November 2022-NEWS and Zoom Meetings of Interest |
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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. |
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WHAT'S GOING ON IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD VOTE - if you don't like the (fill in the blank) than VOTE! Danger in the Alley behind the Fairfax Theater. Candy Drive for Pediatric Cancer Patients
Zoom meeting dates, times and links: Crime Mapping interactive tool is live on our site. Melrose BID Crime Meeting Mid-City West Board Meetings dates and times C-PAB. Community Police Advisory Board meeting
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VOTE! Vote centers near us are now open. |
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Vote Centers around Melrose Village are now open from 10am to 7pm daily and from 7am to 8pm on Nov 8th, election day. Rain is in the forecast for Tuesday the 8th so try to get your voting done early. Find the location closest to you in the list below: Plummer Park Community Center - Fiesta Hall 7377 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood 90046 Fairfax Senior Citizen Center - Auditorium 7929 Melrose Ave Los Angeles 90046 Laurel Elementary School - Auditorium 925 N Hayworth Ave Los Angeles 90046 Melrose Elementary School - Auditorium 731 N Detroit St Los Angeles 90046 Anyone who needs help with voting, getting their ballot to a drop box or the polls or choosing a candidate can email us for help. We'll be happy to discuss candidates, initiatives, judges and other races with you. Voter turn out has been very low recently and this could prove to be a pivitol race for our community and the direction it will take. Every vote counts and the Melrose Village Neighborhood Alliance hopes that YOU will take the time and effort to make YOUR voice heard. |
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Danger in the alley behind the Fairfax Theater |
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As many of you may have already seen on IG, FB or other social media channels, Sam Yebri along with his wife, a few friends, Elizabeth Mason and myself went back to the alley that Sam cleaned up a few short weeks ago. Our mission was to simply paint over the disgusting tagging and graffiti that covered the dumpsters. Well, we got a whole lot more than we bargained for! When we were almost done, the guy in the photo below, with BOX CUTTER IN HAND, showed up and demanded that we leave HIS alley. Yelling and screaming at us to leave "We don't need you cleaning up MY alley, we don't need you here, get out of here now. LEAVE NOW" He made this demand over and over again, I had to jump between him and Elizabeth because at my size, I seemed to be the only person he was intimidated by, but seeing how he was clutching that weapon gave me pause to try to do anything else but get between him and Elizabeth. |
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I first spotted him moving erratically in the middle of Beverly Blvd. It was as if he was formulating his plan of attack and when he starting jogging toward my car parked on Beverly, that's when I got in front of him for the first time. He veered to the right and went into the alley to confront Sam, his wife and Elizabeth. This could have been a whole lot worse. Police reports and pictures have been supplied to our Wilshire Station LAPD and we will be in court if needed. See something, say something, DO something (like filing a police report and agreeing to testify). If we don't, then the next time this guy runs up on another neighbor it may not have such a lucky ending. Several of us talked more about this afterwards in order to try to process what just happened. Was the guy on drugs? Did he really think that was "his alley"? Is there something else more nefarious going on here? Or is he just mentally unstable? He seemed oddly clean with fresh clothing. Too clean for being homeless. The blue plastic waisteband peaking out of his trousers may have been some type of disposable underwear provided by a support group? But with the Good-Will store right next door, there's a ready supply of fresh clean clothing so who knows. Dangerous and aggressive persons, homeless or housed need help! Whether Mental Health to treat illness through no fault of their own or drug rehab for addicts along with some forced institutionalization should be a real option. We need to stop framing this as a homeless crisis and start calling it what it is, a Mental Health and Addiction Crisis! Recognizing how dangerous our neighborhood has become from encampments and possibly, self appointed encampment bosses, like this guy might have actually been, needs to happen. If you feel the need to be so compassionate as to encourage this and do things like raise money to supply tents and allow this criminal element to live in our midst, I feel very strongly in letting you know, you are not helping to find a solution, YOU are part of the problem. We all must realize that at some point, in order to protect ourselves, our children, our parents, our spouses and partners our neighborhood and the unhoused suffering horribly from addiction or illness we have to accept the idea that forced institutionalization through conservatorship is a topic we're going to need to discuss and find money for, just as much as we need to find money to build more housing for those who truly just need a helping hand. It is simply inhumane to allow those with Mental Illness suffering delusions or drug induced psychosis to spend 1 more night on our streets! How many more sick need to die on our streets or how many more of our neighbors and/or our loved ones need to be assaulted or worse killed? Stay safe out there neighbors! The end results of our efforts are below. The "Before" pic is on top. We know it's not making a big statement but at least it looks a little nicer for now. |
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Crime Mapping Tool is now live on our site... |
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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. |
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Candy Drive for Pediatric Cancer Patients ~ Going on NOW! |
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Here's something fun and rewarding you can easily lend a hand with. Do you have any left over Halloween Candy? I'm collecting any leftover Halloween candy you have and giving it to Concern Foundation for Cancer Research. This will go on until the date of the holiday party on Dec 11th. Click on the image above to learn more about their annual holiday party for the pediatric cancer patients (private event). You can also buy toys for the kids too. Just scan the image above or click this link and you'll be taken to the wish list link on Amazon. My wife and I have helped with this event for many years now. Watching all those kids just get to be kids for a day has always been a rewarding experience. It's not just candy and gifts, it's Beauty Bus services, it's food, it's dancing with DJ Dwayne and a whole lot more. Check out some pictures of previous holiday parties by clicking <HERE>. All donations are 100% tax deductible. Concern Foundation is a 501(c)3. Concern's Tax ID #: 23-7002878 Donations can be dropped off at my home or at the Concern Foundation office. I'd be happy to take them all the candy you can spare. Just email me for information and to schedule a drop off time and location. If you're close by I can plan to pick up from you. |
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WATER RESTRICTIONS ARE NOW IN PLACE IN OUR AREA! Click on the image below for more details from the LADWP |
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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. 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.) Have you seen the video that mayoral candidate Rick Caruso put together when he walked Melrose with us? Click HERE to watch. Last year, we even made the CBS local news! The video link is below. |
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Mid City West Neighborhood Council & Melrose BID Meetings: |
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Melrose BID Crime Prevention MeetingThis 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. |
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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! |
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C-PAB (Community - Police Advisory Board) |
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Thursday Nov 17 at 7:00 p.m. This is a great place to listen to your police officers discussing issues with the community advisory board. You may even be given the chance to raise your hand and speak on an issue. | | |
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If you would like to help us with the newsletter, write an article or comment on our newsletters, LET US KNOW! This is a community effort! |
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