Councilmember
Eric Garcetti |
A Word from Eric
Hello again! This month begins an initiative that I have been planning for several months. I'm hoping that many of you will join me in a plan to cut graffiti in the 13th District in half and "UNTAG" your neighborhood.
UNTAG, or Uniting Neighbors to Abolish Graffiti, is getting its start at an Anti-Graffiti DAY OF ACTION this Saturday, May 15, 2004. To succeed in cutting graffiti in half during my term as a city councilmember, we'll coordinate efforts across the 13th District, with increased human and financial resources. This weekend, we will take our first big step.
I invite anyone who is concerned about graffiti to come to our office for a quick breakfast and an explanation of the plan. After breakfast, we will spend an hour and a half in the neighborhoods of CD13 making lists of tagged locations. We may even have an opportunity to paint out some graffiti, and there will be signups for an upcoming graffiti paint-out training where neighbors will be certified and will receive free paint. (You might think that anyone can paint a wall, but a wall with a patch of splotchy, unmatched paint isn't much better than a tag.) We'll return to the office at noon and collect all the lists, and those locations will receive highest priority by the city's paint-out crews.
Over our lunch hour, we'll discuss how you can participate in our anti-graffiti campaign as a volunteer or as a Block Captain to help decrease graffiti in your neighborhood by 50%. The full roll-out of the strategy will include combinations of police stings and surveillance cameras in "hotspot" locations, rapid-response paint-outs and a strong community service component for taggers caught in the act. But I'd rather tell you all the details in person.
Please join me this Saturday, May 15, from 9am-1pm at the CD13 District Office at 3525 Sunset Avenue. And please RSVP TODAY to District Director Ana Guerrero.
Next month I'll report back on Saturday's event AND invite you to an UNTAG event featuring Chief Bratton!
Best,
Eric
How to ... install new street lighting in your neighborhood!
Until the 1950's new developments in Los Angeles were not required to install streetlighting, and many older areas of the city do not have streetlights. However, neighborhood groups can initiate a process to get street lighting—if the neighborhood is willing to pay for the lights and their upkeep.
Utilitarian lighting can be installed on existing power or telephone poles 300 feet apart by the Department of Water and Power. This is the simplest way to light up a dark alley, and can be done simply by calling (213) 847-6382.
Electrolier streetlights are mounted on steel and concrete poles and provide continuous, uniform, designed and engineered streetlighting. (Prettier, too.) However, the property owners who benefit from them must pay for them, and they require the creation of an assessment district to be funded. The Bureau of Street Lighting has overall responsibility for their construction.
The assessment district is created when owners of more than 60% of the property in an area vote in a Proposition 218 election (LINK). Both votes and assessments are proportional to the size of the property. A typical 50'x 130' lot would pay $3500 for the installation of an ornamental street lighting district (this can be spread out over time), and about $55/year after that. In the case of the upcoming Atwater Village Proposition 218 election, my office found grant funding to pay for the expensive installation costs, and the homeowners in the district must only decide whether to assess themselves for the costs of keeping the lights on.
Street lighting options |
If you're interested in starting a lighting district and want to know more, visit the Bureau of Street Lighting or let District Director Ana Guerrero know about your idea. Also, to see some of the various kinds of streetlights that have been installed in Los Angeles, check out the display in the parking lot of the Rite Aid/Staples at Santa Monica and Vermont.
Odds and ends: Don't enjoy reading the e-news on the screen? Try this monograph about designing a reading experience for the computer screen that the eye can enjoy. Learn about dancing cats. Get to the end of the internet.
Finally, I want to send a quick thank-you to Sally Martinez, my fearless District Office Manager, who recently saved Easter for several constituents. Towards the end of the day on Good Friday, Sally received a call from constituents whose gas had been turned off by The Gas Company after their landlord, believing his bill was going to the wrong address, failed to pay the bill for 8 consecutive months. When it dawned on him that his tenants would spend Easter weekend without benefit of stove or heat, the landlord enlisted our office's aid at the eleventh hour. At the same time, tenants from another part of the district showed up at 4:40 pm having found out that their apartment was about to go dark for the weekend because their landlord had fallen $22,000 in arrears to the Department of Water and Power. With minutes left on the clock, Sally was able to get everyone water, power and gas for the weekend, and save at least two Easter hams.
Public safety isn't just police issues—it's also making the streets safe for pedestrians and drivers alike. Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported that many of the city's most dangerous intersections for pedestrians were in the 13th District, and I introduced a motion asking the Department of Transportation to do something about the problem. After DOT officials met with my staff recently, I can happily report that intersections will soon see the installation of limit lines (stop lines before a crosswalk), countdown signals, and other improvements.
Also, see items about crime plunging in Echo Park and in Hollywood. And, outside of my jurisdiction, see what the FBI's been up to ...
Budget
One of my responsibilities as a Councilmember is my service as a member of our Budget and Finance Committee. Each year, we sit for two to three weeks as each city department comes before the committee in marathon days to plead its case. I am proud of our record over the last three years, protecting taxpayer money, finding new ways to do more with less, and making sure that our bond rating stays strong.
Hearings on the City's 2004-05 budget took place last week and this week in the Budget Committee. Next week we will bring the work that the committee did in front of the whole council, who will approve it with, hopefully, few amendments.
On the way into this budget round, the city was facing fiscal disaster, but I think we did a good job of spreading around the inevitable pain. Mostly, I am pleased with the vital city functions that we managed to preserve. I fought to increase the Police Department and the Fire Department, to protect library hours, and I helped defend the Department of Cultural Affairs and kept the Environmental Affairs Division from being eliminated entirely. Although we took some unkind cuts, others I would not stand for: we need to honor the commitment we made to the women and girls of Los Angeles in the enforcement of CEDAW, the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. A ruling by the City Attorney this week found that the proposed transfer of money out of the Business Tax Reform Trust Fund was illegal, a victory for those of us who have been insisting on action on tax reform. We protected our environmental protections in ways for which future generations will thank us. We added funding for an ambulance for Atwater Village/Glassell Park and neighborhood services like bulky item pickups, and we protected the city's support for Business Improvement Districts and Building and Safety inspections, two engines of economic development.
Housing
The Los Angeles Times has called attention to the next round in the citywide discussion about an inclusionary zoning policy that would streamline development and alleviate the housing crunch by requiring developers to build a small percentage of affordable units in every market-rate development. I have asked that developers and advocates listen to one another and to neighborhoods, and that we find a solution that works. The next public hearings are on the 19th and 26th of May. Senior Legislative Deputy Bea Hsu has more information.
The current crisis in Section 8, the federal voucher program that gives housing assistance to many Angelenos, is an illuminating example of how callousness at the federal level creates crisis in our backyard. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced plans to block-grant Section 8 programs, and even then to fund them only at October 2003 levels. Practically, this creates pressure on localities to cut off renters and to issue vouchers to higher-income tenants against the original intent of the program. To stop this from happening, you can support the Frank-Pelosi bill in the House of Representatives by calling 1-888-818-6641 and asking to speak with your representative.
Under Los Angeles' Rent Stabilization Ordinance, landlords who evict tenants in order to occupy a unit or to condominiumize or tear down a building must pay a relocation fee. Until yesterday, that fee had not been raised in twenty years. I led the effort to increase that fee, and applaud my colleagues on the City Council for finally adjusting that rate based on the steady rise in the cost of living. Meanwhile, we are working with both apartment owners and tenants' groups to make sure that water rate increases can be addressed in a fair way for all.
Economic Development
The Small and Local Business Advisory Committee has worked faster than any City-sponsored body in living memory to come up with reforms that can work for businesses in Los Angeles. In front of them now are measures that would increase the percentage of contracts and subcontracts that would go to small, local and minority-owned firms. I applaud their work and especially the work on the committee by CD13's appointee, Leron Gubler of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
My proposal to prevent the arrival of big-box grocers such as Super WalMart and SuperTarget from undermining good jobs and neighborhood grocery in Los Angeles has advanced. In June, the Planning Commission will hear a proposal similar to an earlier version of the Superstores Ordinance that requires the developer of a proposed Superstore to assess its economic impact before an approval can be granted. Based on our findings about big-box grocers' current low-wage models that eliminate good jobs and local businesses, I doubt a Superstore could be found to have a positive impact on the L.A. economy. But this opens the door for companies to come to Los Angeles with a model that acknowledges that family wages are part of sensible economic development.
Open Space and the Environment
As both an elected official and a citizen of Los Angeles, I place the highest concern on maintaining and developing a healthy environment. A free, easy-to-read guide called Living Lightly in Our Watersheds provides valuable information on cost-effective ways to achieve that goal in our community. Want to save more than 14,600 gallons of water per year? Want to slash your energy bill, reduce waste, and increase the appeal of your home? Living Lightly has information on how to live an environmentally friendly life every day. Pick up your free copy of Living Lightly in Our Watersheds by calling North East Trees at (323) 441-8634 or going to www.northeasttrees.org.
Next Thursday is Bike To Work Day. On our way into work, Tom LaBonge and I are going to meet at 8 am at the corner of Echo Park and Sunset. He'll bike to City Hall, and I'll bike to the field office on Sunset. Let Green Deputy Glen Dake know if you want to join us on your bike. Don't forget your helmet.
A notable victory in our budget hearings was the implementation of funds to clean our local waterways, like the Los Angeles River and the Santa Monica Bay. Over the last year, I have pushed for funding to begin to implement the compliance with Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). TMDLs set limits on the amount of pollutants that can enter our soil and waterways. For years, Los Angeles fought compliance; this year, as we begin to work towards compliance, we have $13.5 million to immediately begin to keep bad stuff off the beach, out of the river and away from our neighborhoods.
Leadership Institute |
Neighborhood Empowerment
Thank you to all who joined the April 27th Leadership Institute at my field office. Led by District Director Ana Guerrero and Senior Community Organizer Shane Goldsmith, the training featured discussions of how local government works and how to build power through community organizing. I was excited to meet yet another crop of Leadership Institute graduates.
Free things for non-profits |
Neighborhood councils and non-profits should take advantage of L.A. Shares, an organization that collects donations of office supplies and more from local businesses and residents. L.A. Shares held one of its periodic "shopping days" last month, and CD13 organizations were well represented! See L.A. Shares for more information. And congratulations to the Evidence Room, one of L.A.'s finest theater groups (located in an old bra factory on Beverly Boulevard in Historic Filipinotown) for winning a brand new piano from L.A. Shares!
Human Rights
Armenian Genocide Commemoration |
In case you tuned into LA Cityview 35 during the council meeting of April 21st, it wasn't casual Friday—it was Denim Day. I wore jeans to council and participated in an event with my council colleagues to recognize that society's preconceptions must be changed to prevent rape. (For the origins of Denim Day, see last month's e-news).
Green means go, but yellow, contrary to the old Yakov Smirnov routine(or was it Mork from Ork?), does not in fact mean 'go very, very fast.' The new traffic signal installed on Glendale Boulevard at Madera Avenue, however, means that pedestrian lives are safer at this previously dangerous intersection. I will continue to search for funding to pay for a left-turn lane as well as left-turn signalization.
I have been interested in the possibility of an "Equestrian District" designation as sought by the horse-keepers of North Atwater Village. We are working closelywith the equestrian community of North Atwater Village to make this a reality with the help of Tom LaBonge, who represents the north part of Atwater Village.
The "Village at Atwater", the commercial development expected to extend the pedestrian business district along Glendale Blvd., is near completion. Tenants will include a Curves Exercise & Training facility, Juice It Up, Subway, California Sushi Roll, a pizza restaurant, a dentist's office, and possibly a branch of Washington Mutual Bank. There will be front and rear entrances to these businesses as well as ample parking on site. Look for the first businesses to open in July.
Get ready for the Atwater Village Residents Association's annual Street Festival on Sunday, June 13th! Local artists and artisans will be showing their wares for sale. It's a great time every year to see local talent. And given the thirteenth district's reputation, you can expect that much of our local talent is widely known.
Avo Tivitian hosted a great "house coffee" in his Glendale Boulevard loft. About two dozen people came out to talk about the community and meet with me. We talked about new developments in the neighborhood and public safety, and I got to know a lot of people I hadn't met before. Thanks, Avo.
Meeting with the AVNC |
I had a great time speaking with concerned residents at the Atwater Village neighborhood council meeting, and it was my pleasure to honor the NC with city certificates. Thanks to all who have made this neighborhood council one of the most successful in the city.
Want an address by the river? The city's Bureau of Engineering has received the County Flood Control permit for the stenciling of mile markers along the LA River, and the Bureau of Street Services has agreed to paint the markers. (You can't actually have a home address on the L.A. River, but you can use these addresses to report crime—a crucial component of our strategy for policing the river and, in the long haul, embracing the river in the design of our communities.)
Glassell Park
My partner Amy Wakeland and I joined famous tree-sitter John Quigley for a picnic by the stately oak that overlooks Glassell Park. We discussed the proposed oak tree protections soon to come before the City Council. These include enhanced penalties for non-permitted removal of mature oak trees.
We've installed a new stop sign at Division and Avenue 31. Speeding cars have been a problem there for years—not anymore!
The Glassell Park Field Office/Community and Senior Center took another step toward becoming reality this week. The proposal was approved by the municipal facilities committee of the Department of General Services. It is slated to go to City Council by the end of this month!
Thanks to the Department of Transportation for the parking sweep along Bushwick Avenue, towing cars that had been illegally parked for a very long time.
The Filion-Somers group is moving ahead with a temporary preferential parking district, an effective way to protect residents' parking options. Contact Field Deputy Mitch O'Farrell if you have any questions.
The all-way stop sign has gone up at the intersection of Rosanna and Ripple! I've already heard people saying the area feels safer for pedestrians.
Elysian Valley
Fruitdale has been cleared of a major illegal bulky item dump, and Street Services is on its way to give the remaining debris a good scrubbing. We'll be keeping an eye on it too, so let Field Deputy Mitch O'Farrell know if the dumpers come back.
Field Deputy Mitch O'Farrell has been touring Elysian Valley with Neighborhood Prosecutor Jeanne Kim and Housing Inspector Keith Gordon, both of whom have done excellent work for our office throughout the district. Expect to see crackdowns on nuisance properties in upcoming months.
The River and its friends |
Several hundred people gathered at Gateway Park Saturday morning, May 1, for the Friends of the Los Angeles River's "La Gran Limpieza" event. I kicked off the annual clean-up of the Los Angeles River by leading a sing-along of "God Bless America" after the scheduled singer did not show up! I had the opportunity to present certificates to several members of the Board of Directors of the Pacific American Volunteer Organization, PAVA. This was the largest turnout yet for the annual clean up, co-sponsored by PAVA and FOLAR.
Echo Park
All crime is down 43% in Echo Park from one year ago, according to Senior Lead Officer Sonia Grace. Thank you Sonia, the rest of the LAPD and the community for working together to make this dramatic progress a reality!
CD13, at your service: Residents at the end of Landa Street will get their gate relocated as requested. Also, we've arranged another large sweep along Echo Park Avenue. Cleaner days are here again.
McDuff is being re-surfaced! Although a utility hold had prevented this street from getting much-needed attention over the last several years, I heard from you that this was a street in sore need of repair and overruled the hold. This summer, we will know how soon we can re-surface Laveta Terrace, which adjoins McDuff and is also in serious need of repair.
Town Center sidewalks steam cleaned. Thanks to the Hollywood Beautification Team, the sidewalks along Sunset Boulevard between Park and Laveta Terrace were steam cleaned this week at our request. Safer, cleaner neighborhoods are my priorities and that goes for our commercial districts as well.
The LA Times made a little mistake in its May 12, 2004 article on the troubles the City is having with its swimming pools. Echo Park has two pools: Echo Park indoor pool at 1419 Colton St, which is closed for a long-awaited overhaul, and Echo Park Shallow Pool adjacent to the Echo Park Recreation Center on Bellevue Avenue which will be open for recreational swimming this summer. The photograph that accompanied the article was of Echo Park Shallow Pool which is currently closed for winter, but which will open around June 19 for its usual summer season. Around June 19, call to sign up for swimming lessons at Yosemite in Eagle Rock (323) 257-1644, or Glassell Park Pool in Glassell Park (323) 226-1670.
The homeless encampment at Radio Towers property on Alvarado has been cleared, with a fence installed to prevent it from forming again. We will now focus on getting the adjoining property owner to take better care of his lot and possibly to fence it in.
Historic Filipinotown
Camino Nuevo Charter Academy has hired Steven Seaford to serve as the leader of a new charter high school that will open this fall and will eventually locate at Temple and Hoover. Dr. Seaford is a longtime principal comes from the Covina-Valley Unified School District, where he was the Director of Secondary Support Services, and has great experience creating learning environments in school districts throughout Southern California. In addition to the high school, which will have a college preparatory mission, Camino Nuevo operates two schools on Wilshire Boulevard that serve children in grades K-8.
On Cesar Chavez Day, I had the privilege to address more than 300 young people at Belmont High school about Cesar's life and his legacy of nonviolent collective action. Cesar began his career as a community organizer in Los Angeles, and our Leadership Institute's curriculum on community power draws from his legacy. As I told the Belmont students, the Institute is open to youth too.
The Coronado Community Association led a great community clean-up.
(Despite drizzle, about 40 people came out and scrubbed down the neighborhood.)
Also, the Coronado Community Association has taken on angled parking on Carondelet as their next big challenge. An effective short-term solution to neighborhood crowding, angled parking on the wide street can vastly increase the number of parkable spaces. Hi-Fi community leaders are already canvassing on Carondelet to gauge support. Thanks to Jocelyn Geaya-Rosenthal for bringing this issue to my attention.
Silver Lake
Bea Gold |
Inspiration, perspiration and neighborhood collaboration have realized a great deal of the vision of the Gateway to Silver Lake! The Silver Lake Improvement Association, the Silver Lake Residents' Association, the Silver Lake Chamber of Commerce, and especially Vince Brook, David Bermudez, Bill Wilbur and Harry Otto have led the charge to complete the murals and plantings by the Silver Lake exit of the 101 Freeway. My office got the Bureau of Street Services to install irrigation systems for the medians. The able youth of the Hollywood Beautification Team and Los Angeles Conservation Corps each planted five of the LADWP-supplied pink trumpet trees, and HBT placed the rocks. Anil Patel has "adopted" the median and will help to maintain it. Over the last month, both the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Beautification Committee and the SLIA recruited volunteers to plant trees under the watchful eye of Silver Lake Senior Bea Gold. Special recognition goes to David Bermudez and the Central City Action Committee, who watered the trees over the few weeks before the irrigation was installed.
We're just a few more rocks, a little sign and some weed-reducing bark chips away from completion of the long-awaited Gateway's completion. It should be pretty snazzy!
At a recent community meeting on the triangle park on Sunset at Griffith Park Blvd., a discussion of the preliminary results of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Beautification Committee's survey revealed that many more people would use the park if it had water in its design, benches, and if it was cleaner. The survey is ongoing and can be filled out and submitted at the SLIA website or contact Tom Blanchard, SLNC Beautification Committee at tblanchard@msn.com.
Silver Lake's Senior Lead Officer Al Polehonki, informs us that the homeless man who has been propping objects in trees near Micheltorena Elementary was arrested for sleeping in the Micheltorena tunnel, and, as a probation term, cannot come within 1000 feet of the tunnel.
We continue to examine the prospect of new parking meters for the business districts of Silver Lake and Sunset Boulevards. Meters help maintain lively, pedestrian "village" districts by increasing turnover. Please drop a line to Field Representative James Omahen with any questions or concerns.
The alley that connects the 900 block of Sanborn Avenue through to the 900 block of Manzanita Avenue has been approved for fencing and gating. We expect that this will help solve a long-running neighborhood nuisance.
Have you been to Libby's Vintage Home and Garden at 3815 1/2 Sunset Boulevard? This month, Libby is showing the collage artwork of b. johnson, who has formerly worked as "a taxidermist, a drawbridge oiler, a hog medicine salesman and [has] performed in a singing and drawing vaudeville act."
Your fave bands under your fave flowers. |
The winning street tree for Sunset Junction has been selected. It's the Cassia leptophylla a/k/a the Gold Medallion Tree, and it flowers just in time for the Sunset Junction Street Fair. Thanks to all who participated in the selection process, especially Tom Blanchard and Joe Fedorowich from the SLNC.
East Hollywood
Alley closure |
Today, I stood with City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Public Works Board member Cynthia Ruiz and many community members to announce the closure of the troublesome alley by YY Market on Marathon. The neighborhood prosecutor wins another one for safe neighborhoods!
Commemoration |
The Armenian Genocide Commemoration late last month was a powerful event (see Human Rights).
I declared my admiration for the Hollywood Teen Community Project's tireless efforts to prevent teen pregnancy in a City Council presentation honoring HTCP and declaring May "Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Month."
Hollywood
Congratulations go to Gregg Cannizzaro, recently elected President of Hollywood's "Order Of The Sons Of Italy." Gregg's gala installation included the organization's state president Roy Vanoni, and leading lights from around the US and South America.
A very attractive self-storage facility |
If you see strange figures climbing a building at Hollywood and Bronson, you don't need to call the police —the sculptural climbers make up the art component of the new Hollywood Public Storage, which opened April 8th. (If you see the figures move, you should probably tell someone about it.)
There's no better way to learn about public safety in an individual neighborhood than by attending CompStat, Chief Bratton's weekly round-up of activity on a block-by-block basis. Senior Community Organizer Shane Goldsmith sat in on a Hollywood Compstat recently where Hollywood Senior Lead Officer Joey Bunch gave a detailed presentation and reported back. Here are some highlights:
Toyota Camrys account for a high percentage of stolen cars in Hollywood. If you drive a Camry in Hollywood Division, the police department will give you a Club steering wheel lock for free.
Gang and prostitution activity near Sunset and Serrano and other "hot spots" has decreased considerably since last year.
Horse patrols are regarded as one of the single most effective ways to prevent crime in Hollywood.
I joined City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Chief Bratton at the corner of Sunset and Vine to announce that crime gang-related crime in Hollywood has plummeted by 50%. My congratulations go out to all who have toiled to make this happen. Safety is a precondition of economic development. What we have in Hollywood doesn't happen without it.
Metro Hollywood Apartments |
Since taking office, I have been honored to assist in the development and opening of some of the most attractive, effective affordable housing projects in the country. The Metro Hollywood Apartments were the latest to open. I joined representatives from the Community Redevelopment Agency and Hollywood Community Housing Corporation to celebrate in the bright, breezy courtyard by Hollywood and Western.
The Ricardo Montalban Theater was unveiled last weekend. I was immeasurably gratified to speak from the same stage as Ricardo, a leading force in the entertainment community who has served as a SAG vice president and has lent his name to many good causes. The theater's programming should be up online soon at the Nosotros Foundation's website.
