North Westwood Neighborhood Council recap – Nov. 6

The North Westwood Neighborhood Council is the official neighborhood council representing Westwood Village and UCLA to the Los Angeles City Council. Council meetings are open to the public and held monthly. The next meeting will be held Dec. 4 in the Weyburn Commons Village View Room from 7-10 p.m.

Comments by Public Officials:

• UCLA will celebrate Veterans Day with a resource fair at Wilson Plaza on Friday at 10 a.m., said UCLA assistant director of community and local government relations Carmen Healey. The Beat ‘SC Bonfire and Rally will take place Nov. 21 at Wilson Plaza. However, organizers are considering canceling the bonfire because of the recent fires.
• Crime in the area is down in all categories except for thefts, which is up 44 crimes this week, said senior lead Los Angeles police officer Christopher Ragsdale. These crimes are concentrated in Westwood Village and include retail thefts, shoplifting and personal thefts, he added.

Agenda:

• Glyssa Robles, a Los Angeles Metro community relations officer, updated the council on the progress of the Westwood/UCLA station for the Purple Line Extension, a subway connection that will reach Westwood. Contractors will be installing 90-foot pipes into the ground starting at a still-unspecified time in the summer, Robles said. This work will prepare the area for the arrival of the underground tunneling machine. Councilmembers Kevin Crummy and Josh Trifunovic asked Metro to extend a business compensation fund to Westwood businesses that are not directly adjacent to the construction. Crummy and Trifunovic expressed concern that the project may shut down Wilshire Boulevard and effectively cut off the Westwood businesses from customers. Construction on the Purple Line Extension is expected to be completed by 2026, Robles said.
• The council unanimously selected Noreen Ahmed, a member of the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors, to fill the vacant graduate student seat on the council. Ahmed, a public policy graduate student, said she primarily wants to advocate for affordable housing to address homelessness. The remaining open seat for general residential stakeholder was left open because there were no applicants that met the requirements for that seat.
• The council unanimously passed a resolution asking UCLA to explore the possibility of establishing a safe parking lot for students who sleep in their cars. The council also asked UCLA to supply data on the number of students experiencing homelessness. If that data is not available, then the resolution asks UCLA to study the problem and share the data publicly.