Finalized Los Angeles homeless count numbers revealed a decrease in homelessness in Westwood this year, but community leaders said the challenges the community faces are still substantial.

This post was updated June 10 at 1:30 p.m.
Businesses in Westwood have experienced difficulty operating due to appeals and protests – and 61% of the appeals in the last 20 years have been lodged by three community members: Steve Sann, Sandy Brown and Wolfgang Veith.

The Village is quiet. Blinking lights illuminate “Westwood” on top of the observatory tower overlooking the undeveloped land of Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres in 1925.

Westwood Village saw an increase in theft and burglary as well as a decrease in robberies and aggravated assault from 2018-2019, according to a Los Angeles Police Department report.

The Westwood Village Improvement Association is a nonprofit organization tasked with improving the state of Westwood Village. Property and business owners created the association in 2011 to provide the Village with functions the city of Los Angeles could not provide.

Westwood stakeholders said the closure of a local sports bar was a failure as a community at a meeting Wednesday.
The first agenda item of the North Westwood Neighborhood Council addressed the closure of Sepi’s, a longstanding Westwood sports bar.

This post was updated May 2 at 11:18 p.m.
University police are searching for four men involved in a burglary Wednesday morning.
Four men were seen breaking into multiple vehicles in the Venice-Barry Apartments parking garage from 1 a.m.

Nearly two-thirds of appeals against Westwood businesses and properties in the last 20 years were made by the same three community members.
A document compiled by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning listed 72 appeals made since 1998.

A crowd erupted with cheers after witnessing a narrow basketball game win, filling a Westwood bar shoulder-to-shoulder.
Sports memorabilia and brightly lit signs lined the green walls, with customers crowding tables for a better view of the numerous television screens.

This post was updated April 15 at 2:32 p.m.
The Daily Bruin editorial staff met with The Bruin’s publishing board Wednesday to call for reforms in the policies governing the appointment of future editors in chief, after several Bruin staff members announced a strike Tuesday.