Making Mark Against Graffiti, Trash

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Steve Craig, whose Craig Realty Group operates the Citadel Outlet mall in Commerce, is mostly preoccupied with commercialism.

He has, though, formed a bond with the community around Citadel and has spent more than five years or so leading an effort to clean up graffiti, haul out debris, and patch up potholes. His beautifying work began after noticing a 1,000-footlong building along the railroad track that was covered in graffiti.

“Why do people just let that go and call it acceptable?” he asked.

Craig got permission to repaint the vandalized side of the structure, repair holes in the surrounding fence, and plant shrubbery to help beautify the space. From there, he said that he joined community members and local business leaders to haul out hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from the city and repave almost three miles of street.

“With a little bit of initiative on one person’s part, it really caught fire,” said Craig, 60.

Now, he leads an annual “Clean Up Commerce” event, where teens, local business owners, and other community members work side by side to improve landscapes, remove graffiti, and pick up trash. For every youth that participates, Craig donates $100 to local arts and service programs, yielding $10,000 in donations this year.

Joined by Clubs

Attorneys who practice in the class-action space typically wage war inside the courthouse, but once a year some of the top litigators from the plaintiffs’ and defense bars battle over something other than liability: who’s best at golf.

Neal Ross Marder, of downtown’s Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, led his defense-side team to victory in June’s sixth edition of what has been dubbed the KCC Classic. The Ryder Cup-style team tournament has a tendency to end in dramatic finishes and this year was no different.

“We won it with the last group on the last hole,” said Marder, 56. “It was great.”

The weekend golf retreat had its roots in a conversation Marder had six years ago with Patrick Ivie, an executive at El Segundo’s Kurtzman Carson Consultants, which handles class-action settlement administration.

“I told Patrick, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to have a mini-Ryder Cup and pit some of the top class-action defense and plaintiffs’ attorneys against each other?’” Marder said, noting that Ivie deserves the lion’s share of credit for growing the event. Typically held at Pebble Beach, the competition went further up the coast this year to Bandon Dunes in Oregon.

The weekend retreat isn’t just about competition, however. Marder said putting both sides of the bar together was a chance to forge bonds that can make some of the courtroom skirmishes less kinetic and possibly bring in new cases.

“It’s a great opportunity to hang out with some of the top class-action attorneys in the state,” Marder said. “And any time you’re hanging out with lawyers for three days, you’re talking about business opportunities.”

Asked whether he’s been able to win back some of the attorney fee award money paid to plaintiffs’ lawyers in cases he’s been on, Marder laughed.

“I’ll never tell,” he said.

Staff reporters Hayley Fox and Henry Meier contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Jonathan Diamond. He can be reached at [email protected].

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