Everybody’s Crazy About a Sharp-Dressed Schatz

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Carol Schatz is known as a woman who can fight. And she was recognized with a resolution from the Los Angeles City Council on July 23 on her 20th anniversary of fighting on behalf of downtown interests, mainly businesses.

But it turns out that Schatz, 62, is also known as a snappy dresser.

Council members took turns praising her effectiveness as president and chief executive of the downtown-boosting Central City Association – and teasing her for well-known traits.

“This council is replete with people you didn’t endorse,” joked Council President Eric Garcetti, who went on to say that despite the battles, she works well with everyone, “and you always look great.”

For her part, Schatz showed no sign of backing down.

“I don’t know what the next 20 years will hold,” she said. “But as you know, there are no term limits in the private sector.”

She acknowledged that she’s fought many battles for downtown. “And I focused on being well-dressed throughout.”

Golf Vision

When Isaac Shapiro was growing up, he was amazed at the independence of his nearly blind mother.

“She cooked, she cleaned and she did all the shopping,” he recalled. “Sometimes she took the bus to work by herself.”

Later, after starting IMS Trading LLC, a Miracle Mile company that develops household cleaning products, Shapiro, 31, decided to contribute to the cause. So he created the Inspiration Foundation, a non-profit aimed at providing the visually impaired with technology such as talking computers and magnifiers that project small print onto screens.

The problem is that it can cost up to $10,000 to get equipment for just one person.

On June 21, Shapiro’s foundation sponsored a golf tournament at the Valencia Country Club to help raise money. But it had another purpose: demonstrating the abilities of people who can’t see.

The tournament featured two visually impaired golfers: 52-year-old Bill Davis, who sells real estate in Rancho Cucamonga, and Jeremy Poincenot, a 20-year-old student at San Diego State University.

Both played with the aid of “coach caddies,” visually acute spotters who pointed them in the right direction and told them where to shoot.

“It was inspiring,” said Shapiro. “Davis told me that, because he doesn’t see bunkers and sand pits, he doesn’t get too flustered. I’m a horrible golfer. I thought, my gosh, not seeing those obstacles would make my game better.”

Calling the Tunes

Hunter Payne worked five years gathering songs for a CD to benefit his non-profit organization Aid Still Required, which raises money to help survivors of disasters, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, among other tragedies.

Payne, 62, a vice president at investment firm Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors in Century City, started off trying to get independent artists to contribute songs. He even approached Bill Clinton to play a track with his saxophone, but the former president declined.

Later, Payne enlisted the help of the owners of West L.A. Music, a store frequented by famous musicians. One day, one of the owners handed Payne a phone with somebody named Steve on the other end of the line.

“All of a sudden, I’m on the phone with Stevie Wonder, one of the music gods from my youth,” Payne recalled. “We had a conversation, mostly about transcendental meditation, but at the end, he gave me some names at Warner Music.”

Near the end of the project, Payne was trying to get permission to use James Taylor’s rendition of the song “Up on the Roof,” but his efforts seemed in vain. Then as he was in line at a hardware store checkout in Pacific Palisades, he heard the woman in front of him tell the cashier her name was “Carole, with an ‘e’ on the end.”

Payne realized she was Carole King,

lyricist of “Up on the Roof.” He immediately introduced himself and his project, and soon had permission for the song.

The final CD features songs by Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney, Avril Lavigne, Norah Jones, Eric Clapton and Taylor. It was published June 22 with the title “Aid Still Required.”

Staff reporters David Haldane and Joel Russell contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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