Marvin Braude
Encyclopedia
Marvin Braude was a member of the Los Angeles City Council for 32 years, between 1965 and 1997—the third-longest-serving council member in the history of the city. He was known for protecting the open space of the Santa Monica Mountains and successfully pushing the city to ban smoking in restaurants and government buildings.
in 1941 with a bachelor's degree in political science
. He was a research assistant
with the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics in 1941 and an instructor in social science at the University of Chicago in 1942. He owned and operated small businesses and a small investment firm until he was elected to the City Council in 1965.
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Braude was married to Marjorie Sperry of Chicago on September 26, 1948; they went to Yosemite on their honeymoon and decided then to move to California, which they did in 1951. She became a medical doctor and specialized in psychiatry
. The couple moved to the Brentwood district of Los Angeles in 1952. They had two children, Liza, born in May 1953, and Ann, born in July 1955. Marjorie Braude, who became head of the Los Angeles Domestic Violence
Task Force, died in February 2005, ten months before her husband.
He was co-founder and first president of the Santa Monica Mountains Regional Park Association, founder of Capital for Small Business in Los Angeles and president of the Crestwood Hills Association.
He was described as being "professorial, cranky and wonkish . . . abrupt and cantakerous, especially with those who stood in his way." "The polyester
suits he ordered from Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs were one of his trademarks. He brought health food
in plastic containers to the banquets he was obliged to attend."
Braude died at the age of 85 on December 7, 2005, in Rancho Mirage, California
, after breaking his leg in a fall and contracting pneumonia while in the hospital. He chose to be cremated, said his daughter Ann, because he believed using open space for cemeteries was "poor land-use policy." A memorial service was held at University Synagogue in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and donations were asked for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
.
In April 1965, Braude took on conservative incumbent Karl L. Rundberg
in Los Angeles City Council District 11 and finished the primary election with less than half the votes of Rundberg (11,033 against 22,397), but in the May 1965 final, a "wave of public indignation over plans to carve a major highway across the Santa Monica Mountains
" carried him into office: he beat the veteran Rundberg by 22,023 votes to 18,976.
Braude was not seriously threatened in succeeding elections until 1997, when he faced "a strong challenge" from Cindy Miscikowski
, his former chief of staff, among others. In 1996 he said he would begin to donate large sums of money from his $100,000 salary and his extensive financial portfolio to fund city projects within his district if he were reelected. He decided, however, to retire instead of campaigning.
In that era (1971), the 11th District covered Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, with sections of Tarzana, Encino, Rancho Park, Westdale, Mar Vista and Venice. It covered 52 square miles and had some 210,000 residents.
, giving lectures and advising students on research projects and papers.
in Tarzana, California, the Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center at the Government Center in Van Nuys and the Marvin Braude Bike Trail (formerly the South Bay and Santa Monica Bike Paths) are named after him.
Biography
Braude was born on August 11, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois, the only son of Benjamin and Rose Braude, and attended the University of Illinois in 1937. He graduated from the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1941 with a bachelor's degree in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. He was a research assistant
Research assistant
A research assistant is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university or a research institute, for the purpose of assisting in academic research...
with the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics in 1941 and an instructor in social science at the University of Chicago in 1942. He owned and operated small businesses and a small investment firm until he was elected to the City Council in 1965.
Braude was married to Marjorie Sperry of Chicago on September 26, 1948; they went to Yosemite on their honeymoon and decided then to move to California, which they did in 1951. She became a medical doctor and specialized in psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
. The couple moved to the Brentwood district of Los Angeles in 1952. They had two children, Liza, born in May 1953, and Ann, born in July 1955. Marjorie Braude, who became head of the Los Angeles Domestic Violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
Task Force, died in February 2005, ten months before her husband.
He was co-founder and first president of the Santa Monica Mountains Regional Park Association, founder of Capital for Small Business in Los Angeles and president of the Crestwood Hills Association.
He was described as being "professorial, cranky and wonkish . . . abrupt and cantakerous, especially with those who stood in his way." "The polyester
Polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
suits he ordered from Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs were one of his trademarks. He brought health food
Health food
The term health food is generally used to describe foods that are considered to be beneficial to health, beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. However, the term is not precisely defined by national regulatory agencies such as the U.S...
in plastic containers to the banquets he was obliged to attend."
Braude died at the age of 85 on December 7, 2005, in Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella...
, after breaking his leg in a fall and contracting pneumonia while in the hospital. He chose to be cremated, said his daughter Ann, because he believed using open space for cemeteries was "poor land-use policy." A memorial service was held at University Synagogue in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and donations were asked for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1980 and dedicated to the acquisition of land for preservation as open space, for wildlife and California native plants habitat Nature Preserves, and for public recreation...
.
Elections
See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1965 and after.In April 1965, Braude took on conservative incumbent Karl L. Rundberg
Karl L. Rundberg
Karl L. Rundberg was a Los Angeles City Council member between 1957 and 1965. He was convicted of accepting a bribe in 1967 when a member of the city's Harbor Commission and was placed on probation.-Biography:...
in Los Angeles City Council District 11 and finished the primary election with less than half the votes of Rundberg (11,033 against 22,397), but in the May 1965 final, a "wave of public indignation over plans to carve a major highway across the Santa Monica Mountains
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains are a Transverse Range in Southern California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the United States.-Geography:...
" carried him into office: he beat the veteran Rundberg by 22,023 votes to 18,976.
Braude was not seriously threatened in succeeding elections until 1997, when he faced "a strong challenge" from Cindy Miscikowski
Cindy Miscikowski
Cindy Miscikowski represented the 11th District on the Los Angeles City Council for two full terms from 1997 through 2005. Previously, she was an aide to Councilman Marvin Braude and the Executive Director of the Skirball Cultural Center in its beginning stages...
, his former chief of staff, among others. In 1996 he said he would begin to donate large sums of money from his $100,000 salary and his extensive financial portfolio to fund city projects within his district if he were reelected. He decided, however, to retire instead of campaigning.
In that era (1971), the 11th District covered Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, with sections of Tarzana, Encino, Rancho Park, Westdale, Mar Vista and Venice. It covered 52 square miles and had some 210,000 residents.
Positions
- Mulholland Drive. Braude said in 1967 that he would continue a push for Mulholland DriveMulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after Los Angeles pioneer civil engineer William Mulholland...
to be turned into a major parkway, with hiking and riding trails, picnic and camping facilities and other things of scenic, historic and recreational value.
- Bike trails. An avid bicyclist, Braude worked to establish bicycle paths along the Pacific Ocean beachfrontThe Strand (bicycle path)The Strand is a paved bicycle path that runs mostly along the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Los Angeles County, California. The northern terminus of the trail is a paved Class 1 bicycle path at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. The southern terminus of the trail is in...
, in 1968 leading a contingent of 350 bike enthusiasts from Venice to Playa del Rey and in 1974 leading 175 bikers along the 19-mile bikeway that the county was building along the beach, only to be stopped by sheriff's deputies at the entrance to a Marina apartment complex in what the owner contended was an "unlawful invasion of private property."
- Auto Club. Braude ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the board of directors of the Automobile Club of Southern CaliforniaAutomobile Club of Southern CaliforniaThe Automobile Club of Southern California is the Southern California affiliate of the American Automobile Association federation of motor clubs...
after he learned that the club had spent $22,000 in 1970 to help defeat a state ballot proposition that would have allowed some state gasoline tax receipts to go for fighting smog and building rapid transit, which he favored, instead of being strictly limited to laying streets and building highways.
- Slow-growth initiative. With Councilman Zev YaroslavskyZev YaroslavskyZev Yaroslavsky is a Los Angeles County politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D...
, Braude was the author of Proposition U, a ballot initiative that was designed to make 75% of Los Angeles off limits to commercial development. The measure passed by a wide margin in November 1986.
- Gun control. He called for a "broad-range" attack on the "widespread ownership and use of guns"—saying he would push for legislation to prevent gun violence. "This is something that will take four of six or maybe even 10 years," he said. Council members Jackie GoldbergJackie GoldbergJackie Goldberg is an American politician and teacher, and a member of the Democratic Party. She is a former member of the California State Assembly....
, Mark Ridley-ThomasMark Ridley-ThomasMark Ridley-Thomas , often referred to by his initials, MRT, is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for District 2, who succeeded Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke...
, Ruth GalanterRuth GalanterRuth Galanter is an American politician and a Los Angeles councilwoman from 1987 until 2003.-Education:Galanter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and a Master of City Planning degree from the Yale University School of Art and Architecture.-Career:Prior to her 1987...
and Laura Chick seconded his proposal.
- Leaf blowers. On two separate occasions, he asked the City Council to ban the use of noisy gas-powered leaf-blowersLeaf blowerA leaf blower is a gardening tool that propels air out of a nozzle to move yard debris such as leaves. Leaf blowers are usually powered by two-stroke engine or an electric motor, but four-stroke engines were recently introduced to partially address air pollution concerns. Leaf blowers are...
, used by professional gardeners.
- Suit blocked. In 1990 a Superior Court judge ruled that Braude's position as a City Council member precluded him from being able to sue as a private citizen against construction of the Watt City Center, a two-story office complex planned for Downtown Los AngelesDowntown Los AngelesDowntown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
,
- Smoking ban. In 1973, he first introduced an ordinance against smokingSmoking banSmoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...
in restaurants and government buildings. It didn't pass then, so he reintroduced the measure in 1991. "If doctors and the vast majority of Los Angeles nonsmokers will rise up and support this proposal, we can tell the tobacco industry to shove off and take its sleazy act back to North Carolina," he said. This time it passed.
Post-council
In September 1997 Braude became at the age of 76 a "distinguished practitioner in residence" at the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, giving lectures and advising students on research projects and papers.
Quotations
- "I truly believe that we will have a smoke-free society by the year 2000."
- "When restaurants suffer from declining sales it's because their prices are too high, their food is not very good and the service is poor. There is no evidence whatsoever that [their bad business] has anything to do with the prohibition of smoking in restaurants. If you provide good food, good service and prohibit smoking, your business is going to be better."
- "What Proposition F did [removing the Los Angeles police chief from civil service protection] was to make our police chief the people's servant, and not the unquestioned ruler of an empire in blue."
- "I still think elected office is the highest calling."
Legacy
The Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway ParkMarvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park
Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park is a park in the Santa Monica Mountains with its trailhead at the southern terminus of Reseda Boulevard in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California. The park was named for former Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude who for more than 30 years led the effort to...
in Tarzana, California, the Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center at the Government Center in Van Nuys and the Marvin Braude Bike Trail (formerly the South Bay and Santa Monica Bike Paths) are named after him.