STREET SCENE: The AMC theater chain has...

STREET SCENE: The AMC theater chain has abandoned a downtown Ventura project, but the city isn’t giving up on its celluloid dreams--it’s trying to persuade other theater chains to move west (B1). . . . Meanwhile, the project designed to spiff up the downtown sector is all but complete, said Patrick Richardson, a city senior planner. So is the computerization of the area’s traffic signals.

CHRISTMAS PRESENCE: Across the county, things are looking much more certain, film-wise. The two-screen Mann theater will be replaced by a nine-plex at the newly refurbished Janss Mall (B1). . . . The theater is expected to open Dec. 15, Mann spokesman Rich Given said. Although the new movie house is state of the art, it will have a Conejo Valley flavor. “The whole shopping center has kind of a country-Western design to it, and the theater fits in with that motif,” Given said.

POETIC LICENSE: Every character in Priscilla Partridge de Garcia’s license plate--DR MOM 10--has meaning. “Doctor is my mind and mom is my profession,” said Partridge de Garcia, the mother of five grown children and a clinical psychologist. “And the 10 is my body--but my friends say that’s false advertising.” . . . Partridge de Garcia, who is serving this year as campaign chairwoman for United Way, has both a private practice and serves as head counselor at Oxnard College.

SAFE PARKING: The House has rejected an attempt to trim the national park system (A1). Although Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) supported the bill, he said he was confident that Ventura County’s two national parks would not have been threatened. . . . “I still believe that a review and reform of our national park system is in order,” Gallegly said. “I also strongly believe that the Channel Islands and Santa Monica Mountains would survive such scrutiny.”