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THIS IS THE URBAN ISSUES PAGE
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IN THIS SITE
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Some links on these archived pages are not operative.
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This NONCOMMERCIAL site is a harmless hobby of George Garrigues, who has lived in the Westside Village district of Palms for 12 years. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments.
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 LATEST NEWS ABOUT NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS
By Greg Nelson, general manager
Los Angeles City
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Oct. 7, 2005
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WOODLAND HILLS-WARNER CENTER NC REACHES OUT
You should check out page 13 of today's Daily News. The Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council took outreach to a new level. They took out a full page ad to announce their general meeting, and the Woodland Hills Day of Community Service. The clever part was the large text asking people to "Join a Huge Government Coverup." That, of course, is to be the 3,000 bushes and shrubs that that hope to plant along the freeway wall. Half of the page was devoted to inviting people to be part of the Operation Pothole effort. People are told that they can report their favorite pothole as easily as going to their website at www.WoodlandHillsCouncil.com .
HARBOR CITY NC HITS THE OUTREACH JACKPOT
There probably isn't a soul on earth who hasn't heard about Reggie the Alligator down in Malloy Park.
The smart folks at Harbor City saw an outreach opportunity and then went for it.
After announcing that the Neighborhood Council put Reggie on their agenda, they were visited the next day by a reporter from Channel 5. The news report included the Neighborhood Council's name, and the date and time of the meeting.
Over 250 stakeholders attended the meeting, and 100 of them wore bright yellow t-shirts that read in bold, HARBOR CITY NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL on the back. On the front was the word "WELCOME" above above Reggie's head and his "thumbs up." Below Reggie it had the population of the area and "+ Reggie." All of the t-shirts were grabbed up instantly, and there's a waiting list of 175 more. The shirts are being seen all around town. The refresments at the meeting included -- you guessed it -- Gatorade.
About two dozen Harbor City College student government leaders turned out wearing their own alligator caps, and they have have since become interested in further involvement with the council. The council estimated that they have added an additional 250 -275 stakeholders into its outreach database, bringing that total number to 1,000.
Despite that fact that the event occurred on the same day as the Jet Blue airplane incident at LAX, the media coverage was remarkable. The Neighborhood Council has been in the Daily Brreze several times. And everyone knows how difficult it is to get news coverage for a "good news" story.
OUR TOLL-FREE NUMBER IS NO MORE
One of the city's cost savings efforts was to eliminate nearly all of its toll-free numbers. So, (866) LA HELPS has been disconnected. Instead, people can use 3-1-1 to be connected to our offices.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES CHANGING
The city is changing its e-mail address system. It is starting with our department because we love anything that's new, and we don't permit whining. Eventually, all the departments will have the same system. It will be firstname.lastname@lacity.org. So, for me, it's greg.nelson@lacity.org. But don't panic, the old addresses will continue to also work for six more months.
COMMUNICATION WITH NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS IS NOW EASIER
For some time now, we've been working toward a new process through which anyone can download the e-mail addresses of Neighborhood Council leaders and send their own messages to them.
You can pick all of the board members for whom we have e-mail addresses, or just the single main contact person in each Neighborhood Council. You can select by City Council District or Planning area. You can print out the entire roster and all the other information that it contains, or just parts of it.
This information is available on our website at www.LACityNeighborhoods.com. Click on Database/Rosters at the left. Or by clicking here.
Remember, when sending an e-mail message to the Neighborhood Leaders, they have asked, that you avoid attachments to the greatest extent possible. The reasons are (1) not everyone has powerful computers and attachments can take a long time to open, and (2) some e-mail systems block messages with attachments because that's where viruses live. If we have a large document, we post it on our website and send an e-mail message that provides a link or describes a pathway to the document. In this way, the greatest number of people are able to read the message.
Also, understand that the greater the number of addresses you include in your message, the greater the number of messages that will bounce back to you because of spam filtering on their end. |
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DAN LAIDMAN
Los Angeles Daily News staff writer
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Rosendahl wants inclusive review of local councils
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A City Council panel introduced a sweeping review Wednesday (Sept. 28, 2005) of the neighborhood council system, calling for the community groups to help set their own agenda.
The Education and Neighborhood Committee asked the advisory groups to comment on the Neighborhood Council Review Commission, a body that will convene next year to gauge how well Los Angeles' system of institutionalized grass-roots democracy is working.
"I want the process to be inclusive," said Councilman Bill Rosendahl, the committee's chairman. "I want every neighborhood council and stakeholder to come forward and be a part of this process."
The City Charter calls for the mayor and City Council to appoint a commission that will review the effectiveness of the neighborhood council system and recommend possible changes by 2007.
A report by the council's chief legislative analyst recommends a commission with 17 members including two mayoral appointees and one from each council member.
The commission should meet for 12 months and hold special forums to gather public comment in addition to regularly scheduled public meetings, the report recommends.
Speakers said Wednesday that the commission should include neighborhood activists and that it also should examine how well city departments are working with the community councils.
"We need to get people involved in this and not just the attorneys saying this is what you can do and this is what you can't do," said Donna Schwalm of Van Nuys.
Brady Westwater, president of the Downtown Neighborhood Council, said the review can serve as a recruitment campaign.
"I think it's an excellent opportunity for us to reach out to people that aren't part of Neighborhood Councils now," he said.
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