Our last story, posted at noon on Sunday, reported that most Larchmont-area residents had their power back and Larchmont Blvd. was back in business. Around 3 pm Sunday, however, the power went out again. This time, though, the outage only affected businesses on the east side of Larchmont Blvd…but in nearby Windsor Square, it seemed many of the same residents were again without power until about 3 a.m. Monday.
For now, it seems that most people (including the Larchmont Blvd. businesses) are reporting their power is still on, but there are still at least some residents without power, according to the information provided by LADWP at this morning. According to that list, the following outages were still in effect as of 9 a.m. on Monday, July 9:
MID-WILSHIRE – 686
MID-CITY – 134
HOLLYWOOD – 71
WINDSOR SQUARE – 37
LARCHMONT – 127
HANCOCK PARK – 36
KOREATOWN – 2,202
BEVERLY GROVE – 19
Thankfully, with the exception of the Mid-City area, where outages have increased since yesterday, this does show a significant improvement since Sunday, when LADWP reported the following outages as of 6 p.m.:
MID-WILSHIRE – 3,692
WINDSOR SQUARE – 938
HOLLYWOOD – 1,593
MID-CITY – 67
FAIRFAX – 56
LARCHMONT – 213
HANCOCK PARK – 163
KOREATOWN – 4,868
BEVERLY GROVE – 19
The continuing and repeated power outages over the last few days have raised some interesting issues and questions.
For example, over the last few days, business owners on Larchmont have told the Buzz that it’s actually common for the east side of the street to lose power while the west side remains unaffected. And Windsor Square residents tell us that they often experience power outages caused by rain or wind. Some say it’s because Windsor Square is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the area, having been established ten years earlier than nearby Hancock Park, so it has more antiquated electrical materials. However, there are many old neighborhoods in the city, since much of it was built between 1900 and 1920, but not all of them suffered power outages.
So the Buzz editors would like to learn more about the power grid in our local area, starting with documentation – and the creation of a map – of the precise locations of our neighborhood’s recent power outages. You can help by taking a short, 5-question, survey about your experiences this week at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MY7FMV9 (Please note that while we do ask for addresses, which will be the most helpful, or at least specific blocks (e.g. 200 block of S. Norton), no names will be attached to that information.)
Let’s hope the heat breaks soon…and that we can learn something useful about our collective experiences during these recent inconveniences.
Thank you for asking the question that others have avoided: “Why do some neighborhoods experience more power outages than others?” Although my street (Rimpau Blvd) managed to escape the outages this time, we often have outages. The west side of the street seems to suffer more than the east side. And the next big question is: “Why does the city keep issuing building permits if LADWP can’t handle the needs of the current inhabitants?” Something needs to change and it needs to change quick or more residents are going to be miserable and more businesses are going to lose money.
I just started the petition “Councilman David Ryu: Update and Enhance the Windsor Square Power Grid” and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name. I have also included Mel Levin, the board president of LADWP.
A unified message will go farther.
My goal is to reach 500 signatures and I need more support. If you have suggestions or revisions, by all means, please comment. Please forward to anyone who was affected by this power outage. You can read more and sign the petition here:
https://chn.ge/2NFf1VQ
The LADWP wants to blame their customers for using too much power, but THEY are responsible for numerous blackouts in the Hancock Park/Larchmont/Windsor Sq area. LADWP refuses to spend the money bring equipment up to date to serve a growing population with more things to plug in! This third world service that is SO expensive, is not acceptable! We must band together and make long-overdue demands of the LADWP.
After HUGE problems in the 2007 heat wave – in which there were 28,000 customer outages lasting 24 hours or more – LADWP launched its “power reliability program”, and started replacing old equipment before it failed.
See http://www.ladwpnews.com/2018-power-infrastructure-plan/ for details of the current plan, and http://prp.ladwp.com for monthly statistics on number of (and total duration of) outages per customer.