North Westwood Neighborhood Council executive board seeks to address key concerns

The new North Westwood Neighborhood Council executive board hopes to address several key issues over its 2021-2023 term, including homelessness, undergraduate involvement and housing affordability.

The NWWNC executive board includes four positions – president, vice president, secretary and treasurer – that are internally selected by the full council. Executive officers continue to serve in the council seats they were originally appointed or elected to for the duration of their term.

The NWWNC represents the geographic areas around UCLA, Westwood Village and the North Village to the Los Angeles City Council.

Most elected and appointed members of the NWWNC took office at the June 2 council meeting, at which Furkan Yalcin, an at-large stakeholder, and Andrew Lewis, a general resident stakeholder, were internally voted as president and vice president, respectively.

Nolan Gray, an at-large stakeholder, and Kyle Schmidt, an undergraduate student member, were later appointed secretary and treasurer, respectively, at the July 14 council meeting.

The four executive board members said their goals were to address the concerns of all of their stakeholders, including UCLA students and Westwood Village business operators.

Furkan Yalcin, president

Yalcin said one of his biggest goals as president is to help more people get involved in local government, which he said is the most directly impactful level of government in most peoples’ lives.

Civic participation shouldn’t be restricted to those who are already highly knowledgeable about governing systems, Yalcin said. Accessibility in local government is key to meaningful action, Yalcin added, pointing to recent grassroots efforts that resulted in the approval of a stop sign to be added at the intersection of Kelton Avenue and Ophir Drive.

“It shouldn’t just be people who own property or run a business that decide how this community is organized,” Yalcin said. “Students have a voice as well, just as equal. They’re just as much community members as anybody else.”

In addition, Yalcin said he hopes to support the other council members’ platforms, including those focused on people experiencing homelessness and on transit, by addressing logistical concerns such as filing paperwork and coordinating discussions.

“That’s my responsibility so that these other people on this council can do the important work that they’re doing,” Yalcin said. “We’ve got people doing important work with homelessness advocacy, urban planning and transit. … I want them to be able to focus on doing that and support them.”

Andrew Lewis, vice president

Lewis said he intends to work on addressing homelessness and integrating the UCLA community into the rest of Westwood.

Lewis said that he ran for office on a platform of inclusivity and community service and plans to bring these tenets to his work on addressing homelessness. One policy he wishes to focus on is opening the first dedicated permanent shelter in Westwood.

Better integrating the UCLA campus with Westwood Village is one of his priorities, Lewis said. Current transportation options for students to go to Westwood Village are lacking, Lewis said, especially for trips such as heading out for lunch from Bunche Hall in North Campus.

Adding bikeways and transit options, such as a metro stop located directly at UCLA, would be key to bridging the campus and Westwood Village, Lewis said. Collaborating with UCLA Transportation, which has an existing bus network, and incentivizing student shopping and dining in Westwood Village would also be potential solutions, he added.

Nolan Gray, secretary

Gray said that during his term, he plans to work on supporting housing affordability, commuter mobility and businesses.

Key components of his platform are addressing zoning regulations that have inhibited the growth of affordable housing for students and university employees, as well as expanding options to commute to campus, Gray said. Enabling developers to build multifamily dwellings in West LA would be key to improving the availability of housing, Gray added.

Gray also pointed to the nearly one-third vacancy rate in Westwood Village as a key concern, adding that he hopes to work with business leaders to make it more pedestrian and biker friendly.

As a secretary, Gray also said he is committed to public transparency on council decision making. Clear and accessible information on local decision making starts with transparent meeting minutes, Gray added.

Kyle Schmidt, treasurer

Schmidt said his main goal is to work on affordability in Westwood because many aspects of living in the area have priced students out. Expenses such as rent, food, clothing and entertainment have become very expensive in Westwood, Schmidt said. He hopes to lower the entry barrier for getting involved.

Schmidt said he supports the deregulation of zoning restrictions in Westwood Village – controlled by the Westwood Village Specific Plan – which he said would reduce costs and bureaucracy in the area.

Leveraging neighborhood council funds, such as allocating neighborhood purpose grants to basic needs organizations, would also help address affordability issues, Schmidt said. Neighborhood purpose grants are grants made to outside organizations at the discretion of neighborhood councils and fall under LA’s Neighborhood Council Funding Program.

Additionally, improving transparency with the NWWNC budget and raising awareness of the availability of funds for neighborhood purpose grants would be key objectives, Schmidt said.

[Related: North Westwood Neighborhood Council installs newly elected 2021-2023 members]

The current NWWNC is the second full council elected to office, succeeding the 2019-2021 council. Michael Skiles was the council’s interim president in 2018 and was then elected to a full term from 2019-2021. After choosing not to run for reelection, Skiles was succeeded by Yalcin in June.

The current council will remain in office until the third NWWNC is elected in 2023.