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December 2007
During the last month
in OurLA...
Education Reform - The votes are
in. The status quo is out. Parents and
teachers at five LAUSD campuses voted for change and said
"yes" to joining the Partnership for LA Schools. Read more
below.
Gang Reduction – We launched a new
gang reduction zone in South Los Angeles’ Baldwin Village,
bringing proven strategies and targeted resources – including
enhanced law enforcement, prevention and intervention services
– to an area plagued by gang-related
crime.
Gridlock Relief – We launched the “Right to Turn Left” Initiative to add
100 new left turn signals at the most congested intersections
throughout the City.
Greening the Port – We
announced a landmark agreement with California's Attorney
General to curb greenhouse gas emissions at the Port and
ensure that future growth at the Port is accompanied by
measures to “identify and reduce” greenhouse gas emissions,
including a solar power project and emissions
monitoring.
Climate Change - As world leaders
met at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali,
Indonesia, we
called on 3,500 of the next generation of environmental
leaders at the Environmental Youth Conference to participate
in workshops on climate change and
sustainability.
HIV Testing - We kicked off
a Citywide drive to encourage 1 million Angelenos to get
tested for HIV/AIDS by 2011– the largest community-based HIV
Testing drive in America - making HIV testing in LA
easy, accessible and routine.
Visit our City
AIDS Coordinator site for more
information.
Easy Park,
Easy Pay – We unveiled new
parking meters that will allow drivers to pay with credit
cards, debit cards and cell phones and that can alert drivers
via text message when meters expire. The new “Easy
Park –
Easy Pay” meters will eventually replace all 40,000
single-space meters in the City.
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Our
LA...Featuring
Partnership for LA
Schools
Mayor Villaraigosa and children
from Markham Middle School in Watts raise their hands
to join the Partnership for LA
Schools.
Continuing our efforts to reform public education in
Los Angeles, five LAUSD campuses – Roosevelt High
School, and Hollenbeck, Stevenson,
Markham and Gompers
Middle
Schools – cast their votes in
favor of joining the Partnership for LA
Schools and said "yes" to lower dropout rates, higher student
achievement and safer campuses. This represents an historic
step toward bringing the LAUSD and the City
together in the effort to accelerate the pace of school reform
in
LA public schools.
Mayor Villaraigosa and the LAUSD now will begin
reaching out to dozens of elementary schools that have
expressed interest in joining the
Partnership and will work to create specific school
site plans, goals and strategies
for implementing reforms for the 2008-09 school year.
Models of reform whose best practices will be shared
and replicated throughout LAUSD, Partnership schools will
center on core values of empowering teachers and principals;
engaging parents and the community; and providing students
with clean, safe and small schools.
Keeping OurLA Safe
Gang
Reduction
Bringing proven strategies and targeted resources,
we launched a new Southwest Community Law Enforcement and
Recovery (CLEAR) site in South Los Angeles’ Baldwin Village.
The interagency CLEAR program has proven to be one of LA’s
most effective anti-gang strategies, with gang-related crime
at LA’s CLEAR sites falling by 20 percent since CLEAR's
inception.
The neighborhood covered by the program will
also serve as our newest Gang Reduction Zone, where we will
infuse the targeted area with prevention and intervention
services to complement the enhanced law enforcement
efforts.
The Southwest CLEAR site will be the seventh
such program operating in Los Angeles. In April 2007,
Mayor Villaraigosa initiated his Gang Reduction Strategy,
which takes a comprehensive approach to combating and reducing
gun and gang violence in LA.
Keeping OurLA
Moving
Right to Turn Left
Mayor Villaraigosa, joined by Department
of Transportation General Manager Rita Robinson and City
Councilmember Wendy Greuel, launches the "Right to Turn Left"
Initiative.
Declaring that every commuter in the
City has a fundamental right to turn left, we announced
the “Right
to Turn Left” Initiative, a traffic relief and safety
measure that will add 100 new left turn signal arrows at the
most gridlocked intersections throughout the
City.
Logjams created by intersections without left
turn signals are responsible for some of the worst gridlock in
the City. These 100 new left turn signals will improve the
commutes of thousands of Angelenos every single
day.
Department of Transportation engineers estimate
that these additional left turn arrows will reduce car
accidents by up to 66 percent and cut excessive wait times in
left turn pockets.
The Holiday Shopping Traffic Relief Brigade
gets ready to deploy from Hollywood and Highland.
Seventy traffic officers will be stationed at and around 43 of
LA’s busiest malls, intersections and shopping centers to
ease holiday traffic congestion. See where the Holiday
Shopping Traffic Relief Brigade will be near
you. |
It's OurLA
Looking for a way to make
your mark in OurLA? Start today with one of the
ways below.
Community Preparedness
Corps
Help us ensure that
all Angelenos are prepared for emergencies.
Volunteers will receive a stipend. For more
information click
here or call (213)
473-9922.
 
Serve our City! The Crisis
Response Team needs your help. We are
especially in need of people who speak Spanish or
Korean. Contact Jeff Zimerman at 213-978-0697 or via
email
for details.
Intern with us - Winter semester
applications due on December
21.
African American Heritage
Month
Show us your creativity and talent and enter
our heritage month
writing and poster
contests.
Budget
Survey
Share your thoughts on how the City should
prioritize its budget.
Make A
Wish
Grant a wish to a child
with a life-threatening condition through the Make-A-Wish
Foundation.
Griffith
Observatory
Reservations no longer
needed! Visit the renovated Observatory.
Become a
Mentor!
Help one more
student graduate from high school. Be a
mentor.
www.connectinglosangeles.com
http://www.milliontreesla.org/
Want
a tree? Want to plant one?
Lend a hand and transform
LA.
Griffith Park
Reopens
Keep track of the latest Griffith Park
news on the recovery blog.
Free Library
Programs
Check out what LAPL offers in early
literacy, homework help, adult literacy, and SAT, PSAT and ACT
seminars.
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OurLA Photos
Please send us your photos
that capture the spirit of OurLA.
E-mail your
photos to OurLA@lacity.org
Coming Down the
Pipe
Over the 110
Freeway headed into Downtown.
Photo by Dana-Lyne
Fisher
Boys
& Girls Club of East Los Angeles
Mayor
Villaraigosa - joined by Bob Iger, President and CEO
of The Walt
Disney Company, and 150 other Disney
VoluntEARS - rolled up their
sleeves and built a
playground for the Boys & Girls Club of East
Los
Angeles at a special dedication and ribbon-cutting
ceremony.
Disney's support of the Boys & Girls Club of
America spans more than
50 years, beginning when Walt
Disney was an honorary member of
the organization's Board
of Directors.
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