Westwood NC Hearing Jan 19th 6 p.m. at United Methodist Church

John Saddleback
Westwood Press
http://www.uclawestwood.com/

The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (B.O.N.C), a seven person board appointed by the mayor, will hold one public hearing on January 19th, 2010 before deciding whether or not to approve the application to have a Neighborhood Council in Westwood. 

The Westwood NC formation group held it's last meeting Sept 24 at the Westwood Presbytarian Church in Westwood. About 75 people attended the event.  Follow these links and you may be able to catch some insight into this heated meeting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfEuMYRK-7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozWryfqYrMk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJPDcbNCE18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8VxpWT3VBg

Some in the crowd were against the formation of an NC in Westwood and they made it clear. The main argument is that NC's can't sue over development issues and HOA's can. NC's can only advise the City Council but are not allowed to sue. The main argument for an NC in Westwood is that many in Westwood have no representation other than one city councilman, Paul Koretz. Anyone who lives or works in Westwood but doesn't own property in Westwood is excluded from HOA's which have been the only organized form of political representation in Westwood.  There has been a lot of controversy over how this NC was formed and this hearing is expected to be the most heated meeting in Westwood ever.

Metro to Hold Station Information Meeting for Westside Subway Extension Thurs. Nov. 5

The last 2 of 5 Metro community meetings will be held this Wednesday and Thursday to discuss  potential station stops in Westwood and Beverly Hills.  The meeting Wednesday in Beverly Hills will discuss 2 stops in B.H. and the meeting Thurday Nov.5 at the Wadsworth Theatre will discuss the Century City and Westwood/UCLA ............

(Click Here to go to Article)

Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson under investigation. Here we go again, the investigations of corruption never end in Southern California.....Even our pumpkin is upset about this one!!!!

The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously today to investigate complaints against two Southern California congresswomen, Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson.

In a prepared statement, the committee said it was looking into whether Richardson had failed to list real estate, liabilites and income on her financial disclosure forms.

It also was investigating whether the Long Beach Democrat had received a "gift or preferential treatment" from Washington Mutual after her Sacramento house was sold at a foreclosure auction. The lender later returned the the two-story house to the congresswoman.

A four-member committee will investigate Waters' activities surrounding the National Bankers Assn. and OneUnited Bank, a company in which her husband owned stock and served on its board.

Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank received $12 million in bailout funds three months after Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat and a senior member of the congressional committee that oversees banking, helped arrange a meeting between bank and other minority-owned financial institutions and Treasury Department representatives.

Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, served on the bank board until early last year and held investments in the bank worth at least $350,000, according to the congresswoman’s financial disclosure report.

—Jeff Gottlieb

Photos: Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), left, and Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach).

Credit: Associated Press, left; Congress

The nation and the world will almost certainly be plunged into the same crisis or worse at some point in the not-too-distant future

The following is an excerpt from Robert Reich's blog about Wall Street

Let's be clear: The Street today is up to the same tricks it was playing before its near-death experience. Derivatives, derivatives of derivatives, fancy-dance trading schemes, high-risk bets. “Our model really never changed, we’ve said very consistently that our business model remained the same,” says Goldman Sach's chief financial officer.

The only difference now is that the Street's biggest banks know for sure they'll be bailed out by the federal government if their bets turn sour -- which means even bigger bets and bigger bucks.

Meanwhile, the banks' gigantic pile of non-performing loans is also growing bigger, as more and more jobless Americans can't pay their mortgages, credit card bills, and car loans. So forget any new lending to Main Street. Small businesses still can't get loans. Even credit-worthy borrowers are having a hard time getting new mortgages.

The mega-bailout of Wall Street accomplished little. The only big winners have been top bank executives and traders, whose pay packages are once again in the stratosphere. Banks have been so eager to lure and keep top deal makers and traders they've even revived the practice of offering ironclad, multimillion-dollar payments – guaranteed no matter how the employee performs. Goldman Sachs is on course to hand out bonuses that could rival its record pre-meltdown paydays. In the second quarter this year it posted its fattest quarterly profit in its 140-year history, and earmarked $11.4 billion to compensate its happy campers. Which translates into about $770,000 per Goldman employee on average, just about what they earned at height of boom. Of course, top executives and traders will pocket much more.

Every other big bank feels it has to match Goldman's pay packages if it wants to hold on to its "talent." Citigroup, still on life-support courtesy of $45 billion from American taxpayers, has told the White House it needs to pay its twenty-five top executives an average of $10 million each this year, and award its best trader $100 million.

A few banks like Goldman have officially repaid their TARP money but look more closely and you'll find that every one of them is still on the public dole. Goldman won't repay taxpayers the $13 billion it never would have collected from AIG had we not kept AIG alive. (In one of the most blatant conflicts of interest in all of American history, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein attended the closed-door meeting last fall where then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who was formerly Goldman's CEO, and Tim Geithner, then at the New York Fed, made the decision to bail out AIG.) Meanwhile, Goldman is still depending on $28 billion in outstanding debt issued cheaply with the backing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Which means you and I are still indirectly funding Goldman's high-risk operations.

So will the President succeed on financial reform? I wish I could be optimistic. His milktoast list of proposed reforms is inadequate to the task, even if adopted. The Street's behavior since its bailout should be proof enough that halfway measures won't do. The basic function of commercial banking in our economic system -- linking savers to borrowers -- should never have been confused with the casino-like function of investment banking. Securitization, whereby loans are turned into securities traded around the world, has made lenders unaccountable for the risks they take on. The Glass-Steagall Act should be resurrected. Pension and 401 (k) plans, meanwhile, should never have been allowed to subject their beneficiaries to the risks that Wall Street gamblers routinely run. Put simply, the Street has been given too many opportunities to play too many games with other peoples' money.

But, like the health care industry, Wall Street has platoons of lobbyists and an almost unlimited war chest to protect its interests and prevent change. And with the Dow Jones Industrial Average trending upward again -- and the public's and the media's attention focused elsewhere, especially on health care -- it will be difficult to summon the same sense of urgency financial reform commanded six months ago.

Yet without substantial reform, the nation and the world will almost certainly be plunged into the same crisis or worse at some point in the not-too-distant future. Wall Street's major banks are already en route to their old, dangerous ways -- now made more dangerous by their sure knowledge that they are too big to fail.

Westside subway project is reaffirmed

L.A. County officials approved a long-range transportation plan Thursday, reaffirming the Westside subway and a rail connection through downtown L.A. as top priorities for federal funding.The vote by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board marks a victory for backers of the Westside subway, who are hoping to fast-track the project so that it is finished in as few as 10 years.But the plan also affirmed several other major rail and road projects, notably proposed lines in the San Gabriel Valley and South L.A.The document outlines how the agency will spend an estimated $300 billion over the next 30 years. The plan calls for a significant increase in rail lines around the county and the widening of freeways. Many of the projects still require significant funding, much of which would have to come from the federal government or partners in the private sector. But the projects have a fighting chance because voters approved a sales-tax increase last year to support transportation. "It's a historic vote at a historic time for transportation planning in Los Angeles County," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.The board took the action in support of the Westside subway despite calls this week from 14 members of Southern California's congressional delegation and eight state legislators asking that the MTA add other projects to its list for New Starts federal money. They questioned whether the subway would get immediate federal funding.Under the board action, the subway and the regional connector -- a proposed rail line through downtown L.A. -- would be the only two projects for which New Starts funding is sought.But an amendment to the plan said the agency would "pursue other potential funding sources" for the proposed Crenshaw line and the Gold Line Foothill Extension east from Pasadena. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents the Crenshaw area, and San Gabriel Valley officials had pushed for the amendment.The Crenshaw line's budget is $1.7 billion, but Ridley-Thomas wants a total of roughly $2.1 billion so that parts of it can be built as a subway.The extension of the Gold Line east from Pasadena would be built by the Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority. And MTA agreed to operate the segment to Azusa.Habib Balian, chief executive of the Gold Line authority, said he hopes to break ground on that segment of the extension by summer 2010 and have it completed by 2013. "I think it's a chance for us to really remake our region," said John Fasana, a Duarte City Council member and MTA board member.

Trutanich and Cooley plan crackdown on marijuana dispensaries, some are in Westwood

The UCLA Daily Bruin reported the following:
Oct. 22, 2009 at 1:59 a.m.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley plan to drastically reduce the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles.
Earlier this month, Cooley and Trutanich announced that the majority of marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles would face prosecution on the grounds that they violate state law, which bans the sale and distribution of marijuana.
The crackdown is occurring in the face of Attorney General Eric Holder’s memo issued on Monday, which asked federal prosecutors not to target marijuana users and distributors in states that allow medical marijuana.
But Dale Gieringer, the director of California National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the memo is essentially a restatement of what Holder said earlier in the year and actually gives Cooley and Trutanich broad authority to decide what is legal.
Gieringer said he believes the prosecution of Los Angeles marijuana dispensaries will proceed as planned.
“I have no doubt that (Cooley is) about to make a bunch of arrests and take a bunch of people to court and press his argument as far as he can,” Gieringer said.
Although Cooley and Trutanich do not have the manpower to prosecute all of Los Angeles’ dispensaries, the mere threat of litigation may be sufficient to radically thin the ranks of cannabis businesses.
In Westwood, dispensary owners can already see the gathering clouds: Two of Westwood’s five dispensaries are currently closed, and calls to the dispensaries were not returned.
Adel B., the manager of Westwood Caregivers, a cannabis dispensary on Le Conte Avenue, said he is tired of operating his business in a gray area.
“The city is contradicting itself,” Adel said. “They’re the ones who gave us the permit in the first place, and now they’re saying they’re going to sue us for using it?”
Adel has been managing Westwood Caregivers since January, and he’s been in the industry since 2005.
He said he has committed himself to the difficult task of running a “by the books” business in an industry where there is almost no official regulation. He grows his own product instead of purchasing it illegally, charges sales tax, and carefully evaluates each of his patients’ medical condition and the reputation of the recommending doctor.
But since Westwood Caregivers opened while the 2007 Los Angeles City Council moratorium on cannabis dispensaries was active, his business is still at risk of prosecution.
“Put the guidelines in front of us, let’s talk about what’s right and wrong ... so everyone can play ball,” Adel said.
Susan Leahy, the manager of The Farmacy on Gayley Avenue, echoed a similar sentiment.
“The city has had over two years to get their act together,” said Leahy, who has written to city council members to invite them to her store.
Medical marijuana patients at UCLA are also afraid they will be caught on the wrong side of the law.
“I don’t want to be driving around thinking I can legally have (marijuana) in my trunk and then all of a sudden get busted for it,” said Michael A., a fourth-year environmental science student.
Michael said he uses cannabis to treat attention deficit disorder.
Gieringer said it is possible that the district attorney’s threats are an attempt to force the passage of an official ordinance and to clarify the legal status of marijuana in Los Angeles.
“There really is no good case law as to what constitutes a legal dispensary,” Gieringer said.
Strangely enough, marijuana is both legal and illegal under state law. Proposition 215 was passed by voter referendum in 1996 and created an exemption from criminal penalties for the cultivation, use and possession of medical marijuana.
The law was expanded in 2004 with the passage of Senate Bill 420, which authorized patient collectives to distribute and sell medical marijuana on a nonprofit basis to the members of the collective.
However, a different state law and federal law currently ban the sale and distribution of marijuana, and in 2007, the Los Angeles City Council passed a moratorium on the opening of new cannabis dispensaries.
On Monday, a Superior Court judge ruled the moratorium illegal and provided an injunction against closure for Green Oasis, a dispensary in Culver City.
“This isn’t being done in a sensible manner,” said Mark Kleiman, a UCLA professor of public policy and the author of “Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control.”
There is still no official marijuana ordinance in Los Angeles, though one may be in the works. On Tuesday, Trutanich’s office delivered a draft resolution for an ordinance that the city council may vote on this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.
However, Gieringer said that many parts of Trutanich’s proposal are unrealistic, such as the section that stipulates dispensary owners must register the names of the members of the collective with local police departments. He believes the battle is likely to continue until a federal law is passed.
“The laws on marijuana are bankrupt,” Gieringer said. “What kind of policy is it when your law is so screwed up that you have to direct your attorneys not to enforce them?”

Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting brings all sides together

John Saddleback
July 14, 2009
4:30p.m.

The Westwood Neighborhood Council formation group, a group of pro-NC activists, has met seven month's in a row now in an effort to bring a neighborhood council to Westwood. The last meeting, July 13th, had a full house in a very hot and humid room. The AC was not working and local leaders brought their own heat as well. A very mixed group showed up representing the homeowners, businesses, Design Review Board, Chamber of Commerce, HOA leaders, developers, renters etc. The majority of the meeting was spent answering questions related to the formation of a NC. The biggest contention seems to be whether or not to draw borders that include certain areas that already have HOA board representation. Three previous attempts to form a NC in Westwood have failed. Several Holmby Westwood Property Owners Association members voiced their concerns that a NC would not be in their best interest. President Sandy Brown made her position known at the previous meeting. It seems that the leadership of the HOA's in Westwood are very much against a NC forming. However renters, local workers and other homeowners seem to think a NC would help revive Westwood which has plenty of vacant retail space available. Other pro-NC activists feel Westwood doesn't really have true representative democracy and that a NC would bring that to Westwood. The group had it's first meeting in January 2009. Roxanne Stern, Lisa Kung, Deanna Stevenson (D.O.N.E), Mark Herd and Easton Herd attended. Since then the group has grown and the regular monthly meetings take place at the Westwood Park Recreation Center. The next meeting is Wednesday Aug. 19 at 7:00pm. Rm B.

Westside Neighborhood Councils Want Say in Development

Westside Neighborhood Councils Want Say in Development

Friday, June 26, 2009, by Dakota

This issue could turn into an interesting catfight: The Argonaut is reporting that there's growing support on the Westside to allow neighborhood councils the ability to appeal City Council planning and land use decisions, a right currently only afforded to homeowners groups. Via the paper: "Venice Neighborhood Council President Mike Newhouse has appeared before several Westside advisory boards to seek support for what many feel is a worthwhile and logical tool to have when downtown politicians take positions that they believe are contrary to the best interests of their local communities." The tipping point for the Westside seems to be the city's recent approval of a 92-unit condominium development at 3160-3178 S. Barrington Avenue. As the paper notes, the neighborhood council granted a waiver to the developer over parking spaces under the impression that the project would be smaller, but city officials ultimately approved a larger project, a move which broke the good faith agreement, according to the group. Steve Donnell, head of the planning and land use committee for the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa, tells the paper he supports the motion because neighborhood councils "are empowered to be the experts on issues in their own backyards," but advises against the power being used in a "knee-jerk way." City councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents Venice, also supports the motion, according to the Argonaut.· Neighborhood councils seek right to challenge city in decisions affecting their communities [Argonaut]

Michael Jackson's death: Pop star's body flown from UCLA to Boyle Heights

Michael Jackson's body was flown in a Sheriff's Department helicopter from UCLA Medical Center to downtown Los Angeles for examination by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. TV news stations covered the trip live.
Police officers guarded the entrance to the coroner's building on Mission Road. News helicopters hovered overhead and county police officers and sheriff's deputies are closed access to adjacent County-USC Medical Center parking lots near the State Street entrance to the new hospital.
The lots are far from full, so this appears to be related to the arrival of Michael Jackson's body, which appears to have already occurred. A Sheriff's Department helicopter apparently landed on an older helipad near those parking lots, near the crematorium.

BREAKING NEWS: Michael Jackson dies at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

By Carolyn McGough
By Samantha Masunaga
Updated: Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 12:23 a.m.
Published: Thursday, June 25, 2009

Singer and performer Michael Jackson died at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center today at 2:26 p.m., according to a university statement. He was 50.
The pop star’s brother Jermaine Jackson told reporters that it is believed that Jackson suffered cardiac arrest in his home, but the exact cause of death cannot be determined until the results of an autopsy by the coroner are returned.
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times that paramedics responded to a call at Jackson’s home earlier this afternoon. Jackson was not breathing when they arrived, and paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
They then transported Jackson to the UCLA Medical Center, according to his brother’s statement.
Upon arrival at approximately 1:14 p.m., a team of doctors attempted to resuscitate him for more than an hour but was unsuccessful, according to the statement.
When word spread of Jackson’s presence at the UCLA Medical Center, hundreds of people gathered along Westwood Boulevard outside of the hospital to see what was happening.
After the reports were confirmed, university police and the Los Angeles Police Department blocked off many of the campus streets, including Charles E. Young Drive, to restrict public access near the medical center.
In addition, police monitored traffic along Westwood Boulevard.
The atmosphere outside of the medical center was hectic. The crowd chanted "Michael" while waiting for the press conference that would confirm the details of Jackson’s death.
Some of Jackson’s hit songs, such as “Thriller,” could also be heard from passing car stereos and the nearby fraternity houses as fans gathered to pay tribute to the pop star.
Among the gatherers was Sherry Soong, a UCLA alumna, who had originally arrived at the medical center to take her stepdaughter to a medical appointment.
"Our family immigrated here in 1983, and I was born in ’75," Soong said. "So it's almost like Michael was part of the American experience. It's really sad – you grow up trying to do the moonwalk and impersonate his other dance moves."
As news of the event spread, more and more people arrived.
University police and university spokespeople attempted to monitor the crowd and allowed only some of the hundreds of media outlets into the medical center.
Many members of the press attempted to gain access to the press conference, but most were denied. Officials said that the hospital conference room was not big enough to accommodate the large number of people. University police also announced that the fire marshal would not allow any more press.
Known as the “King of Pop,” Jackson first gained national attention as part of his family’s music group, the Jackson 5. The pop star later embarked on a solo career that included hits such as “Thriller” and “Dangerous.” He became known as an exciting performer with signature dance moves like the moonwalk.

The Westwood Neighborhood Council formation meeting

The next Westwood Neighborhood Council formation meeting will be Wednesday Aug 19th at 7:00 at the Westwood Park Recreation Ctr Rm B on Sepulveda just south of Wilshire. For more information please call 310-877-8664

UCLA employees protest proposed pay cuts, furloughs

Staffers suggest that regents should first cut the salaries of administrators who earn $200,000 or more.

UC officials consider salary reductions of 4% to 8%, 21 unpaid days off or a combination. The cuts would close about one-fourth of an anticipated $800-million state funding shortfall.
By Larry Gordon June 25, 2009
More than 2,000 UCLA employees, including researchers, custodians, nurses and secretaries, gathered at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday to protest plans for pay cuts and furloughs proposed by the University of California.Because of the state budget crisis, UC leaders are considering three proposals to reduce payroll spending by about $195 million in the next school year. One plan would cut salaries by 8% for all faculty and staff earning more than $46,000 annually and 4% for those earning less; another would require 21 unpaid furlough days for all employees, and a third would combine pay cuts and furloughs. The UC regents are expected next month to approve some version of the proposal for all 10 UC campuses and their many satellite facilities, although negotiations would be needed for union contracts, officials said.UC President Mark G. Yudof outlined the pay and furlough proposals last week and promised they would be implemented "in the most equitable manner possible." The proposed cuts would make up about a fourth of what UC projects will be an $800-million shortfall in its state general revenue funding over this year and next; the rest would come through a recently approved 9.3% increase in student fees for the coming school year and through program and class reductions, Yudof said. Lynn Kessler, a UCLA clinical study coordinator in neurology and union activist who attended the town hall-style meeting, warned that the proposals, if acted upon, could cause some staffers to lose their homes and others to leave UC for the private sector.
"Even in this bad job market, people are insulted," Kessler said.Wearing lapel stickers that proclaimed "Chop from the Top," she and other UCLA employees attending the campuswide staff meeting said the regents should first reduce more sharply the salaries of administrators who earn $200,000 or more, tap endowment funds more deeply, halt campus construction projects and further reduce administrative overhead.They also expressed concern that furloughs might harm patient care at UCLA's medical center and clinics.UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and other campus officials took questions from the crowd and said they would urge the regents to fine-tune any reductions to ease the pain as much as possible. But they said they did not think such cuts could be avoided and added that reductions in class offerings, faculty hiring and campus services are in the works."This will be devastating," Block said. "I recognize your concern, and my concern is that we all personally get through this and that this institution remains strong. But there is no doubt that this is going to have an impact on our salaries and an impact on our programs we offer to students. And that concerns me greatly."Several UCLA employees on Wednesday noted the irony that they gathered in Pauley Pavilion, the nearly four-decades-old arena for which officials recently announced a $185-million renovation plan. Although more than half of that cost is to be financed by private donations, staffers wondered whether some donors might instead be persuaded to support UCLA's general finances. "It's a luxury to replace this now, and we are not in luxurious times," said Alan Toy, associate director for UCLA's Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. Dave Haugland, a campus sign maker and a shop steward for skilled trades workers in the State Employees' Trades Council-United, said UC employees shouldn't accept the pay cuts or furloughs without better explanations of why they are needed and larger reductions for top administrators. He said unions would go along only if UC "can prove to us that without an 8% cut, the university is going to suffer. But we're going to fight it unless they prove it."At the California State system, meanwhile, officials have proposed furloughs of two days a month for employees at all 23 campuses. Some unions have voted to discuss the plan with the administration, but the faculty group's leaders are asking for more information. "We're willing to do something. . . . The budget cuts are disastrous," said faculty union spokeswoman Alice Sunshine. "But we want to be sure what we're voting on."
larry.gordon@latimes.comTimes staff writer
Gale Holland contributed to this report.

Robert AM Stern Tower Proposed for Wilshire Corridor

Meet the Wilshire Gayley, that long planned tower set to rise on the site of the old Hollywood Video building at Wilshire Blvd and Gayley Avenue. You may recognize the slim tower as the work of New York-based architect Robert AM Stern (also behind Related Co's Century project), while the developer here is Kambiz Hekmat. A local developer, Hekmat is playing it safe and requesting two development options (all based on market conditions): A hotel and 10 condos, or an 144-unit condo building. Both options would have ground floor retail, restaurant, and a business center. And most interesting: According to the documents submitted this week to the city's planning department (the documents are dated June 2009), "construction of the project would begin in approximately the third quarter of 2009 and would end in 2012." Who knows if that'll actually happen? For his part, Hekmat declined to comment on the project.
Excerpt from Planning Department: "The project would require the demolition of an existing one-story commercial building on the south parcel. The Applicant is requesting review of two development options. Option 1 would result in the development of a 134-room luxury business hotel and 10 for sale condominiums. Option 2 would result in the development of 144 condominium units. Both options would have approximately 6,510 square feet of ground floor retail uses. Amenities in both options would include a public restaurant, a coffee shop, a business center with meeting rooms, a swimming pool, a spa, and a fitness center. The building envelope and exterior treatment would be the same for either option. The building, which would contain approximately 303,709 gross square feet of floor area, would be 29 stories and approximately 427 feet in height. Parking would be provided in a four level, approximately 200-space subterranean garage."

The Westwood Homeowners Association Meeting

Next Scheduled Meeting of Westwood Homeowners Association

The Board of Directors will hold its next monthly meeting at 7:00 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month (July 2nd) at the Parish Offices of St. Paul the Apostle Church (1536 Selby Avenue, just south of Ohio Avenue). This meeting will be held in the Multipurpose Room. The CD 5 Field Representative for our area, usually attends these meetings to report on neighborhood concerns and to answer community questions.
For more Info: www.whaweb.org

The Holmby Westwood Property Owners Association Meeting

Welcome! All

About The Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association (H-WPOA) serves a 1100 home community. It was incorporated in 1962, and has 39 proud years of service!! This volunteer association has a 25 member Board of Directors, elected annually. Meetings are held monthly, except for August, on the second Tuesday of each month. These meetings are held at Board Member homes. Paid-up members of the Associaion are welcome at all Board meetings.

Contact the Holmby-Westwood POA
Please telephone the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association office in Westwood Ca. for additional information, or e-mail our members.
Jane Gould
Email:
jgould@worldnet.att.net
Los Angeles CA 90024

President Sandy Brown
Office: 310-824-0303
Fax: 310-824-4564

Office Manager Tom Patterson
Address: 1081 Westwood Blvd., Suite 225 Los Angeles Ca 90024
Office: 310-824-0303
Fax: 310-824-4564

LA Film Festival and Developement Projects in Westwood

Important reminder----the LA Film Festival is on. The films look so interesting and the festival is a real asset to Westwood.

Also—the Westwood Farmer’s market resumes this Wed., June 17 on Broxton. Hours are 3 pm to 8 pm every Wednesday.


Lots of building planned for Westwood


790 Kelton @Strathmore northeast corner
Proposed
Removal of existing buildings
Construct new apartment building
C. DIR-2009-1422-SPP (670 Kelton Avenue) -PRELIMINARY: 48-unit apartment complex that will have a height of 60 feet. This project will be applying for the Density Bonus Ordinance, requesting a 20 percent reduction in open space and the allowance of four stories, in lieu of the 3 stories allowed
This project is currently before the Westwood Design and Review Board


Gayley @ Wilshire (old Hollywood video store)
The architect is Robert AM Stern the developer is local-Kambiz Hekmat
He is requesting two development options (all based on market conditions): A hotel and 10 condos, or a 144-unit condo building. Both options would have ground floor retail, restaurant, and a business center. According to the documents submitted this week to the city's planning department construction of the project would begin in approximately the third quarter of 2009 and would end in 2012.
Option 1 development of a 134-room luxury business hotel and 10 for sale condos
Option 2 would result in the development of 144 condominium units.
Both options would have approximately 6,510 square feet of ground floor retail uses. and would include a public restaurant, a coffee shop, a business center with meeting rooms, a swimming pool, a spa, and a fitness center. The building envelope and exterior treatment would be the same for either option. The building, which would contain approximately 303,709 gross square feet of floor area, would be 29 stories and approximately 427 feet in height. Parking would be provided in a four level, approximately 200-space subterranean garage."



__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING MONDAY, JULY 13TH
WESTWOOD RECREATION CENTER 6:30 pm to 9 pm.
Much of the meeting will be devoted to establishing the by-laws.
Please attend and bring friends. This is an excellent time to participate in our community. So many changes—metro, new construction-new council member….
We set our own committees- homeless, disaster preparedness, parking, outreach, etc

Who can attend?
A Stakeholder is any individual who lives, works, or owns property within the boundaries of Sunset Blvd., Santa Monica Blvd., the 405 and the Beverly Hills country club. In addition, a stakeholder is any individual who participates in educational institutions, religious institutions, community organizations or other non-profit organizations, neighborhood associations, homeowners association, apartment associations, condominium associations, resident associations, school/parent groups, faith-based groups and organizations, senior groups and organizations, youth groups and organizations, business improvement districts, service organizations, park advisory boards, cultural groups, environmental groups, police advisory board groups, and/or redevelopment advisory boards.

Starting August 1, 2009 City Hall 311 phone number will be staffed from 7AM to 11PM. only.

Councilman Paul Koretz

Posted by Rick Orlov on June 19, 2009 10:13 AM
Councilman-elect Paul Koretz said today he has hired Chief Deputy City Attorney Rich Llewellyn to serve as his chief of staff for when he takes office on July 1.Llewellyn has an extensive City Hall background, having worked as chief deputy for City Council President Eric Garcetti and for former Councilman Marvin Braude.Koretz said he is continuing to interview for other staff jobs.One interesting tidbit is that Koretz and his opponent, Neighborhood Council leader David Vahedi, have yet to have direct contact over the election.Vahedi has conceded the contest, but only through the media and messages he left for Koretz."I understand it," Koretz said. "It was a pretty rough and tumble campaign and neither of us feel particularly warm and fuzzy toward each other at this point."

L.A. County to consider $23 billion budget
10:29 AM June 22, 2009

Welcome to the Westwood Press Blogspot. It is a location to gather information on local developments and meetings. You can say what you want and get away with it. There's only one rule, there are no rules so say what you want. Good Luck!