South-Mar Neighborhood Association

MINUTES FROM MAY 2007 MEETING

MEETING MINTES

SoMar Neighborhood Association meeting.

Minutes of meeting Thursday 10th May 2007

Meeting held at Mar Vista Library, 12006 Venice Blvd. Corner of Venice Blvd and Inglewood Blvd, Mar Vista.

Board members present: Steve Wallace, President, Curt Steindler, MVCC Zone 5 Director & Vice President, Chris McKinnon, Treasurer, Julia Jones, Newsletter editor, Beccy Scheffe, Secretary.

Neighbors and members present: Catherine and George of Bledsoe Ave, Cassandra of Grandview Blvd, Linda of Beethoven St, Joe and Martha of Mitchell Ave, Julia of Grandview Blvd, Michael Scheffe of South Park Ave, Cathleen of ( ? ) ,Joan of McLaughlin Ave.

Guests present: Pat Karasick, standing in for Officer Drake of LAPD

Meeting called to order by President, Steve Wallace at 6pm.

Updates:
• Urban planning have had a 100% turn around regarding the design of Rony’s Auto on Washington, the design is much better than the current set up. During the meeting of MVCC held Tuesday May 9th. The voting was in agreement with the variances for MVCC to include set back of the wall by 1ft allowing for planting.

• After the successful 'cleanup days' held around the area, Steve introduced himself at the new Inglewood Fire Station. He discovered that furnishings at the new station are limited, and it is expected that the fire staff will provide these things for themselves. They are in need of basic cooking equipment, pots and pans, and basic furniture. They will be spending many hours at the station and presently there is no TV and only limited gym equipment. It was proposed during this meeting that MVCC could be asked to help with funding here. A proposal of $6000 to provide some of this equipment and furnishings could be put forward with community agreement.
It was also proposed that a fundraising event could be organized at the station. Steve suggested some excellent ideas for this event. One was raffling a visit to the station, with dinner for the winning family cooked by the fire staff. Another idea was that members of the Mar Vista community could donate chairs for the station, which could carry the donor's name.

The new station also offers a training room which could be made available for public/community use.
Chris noted that although the room is somewhat smaller, it could be available later than the library room. That potentially could allow holding Neighborhood Association meetings at a later time, when necessary.

Cassandra clarified that the old Fire Station on the corner of Centinela Ave, Fire Station 62, 3631, South Centinela Ave, would be closing.
Linda wanted to know what plans if any were in process for the old Fire Station building.
Curt responded that Bill Rosendahl had been approached by the Venice neighborhoods, who hoped to encourage him to turn the building into a shelter for battered women. Apparently Venice neighborhoods already support a large number of such facilities, but more are, unfortunately, always needed.
There has been nothing definite decided as yet, though.

• Steve Wallace noted that our own Treasurer Chris McKinnon will be running in the upcoming MVCC election held on June 26th.
He stressed that SoMar is under-represented, so we should all show our support.

Reports:
Treasurer Chris McKinnon reported that:
• SoMar Neighborhood Association currently has 77 members. Some have paid through to 2008. Some are unpaid to date, and 7 have not renewed.
• SoMar Neighborhood Association currently has $747.48 after the printing of latest Newsletter to be released in July.
• Although partially offset by the advertising revenues, printing costs of the Newsletter were $373.48.
• To date, we have made $950 on sales of advertising space for the Newsletter.
• Chris proposed we try to lower the cost of production of the next Newsletter, as there are many other projects we could spend money on.



• Curt requested a new invoice be made out for MVCC to reimburse the printing costs of the Newsletter. He requests that the invoice be made out to him with a resale number on it.
Steve and Chris suggest that they all coordinate together to get reimbursement from MVCC.

Pat Karasick, standing in for Officer Drake of LAPD reports:
• Drake is taking e-mail and phone messages.
• She stressed that although this area has low numbers of violent crimes, property crimes are on the increase especially so during the summer months.
Pat handed out cards provided by the police for the neighborhoods as a reminder to protect their valuables.
She explained how we should fill them in and encouraged us to leave the cards on our neighbor’s property if valuables were being left obviously unattended.
Pat stressed that perhaps because the neighborhood seems quiet people are sometimes leaving their cars running with valuables on the seats while they return to the house for something. Only a few minutes later the valuables and vehicle are gone
She explained that there have been a number of cars broken into even inside the secure car parks in the neighborhood. Obviously if valuables are laying visible inside the risks are increased greatly.
She encouraged us to help awareness in the community of prevention of these crimes.
Don't be victims!
Curt added that his car window was smashed and the thieves took a cheap CD player off his seat. The cost of having the window replaced was more than the valuables inside.
Don't leave stuff on view in your cars!
Linda added that mail should not be left in the car either.
Cassandra reported that her neighbors had experienced a break in recently. A few bikes and other items were removed from their garage but that they felt silly reporting it.
We must encourage our neighbors to be more pro-active.
She asked Pat for banners or posters promoting a safe, watchful community working together as neighbors and with LAPD.
Pat agreed and added that we should check our locks and landscaping also to better help protect ourselves.

• Pat suggested if we felt safe we should take photographs of any graffiti we find before calling 311 to have it removed.
She said that when the Tagger is caught the police can charge them and use the photographs as evidence.
She also reinforced documenting the location and date.
If anyone sees a Tagger in action they are encouraged to phone the police immediately. DO NOT CONFRONT THE TAGGER PERSONALLY. If the Tagger is caught still at the scene there is a $1000 reward for phoning in if the tagger is then charged.
For more information go to: www.lapdonline.org
Linda explained that some of the local business owners were afraid to report graffiti incase of reprisals.
Pat assured us that everything is handled anonymously.
Curt stressed that most Taggers only expect their graffiti to be up for a couple of days anyway. It is very rare that there are ever any reprisals.
It was agreed that if the neighborhood becomes more pro-active on all of these items it is a huge disincentive to the criminals to hang around here.

• Steve has received a crime report from another community council on a home invasion similar to the one on Barry Ave recently.
He is waiting for more details about this case.
Pat repeated how it is important to not open the door to anyone unfamiliar. Ask questions. A company should have called ahead of time to make a house call appointment.
You do not have to let anyone in!

Linda Guagliano:
• Linda has been part of the formation of a new traffic committee and says that they have already met several times to draw up proposals for managing the growing traffic problems in Mar Vista. The cut-through streets, those running North to South are especially bad and regularly become grid-locked at certain times of the day.
Linda says she attended the MVCC Board meeting on Tuesday 8th May 2007 having asked 3 times for the subject of Mar Vista’s cut through streets to be on the agenda. Her requests were unsuccessful, it was not discussed.



She says the traffic committee's proposals have been finalized but without MVCC's approval they are unable to move forward with any of them.

• Linda is currently reviewing the increase of traffic now using Beethoven St and Wade St.

• She points out that between Sawtelle Blvd and Beethoven St (East to West) and between Venice Blvd and Washington Blvd (North to South) traffic density has drastically increased. She suggests that this is due in large part to the numerous
re-developments occurring in Culver City and Playa Del Rey. Linda wants to try to work with these communities in order to figure out effective solutions and easements.

• Linda says that a sub committee of LADOT met on Wednesday 9th May 2007. One of the things discussed was the placement of a left turn signal, southbound on Sawtelle Blvd, at Venice Blvd. There have been discussions about adding one going northbound here too. That would require widening the street, however.

• Linda reports that there have been a number of serious accidents at the corner of Venice Blvd and Beethoven St involving pedestrians. In one of these a car actually swerved into a bus bench where someone was waiting.
Linda has agreed to document the traffic and any more accidents occuring at this site for LADOT. They are interested in any accident patterns so that the best traffic calming measures can be utilized.

• There were generally more requests for red light cameras on Venice Blvd at McLaughlin Ave, Inglewood Blvd, Centinela Ave and Beethoven St. Possibly also at Sawtelle Blvd.

• Regarding the closing of Marcasel Ave at Washington Blvd, LADOT has had a field meeting with Culver City and as yet no agreements have been made. At this point they are still interested in having the neighbors agree to it before they move forward.

• Pat added that LAPD are not backing making Pico Blvd and Olympic Blvd one way streets.

• Linda says she has heard many complaints regarding the driveway at the Grandview Post Office. This area is causing considerable congestion. There are suggestions to either move the curb back or move the drop boxes to ease this problem.

• The next Neighborhood Traffic Committee meeting will be 10am Wednesday July 11th at the Councilman's West Los Angeles Office.

• Cassandra asked about the promise of funding 100 left turn arrows. Each costing $75,000. (is this correct?!) And where that funding, or those arrows, might have got to.

Items on the Agenda, Steve Wallace, President:
• Addressed neighborhood concerns over the seemingly permanent garage/yard sale on Washington Place. The owners have been asked to remove the items and any signs.

• There has also been concern about the visiting RV's that apparently unload a Yard Sale worth of stuff on the space at the corner of McLaughlin Ave and Venice Blvd every weekend. What doesn't get sold seems to be abandoned here. This is on DWP land and Venice Blvd is administered by CalTrans. Steve is working with them on this matter.

• A number of calls have been made to various owners of local signs that are being left up for longer than is legal.
By law Yard Sale/Garage Sale signs must be taken down and removed 1 week later. There is a $50 fine for signs left up for longer than this time.
By law there is a limit of 5 Yard Sale/Garage Sales held in any one place per year.

• Daniel Webster Middle School, 11330 Graham Place, is having a festival (when?)

• On Sunday 5th August 2007 Mar Vista will be holding its 80th birthday celebration at Grandview School, 3951 Grandview Blvd as an extension of the Farmer's Market. Since this community event will be held in our South Mar Vista Zone 5 it is hoped that we can organize quite a presence there.
The organizers have been asked if we can provide and sell T shirts for this historic event with profits going directly back into the South Mar Vista community. Profits could be shared with the school where the event will be held.

• Michael offered to start sketching up some designs and is open to suggestions.
• There is a call for our South Mar Vista community to volunteer their time and talents for this event: raffles, art, dancing, crafts, and exhibitions of any kind.
We need ideas!

• Curt asked how many block captains we now had for Zone 5 and stressed the need for apartment building captains.

• Linda offered congratulations on behalf of many of the Newsletter fans. Especially for the useful numbers page at the back as this has been very popular.

• Steve described the MV Planning Meeting held at St John's Presbyterian Church, Mar Vista, on Saturday 5th.
For the first time in many years Mar Vista is re-writing its planning concepts and asked for as much community input as possible. A small number of neighbors from Zone 5 were able to attend this event. The Planning Department is looking for ideas from the community. After asking for a written list compiled by each group that day, they also handed out cameras. They are asking for pictures to be taken around each particular Zone, of areas in need of improvement - things we would like to see more of and things we definitely would not.
Beccy has the camera for Zone 5.
She also suggested people could take their own pictures and send them in to be complied at a SoMar neighborhood meeting before the deadline (when?!)

Meeting Adjourned 7.05pm