This was our response (somewhat edited for presentation here):

Thank you for writing. You asked me to give you ten reasons why there should be a Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Council. It is a good challenge, and one I have needed, but I couldn't limit myself to just ten. Here are some happy results of the eventual reunification of Palms and Westside Village: 1• DISASTER PLANNING. With the mayor and others urging neighborhoods to unite in disaster planning, it is vital that the police and fire districts serving Palms and Westside Village be in the same council, rather than be split between Palms and Mar Vista. 2• POLICE. Westside Villagers will no longer have to be concerned with the LAPD Basic Car on the other side of the 405 freeway, guided by Craig White; all of us together will concentrate on the LAPD Basic Car unit headed by our own Senior Lead Officer, Anthony Vasquez. 3• FIRE. Villagers will not have to worry about or even hear about the new Mar Vista fire station at Venice Blvd. and Inglewood Ave. nor the improvements to Station 59 on Olympic Blvd. They will be able to concentrate on Fire Station 43, which will provide fire and ambulance service from its new hq on Regent at Motor. This is the station (now situated on National at the top of Vinton) that serves both Palms and the Village. 4• INFLUENCE. Westside Village will have more influence in a smaller council. The present Mar Vista council has 50,417 people. Palms has 31,000 residents. A joint Palms-WV Council will have about 43,000 residents. At present, in a Mar Vista Council, WV has to compete with four other communities; but in a Palms-WV Council, the Village will have its rightful influence on the governing board and will be able to fill out the key committees. (WV has about 12,000 residents.) Westside Villagers will be 37% of the population of the new Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Council. The Village amounts to only 23% of the population in the Mar Vista Community Council and has only 20% of the "zone" seats — one out of five. The seven "at-large" seats on the Mar Vista board are dominated by people from west of the 405 because of the voting power of the homeowners' associations over there. [See the map above left.] The governing board of a combined Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Council will have two representatives from Westside Village (based on population) on a 15-member board, rather than only one on the 13-member Mar Vista Community Council Board (as at present). Therefore, the Village will have more voting power and more influence on local matters. [See the map at right.] 5• MONETARY REWARD. The Village will actually get a larger financial grant from the city per capita in a Palms-WV Council: $3.53 for each Villager with Palms vs. $2.96 with Mar Vista (based upon $150,000 for the current fiscal year — which includes a proposed $100,000 grant for improving streets). This is all explained on this page that we posted last February. 6• NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH. The city-certified Neighborhood Council will have the same boundaries as the long-existing Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch. The Watch and the Council are linked in membership and interest. 7• FOCUS OF VILLAGERS. I can't prove this, but I believe more Villagers will be inclined to serve on a Palms-WV board than on a Mar Vista board. The Mar Vista folks have had a real problem in getting people to be on the MV board. The present "zone" member from WV has missed more than half the Board meetings — he was actually appointed by the Mar Vista board, not elected by WV people. He doesn't live in the Village (though he works here and, I have heard, owns property here). There are already Villagers active in both the Palms Neighborhood Council and the Palms-WV Neighborhood Watch. 8• OUR KIDS. With Palms Middle School at the center of a Palms-WV council, Village people will no longer have to fret about Daniel Webster and Mark Twain middle schools, or any of the several elementary schools on the other side of the freeway. Palms Middle and Charnock will no longer be divided between two neighborhood councils. Villagers will be able to help improve the needy Palms Elementary School, which is an important "feeder school" for Palms Middle School; this will certainly benefit Village kids when they get to Palms Middle. Most Palms and WV teens go to Hamilton High, not to Venice or University. The Palms Neighborhood Council bylaws focuses on bringing teens into the work of the Council. And finally: Mar Vista has a different School Board member than WV does. (See the map above.) 9• POST OFFICE. Just maybe WV and the rest of Palms, working together, will improve the service at our local post office on Motor Ave., though I wouldn't count on it. 10• HONESTY. The newly organized Palms NC is dedicated to an open and fair conduct of its public business and will not countenance the expenditure of public money on such things as a "speed trailer" that counts only the cars passing by the home of one of its Board members (on Grand View Ave. in Mar Vista). Nobody on the Palms governing board will be "paid off" for expenses they incurred before certification, as was the case with Mar Vista ($500 went to the Mar Vista Webmaster for purchase of "his" site). 11• PUBLIC SPIRIT. The distinctive home-owning character of much of the Village will continue to complement the multiple-residential character of most of Palms, and the public-spirited Villagers will find an outlet for their civic-minded energies with their neighbors on this side of the 405 Freway. 12• CHARITABLE IMPULSE. Westside Village people will be able to concentrate on improving conditions closer to home; that is, east of the 405 instead of as far west as Walgrove Ave. and Venice High School (the boundary of the Mar Vista Council). They will be able to focus their charitable instincts and their good works on their neighbors in Palms rather than in Mar Vista. 13• EXCITEMENT. Villagers will feel themseles part of the exciting world of historic Palms, with its many ethnic restaurants, its varied faith-based institutions, its Museum of Jurassic Technology, its Center for Land Use Interpretation and its roster of entertainment-industry businesses that have turned it into Sony Studios' "back lot." 14• REPRESENTATION OF BUSINESS INTERESTS. The important small and large businesses along Sepulveda Blvd. will be represented directly by the business seats on the Palms-WV Representative Assembly. (Mar Vista, contrary to the spirit of the City Charter, has no direct business representation.) 15• ONE HAND WASHING THE OTHER. The Village will help the rest of Palms as our area begins a new spurt of growth occasioned by the renovation of downtown Culver City. Through representation on the Representative Assembly and planning committees, Villagers will be able to influence the continued development of the Palms community. 16• REALISM. A Palms-WV Neighborhood Council will have the weight of history and the reality of present-day cartographic truthfulness on its side (the Village is simply NOT in Mar Vista). I suppose I can go on, but this is a start. I hope you will pass this on to your friends in Westside Village, as I will to mine. Sincerely, George Garrigues

Each of us has some area we identify as home, some place where, returning after a trip, we  suddenly experience a sense of the familiar, the comfortable, our place in the world.

I grew up in the tiny West Texas town of Happy.  At the time, the population was 642.  My dad ran the weekly newspaper, and our whole family worked on it — gathering news, selling ads, setting type, and printing the paper to distribute to townspeople and farmers for miles around.

We had a real sense of community and felt responsible for improving things.

Now, having lived for 40 years in Los Angeles, a sprawl of distinct neighborhoods and communities that covers much of the Southern half of our state and in which many residents are far — in distance and in feelings — from the center of power downtown,  I am again aware of that sense of responsibility.

One way Los Angeles has attempted to draw its diverse population together and encourage participatory democracy is through a network of neighborhood councils.  In 2004, our neighborhood of Palms became the 85th such council in the city, serving 27,026 residents.

According to a 1993 study of participatory democracy by three professors from Tufts University:

“Too few people . . . share the responsibility for making government work better.  Too many . . .

rely on their elected officials to solve society’s problems even though they are dissatisfied with the results. . . .

“Face-to-face democracy moves politics away from its adversarial norm, where interest groups square off in conflict and lobbyists speak for their constituents.  Instead, the bonds of friendship and community are forged as neighbors look for common solutions to their problems.”
   
I’ve made my maiden plunge into local politics through the Palms Neighborhood Council.  I had worked for over a year as a member of the Organizing Committee, helping us become the Palms Neighborhood Council.

We were certified in December of 2004 and held elections in May of 2005.  At that time, I was elected to represent the 5,000 residents of my immediate area and asked to serve on the Outreach and Vision committees.
 
Outreach is something I’ve done a lot of — in the church, on the job and in local agencies.  Vision is a new and exciting challenge.  We’re trying to help our historic part of the city move into the future without the overwhelming traffic, impossible parking and choking pollution that seems destined to confront us.

We envision a pedestrian-friendly community that tempts people to get out of their cars and walk, to congregate and visit, to enjoy trees and flowers, not just the blinding glare of concrete.
 
We envision a neighborhood of safety, where children grow up and play in parks, where mothers push strollers and walk older children to neighborhood schools, a community that is not just livable, but desirable.

Check out your own neighborhood.  What can you do to get more involved, to contribute to a better life for yourself and others?

One day in August, Kim was gone from our building. We soon learned that she had checked into a nursing home. In a matter of weeks, Kim died, succumbing to a serious illness that no one around our courtyard knew she had. Kim had hid it well.

Though Kim has made her transition to that other realm, I still feel her spirit in the courtyard. And I still sense her presence as I pass by her apartment. And I remember her smile and “hear” her voice saying, “You look good!”

My East Indian neighbor Peter summed up our feelings well last weekend, when I told him I would miss Kim. “We will all miss her,” he said, looking at me with sad eyes.

According to a note from her family, Kim Bui passed away on Friday Sept. 2. Her daughter Ann wrote that Kim much enjoyed hearing her neighbors’ letters read to her in those final weeks.

It was so little to give back, and undoubtedly our way of trying to keep her in our lives.

I am certain that there are some Westside Villagers who legitimately feel that Westside Village should be part of the new Palms NC, but this petition was absolutely the wrong way to explore this issue and probably has turned off many local residents to the neighborhood council process in general.

As an active MVCC board member, I do not see any groundswell against Westside Village inclusion with the MVCC — only Mr. Garrigues' repeated complaints and, at times, attacks on both the MVCC and WVCA.

2) It was the collective votes of approximately 200 members of the Westside Village Civic Assn., not merely a board decision, that resulted in endorsing the inclusion of Westside Village into the MVCC.

Furthermore, as the individual who for months handed out monthly flyers to the businesses of National/Sepulveda blvds. and National/Sawtelle blvds., I received nothing but positive feedback on this inclusion.

At the time of MVCC certification, there was absolutely no certainty there was going to be any Palms Neighborhood Council, as efforts there to date had been unfruitful.