Lorraine Wells. 
Just be aware of the seating arrangements. The metal folding chairs can really get uncomfortable after a couple of hours of meaty community deliberations. Some people come prepared.
Calling all LAUSD parents! This Thursday, May 28th, from 7 – 9pm, the Mar Vista Community Council is co-sponsoring an Education Summit at Venice High. 
This promises to be FULL of information about what the budget cuts will mean to the schools and how we can be a part of the solution. Bring your questions and your enthusiasm! Our outgoing School Board member, Marlene Canter, will be there, as will Michelle King, Superintendent of LAUSD Local District 3.
An original post by Sarah Auerswald.