Mar Vista Neighborhood

MATTHEW ENDLER, 4 1/2, lives in the Mar Vista neighborhood of West Los Angeles. This is how Monday's quake and its aftermath looked to him.

Walk into Anthony Pearson and Ramona Trent's Mar Vista home and it's difficult to tell that the dynamic space, rippling into the outdoors from a deceptively low entryway, began its life as a simple postwar California bungalow. By the time its latest owners encountered it, the house, not far from the Santa Monica airport, had already been renovated several times. "An L-shaped floor plan had turned into something approaching a zigzag," Pearson laments.

While I was driving recently through my newly adopted Mar Vista neighborhood, another recent arrival caught my eye and refused to let go. The sight was so unexpected that I had to pull over and check it out more closely. The newcomer looked out of place resting on what used to be softball diamond No. 2 at Mar Vista Recreation Center. I knew the field that once stood there. It was where, years before, the team I played for clinched a championship trophy in a weekend warrior league.

TO some, it's the home of the future: an intriguing two-story jewel box with an atrium delivering sparkling light to glass-walled rooms, ecologically sensitive and built on a challenging urban lot just 25 feet wide. To neighbors and passersby, however, the house only prompts questions: What is it? Miniature factory? Bomb shelter? Goth barn? Approach the structure on foot, they say, and what at first seems inventive and artfully minimalist begins to feel bigger, bolder, almost confrontational.

Los Angeles police have arrested a man they believe is responsible for a spree of robberies since July in which a gunman broke into Westside homes, tied up the occupants and made off with their valuables--often in their cars. Police arrested the man last week as he was walking in a Mar Vista neighborhood that had been the scene of several robberies. Los Angeles Police Lt.

Once known as the "Lima Bean Belt of the Nation," Mar Vista maintains a modest view of itself. Yes, it's the Westside -- but without the attitude. Many homeowners remodel rather than move out, and it's not uncommon to see small original homes mushrooming into two-story architectural marvels. * Beginnings That lima bean moniker comes from the 1930s, when the temperamental crop thrived in the moist, fertile fields of Mar Vista. The farmland was bought in 1947 by developer Paul W. Trousdale.

A private pilot from Malibu who was trying to land in dense fog and cloud cover Tuesday crashed his plane into a home near the Santa Monica airport, killing himself and his wife and setting the home ablaze. Witnesses in the Mar Vista neighborhood said they heard the plane circling perhaps three times before it clipped garages and power lines and then nose-dived into the kitchen of a home in the 3300 block of Mountain View Avenue, narrowly missing the homeowner.

A graceful purple canopy of jacaranda shades the whole block. But the biggest shadow along Colbert Avenue is cast by the guy who carries the mail. Have a bad back? Bob Tattsuki will ring the doorbell and hand over your letters so you don't have to bend down to the mail slot. Sending a package? Tattsuki will take it to the post office, weigh it and front the cost of the postage for you. Can't get to the grocery store? Tattsuki will come back after work and take you there in his own car.

Slauson Avenue slices hard through a Mar Vista neighborhood of low and sometimes sagging apartments before coming to an abrupt dead end. This is where a notorious gang once prowled, boozed and plotted revenge and practically held a whole neighborhood hostage. The dead end seemed to imply that if you come from this stretch of Slauson, the street won't let you go far. "It was hard for people to imagine much beyond here," said Tammi Peterson, who has raised two children in the neighborhood.

YOU would never call this part of town chic. But Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista has the essentials: sex, death, food and great jeans. The stretch roughly between Grand View and Lincoln boulevards is classic commercial L.A.: drab and fascinating, its optimistic bursts of entrepreneurial energy alternating with its decrepit and dying ventures. By car, it all blows past in a blur. On foot, the neighborhood comes alive.

Two men were killed and a third critically injured in a drive-by shooting in Mar Vista on Sunday morning. The victims were sitting in a Toyota Corolla near the intersection of Washington Boulevard and McLaughlin Avenue about 11:20 a.m., when a burgundy-colored Toyota Camry drove up with three men inside, police said. The men in the Camry fired eight to 10 shots at the victims, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Sgt. Mike Lopez.

The first thing you notice about Janet Mitsui Brown's remodeled Mar Vista home is its sense of balance, harmony and consistency. The slate on the fence posts is repeated on the chimney, the front steps and into the foyer. The red-toned wood of the double front doors appears again in the eaves and around the windows. The lanterns flanking the fence posts and porch unify its design, a combination of Asian and Craftsman features.

It's easy to miss the 12 one-story ranch-style apartment buildings that line National Boulevard just west of the 405 Freeway. Nonetheless, the low-slung Westdale Village Courtyard Apartments have become the focus of a pitched battle over historic preservation similar to ones playing out in neighborhoods across Southern California as property values soar and developers look for prime places to build high-end projects.

Once known as the "Lima Bean Belt of the Nation," Mar Vista maintains a modest view of itself. Yes, it's the Westside -- but without the attitude. Many homeowners remodel rather than move out, and it's not uncommon to see small original homes mushrooming into two-story architectural marvels. * Beginnings That lima bean moniker comes from the 1930s, when the temperamental crop thrived in the moist, fertile fields of Mar Vista. The farmland was bought in 1947 by developer Paul W. Trousdale.

YOU would never call this part of town chic. But Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista has the essentials: sex, death, food and great jeans. The stretch roughly between Grand View and Lincoln boulevards is classic commercial L.A.: drab and fascinating, its optimistic bursts of entrepreneurial energy alternating with its decrepit and dying ventures. By car, it all blows past in a blur. On foot, the neighborhood comes alive.

A private pilot from Malibu who was trying to land in dense fog and cloud cover Tuesday crashed his plane into a home near the Santa Monica airport, killing himself and his wife and setting the home ablaze. Witnesses in the Mar Vista neighborhood said they heard the plane circling perhaps three times before it clipped garages and power lines and then nose-dived into the kitchen of a home in the 3300 block of Mountain View Avenue, narrowly missing the homeowner.

Gregory Thomas was smiling like a Cheshire cat as he stood in his courtyard the other day. Before him were about 50 activists from Homeowners Organized to Monitor their Environment, the feisty Mar Vista neighborhood organization that Thomas has guided to prominence. To his right was their most prized supporter and the man they had come to hear, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Walk into Anthony Pearson and Ramona Trent's Mar Vista home and it's difficult to tell that the dynamic space, rippling into the outdoors from a deceptively low entryway, began its life as a simple postwar California bungalow. By the time its latest owners encountered it, the house, not far from the Santa Monica airport, had already been renovated several times. "An L-shaped floor plan had turned into something approaching a zigzag," Pearson laments.

The day we move to Mar Vista, I stand chatting with Randy, our across-the-street neighbor, to whom I've just introduced myself. Randy is my age, hovering around 50, although he seems more like someone of my parents' generation. He and his Danish-born wife, Hanne, have three kids, the youngest in high school, all of them living at home. He's always lived in Mar Vista, grew up in the house next door.

The flood waters receded 23 months ago. Anger is what is brimming over at Penny Amic's house these days. The Mar Vista resident said Los Angeles utility officials have abandoned her after a water main in front of her house burst and inundated her property with thousands of gallons of water.