Rosendahl takes Westside issues seriously
Monica has allowed us to participate in that dog park,” said Rosendahl who lives in Mar Vista.
Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom said the dog park issue does not define City Hall’s relationship with Rosendahl.
“It’s really important for Los Angeles and Santa Monica to be working together because we have so many issues in common,” Bloom said. “Bill is an advocate just as we are on the regional approach to homelessness and transportation issues.”
It’s always been politics Raised in Englewood, New Jersey and born to German immigrants, Rosendahl became active in political life early on, involved in the civil rights movement of the ‘60s as a student.
He received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from St. Vincent College and subsequently his master’s in social work from the University of Pittsburgh.
One of the highlights of his young political career was meeting one-on-one with Martin Luther King Jr., spending an evening in a hotel room with the civil rights leader, talking about motivation and dreams.
“He said, ‘look Bill, every day is precious, if you feel like making a difference, that is what you should do with your energy,” Rosendahl said of the conversation way back in 1967.
Perhaps one of the darkest days in Rosendahl’s career was on June 5, 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed at the Ambassador Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Rosendahl was a 22-year-old graduate student at Pitt at the time of the shooting, taking a leave of absence from his studies to work on Kennedy’s presidential campaign.
About a week before the shooting, Kennedy invited Rosendahl to accompany him on a visit to Los Angeles.
It was Rosendahl’s first visit to L.A. and one that would stay in his memory forever as he was in the Ambassador Hotel the moment that Kennedy was shot.
“It was forever emblazoned in my brain,” said Rosendahl who recalled seeing Kennedy’s clothes laid out on the bed after the shooting. “I got on the plane the next morning, flew to New York in La Guardia where the family met.”
Following a few years as an army private in the Vietnam War, serving his first year as a psycho analyst in the mental hygiene clinic, Rosendahl worked under John D. Rockefeller III. But it wasn’t long before he was called back into the political arena, this time to run George McGovern’s presidential campaign in Illinois.
Following the presidential campaign and an 18 month trip around the world through 39 countries, Rosendahl temporarily moved to Los Angeles in 1977, the Kennedy assassination still fresh in his mind. It was then when he first fell in love with the city. But a call from President Jimmy Carter’s brought him back to the east coast two years later, this time to be the chief of operations in the trade and development program at the State Department.
In 1981, Rosendahl made his permanent move to Los Angeles, beginning a long career managing several cable companies including Westinghouse, Century Cable and Adelphia. In 1987, disappointed by the lack of public affair shows on cable television, Rosendahl began his producing and talk show hosting career with such shows as “Local Talk,” “Week in Review” and “Beyond the Beltway.”
“Television is a joke so I created these shows where people could finishes sentences and thoughts, people of all points of view on an issue,” Rosendahl said.
Serving Angelinos In 2005, nearing the age of 60, Rosendahl decided it was time to move on to the next phase of his career, capturing the 11th council district council seat.
In the past two years, Rosendahl’s credits on the Westside include fighting for the tenant’s of Lincoln Place in Venice, speaking out against jet activities at Santa Monica Airport and pushing for historic preservation designation of the Barry Building in Brentwood. The owner of the 1950s era building housing Dutton’s Brentwood Books is planning to erect a two-story retail complex.
Rosendahl’s first experience with the airport came in 1986 when he purchased a house in Venice where the flight pattern swept over his neighborhood. After organizing protests and receiving death threats, Rosendahl uprooted himself and moved to Mar Vista.
During his council campaign, Rosendahl was knocking on doors in Mar Vista, talking to residents and noticing that his eyes were watering and his throat was itching.
“I realized we were right in the exhaust of idling jets,” he said. “The toxicity of the idling jets goes right into the mouth and the faces and lungs of my constituents.”
Coming out Rosendahl is considered the first ever openly gay L.A. City Councilmember.
He first came out to his family in 1977 after his mother passed away, later to his employer at Century Cable and then to the American public while on the air of one his talk shows.
His sexuality was one of the main reasons why he did not run earlier for public office, feeling America was not ready for a gay public official.
“I made a decision not to run for elected office at a much younger age based on discrimination and prejudice our society has toward gay people,” Rosendahl said.
His first partner died of AIDS at the age of 38 in 1995.
“It’s the most horrific personal holocaust that I can describe,” he said.“The worst part was not only were we dying, but we were rejected by our families and friends.”
Society has progressed since then, Rosendahl said, but he still sees discrimination in housing and in the workplace.
“By the time I (decided) to run for office, I was a 59-year-old guy at that point and the City Council of Los Angeles is a body where I can make effective social change,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 24, 2007. Read the original PDF.