During that time, I helped see to it that an appropriate amount was allotted for quarterly newsletters to all stakeholders — including renters and business owners — and with newsletters printed in Spanish as well as English.  I have walked to most of the apartment complexes from Sepulveda to Overland, from National to Charnock, and I can assure you that getting access to all of our Stakeholders is a top priority to me. 
 
Sadly, it's proved extremely difficult to get renters and business owners/employees to participate in community events, even when aggressive outreach is performed.  I will always be open to new ways to reach all outgoing Stakeholders, regardless of where they live and of what socioeconomic group to which they belong.

At this time, I support the efforts of the Congress of Neighborhoods but do not have enough time to be active while I place so many efforts towards regional transportation projects like freeway widening, getting the Green Line to connect to and through LAX to the Westside, and getting the Expo [light-rail] Line to the Westside.

With LAX reconfiguration and Playa Vista, over the past two years I have poured an exhaustive amount of time and energy into building the concept of re-establishing the previously environmentally cleared Coastal Green Line Extension that extends beyond LAX via Aviation Blvd. and up Lincoln Blvd., past Playa Vista, to the future Expo Line in Santa Monica.

I have worked with many folks from Westchester, Venice and other Westsiders, and I can honestly say that Westside access to LAX and the Green Line is now on the radar screen.  The Expo Line is also No. 1 in the list of new MTA [Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority] projects to pursue if funding becomes available.
 
Where did that leave me with time for Neighborhood Watch?  Not with much!  I did enjoy hearing about them in the monthly summaries at the WVCA Board meetings — although the poor Neighborhood Watch attendance (by the entire region) bothers me.

Whether it's a busy schedule, worsening gridlock or just apathy that sucks the energy out of a person to prevent good attendance for evening meetings, it's not a good thing.

I am NOT your average rapid-transit advocate; I am a transportation advocate who is as bullish about freeway improvement projects as I am about rapid transit.  It's just that we unfortunately lack room for new freeways except in a few key places (like the 101/405 interchange), so mass transit will have to be considered in the long-term for this next century.
 
As to your question, mass transit is lousy for the Westside — it is NOT "rapid" transit, and it needs a great deal of improvement.

I do not take the bus because no bus takes me to where I need for my work, and if they did it would take hours to get to Orange and Riverside counties to my clinics.  I would never ask anyone to take something that I would/could never do, but I would like to change this over the next 10-20 years. 
 
I am convinced that with more Metro Rapid Bus service, new Westside rail lines and better operations (many, many ideas behind that phrase), more Westsiders could abandon their car for true "rapid" transit.  All three Council District 11 candidates have spoken to me at length about what we want for the future, and I will remain in touch with whoever wins that race — and the mayoral race, as well.

It is very difficult to get into the differences between homeowner and renter priorities — but they exist, and Westside Village Civic Assn. is one of many homeowner organizations that retain exclusive membership to homeowners.

I am a homeowner, and cannot ignore my own personal preferences — but I am proud of the efforts of our previous and current WVCA presidents to begin the discussion on how to work with and include our renting neighbors.
 
Unfortunately, George, your longstanding anger at not being included for membership in a homeowners association has led to many unfair and downright untrue articles in The Sun that inaccurately portray the facts about the WVCA's activities.  Bashing the WVCA over the head is hardly a way to get them to warm up to you, and making them feel threatened is not the best way to make friends with an organization that has, like it or not, performed the lion's share of civic activities and community representation for years.

In fact, the WVCA helped establish the aforementioned Palms/Westside Village Neighborhood Watch.

Virtually all of the neighborhood councils have found it more difficult to find large numbers of energetic, outgoing renters to play a role in their community.  If there was a "key" to having landlords and renters' groups open access to their tenants, I'd love to find it.

This problem remains endemic throughout the city, and if anyone has any new ideas I'm open to 'em.

The plan was a joint outreach effort by the MVCC and the WVCA for Zone 1, and I will absolutely support a similar effort — especially for the new Zone 5 homeowners association, or for any combined effort for a single zone.
 
Please be aware, George, that the WVCA not only donated several thousand dollars (and a superhuman amount of time and energy) to the Westside Village Festival and the Bike Rodeo, but footed the $1000 MVCC bill for both events for six months while we waited for reimbursement from the city.
 
A great deal of time was spent by both then-Board Member Bobby Holliday and Treasurer Tony Navarro exploring how to make this donation legal and ethical according to city standards.

It's important to emphasize that the WVCA subsidized the Westside Village Festival that, for a nominal $10 anyone from the community, enjoyed pony rides, food, bouncer rides, raffles and participation from the police and fire departments and neighborhood organizations.
 
What the experience did tell us at the WVCA is that money is hardly the main thing a neighborhood council is all about, despite many of your articles in The Sun to the contrary.  Budget items can take up to a year or longer for reimbursement from the city, and the WVCA was prepared to pay for the entire Westside Village Festival and pay $500 for the Bike Rodeo out of its own funds if the City never came through — the vote was taken unanimously by the WVCA Board.
 
Your arguments about a Palms–Westside Village Neighborhood Council being financially better for Westside Village goes against the reasons why the WVCA chooses to stay with the MVCC — in fact, your arguments make the strongest case for Palms to remain its own neighborhood council.  Palms needs as much of city money it can get — but the WVCA does not need city money to operate.

On a final note, I was horrified to learn about individuals who were not of lower socioeconomic background getting free bikes at the Bike Rodeo.  The WVCA donated its own money in addition to that of the MVCC for individuals who could not afford their own bikes, and I donated personal funds for the Rodeo myself. 
 
To take a free bike when it's meant for those unable to purchase one is like stealing money from the blind beggar's cup. . . .
 
Westside Village is neither part of Palms nor Mar Vista; no neighborhood council is trying to conquer anyone (although The Sun appears to be trying to do just that), and you don't make good neighbors by declaring war on them.  Perhaps rather than bashing Westside Village into some contrived Palms geographical/revisionist history, a more balanced approach recognizing modern-day Westside Village as an entity independent of all adjacent regions would portray The Sun as a more friendly and accurate neighbor.

Your attacks on the MVCC and the WVCA don't make sense when you make it all about the money — not when there is a plethora of volunteers who have made it clear they are NOT about the money or even about them.  They just want to enhance the local quality of life in the best way they know how.

Achievements: Establishing the MVCC as the most organized and united neighborhood council in the Westside, in contrast to the divisions that have paralyzed and brought some of the adjacent councils into virtual decertification.  The recent Playa Vista and CD11 candidate forums are the best examples of the MVCC's capabilities.
 
Disappointments:  Being unable to get more individuals to be active on committees — perhaps we overshot in our efforts and caused burnout, perhaps we could have done more to have been inclusive.  The Sun's efforts to grab the hundreds of private e-mails of our stakeholders, which forced us to delete them in order to preserve their privacy at the order of the City Attorney after years of collecting them, certainly did not help.