UPDATE – January 17, 2013: Nancy is running for City Council again on March 5th!

Here’s a story that was originally published on January 13, 2011, watch Nancy’s Facebook page for updates on meet and greets and to volunteer support – I have updated the links with election info too!

I remember sitting in a meeting with all the members of the various committees of the General Plan of the City of Beverly Hills. We were all gathered together in the auditorium at Beverly High for an update of some sort. I had only lived in Beverly Hills for about two years at that time, and I had signed on to take part in the Commercial Standards Committee. This bimonthly evening committee meeting would, in spite of my being woefully behind in local history and politics, prove to be a real education in both. My joke to friends was that I always felt like Mary Tyler Moore in a room full of Lou Grants. This meeting at Beverly High was different because I got to see and visit with all the folks in the other committees, and there was one lady sitting behind me who had everyone smiling around her, and she was so charming, I thought to myself that this would be a great lady to know. I had to run off to a client meeting and didn’t have time to introduce myself.

Flash to a couple of months later I had discovered this sparkling personality was Nancy Krasne, and called her on the phone. I told her that I was basically the new kid in town and had an interior design business and was very invested in being part of the community I had come to love. She couldn’t have been more wonderful; she came for lunch at my studio, regaled me with great stories of her life in Beverly Hills. She hired me to plan her new kitchen in her fabulous ultra contemporary “Jewish Hawaiian”(she calls it) home in the hills, and that’s how it all started.

Since then we have remained friends. She has always been very generous with her time and knowledge and has been the one I call when I need advice from someone wiser than I. She has now served what I hope will be the first of two terms on the City Council, the first of which I campaigned fervently while pregnant with the Critter. I was thrilled to find that she put her hat in the ring for the second, and hope that the citizens of Beverly Hills realize how lucky they are to have a person watching the village who has no agenda other than to keep Beverly Hills as fabulous as it’s always been.

Eighteen years as a teacher in the LA School system and raising two sons gives her a very real point of view when it comes to the issues at hand, and she’s quite sharp at fiscal issues to boot. When I talk to her about hot issues like the metro rail, or the now cooled Hilton project, she has always thought the entire project through to the end, has read and comprehended every word of every report, and is always trying to get to the bottoms of things. It’s rare that something she says at the Council meetings doesn’t cause thunderous applause for sheer common sense. One of my favorite things she says is “Sunshine is the best disinfectant” – this can mean SO many things, including shedding light on politics.

I hope you’ll join my fellow Nancy fans, because I think the principles of her vision for the city are so bright. Election day is March 5, and if you haven’t yet, the deadline to register to vote is February 21. Oh, and by the way – we still haven’t gotten around to redoing that fabulous kitchen we have planned. Nancy’s too busy making sure it’s nice for the rest of us.