The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 90

B4 WliDNFSDAY, 5. 2X)I 1 II A U)SAN(iFJJ3JTIMIS pprovei 3 Rent Relief A ft CI Airport Businesses; iw'iiiwiif mfryii a relief package after the issue' threatened to boil over at a City Council meeting Friday. The package allows concession-' aires to skip their monthly minimum payments from Oct. I through Dec. 31.

Instead their rent will be determined by a percentage' of their sales. No rent would be charged for the period from 11 to Sept. 15 when air traffic was shut down in the United States. Labor union representatives complained to commissioners that some concessionaires have failed tifl follow terms of contracts that were negotiated after often bitter campaigns to organize employees. Th unions demanded that the airpor deny any rent relief to concession aires who refuse to abide by their contracts.

Tern Walsh, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union, said a third of the union lo cal's membership at LAX has been laid off since Sept. 11. He called for, extending the rent relief the end of this year. pected to reach $103 million by the end of June unless passenger traffic returns to normal. Operators of the airport's concessionsduty-free shops, newsstands, retail outlets, bars and restaurantstold the commission that they have seen a steep decline in business because fewer people are flying and the FAA allows only ticketed passengers beyond security checkpoints.

Except in the Tom Bradley International Terminal, virtually all of the airport's concessions are past the security checkpoints, off-limits to those dropping off or picking up passengers. Since the terrorist attacks, concessionaires have pressured Mayor James K. Hahn, the City Council and the Airport Commission for a reduction in their monthly rent for space at the airport. But faced with the airport's own financial difficulties, LAX officials have been reluctant to grant such assistance. The Hahn tion switched course and agreed to A V-- n.wniin.r ini.in,lrSt Photoi by BOB CAREY Us Angeles Times Laemmle Theatres executive Jay Reisbaum at one of the Fallbrook Mall's refurbished theaters.

New Theater to Nearly Triple Art Film Venues in the Valley i mwmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Council Candidate's Ads Draw Rival's Ire fare. Like graffiti and traffic congestion, art house theaters were bound to creep into the suburbs, said Bob Berney, senior vice president of IFC Films, a distributor of indie projects and a division of the company that owns the Independent Film Channel. "The audience seems to be ready for a challenging, different group of films," Berney said. "There were too many megaplexes but not enough theaters willing to play art house or specialty films. I see the trend changing at IFC as we're broadening the amount of prints that go out into suburban Robert Gustafson, director of the tario, Van Nuys and Palmdale air-Entertainment Industry Institute ports.

Reisbaum, with a movie poster in the background, discusses details of Friday's opening. ground. Laemmle will convert the box office and auditorium to a more artsy decor, he said. As general-audience theaters from Buffalo to Irvine have died, art house theaters have moved in. Recent commercial successes of films such as "Shakespeare in Love" proved they could compete at the box office with more basic at Cal State Northridge, said the opening of more indie film screens in the Valley will improve the quality of movies elsewhere.

"It's good for the creative community to have more outlets for their work," Gustafson said. "And it's inspirational for the filmmakers who live here to have people see their work." The Northridge theater occasionally screens commercial films, but the venue is primarily reserved for student projects. Movies: Laemmle will unveil seven screens dedicated to independent releases at Fallbrook Mall on Friday. ByZANTOPEABODY TIMKS STAFF WRITER The San Fernando Valley may be home to major studios and filmmakers but it has been short on art house theaters. That should change Friday at the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills when Laemmle Theaters opens seven screens dedicated to independent releases.

The theater and the Armer Theater, which opened this year at Cal State Northridge, will nearly triple the availability of art house films in the Valley. "I used to sound condescending too, when talking about Valle-yites," said Bob Laemmle, who owns the Southern California theater chain. "We thought the Valley was a difficult place to play the more esoteric product. But I think it's time now to show more to those 2-plus-million people who are just as sophisticated and deserving as anyone else." Laemmle said his company and others have given the Valley short shrift because of the prevailing notion the area is less sophisticated and more conservative than Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or Pasadena. Those areas have chichi boutiques and candlelight cafes that invite the indie film crowd.

Even Laemmle's Town Center 5 in En-cino now the only theater in the Valley dedicated to independents-shares a block with one of the busiest hangouts on Ventura Boulevard. By contrast, the Fallbrook Mall is, like, so Valley. The anchor stores are Kmart and Target, and the shopping center borders strip malls on three sides and tract housing on the other. The new theater was born from the implosion of the movie theater business last summer and the encroachment of art house theaters in the suburbs. After filing for bankruptcy in August, General Cinemas shuttered its Fallbrook theater and put its building and equipment up for sale.

Laemmle jumped at the chance to put a new theater his largest to date in the Valley without having to build from the Aviation: Panel OKs package to help LAX and Ontario concessionaires. By JEFFREY L. RABIN TIMES STAFF WRITER Los Angeles airport commissioners Tuesday night unanimously granted nearly $9.5 million in rent relief to operators of concessions at Los Angeles and Ontario international airports hard hit by the decline in air travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Representatives of the concessionaires endorsed the rent relief package but said the assistance will not be enough unless air travel rebounds soon.

Commission President Ted Stein cautioned them not to expect additional assistance beyond the end of this year. "We can only grant a certain amount of relief," he said. The commission, which met in Van Nuys, was expected to postpone action on a controversial proposal to sharply increase the cost of parking at Los Angeles and Ontario airports and at the popular Fly-Away park-and-ride lot in Van Nuys. The proposal would boost the price of parking in the central terminal area at LAX from $24 to $35 a day, making it one of the most expensive airports at which to park in the nation. The rate had been $16 a day until October 2000.

Officials recommended the latest parking rate increase in an effort to close a huge deficit in the budget of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, On- Revenues from parking lots, con cessions, rental car companies and airlines have fallen since the East Coast terror attacks scared away air travelers. Adding to the airport's financial woes are higher security costs required after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered closer scrutiny of passengers and carry-on baggage. LAX lost about $35.9 million because of lower revenue and added security expenses from Sept. 11 to Oct. 31.

The budget deficit is ex- Al.SKIH IO! Angeles Times Harvey nv ui infRitirnriiT ft A I JULEJL mmm nonHMM Politics: Greuel says use of trade center photos is opportunistic. Cardenas backers deny the charge. By PATRICK McGREEVY TIMES STAFF WRITER The use of images from the World Trade Center terrorist attacks has sparked a political dispute in the contentious race for the Los Angeles City Council's 2nd District seat. One of the candidates, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Pano-rama City), has used images of the shattered buildings and soot-covered rescue workers in a series of mailers, television commercials and even a refrigerator magnet touting his endorsement by the Los Angeles firefighters union. "When Los Angeles firefighters returned home from the search and recovery efforts after the New York terrorist attack, Tony Cardenas was there to welcome them," read one mailer, quoting the union president.

The mailer includes a photo of rescue workers raising an American flag in the ruins of the World Trade Center. Wendy Greuel, an executive with DreamWorks SKG who is running against Cardenas in the Dec. 11 election, sent a mailer in the east San Fernando Valley district Tuesday that accused Cardenas of exploiting the attacks. "Most Americans saw a tragedy on Sept. 11," the Greuel mailer reads.

"Tony Cardenas saw a political opportunity." Her mailer includes a quote from Los Angeles Fire Capt. Tom Dow-ling saying he supports Greuel and that "Wendy would never exploit a tragedy for political purposes." Ken Buzzell, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles, said Greuel's criticism is unfounded. "Nobody here is offended by Tony's ads because of his stand on firefighter issues," Buzzell said. Meanwhile, the Ethics Commission announced Tuesday that the $330,000 sending limit for the race was lifted when independent ex KTKVKHAHVKY penditures favoring Cardenas broke the $50,000 threshold late irt the day. Regency Outdoor Advertising notified the commission Tuesday that it has spent $20,300 on billboards supporting Cardenas, bringing the aggregate amount spent by various groups to $63,530.

Both Cardenas and Greuel have raised more than $330,000 in anticipation of a lifting of the spending cap that candidates agreed to in exchange for receiving city matching funds. Greuel said it was "unfortunate" that Regency didn't report its spending until Tuesday, though the billboards have been up for three weeks. On the issue of the World Trade Center mailer, Nancy Snow, a lecturer at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, said we "are living in an environment of image exploitation right now." 2 Sentenced in Water Scam Two San Fernando Valley residents were ordered to serve jail time and pay more than $20,000 in restitution Tuesday for using scare tactics to pressure six Piru families into buying unnecessary water; treatment systems, prosecutors said. Laura Indiana Ortega, 48, will serve 180 days and Juan Castaneda Abanto, 50, will serve 90 days. The Sherman Oaks pair, who remain free on bail, had worked for Bur: bank-based Everclear Water Systems.

The Spanish-speaking defendants were convicted of targeting Latino families during door-to-door sales and convincing them that local tap water posed health hazards. Company owner Elizabeth Ver-gara was also convicted and is to be sentenced in early January, about the same time that Ortega and Abanto must surrender to authorities. Similar criminal cases against the company are pending in two other counties. "A subject found in the dump-ster at McAuliffe turned out to be just a dumpster diver and not the suspect." i No nail clippers, either: Await-1 ing a flight out of Newark Airport, Bob Elliott of Newport Beach wasn't sure whether the sign over the souvenir shop would reassure already nervous passengers, The sign, missing a letter, read: "DUTY AND AX FREE." mlsrelLAny: A Long Beach landmark, Kitano's Nursery, shut down four years ago and the prop-1 erty has remained vacant until now. The Grunion Gazette revealed that a 45-foot "monopalm" is being planted there.

And what's a "mono Well, tt's not the kind of tree you water. It's a cellular tele- phone tower disguised as a palm tree. Stem Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMS, ext. 77003, by fat at (213) 237-47 12, by mail at LA.Timex,202W.htSt.,L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve. harveylatimes.com.

IT rr? H. Anthrax Scare Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's hazmat team enter the Santa Clarita Mail Processing Center on Tuesday to obtain a sample of white powder found on a processing machine. The sample was sent to a lab for testing for biological hazards. At This College, Being a Freshman Can Be a Very Slippery Business Indeed Steve ONLY IN fonnv ujrnr UJ-TH 0-(l p-j io-s mn i-s I mmmm i 1 1 oi, II Anne McAndrews of Long Beach saw a reference in this space to the movie "Legally Blonde," and pointed out that the Southern California university attended by the film's Bel-Air-head Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) was portrayed by. Caltech, of all places.

McAndrews knows because her son David Hedley, who attends Caltech, appears briefly in a background crowd scene. Hedley is wearing a bathing suit and his body is covered with shortening and oil. And it had nothing to do with the movie. By coincidence, Hedley's residence, Page House, was partaking in an initiation rite known as Grease Frosh on the day of the filming. In this exercise, two teams line up at opposite ends of a field, each In possession of a freshman.

The object Is to see which team can carry back the other's underclassman first. Hence the greasing of the two UK'H RORKRTS would-be captives' bodies makes it more difficult to grab them. Caltech spokeswoman Jill Perry said that the winning team In that competition was one in which the body-transporters wore children's pirate and clown costumes, "The costumes apparently soaked up the (freshman's grease," Perry said, Leave it to those scholars to come up with a scientific solution. No open and shut cases hcrci As If life Isn't complicated enough, I've NANCY STKWAHT noticed that a store's sign doesn't always make clear whether a customer is welcome inside (see photos). Some shops are vague on the hours they're open, some seem to post the hours they're closed, some seem open only for the minute, and some apologize for unlocking their doors.

Dodger confidential: The scuttlebutt is that the Dodgers do RIOHSKKlKY last week," Horowicz said. "You can stop speculating about Chan Ho Park. His T-shirt regularly $25 each is now on sale for five bucks." Sorry for the Interruption: The Seal Beach Sun's police log reported that Ixs Alamitos officers "were attempting to locate a burglary suspect." KI.I.KN HUTI.RH not intend to re-sign free-agent pitcher Chan Ho Park, who they believe is asking for too much money. Dodger fan Michael Horowicz thinks he found verification of this rumor in an unlikely place. "I had to pick up something at the gift shop at Dodger Stadium 1 i.