North Westwood Neighborhood Council recap – Jan. 9

The North Westwood Neighborhood Council is the official neighborhood council representing Westwood Village and UCLA for the Los Angeles City Council. Council meetings are open to the public and meet monthly. The next meeting will be held on Feb. 6 in Weyburn Commons Village View Room from 7-10 p.m.

Reports

• The Outreach and Communications Committee voted to create a budget for launching a website for the council and discussed possible domain names.
• The Election Committee voted to change the election date for the council board seats to May 16.
• The Community Events and Projects Committee voted to start a monthly event in Westwood called “Next Friday,” which would spotlight businesses in the area, gather discount codes from local businesses and feature art and musicians. The first event is set for March 8 and the following for April 12. The committee also set the date for the Westwood Spotlight Block Party to May 11.

Discussion

• The council discussed supporting the endorsement of the Fair Workweek LA Campaign. The campaign is a coalition that promotes fair labor treatment for retail workers. The council voted on showing their preliminary support, but asked to look at the policy before voting to take any actions toward endorsement.

Motions

• The council approved additional noncouncil member appointments into several committees. Furkan Yalcin, a fourth-year political science student, was appointed to the Outreach and Communications Committee. Juan Matute, deputy director of the UCLA Institution of Transportation Studies, was appointed to the Transportation and Safety Committee. Ajwang Rading, a UCLA law student, was appointed to the Planning and Land Use Committee. Luca Servodio, a Westwood stakeholder and communications manager for LA 2028 Olympics committee, was appointed to the Outreach and Communications Committee. Mara Braciszewski, director of community relations for the Graduate Students Association and an urban planning graduate student, was appointed to the Community Activities and Projects Committee.
• The council voted in support of the Glendon Avenue Parklet project. The project, which is run by the Westwood Village Improvement Association and LA Department of Transportation’s People St, aims to remove four parking meters on Glendon Avenue and implement a small park with grass, seating and other amenities in their place.
• The council approved endorsing the S.T.A.N.D. LA campaign, which supports establishing a 2,500-foot safety buffer around oil drilling operations in LA.
• The council approved their 2019 budget. They allocated $7,000 toward neighborhood purpose grants, $4,300 into a community improvement budget and $30,700 toward their General Operations budget, which provides funding for committees.