A Cadre of Young People Contribute to The Canyon Alliance

By Laurel Busby

News & Information Editor

A youthful influx of energy and knowhow has infused The Canyon Alliance in recent months.

Luke Schneeman, 19, and Noah Korngute, 19, who grew up in the Canyon, jumped into help with various projects, ranging from event planning to website design, while Em Kramer, 24, another child of the Canyon, pulled in her Santa Monica friend, Luke Cull, 30, to aid with an interactive 3-D Canyon map and database that could prove vital in the next emergency.

Luke Schneeman

The devastation of the Palisades Fire was a central motivator in spurring them to contribute to the Alliance. Schneeman, a government major at Georgetown University, was in the air flying to Washington D.C. after Christmas break when the fire erupted. He spent the next few days watching the news while he worried about his family and the Canyon.

Even though the Canyon was mostly spared, “it really fractured our community and sent us to so many places for the next two months,” Schneeman said.

For spring break, he flew home and drove through the destroyed areas of Pacific Palisades with his family, which was an emotionally jarring experience.

“There are no words; it’s so absolutely awful,” he said. But “afterward, we drove to the [March 1] Back to the Canyon event…. It was inspiring to see our community back as one.”

That day, when he learned of the Alliance’s efforts to bring recovery, relief, and resilience to the Canyon, Schneeman opted to join the mission. First, he worked with Lower Santa Monica Canyon resident Miriam Bookey to create a website for the area’s newly formed neighborhood association, and he later began working on planning the next event, Back to the Canyon 2.

Schneeman also heard about City Councilwoman Traci Parks’ advocacy for Pacific Palisades and the hope that her work brought to the traumatized community. He found her efforts so inspiring that he applied for a summer internship with her office and was soon offered a position. Since the internship started last month, he has been attending governmental meetings and learning aspects of how the city operates.

“It feels special to play a small part in the work that she’s doing, which I know so many Palisadians have been so appreciative of,” he said.

Noah Korngute

His close friend and fellow 2024 PaliHi graduate, Korngute, was also inspired by the Alliance’s work, which he learned about upon returning home from Marist University in May.

“I thought, ‘This is incredible; I’d love to be part of this,’” said Korngute, who is studying business, psychology, and music in New York.

His main summer plans involved taking classes at Santa Monica College, but he also started working part-time for the Alliance. He and Schneeman were instrumental in organizing Back to the Canyon 2. They promoted the event, set up the sound system and other needed elements on May 31, then cleaned up after it was over.

Alliance President Suisman said that both Schneeman and Korngute “have been wonderful…. They both have these deep roots in the Palisades and the Canyon. They have a great spirit. It’s not just a job for them. They seem to really enjoy contributing to the community in this way.”

Korngute in particular has been pivotal this summer in enhancing The Canyon Alliance website. He’s added both a business and election page, and the long-term plan is for him to add an emergency contacts page that includes city services and post-fire resources.

The Alliance’s varied committees have also been utilizing him to organize information, build out sections of the website, and research resources. In addition, he has been garnering relevant data from the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association website to add to the Alliance website due to the name change that was recently approved by the membership.

He helped Suisman create a maps page that includes the public version of the clickable 3-D Canyon map created by SMC student Jason Runnells. A second version of the map with more detailed private information, such as phone numbers and residents’ special needs, will be strictly for resident leaders and first responders to use in an emergency.

For Korngute, this work is essential to improving the community’s ability to handle the next disaster.

The Palisades Fire “was terrifying with people not being able to reach their homes and not knowing where to go,” Korngute said. “It’s definitely going to be nice to have a central place where everyone can find information in an emergency.”

Luke Cull

Database expert Cull has become the key person working to connect the interactive 3-D Canyon map with an accurate resident database that has relational tagging, so that in an emergency, everyone living in a certain area can be immediately pulled up and notified of a pending crisis. The work includes sifting through membership data gathered by the SMCCA and the smaller neighborhood associations to ensure that contact information for both owners and tenants are verified for every address in the Canyon.

In addition, Cull said that new construction is often not reflected in city records, so her goal is to eliminate such discrepancies in the data. She is also researching security options, so that only people with the proper permissions can access the database.

Cull, a Kenyon College graduate who earned a graduate degree in art history from the University of Glasgow four years ago, developed her database skills through her work as an art historian cataloguing art and books, both in Glasgow and New York City. However, her work with the Alliance has a personal aspect that makes it particularly meaningful to her.

“I had so many friends who were forced from their homes,” said Cull, who grew up in Sunset Park. “This project was a great way to give back so this community can be safer in emergencies to come.”

For Suisman, the varied contributions of the young people gives him hope and confidence for the Canyon’s future.

“We’re bringing a younger perspective to The Canyon Alliance,” he said. “These college-age voices are helping us get a complete picture of the Canyon community. The goal of course is to encourage the emergence of the next generation of stewards of the Canyon who will care about it and take care of it.”