Contrary to its own bylaws, the Westside Neighborhood Council has attempted to backtrack on its decision to adjust the northeast Palms border. For the story, go here.
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Los Angeles's THE PALMS NEIGHBORHOOD
Published by Arcadia Press. Click here for the Arcadia Web site.
Palms mapmaker David Worsfold would be happy: In 1999 Los Angeles voters adopted a modern City Charter that promised a new beginning for Palms. It gave L.A. for the first time a system of neighborhood advisory councils and set up area planning commissions to guide local development.
“For me the 21st century begins today,” said Mayor Richard J. Riordan in celebration. “The voters joined me in sweeping out the old and sweeping in the new.”
But the L.A. Times warned: “The pitfalls are obvious: Disenchantment and distrust run high in many communities, and there has always been the risk that the councils would become captive to angry homeowners seeking to shut themselves off from the rest of the city.”
Palms made the most of the opportunity:
It elected its first Representative Assembly in 2005.
It was instrumental in blocking plans of developers to encroach on long-established setback lines in constructing new apartment buildings: These setbacks help give Palms its unique feeling of spaciousness as residents stroll the streets with their baby carriages or their apartment-sized dogs. “The community has spoken,” city planner Clifford Irving told the West L.A. Planning Commission; he said he had visited Palms and agreed that changing the building lines would “destroy the fabric of the neighborhood.”
The Neighborhood Council sponsored the annual Palms Bike Rodeo as well as “Wonder of Reading” libraries at Palms and Charnock Drive elementary schools.
It helped expand the successful L.A. Scores soccer-and-literacy program to Palms Middle School.
It was instrumental in getting Midvale Avenue repaved after years of neglect.
The council paid for a Family Writing Project at Pacifica Community Charter School.
It funded an experimental cleanup campaign on Venice Boulevard, using the service of the homeless or unemployed.
And its monthly meetings enabled Palms residents to at last meet together to talk about common problems — after the silence of decades.
2005: Finally — the Community Votes. In June 2005, Palms stakeholders voted for leaders of their new Neighborhood Council. Terry Robinson (arm extended), helps line up election workers for a photo at Palms Elementary School. Left to right, they were Jerry Kvasnicka of the League of Women Voters, the independent election administrator; Delta Alonso and her brother, Eloy (Rod) Rodriguez; Joe Zimring, Cathy Milliman, Pauline Stout, Stephanie Reavesdail, and Susan Blanchard.
2008: Oh, Play That Thang. Every Thursday since 2006 a jazz combo has entertained pedestrians south of the post office. On the wall, Bob Marley, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Bugs Bunny publicize Jones Global Mail as a “Mail Stop to the Stars.” The building was constructed in 1958, the same year Palms was said to have 45,000 residents.
