Scam Alert for DWP Energy Efficiency Programs

In the last few months there have been a few instances of individuals approaching small business customers with LADWP’s CLEO application, asking for cash up front to perform lighting retrofit work, and then never returning to perform the installations that were promised. Please urge community members to note that LADWP does not charge for energy efficiency rebates or direct installation of efficiency upgrades. FYI – The Korean community seemed to have been targeted for these scams early on. In response, ads were placed on Korean-language radio to raise awareness. Any additional efforts you can make to reach out to small businesses in the Korean community would be helpful. Thank you. Victoria Cross LADWP Government and Neighborhood [continue reading]

NSNC Welcomes New Patrol Commanding Officer to LAPD Devonshire Division

Captain Daryl Russell has been a member of the LAPD for 33 years and has worked a variety of assignments including uniformed patrol, training, Watch Commander, Patrol Crime Czar, the Area’s Liaison Officer with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and a myriad of specialized units such as the Patrol Adjutant at Foothill Area, Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Foothill Area Bicycle Detail, Complaint Investigator at Internal Affairs Group, Surveillance Agent at Special Operations Section, and Special Events Coordinator at Operations-Central Bureau. In addition, he has coordinated safety for events from small parades to large scale events such as the Grammy Awards, Fiesta Broadway, United States Figure Skating Championships, City of Los Angeles Marathon, and events associated with the Los Angeles Lakers’ championships. In March 2009, he was promoted to Captain and assigned to his first command at Central Patrol Division. Click here to read more on Captain Daryl [continue reading]

Eric Garcetti Wins Mayor Race, Pot Shop Limit Passes

  Eric Garcetti triumphs in the LA mayoral race (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty) It's official: Eric Garcetti has won the race for Los Angeles mayor over Wendy Greuel, who conceded this morning. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Garcetti earned 54 percent of the votes and Greuel had 46 percent, ABC News reports. Garcetti is both LA's first Jewish mayor and, at 42, its youngest mayor in 100 years, according to the LA Times. He tweeted his thanks to the voters: "Thank you Los Angeles--the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let's make this a great city again." Last night, things looked too close to call, with both candidates appearing optimistic about their chances. Although Garcetti and Greuel spent a record amount of more than $30 million in the race, poll turnout was a low, low 19.2 percent, according to the Times. The two Democrats were in the run-off contest to succeed two-term Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who will leave office July 1. The issue that Angelenos might care about more—Proposition D, which limits the number of marijuana shops in the city—passed with 63 percent of the vote. Prop D will cap the number of pot shops at 135 and also raise taxes and limit hours of operation. Two other medical marijuana proposals were also on the ballot: Ordinance E would have also capped the number of clinics at 135 but without new taxes. Supporters chose to back Prop D instead, leaving Prop E to fail with 35 percent. Ordinance F wouldn't have limited the [continue reading]

Final EIR of City of Los Angeles' Proposed Single-Use Carryout Bag Ordinance

The City of Los Angeles is proposing to adopt and implement an ordinance to ban single-use plastic carryout bags, charge a fee on paper bags, and promote the use of reusable bags at specified retailers in the City of Los Angeles.  The Final EIR is available at City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, 1149 S. Broadway, 5th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90015; at www.lacitysan.org under What’s New…; and at the following public libraries: Central Library, 630 W 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071 Van Nuys Branch Library, 6250 Sylmar Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91401 West L. A. Regional Branch Library, 11360 Santa Monica Bl., Los Angeles, CA 90025 San Pedro Regional Branch Library, 931 S. Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731 Granada Hills Branch, 10640 Petit Avenue, Granada Hills, CA [continue reading]

Citrus Sunday 2013: A Big Success!

At our Citrus Sunday outreach on Sunday, May 5th, the Northridge South Neighborhood Council collected over 5300 pounds of citrus:  oranges, grapefruits, lemons, tangerines plus the odd loquat and kumquat.  These contributions came from the stakeholders of Northridge South and  and adjoining areas in Northridge East. Because of the hard work of our Citrus Sunday Chair, Margaret Landers, and the able assistance of NSNC stakeholder and former board member Irene Boyd, and through an advertising blitz of the Sherwood Forest neighborhood and adjoining areas in Northridge East, we had the largest accumulation of citrus donations in the council's three year participation in Citrus Sunday.  As a result, we had enough fruit to go to three different food banks. The board also wants to take a moment to thank a young man, all of six years old, named Lukas Grossman, for being the light of this year's Citrus Sunday.  Not only did he ask friends and classmates to harvest and donate fruit to our pickup site, but he worked nearly the entire day with us, making boxes, carrying fruit to be weighed and boxed, greeting his friends and classmates, and amazing every adult present with his good heart and a maturity years beyond his physical age.   We commend his parents, Adam and Cynthia Grossman, for instilling such important values in one so young. A special thanks as well to thank  those members of the board that were able to participate this year: Andrea Alvarado, Rob Baskerville, Tom Bramson, Judi Greenberg, Sheree Pelaez (Sal's wife), [continue reading]

Grading Los Angeles' Streets

L.A. full of roads to ruin for cars The city gives its road network an average grade of C. But a Times analysis finds wide disparities, and they're not driven by wealth or political power. Explore pavement quality ratings for each of the 68,000 street segments in L.A., graded from A to F. From the L.A. Times, May 4, 2013 A drive along Angus Street in hilly Silver Lake requires navigating a gantlet of buckled concrete slabs and dirt-filled cracks. But on South Seabluff Drive in Playa Vista the ride is smooth, the pavement is black and you can smell the fresh asphalt. Despite the city's best efforts to keep up with the constant flood of road repairs, Los Angeles is a city divided — by its potholes, cracks and ruts. Interactive map: See your street's grade A Times analysis of street inspection data found wide disparities in road quality among the city's 114 neighborhoods. The streets in the newer development of Playa Vista, which the city's database gives the highest ranking with an average grade of B, scored 80% higher than those in Silver Lake, which ranks among the worst with a D-minus average. The differences are not driven by wealth or political power. In fact, some of the poorest parts of the city have some of the best roads. The heart of the problem is aging streets, heavy traffic, undulating terrain and the sheer size of the network. The streets in the poorest shape tend to be in hillside neighborhoods, such as the Hollywood Hills, Mount Washington, Los Feliz [continue reading]

Mayor Villaraigosa Announces $5 Million in Grants for Earthquake Early Warning System

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined with the US Geological Survey and the Los Angeles/Long Beach Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) Approval Authority members to announce $5 million in federal funds for the region’s Earthquake Early Warning System. “Our partners at the US Geological Survey and Caltech have been working on the development of a cutting-edge early warning system.” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “We’re proud to provide this additional funding to improve the system’s capacity and bring it to the level required to make earthquake early warning a reality in Southern California.” The USGS, in partnership with CalTech, UC Berkeley, and the Southern California Earthquake Center, has been developing an Earthquake Early Warning system for Southern California since 2006. The objective of earthquake early warning is to rapidly detect the initiation of an earthquake, estimate the level of ground shaking to be expected, and issue a warning before significant ground shaking starts. This can be done with sensors placed near active fault zones that detect the first energy waves to radiate from an earthquake.  Those first waves travel at the speed of sound but cause little damage.  The following waves, which bring the strong shaking that causes most of the damage, travel slower.  The greater the distance from the epicenter, the longer the warning time which can range from a few seconds to a few tens of seconds. Those seconds could: allow people to drop, cover, and hold on and grant businesses time to shut down and move workers to safe locations, give medical professionals time to stop delicate [continue reading]

The Fastest Route to City Hall

In a city the size of Los Angeles, one of the fastest routes to City Hall is the internet. In the time it takes to find your car keys, you can be online and communicating with the Mayor and the City Council. Effective Neighborhood Council advocates typically know three things; they know the issue, they know what they want, and they know who can help them. Then they do something about it. Here are a few tips for effective email advocacy, followed by the email addresses of the Mayor and the City Council, complemented by a simple link that allows you to email the Mayor and the City Council with one click. Identify yourself and your Neighborhood Council. Let them know that you are a voting resident or a taxpaying business owner or an active parent volunteer. Be polite and professional. You can disagree, you can be firm and forceful, but always remember that you are creating a public document and your objective is to persuade. Be clear and state your objective. You can complain all day long but if you don’t get to the point and ask for help, compliance, or support,  you won’t get what you want. Look for common ground. We live in a great city and we’re all partners in making it even better. Let people know that you want to help them help you. Encourage others to join you. There is strength in numbers and if you take to time to write a persuasive email, share it with others so that they [continue reading]

NSNC Supports the North Valley YMCA's 2012 Thanksgiving Baskets Program

Adam Pilder of the North Valley YMCA presented the Northridge South Neighborhood Council with a plaque in appreciation of the NSNC's participation in the Y's  2012 Thanksgiving Baskets Program.  The NSNC's participation in the event included council contributions toward the purchase of twenty Thanksgiving baskets  as well as individual board member donations of time and money.  The contributions of the NSNC and many others local groups and non profits allowed the YMCA to distribute Thanksgiving baskets to over 2700 needy families.   The Northridge South Neighborhood Council looks forward to working with the North Valley YMCA on the 2013 Thanksgiving Baskets Project. A special note of thanks goes out to Diane Weston-Sulka for her spearheading of the council's participation with the YMCA in last year's  program.  Well done [continue reading]

Los Angeles Budget Challenge Results: North Valley & South Valley

Click here for the questions with answers and the regional budget powerpoint results. Additionally, the Citywide results are posted [continue reading]