Restorations

In a blow to local environmentalists, Port of Long Beach officials say they won't consider restoring the 100 acres of historical wetlands on the Hellman Ranch property. The Wetlands Restoration Society has been lobbying to have the wetlands restored instead of allowing a $200-million housing development to be built on the property. But port officials said in a letter to the group that the restoration would be too expensive.

The 1 1/2-mile walking trail at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve has been restored, just in time to make it more convenient for wetlands visitors coming to see returning ducks, geese, sandpipers and other migrating waterfowl. Phil Smith, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, said that about 60 members of the Arco corporate environmental remediation team have patched up the loop trail with about 13 cubic yards of decomposed granite.

Preservationist Diane Rush cringes when she looks at the gift and souvenir shops that were recently installed on the historic deck of the Queen Mary, altering the ship's original design. Then she turns her attention to what has not been restored, such as the areas where crew members worked and lived, and the dining area where economy-class passengers ate. The ship's operator "is not putting anything into historic preservation," Rush said.

Cal State Northridge officials said Friday they have restored 164 classes of the more than 500 that had been canceled for the fall semester and rehired about 100 of the 500 laid-off instructors. About 28,000 students are expected to begin classes Monday at CSUN, which, like all 20 campuses in the California State University system, faces deep state budget cuts for the 1992-93 school year.

A blue-ribbon panel of local environmentalists will meet within the next two weeks to discuss ways to bring 67 acres of empty fields back to life, city officials said. Appointed to a re-vegetation task force by the City Council last week, the group will begin the task of restoring the open space off Los Alisos Boulevard near Santa Margarita Parkway.

A historic Venice mural that sparked controversy when it was unveiled in 1975 has been restored by the original artists. The Jaya Mural, named after a women's artist collective that helped paint it, will be rededicated Saturday. As the only mural in the Venice Canals area, the 30-foot-long artwork painted on the back of a South Venice Boulevard building celebrates the close-knit, diverse community that thrived in the neighborhood 20 years ago.

A turn-of-the-century Glendale house that was scheduled for demolition was moved instead to a vacant lot in the West Adams District early Friday as part of a city program to preserve historic structures and provide quality, affordable housing. The two-story, three-bedroom clapboard house, built in 1902, will be restored by a nonprofit carpentry training group at its new location in West Adams, a neighborhood with many buildings erected in the early 1900s.

Kent Twitchell's famed "Old Woman of the Freeway" mural, which was painted over to make room for billboard advertisements six years ago, will finally be restored, thanks to an eleventh-hour legal settlement reached Wednesday. Attorneys for building owners Koichi Kurokawa and Prince Hotels Inc. have agreed to pay Twitchell $175,000 to restore the mural, which depicted a bright-eyed elderly woman with a colorful afghan over her shoulders.

Arturo Ramirez watched with pride Thursday as murals on a pedestrian bridge depicting Mexican culture and community unity came alive with a vibrant and colorful face lift. "I'm glad these pictures are getting cleaned up because they tell about the culture here and they make me feel proud," the 11-year-old boy said. He was not alone.

Just three weeks ago, the images on a landmark West Los Angeles mural were dull and fading. The red, white and green stripes of the Mexican flag were anything but bright. And the open arms of the Virgen de Guadalupe needed some redefining. But today, the images of "Chicano Heritage," which celebrates the history of West Los Angeles' Mexican Americans, appear as clear and vibrant as when it was created 20 years ago.