Marvin Braude


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.

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 Chicago 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.
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 one month after 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 84 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.

City Council

Elections

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1965 and after.
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, 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, 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

In September 1997 Braude became at the age of 76 a "distinguished practitioner in residence" at the University of Southern California, giving lectures and advising students on research projects and papers.

Quotations

The Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park in Tarzana, California, the Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center at the Government Center in Van Nuys and the Marvin Braude Bike Trail are named after him.