Here's
a little about us:
Who are we ... and how did we get here?
Welcome
to the home site for the LA Neighborhood
Council Citywide
Issues Group (CIG), LANCissues.org. At present we are a group
of well over 100 people from across Los Angeles who are involved
in the Neighborhood Council (and Community Council) system.
Many of us first met at either the biannual Congress of Neighborhoods
or at Alliance of Neighborhood Council meetings, generally held
every two months at LA City College on Vermont Ave. (we still
convene our general meetings following each of the latter, and
try to hold an off month steering group meeting as well).
The original idea for our efforts sprang from the perceived need
to coordinate the efforts on a variety of issues that would effect
NC's regionally or citywide.
These might often fall into a few categories:
• issues that require quick action
(ie: when a vote will soon come up before City Council or one
of the City Commissions)
• issues of ongoing importance (ie: the freeway system, LAX,
water quality and landfills)
• issues that relate to the manner in which the Neighborhood
Council system is working (ie: the Department of Neighborhood
Empowerment (DONE), the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC),
or the various city departments themselves)
The group itself takes no position on the issues, and wishes to
provide a forum for the presentation of possible topics and the
sharing of pertinent information of an educational nature on any
given issue.
We do, however, try to coordinate and track the results of any
positions taken by Neighborhood Councils around the city.
Perhaps our first notable success came with the discussion of
the recent Department of Water and Power (DWP) request for rate
hikes. Many NCs participated in this process, with the majority
taking a position against the proposal, and in the end a compromise
was reached in City Council.
But this has been but one of our efforts.
At an earlier Citywide Issue Group meeting stakeholders generated
a list of about 50 possible topics on their minds. Since then,
the list has grown, but it's offered here simply as an example
of the kind of issues we might consider:
...
some
topics and issues:
Mayor's Budget Process
LAPD / LAFD dividing up the money
Are there enough police?
Is our neighborhood getting its share?
How to pay for more police?
Scenic Preservation
Infrastructure - Street Repair, etc.
Land Use Issues and Procedures
Public Health System Impending Crisis
Education for Involvement (Civics)
Traffic
City Support for NCs
Protecting NC Budgets
Early Warning System
Office Space
$700 Million Budget Deficit
NCs Interfacing with City Hall
Building More Schools
311 Program
Halfway House Disclosures and Regulation
Notification to community in Planning Stage
Child Care for Single Parents
NCs Mobilizing the Community
Safety
Cleaning Streets
Graffiti
|
Universal Health Care
Airport and EIR
Recycling and Landfills
Healthy Families
Community Partnership
Supervision
Youth and Police
Customer Service
Street Life and Public Safety
Community Policing
Quality of Life
Dumping on City Streets
Parking
Air Quality
Public Transportation
Subways
NC Elections
Grassroots Empowerment
Outreach to Community
Mapping LA (LA Trade Tech)
Disaster Preparedness
Emergency Preparedness
Privatization of Schools
Zero Tolerance Policing
LA City Political Process
Campaign Finance Reform
Teamwork LA |
Here
is a list of issues that came up at Citywide Issues Group meeting
Saturday, July 17, 2004:
•
Water bond apparently in preparation
• Business tax reform
• Grand Ave redevelopment plan for downtown *
• Convention Center hotel plan *
• Inclusionary zoning *
• Transportation planning (Exposition line came up in
the discussion)
• Fair distribution of city services to all parts of
the city
• Parks River Open Space (pros) committee -- loss of
park ranger positions
and replaced by GSA employees *
• Proposal to reform the neighborhood council enabling
ordinance
• Ethics (and lack thereof) in city government *
• Reworking of the early notification system
• Lack of inclusion and openness in the USC sponsored
interaction experiment * |
* These were accepted for inclusion in an upcoming CIG bulletin;
each was given to one or more people who agree to write the issue
summary.
The remainder were considered to be important issues that will require
future discussion and work.
As
you can see, there's a lot to do ...
Please
feel free to invite anyone interested in the neighborhood council
system from across the city to participate.
Together we can make a difference in Los Angeles.
Yours in service,
Bill Murray, Webmaster
A
little history ... Meeting Reports:
Steering Committee of the Citywide Issues Group
Jeff Gardner
........arbsq@aol.com
........Atwater
Village Neighborhood Council
Bob Gelfand
........issuesbob@sbcglobal.net
........Coastal
San Pedro Neighborhood Council
Heinrich Keifer
........hkeifer101@aol.com
........Historic
Highland Park Neighborhood
Council
Norm Kulla
........nkulla@aol.com
........Pacific
Palisades Community Council
Ken Marsh
........ken.marsh@marvistacc.org
........Mar
Vista Community Council
Bill Murray
........bmurray3rd@aol.com
........Arroyo
Seco Neighborhood Council
........Webmaster,
CIG
Kim Thompson
........kimthompson@socal.rr.com
........Granada
Hills North Neighborhood Council
Steve Twining
........sctcpa90077@yahoo.com
........Bel-Air
Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council
........CIG
communications director
Joe Vitti
........javittisr@cs.com
........Granada
Hills North Neighborhood Council
........Valley
Vote
Brady Westwater
........wwmalibu@aol.com
........Downtown
Los Angeles Neighborhood Council
