Community involvement is at the heart of what we are trying to do.  With that said, check out the news and dates for meetings that may be of interest to you below.

WHAT'S GOING ON IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

1. Temporary Road Diverters Installed on Willoughby ~ Ogden diverter will be removed

2. Save Beverly Fairfax - Did you know?

3. Mayoral Candidate Rick Caruso Comes to Melrose

    

Zoom meeting dates, times and links:

• Crime Mapping interactive tool is live on our site.

• Melrose Action & Melrose BID Crime Meeting  

• Mid-City West Board Meetings dates and times

• C-PAB. Community Police Advisory Board meeting 

Ogden Road Diverter to Be Removed

Following up on the story we've been reporting on since our April newsletter...

The City of West Hollywood held 2 zoom meetings to allow public comment, questions and discussion on the 3 temporary installations on Willoughby. At the start of the meeting, Bob Cheung from the City of West Hollywood began by letting everyone know the diverter at Ogden received a substantial number of negative comments and votes to have it removed. The diverter got 246 "do not like" votes to only 89 "like" votes. The removal is going to happen in early September. If you were one of the people who wrote in, voted or made public comment, we are grateful for your participation. It should be noted that Bob Chueng also disclosed that the car counting devices that the city was using were ALL vandalized!

As for the other 2 ideas, the corner curb extensions, (77 dislike v 93 like) at Spaulding and the traffic circle, (93 dislike v 101 like) at Curson, the voting was much closer and ended up in favor of both of these ideas. Comments included that the Curson Traffice Circle was too large. See chart below for details.

Several attendees also made the comments including that Willoughby, from Fairfax heading east was always designed to be a cut through street, helping to relieve congestion from Santa Monica Blvd and Melrose Ave and why change that intended usage to benefit a few residents while hurting residents on Romain and Waring? Traffic lights were installed on Willoughby at Crescent Heights, Fairfax, La Brea and Highland to allow controlled vehicular crossing along with bike and pedestrians. The idea to exclude the vehicular traffic seemed odd. But when special interest groups keep their plans away from public eyes during the development process that took place almost 2 years ago, this is what you end up with!

Ideas that we put forward regarding safety and street scapes were these:

1) Trim the trees and get the neighbors to trim their hedges so the STOP signs could be seen. Maybe even install solar powered flashing stop signs.

2) Institute a sustained maximum enforcement by LAPD West Traffic combined with West Hollywood traffic to catch and ticket people who run stop signs or speed down the streets. Nothing changes attitudes about driving faster than an expensive moving violation!

3) Divert the bike traffic down to Waring Ave which was recognized as a street that handles much fewer cars.

You can still write to Bob Cheung and express support for the above ideas or your own ideas and opinions while the pilot program is still going on.

CONTACT:
Bob Cheung, bcheung@weho.org or 323-848-6346

Crime Mapping Tool is now live on our site...

Check out the new Crime Map Tool under the links tab of our website. Easy to navigate and highly interactive. CrimeMapping.com supplies the tool and they receive the crime information directly from our law enforcement agencies who choose to participate with them.

Save Beverly Fairfax - Did you know?

Did you know we have a "Historic Preservation" organization in our neighborhood? Have you ever seen the signs posted on the streets south of Melrose designating the area as a "Historic District"? Do you know how this helps to maintain the original look and feel of our area? Our friends at Save Beverly Fairfax have shared all of this and more in a great new blog article we have posted on our site.

https://www.melrosevillage.org/post/beverly-fairfax-historic-district

Here's a small portion of the article...

"The Beverly Fairfax Historic District in mid-city Los Angeles is steeped in both cultural and architectural history. At nearly 100 years old, the District boasts a collection of largely intact Period Revival apartment buildings and homes, including...." (read the rest in the blog).

Rick Caruso - Candidate for Mayor comes to Melrose and joins the Wednesday Walk group.

There was an amazing turn out last week for the Wednesday Walk. We were joined by our Senior Lead Officer Tim Estevez and Officer Figueroa as well as Sgt Sarno all there to meet our neighbors, answer questions and get a chance to do some community policing. But that's just how we started the walk...

For over an hour on Sept 7th the Wednesday Walk was joined by candidate for Mayor, Rick Caruso. Lots of questions, several visits into stores and a few hecklers in the crowd made for a memorable evening walk. You can visit the Instragram pages for each business to see more videos and pictures they posted.

1) Incense Pro

2) Tiger Boxing Gym

3) Ta-eem Grill

At a recent "Candidate Forum" Zoom meeting in August, Rick Caruso mentioned the Melrose Wednesday Walks five times in his comments. He repeatedly commented that the walk was a great idea to bring the community together and it helps to create a safer neighborhood. He made it clear in a statement that he wants to attend another Melrose Wednesday Walk with the group and would like to see 100 people at the walks!

We didn't quite make 100 but we had 50 to start the walk and by the time we got to Sierra Bonita and Melrose, the crowd was over 65 people. Thanks Melrose Village readers, neighbors and local businesses!

Click on the image below to see a quick video of last Wednesday's walk:

Stop the Bleed -  If your child cuts their hand on glass, do you know what to do?

We almost have enough people interested in attending a workshop. We need a few more people interested in order to get it scheduled.

Do you know what to do if your child, spouse or partner is bleeding?  A bad cut could happen from something as simple as getting injured from broken glass to something as serious as a knife wound or worse.  The 2 hour class will teach you techniques on what to do in order to quickly Stop the Bleed and maybe even save a life!

The Magen Am non-profit group works with emergency responders to bring you this course.  Let us know if this is something you'd like to learn more about.  Drop us an email with your name and contact info and we will pass this on to Magen Am to contact you with details.

STOP THE BLEED® is a national campaign to encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives. It is a public/private partnership led by the Department of Defense and many other stakeholders.

Here's a link to more information about how Stop the Bleed courses help with a layperson's willingness to respond during a traumatic medical emergency.

WATER RESTRICTIONS ARE NOW IN PLACE IN OUR AREA!

Click on the image below for more details from the LADWP

MELROSE VILLAGE Wednesday Walks 

Would you like to meet some of your neighbors? Maybe you want to get off the couch and improve your cardiovascular health.  Maybe you would just like to feel safe with a group walking our neighborhood.  We'd like to make this happen! Typically we are joined by a member of the LAPD and Jill Kline from Councilmember Koretz's office who are there to meet the community, answer questions and talk about what concerns us.

Regardless if you want to walk 1 block or 1 mile, it's up to you.  We want to make this an enjoyable and no stress walk so we will start with a walk down Waring beginning at Spaulding and head in a different direction each week.

Typically we are joined by a member of the LAPD and Jill Kline from Councilmember Koretz's office who are there to meet the community, answer questions and talk about what concerns us.

The route is planned on Tuesday and you can email us for details.  You can join in at any location on the route or meet at Spaulding and Waring at our start time of 6:30 p.m.  Anyone is welcome to join the fun and feel free to bring your dogs, children, parents, opinions and concerns. If the group wants to walk further, we can extend this in any direction after we circle back to the starting point.

(As with any type of exercise, consult your physician before to make sure this is the right thing for you to be doing.)

Last year, we even made the CBS local news!  The video link is below.

Mid City West Neighborhood Council & Melrose BID Meetings:

Click on any of the meeting dates below to be taken to the general MCW calendar. Please double check the dates and times with MCW since it seems that they are having issues with their web site and calendar updates. The agendas are supposed to be posted within 3 days of the meetings.  If you would like to listen in, just follow the link on the calendar or the agenda page to the zoom meeting.  There is no 'sign up' required but this is a chance for you to MAKE YOUR OPINIONS HEARD!

Tuesday Sept 13 at 6:30 - General Board

Thursday Sept 22 at 5:30 - Outreach & Civic Engagement

Monday Sept 19 at 6:30 - PLUC (Planning and Land Use)

Tuesday CANCELLED at 7:00  - Public Safety & Well Being - Our Zone 2 rep, Nasim Kablan, is on this committee and hopes to use this committee to improve our Melrose neighborhood. Email: nkablan@midcitywest.org,

Wednesday Sept 21 at 7:00 - Transportation

Thursday Sept 22 at 7:00 - Executive Council

Tuesday Sept 27 at 6:30 - Social & Racial Equity

Agendas, Minutes & Meeting Recordings for all the above meetings are now on a new tab on the MCW Website. 

Melrose BID Crime Prevention Meeting

This meeting is combined with the Melrose Action Monthly Crime Meeting. It is on the 1st Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m.

You need to email kim@urbanlegendpr.com to get on the list and receive the zoom link details.  

You will be asked to sign up on the Melrose Action website.

We have brought this up before, but feel it's worth mentioning again...

What brought you to sign up for our newsletters?  We want to believe it is because you wish to learn what's going on and to participate in advocating for a safer and cleaner neighborhood. Most of you who receive this email live in Zone 2 or are affected by what happens on Melrose.  This newsletter contains links to the meetings to sign up for the Melrose BID Crime meeting, most of the Mid City West Neighborhood Council meetings and the LAPD C-PAB meeting.  

Here's the important part:  Neither the Melrose Bid or the MCWNC meetings have neighbors, referred to as 'stakeholders', attend very often.  Most of the sub-committees for MCWNC have NO 'stakeholders' attend.  So what happens when elected representatives get no input from those they are voted to represent?  They go off and turn their attention to their own pet projects instead of advocating for the people and the neighborhoods they serve!

So PLEASE get involved!  If you find a meeting topic in the list above that you are interested in and if you can attend just ONE meeting to make a comment or offer support to someone making comment, it will make a difference!  Tell them you are part of The Melrose Village Neighborhood Alliance!

C-PAB (Community - Police Advisory Board)

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LET US KNOW!  This is a community effort!