Westwood fails to offer students both entertainment and basic living essentials

It takes a village to raise a child. Thank goodness UCLA students have Culver City.

Students have long complained about their needs being neglected by the Westwood Neighborhood Council. Many have perceived these complaints as being primarily about the lack of nightlife – bars, dancing, live music and pool tables. Sometimes, the conversation has extended to lack of affordable and compelling restaurants, such as Lemonade, which almost came to Westwood Village in 2015 before being covertly ousted, or Tocaya Organica, a new Mexican restaurant which missed its announced goal to open in late spring of 2018. And don’t even get students started about the lack of available movies on Westwood’s pitiful two movie theater screens.

It’s understandable that students have called for a transformation of the Village. And these demands have historically faced resistance from community leaders because it’s easy to refute calls for more bars by evoking imagery of alcohol flooding down Broxton Avenue.

But I hate to break it to you: Entertainment isn’t the only thing broken in Westwood. So is your access to basic needs.

Westwood is still reeling from the debilitating, lingering effects of the previous era, despite the WWNC being replaced by the new North Westwood Neighborhood Council – a council that promises a more student- and business-friendly neighborhood. Despite offering minimum services for students, the Village does not offer options for students looking to fulfill their most basic shopping needs.

There are few stores built to serve students, and if these issues are to be solved, soon-to-be-elected NWWNC members must be prepared to tackle them, ensuring Westwood serves students from the ground up – giving them everything from basic to entertainment needs.

It’s clear Westwood is broken, and not just when it comes to nightlife. Sure, WWNC kept that out, and it’s what most arguments have been about thus far.

Despite Westwood’s hobbling services, students have lived on. With services like Target, Ralphs, Chick-fil-A – except on Sundays – and In-N-Out, it seems like students would have all they might need in the Village.

But ask any student, and you’ll hear about the calculus of choosing the best from generally subpar options.

When it comes to students’ everyday needs, Westwood’s CityTarget is the only real option for buying home furnishings, cookware and many other staple goods, including electronics.

But Target hasn’t been able to match the demands of students. Westwood’s Target is a CityTarget, which are typically smaller than others in the franchise. CityTarget stores are meant to serve communities with smaller retail space and less reliance on one store for all goods. Unfortunately, while homeowners in Westwood can mostly drive to other shopping areas, students can’t. This results in high demand for a store that has lower stock, less staffing and few options.

During the first days of move-in this year, families piled in to help their children buy last-minute essentials. Lines at both of the store’s entrances were long, and it was difficult to move around. Like any student would, I visited Target to get bare necessities: a trash bin and a broom.

Three days and many hours later, I was still broomless, and still searching for somewhere to throw my trash. That’s still the case even a week later.

Westwood’s Target sold no plastic trash cans, let alone brooms by the time I got there, and there were few, if any, employees who could talk to customers with questions or concerns. And when I pressed staff members for answers, I was told I could just order a bin online.

It’s not just brooms and trash cans. Westwood has limited options when it comes to things like cutlery, and students can quickly find themselves not knowing where to go. Target and Ralphs have limited options. And while the Village is home to Sur La Table, a high-end kitchen store, even middle-class families would think twice before walking through its doors.

And when it comes to purchasing computers and other electronic equipment, which students rely on heavily, Bruins only have a corner of the B-Level of Ackerman Union and Amazon. And nothing is scarier than hearing you’ll be forced to wait two days to replace your broken laptop charger when you have an assignment due tomorrow.

Now, it’s easy to say business decisions are outside of neighborhood council jurisdictions. But these councils can use their significant community influence to urge businesses to meet constituents’ needs, or encourage more competition to move into the area. The WWNC apparently didn’t do that. And it’s on the NWWNC to fix that.

Westwood needs to serve students from the ground up, whether it be offering a place to shop or a venue to watch all newly released movies. Students live here too, and they have important needs that aren’t satisfied by having to take a bus to Culver City twice a week – or go broomless for 11 days.