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November 2007
During the last month
in OurLA...
Traffic Gridlock
Relief: To keep LA moving, we unveiled the completion
of the 101/405 freeway improvement project; reversible lanes
on Sepulveda Boulevard; a plan to synchronize every traffic
light in LA; an initiative to install 30 left turn signals in
30 days; and Olympic West Pico East - a bold new idea to
relieve traffic on the Westside.
1,000 New
Cops: Continuing our push to put 1,000 new cops on
the streets, we announced a $1 million donation from Mercury
Insurance for LAPD signing bonuses and recruitment efforts.
Dirty Trucks:
We united with the port of Long Beach behind a plan to ban
dirty diesel trucks by 2008, slashing truck pollution by 80
percent at America's largest
port complex and yielding major health benefits for workers
and residents near the LA basin's largest
polluter.
Job Training:
As part of our efforts to enhance workforce
development throughout LA, we opened the Hollywood WorkSource Center on the campus of Los Angeles
City College, a one-stop job
center that will offer employment opportunities and resources
to Angelenos. Call (213) 381-3110 for
information.
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Keep OurLA
Moving
Olympic West Pico
East
The "Olympic West Pico
East” initiative is a new way, a
smart way and a safe way to reduce traffic congestion at LA’s
gridlock epicenter. The three-phase project will speed up the flow of
traffic and reduce congestion on Olympic and Pico Boulevards
along the seven-mile stretch between La Brea Boulevard and
Centinela Avenue.
The plan will protect Westside neighborhoods
by limiting left turns onto residential streets and reducing
cut-through traffic on local roads. While this initiative has not been
attempted before in Los Angeles, trial runs
conducted by LADOT proved successful – improving traffic flow
by as much as 45 percent.
Phase 1 ensures
consistent rush hour parking restrictions along both Olympic
and Pico, and boosts enforcement efforts of parking rules by
LADOT officers. Phase 2 creates preferential flow signal
timing to allow commuters to move more quickly along Olympic
heading west and Pico heading east. After evaluating the results of these
initial steps, the City plans to re-stripe Olympic and Pico in
Phase 3 of the project, adding more westbound lanes on Olympic
and more eastbound lanes on Pico.
OurLA...Featuring
Water
Conservation
Following two of the driest years in LA's
history, we revived the Drought Busters: LA’s
Conservation Team, and deployed them to City streets to remind
residents to stop wasting water and to make conservation
a daily routine. Residents should call
1-800-DIAL-DWP to report any incidents of
water waste in their neighborhood.
DWP's Drought
Busters, previously used to combat water waste in 1990-91 will
not issue citations or impose penalties at this time,
but they will respond to reports of water waste, send out
warnings indicating residents’ prohibited water use and offer
simple conservation tips.
The Drought Busters will be
on the lookout for:
• Water use on hard
surfaces such as sidewalks, walkways,
driveways or parking areas;
• Watering lawns between
10:00 AM and 5:00 PM from April
through
September, and between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM from
October through
March;
• Allowing excess water from sprinklers
to flood gutters;
• Using water to clean, fill or
maintain decorative
fountains unless the water is part of a
recirculation system;
• Serving water to customers in
eating establishments, unless
requested; and
• Permitting leaks to go unattended.
For
conservation tips visit http://www.bewaterwise.com/.
OurLA...Featuring
Educational
Enrichment
Mayor with
literacy student Sanchez Shockley and his literacy
tutor Julian Pasillas in Echo Park's new Adult
Literacy Center.
Continuing our efforts to
bring city services to public schools and raise student,
achievement we unveiled four new programs through the Los Angeles Public
Library.
“Read to Me L.A.” is a new early literacy program that
teaches parents and caregivers how to read to their preschool
children.
“Student Smart," in partnership with The
Princeton Review, allows students to take free
seminars and SAT, PSAT and ACT practice tests
at any library.
   
“Live Homework Help” is a new, free library
service that offers on-demand online tutoring for
students in grades 4-12, seven days a week. And we expanded our Adult Literacy program
with a newly opened literacy center at the Echo Park
Branch, our 18th center.
Ready, Set,
Gold! launched its second year.
The community health and fitness program encourages
LAUSD students to adopt healthy lifestyle habits
to fight obesity and diabetes. A legacy of
Los
Angeles' recent Olympic bid, the
program matches Olympians/Paralympians with 50 LAUSD
elementary, middle and high schools and reaches
25,000 students. For more info contact Bernadine
Bednarz at (213) 482-6346, bbednarz@lasports.org or visit www.sccog.org.
OurLA...Featuring
Fighting Homelessness
On November 17, Mayor Villaraigosa,
300 volunteers from the City, and more than 4,000 others
joined in Home
Walk, a 5K walk around Exposition Park in support of
United Way's A Pathway Home initiative helping
to end homelessness.
Home Walk raised $700,000 to fund efforts to
address homelessness in the nation's homeless capital. A
Pathway Home will engage the community through advocacy
and volunteerism; by increasing resources to homeless
agencies; by helping agencies link services with
permanent housing; and by bringing private and public sectors
together.
Keeping LA
Moving
Regionalizing the Crowded
Skies
We hear a lot of talk these days about regionalizing
commercial aviation traffic in Southern
California.
Regionalization means spreading an ever-growing airline
travel and air cargo market around to various airports. Unfortunately, a 1990
federal law prohibits most local airport operators (such as
Los Angeles World Airports - LAWA) from
controlling airline access to airports. Airlines now have to be
persuaded to move service and convincing them to rethink how
they do business is difficult.
Mayor
Villaraigosa has taken up the challenge. At his direction, LAWA
imposed limits on LAX growth by settling a series of lawsuits
against the 2004 LAX Master Plan and now must work to
encourage more activity at airports located where communities
welcome increased air traffic.
Mayor Villaraigosa has worked with LAWA
to attract United Airlines flights between Palmdale and
San
Francisco. He supported the arrival of
the popular ExpressJet service between LA/Ontario and dozens
of new markets. He backed the Airport Commission’s recent
decision to offer landing fee discounts to airlines providing
new service at LA/Ontario. And that same airport
is now on the verge of expanding its international
offerings.
The Mayor’s office is
talking with experts about what it would take to create
high-speed rail service to regional airports. Such service
could replace short-haul flights between LAX and other
airports and make getting to airports
like LA/Palmdale easier.
In spring 2007, the FAA
released a landmark study that concluded Southern
California is one of the few regions in the U.S. where regional
dispersion of aviation growth is the only feasible solution to
crowded skies. Implementing a vision
that could link people all over Southern
California with all of our airports in new, less
impactful ways could well be the key to meeting the FAA’s
challenge and making Mayor Villaraigosa’s goal of
regionalization a reality.
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It's OurLA
Looking for a way to make
your mark in OurLA? Start today by
participating in one of the ways
below.
Community Preparedness
Corps
We're seeking energetic
volunteers to organize and prepare local plans and ensure
that every Angeleno
has the tools and resources to
prepare for emergencies. Volunteers will receive a stipend,
funded by the City and Americorps. For more information call
(213) 473-9922 or click
here.
 
Volunteer for the City's
Crisis Response Team! Contact Jeff
Zimerman at 213-978-0697 or via email
to get involved. We are especially in need of people who speak
Spanish or Korean.
Intern with us
The
Mayoral Internship Program is seeking motivated students to
work with the Mayor's staff in the winter. The application
deadline is December 21.
American Indian Heritage
Month
Take advantage of the LA's
vast cultural resources. To see how we're
celebrating our American Indian heritage click
here.
Budget
Survey
Share your thoughts on how the City should
prioritize its budget.
Make A Wish
A Season of
Wishes, sponsored by The Walt Disney Company, is the
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles' holiday-season
campaign to grant wishes to children with life-threatening
medical conditions.
Griffith
Observatory
Reservations no longer
needed! Visit the renovated Observatory. 
Become a
Mentor!
Studies have shown that students with
mentors are 70% more likely to graduate from high school. Make
a difference by going to www.connectinglosangeles.com.
Million Trees LA
One
million new trees in LA will create a that will change our
landscape and neighborhoods for generations. To
participate visit www.milliontreesla.org.
Griffith Park
Reopens
Keep track of the latest Griffith Park
news on the recovery blog.
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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
Photos
by Bernard Miranda
Marking the one-year
anniversary since reopening after renovation, the
City
announced reservations will no longer be needed
to visit Griffith Observatory.
Photo by
Adrienne Helitzer
Kiara from Make-A-Wish
Foundation spends time with Disney
Princesses at
the World Premier of Walt Disney Studio's
"Enchanted" on
November 17, at the El Capitan Theatre, where Kiara
jump
started her wish to visit Walt Disney World(r) Resort.
Together
with Disney, the campaign's premier sponsor, Kiara
kicked off the
Make-A-Wish Foundation
of LA Season of Wishes.
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