|
Board Members Present:
Larry Markes, Fran Reichenbach, Missy Kelly, Nina Van
Tassell, Lori Hughes, Jack Fitzgerald, George Abrahams, Mary
Anne Nelson, Gary Wilmes
Call to order: President Larry Markes
Treasurer’s report:
Gary reported a balance of $2,100. Fran mentioned that it’s
about time for another membership drive.
Approval of the Summer Minutes:
(Fran/Missy) carried – no corrections
Senior Lead Officer’s Report:
Mike Shea and Armen Sevdahlian circulated two new flyers
(Community Crime Alert & Residential Burglary Reduction
Plan). Mike says if we follow these two, our chances of
not being victimized should be just about 100%.
Also, people keep leaving their belongings in parked cars in
plain view, tempting the bad guys. Stop that! Regarding
home burglaries, detectives ask people to simply lock their
windows and doors. Doing that will dramatically reduce the
chance of becoming a victim. The bad guys are looking for
open windows and doors – easy spots.
Mike
and Armen brought two maps showing crime stats; Hollywood
3-Day Part 1 Crimes 10-19-08 through 10-21-08 & Hollywood
One-Week Part 1 Crime 10-12-08 through 10-18-08.
The
One-Week report showed an increase of crime with offenses 7%
higher than normal.
In the
3-Day map there have been just three burglaries in the
Canyon but they don’t appear to be related. As of this
meeting date (10-23-08) there hasn’t been crime.
Los
Angeles is broken up into 19 different divisions and
Hollywood is number 2 in crime reduction with -10% and West
L.A. was number 1 with 11% reduction in Part 1 crimes and
15% reduction in violent crimes compared to last year.
Shea
and Sevdahlian are expecting that the department will
receive extra funding for overtime to keep crime down.
Our
area represents only 9% of the crime in the whole City.
We’ve had three robberies – on Chula Vista and Cheremoya –
and one on Gower south of Franklin (but the bad guy got
caught right away on that third one).
George
asked overall how many of crimes actually get solved – Shea
says he doesn’t have the stats on that but many times the
description of the perpetrator is insufficient to make an
arrest.
New
Captains – we have two (Clay Ferrall was called to run the brand new jail
downtown) Captain Bea Gramalla is back – she was raised
here. Captain Art Miller is in charge of Patrol – radio
calls, etc. He used to be a sergeant.
Mixing it up: 2 new police divisions are opening Jan 4th: Olympic (Vermont
and Olympic) and the other one will be located in the
Valley. We will lose the whole area south of Melrose between
Highland and Normandie to the new Olympic Division and the
Melrose area will go to the Wilshire Division. We’re
shrinking in territory so that’s less territory to police
which is good. There is a general rearrangement of the area,
which causes a bit of an expansion of Shea’s territory down
to Hollywood Blvd.
The
accident on Beachwood in which the Brackett twins were
killed was a matter of going too fast. Eda asked about speed
bumps. Larry says that they won’t install speed humps
because of the fire safety issue – the fire trucks have to
navigate that main road. Alison Gallant actually showed up
right after the twins crashed. She and ten other neighbors
who showed up right after that, will be traumatized for the
rest of their lives from what they witnessed. She asked for
an extra STOP sign or something to cause people to
stop more often. George told Eda that when a tragedy like
this occurs you have to consider whether the road conditions
had anything to do with it. Fran asked her to write a
letter and the Association would generate a study request to
the Department of Transportation and attach her letter for
weight.
Michael Fuller witnesses people blowing the stop sign in the
village (where Beachwood, Belden and Westshire meet). “It’s
like two intersections in one and there isn’t a good line of
sight.” He was asked to write a letter and the Association
will ask for a study.
Eda
asked what goes into determining if a sign is warranted.
Larry says the Department of Transportation studies the area
and makes the recommendation and then a work order is
issued.
Allison asked for the speed monitors to be around more. Mike
Shea is going to ask West Traffic to set them up more often.
Speaking of traffic in the Village, neighbor Christina
Hutton says that pedestrians have trouble being seen by
vehicles as they are going into the intersection in front of
the Village Coffee Shop. She has seen people almost get
hit. Michael Morrow says that we need to do something to
reduce the parking inside that large Village intersection –
it’s so very blind because of the cars parked there. The
Association will send a letter to the Department of
Transportation asking for a review of the parking issue
right there in front of the Village Coffee Shop.
A
neighbor (Norm) from Hollyridge has been watching a homeless
man crawl out of the shrubbery across from his home every
morning. Officer Shea took notes and will contact the right
departments to make sure that his encampment is dismantled
and that he gets the right information to get help for his
situation.
Griffith Park Historic Status:
Marian Dodge – president of LFIA Chris Lab – chaiman of
their Parks Committee. Griffith Park has been nominated as
a cultural monument. They only need to meet one of four
criteria to succeed and Griffith Park meets all four!
1.
Cultural and social association: Christmas 1896 it was
donated to the City by Griffth. The City Beautiful Movement
was in place.
2. It
must be associated with famous persons: Colonel Griffith and
his wife Tina – their son Van was a city commissioner.,
etc. Walt Disney took his kids there and wanted to put
Disneyland up there originally, and more…
3.
Needs to demonstrate distinguishing characteristics
architecturally: Some of the old water fountains and other
structures are of a historic natures. Many of these
structures and gutters (channels) are very historic drainage
systems – these are more visible now after the fire.
4.
Notable work of a master builder – The Grifftith Park
Observatory - AC Martin and Fredrick Ashley – The Greek
Theater…Griffith Park Girl’s Camp…all designed by famous
architects.
For
more and better details go to
www.ggpnc.org (Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood
Council).
Trees
are historic and planted in the 30’s, they are monuments.
There are 8 city parks – Barnsdell, Echo Park, Wattles
Mansion/Park, The Plaza (Alvarado), MacArthur Park, etc.
The
city is always looking for revenue generating resources for
instance multi-level parking structures that people would
have to pay for. There is an art school planned for above
the Toyon Land-fill yet it was supposed to be returned to
parkland afterwards…
Call to Action:
Write a letter of support asking for the entire park to be
granted historic status.
There
is a hearing on the 30th of October at City Hall
before the Cultural Heritage Commission – we have to pack
this hearing.
This
nomination means that they have to get permission to change
or alter anything – and answer the question: “Will this
change have an impact on any of the wonderful components of
the park?”
Who
doesn’t want this to succeed? 100% of the public supported
the nomination but Labonge’s chief of staff (Renee) says
that he is concerned about the ability to make changes or
repairs in the park. Tom Labonge brought in the DWP to say
they didn’t want anything of the DWP to be part of this.
Anything after 1958 like the Zoo, Autry Museum, Golf Course
Academy and Toyon Landfill were all made after 1958 so they
have been exempted. Yet altering of these could have a
negative impact on those elements created BEFORE 1958! By
the way, this was the date when the freeway went through and
these things were built afterwards. We want to have ALL of
Griffith Park declared historic.
Some
people say that no improvements to roads will happen because
of this but that’s not true. This doesn’t freeze anything in
time. The people who like to control things and keep things
in their scope of control – they don’t like this plan.
The
Hollywood Sign is cultural – it was falling apart and has
been rebuilt even though it was and is a cultural monument –
when something is a monument it’s easier to get funding and
get donations for repair or restoration.
Missy
shared that she and Fran were at a hearing where a developer
declared the sky above his building as open space. She says
that Labonge is willing to keep his Q funds (Park Funds) for
the land around the Hollywood Sign. Missy says, “We must
preserve Griffith Park -
this last piece of open space!”
Marian
says when they count open space they count a whole lot of
Griffith Park buildings. This isn’t necessarily fair. The
rest of the city needs parks too. Hollywood needs parks for
their kids to play soccer, etc.
Lori
asked if the City can grab Griffith Park for a developer in
eminent domain.
Chris
Lab says that the City is keeping an elephant in the zoo and
taking picnic space to make more room for the elephant when
the elephant needs to be with other elephants.
Anything can happen that would require alteration to the
park but we must do our best to preserve it and this
declaration of historic status gives us transparency. There
will always be public notice when changes are happening.
Fran/George move that the BCNA write a letter to the
Cultural Heritage Commission and to the Councilman, cc’g
Marian:
president@lfia.org in support of Griffith Park becoming
a Cultural Historic Monument. Motion carried unanimously.
Public
comment:
Nina
had a jackhammer and two huge candlesticks stolen from her
property. Watch the local workers!
Lori
has had a decorative statue chained to her home near the
street at Hollyridge and Graciosa and it too was taken.
Nina
says that there was a great bench across the street from the
Market – the owner says that at 2 a.m. someone stole it – we
should watch out for these things.
Motion
to adjourn: Fran/Gary carried unanimously. |
