Community Organizing

The traditional model for a City Council field office has focused on constituent service. The Thirteenth District has complemented an aggressive response to constituent demands with a community organizing program that builds power among residents of the district. Working with our organizing team to get started, community groups will be able to help and to shape their neighborhoods independent of current and future elected officials.

Our Organizing Team works in areas of the Thirteenth District where community power and social cohesion have dwindled or have never been formed. In approaching a neighborhood, the team’s first priority is to find “new leaders”: people who may not know it, but who demonstrate the strength in their communities or in their families to lead in creating change. Sometimes, new leaders and existing organizations can support each other in ways they hadn’t thought of in the past. Often, many neighbors find that they share each others’ concerns and together, are willing to confront the problems in their communities.

• Neighbors on Coronado Street in Silver Lake were sick and tired of persistent crime and blight on their block, centered at the Coronado Market. With the help of CD13 organizers, they met and found that they shared a priority: getting rid of the drug dealing and the loitering gang members out in front of the market. They convened meetings with LAPD, the Department of Building and Safety, and the City Attorney’s office, and got the market shut down. Since then, the community group has hosted a health fair and a community clean-up, and they continue to meet.
• On Mountain View Boulevard in Historic Filipinotown, a community organizing group came together to resolve problems around a blighted alley which hosted frequent prostitution and drug dealing. Neighbors learned the process to demand a street closure; since the Bureau of Street Services closed the alley at their request, crime has fallen noticeably in the surrounding area. A community clean-up on Mountain View is soon to come.
• In the Yucca Corridor, community members who sought to stop crime in Hollywood formed the Yucca Community Group. They advocated for and won street barriers to prevent drug dealing, and they didn’t stop there. Today, the Coalition can boast a new park in Hollywood with programs and design features that they shaped themselves, as well as much safer neighborhoods.
• Near Santa Monica and Western, neighbors also concerned about crime met with LAPD officers and demanded results. They formed a Neighborhood Watch and created an annual street festival that celebrated its third year in 2003. Their efforts led to the creation of a pocket park for young children. A second park for middle-school-age children is currently under construction and will open this coming summer. They have sponsored community clean-ups and meet regularly with Councilmember Garcetti to report on their progress and to address ongoing issues.

Would you like help starting a community group in your neighborhood? Email District Director Ana Guerrero or call her at (323) 913 4693.