At its November meeting, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council heard several guest presentations, and discussed and voted on a wide range of local issues.
Guest Presentations
The presentations came from Board of Neighborhood Commissioners representative Debra Wehbe, LAPD Senior Lead Officer Dave Cordova, Metro representative Ned Racine, Gas Company spokesperson Ray Verches, and Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance spokesperson Lisa Hart.
BONC representative Wehbe spoke to the GWNC members about what the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners does (including orientation, dispute resolution and censure procedures for the city’s 99 certified Neighborhood Councils), what it doesn’t do (run the Neighborhood Councils), and invited board members to attend BONC meetings, which are open to the public.
LAPD Senior Lead Officer Dave Cordova spoke about crime during the holiday season, and the need to be especially vigilant about “porch pirates” (people who steal just-delivered packages from resident’s porches or stoops). Cordova advised all residents to either make sure they’ll be home when packages are delivered, or make arrangements to have packages delivered to their offices, neighbors, an Amazon locker facility, or a friend. Â
Racine, senior construction relations officer for Metro’s Purple Line Extension project, reported that the two Section 1 Tunnel Boring Machines, Elsie and Soyeon, which spent the summer and fall digging east from La Brea to Western Ave., have been transported back to La Brea and have now begun their westward journey from La Brea to the Fairfax station.
Verches, representing the Southern California Gas Company, which provides natural gas service to the city of Los Angeles, spoke about the company’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and move toward cleaner air by reducing the amount of coal and wood used for cooking and heating. He said renewable energy sources like wind and solar are popular now, but there are still issues with reliability and storage, even though technology in those areas is improving. Verches also spoke about SoCal Gas’s efforts to develop Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) by extracting methane from biowaste from landfills. RNG could be distributed using the same pipelines now used for fossil-fuel gas. Currently, Verches said, RNG accounts for 1-2% of the company’s output, and the goal is for it to reach 20-30% by the year 2030.
Finally, Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance representative Hart refuted some of Verches’ points, noting that SoCal Gas is currently promoting “choice and balance” in energy products, but that the current climate crisis is “well past the time” for such choices. Hart said the goal should now be to not put any further carbon-based products into our air, and even RNG just cycles existing carbon; it does not remove it from the equation. Hart also noted that several cities have recently banned natural gas lines in new housing construction, and now require all new homes to be all-electric, so they can rely on cleaner sources of energy.
GWNC Committee and Liaison Reports
Budget – Moving on to reports from GWNC representatives and committees, GWNC city budget representative Jack Humphreville noted that LA Mayor Eric Garcetti recently requested that the submission deadline for the annual city budget be set for April 20 each year, but that gives too little time for public review and input before the budget’s final adoption. Humphreville made a motion for the GWNC to support increased transparency in the budget development process by requiring that the budget draft be submitted for review on February 1 each year. The motion passed with one abstention and all other board members voting in favor.
Outreach – GWNC Outreach Committee chair Max Kirkham reported that two local residents have been nominated for the GWNC’s Citizen Recognition Award, and the committee would love to see more people nominated. Candidates are recognized for their service, dedication and/or commitment to enhancing and/or improving the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood.
Transportation – GWNC Transportation Committee chair Conrad Starr moved that the GWNC request that the Department of Transportation make street surface repairs on the 600 block of S. La Brea Ave., and another motion that the GWNC request that the city require rideshare companies (Uber, Lyft, etc.) restrict their pickups and dropoffs in zones with “No Stopping” restrictions during rush hour. Both motions passed unanimously.
Sustainability – GWNC Sustainability Committee representative Dan Kegel provided some further comments on the points made in the presentations by Verches and Hart earlier in the meeting, noting that Los Angeles, which is currently updating its building codes, may be in line to follow other cities that have banned installation of natural gas infrastructure in new construction. Kegel said technology for renewable energy sources is improving rapidly, prices are coming down (in fact, a new deal for solar power will result in some of the cheapest energy the city has ever purchased), wind and solar have no leak hazards, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District has stated that meeting the targets it has set for air quality will require a move to all carbon-free energy sources. Further, Kegel said, the RNG Verches talked about will always remain a small part of the Gas Company’s total output, and contains substances that can build up in furnaces, rendering them less efficient.
Land Use – GWNC Land Use Committee chair Philip Farha presented two motions recommended by the Land Use Committee. The first was to oppose as currently presented the plans for a new 4-story, 15-unit apartment building at 371-377 N. St. Andrews Pl. (The committee often uses such “oppose as currently presented” votes to encourage developers to make changes and come back to the committee for further discussion of their projects as their plans develop.) The second motion was for the board to support an application to renew the Conditional Use Permit for the sale of beer and wine at Village Pizzeria, 125 N. Larchmont Blvd., and to extend the business’s closing hour until 10 p.m. from Sunday-Thursday and to 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.  Both motions passed unanimously.
Homelessness – GWNC Homelessness Liaison Tammy Rosato reported that a new brochure with information about Homeless Services and Resources is now available on the GWNC website (see link). Rosato also made two motions: that the GWNC partner with the LA Homeless Services Authority for the upcoming 2020 Homeless Count…and that the GWNC send letters to LA City Controller Ron Galperin, City Council Members David Ryu and Paul Koretz, and Mayor Eric Garcetti in support of recommendations in Galperin’s recent report on maximizing homeless housing efforts. The first motion passed unanimously, and – after some discussion about whether the recommendations in the second motion would be consistent with city policy and its recent considerations of the issues – the second motion passed with 11 votes in favor, one opposed and five abstentions.
New Business
Finally, in some new business outside the committee reports, board member Jeffry Carpenter presented a motion for the GWNC board to recommend that the city Controller perform an audit of the Bureau of Street Lighting “to determine the underlying causes of the Bureau’s inability to provide consistent and reliable street lighting services…,” to figure out why the BSL does not provide information about street lighting failures to the public…the extent to which the age and condition of street lighting equipment contributes to frequent street lighting failures in the area…and that the BSL adopt several new customer service procedures, such as notifying neighborhood councils when a block or more of street lights are out, responding to all 311, MyLA311 and e-mail reports of outages, and publishing updates on street lighting outages and service activities. The motion passed with 16 votes in favor, zero opposed and one abstention.
Upcoming GWNC Meetings
Land Use Committee – Tuesday, November 19, 6:30 p.m., Marlborough School, 250 S. Rossmore Ave.
Sustainability Committee – Tuesday, December 3, 7:00 p.m., Marlborough School, 250 S. Rossmore Ave.
Outreach Committee – Saturday, December 7, 9:30 a.m., Bricks & Scones Cafe, 403 N. Larchmont Blvd.
Board – Wednesday, December 11, 7:00 p.m., Ebell of Los Angeles, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd.
Transportation Committee – Monday, January 13, 7 pm., Marlborough School, 250 S. Rossmore Ave.
