Eastwood Coalition
March 9, 2004 - Meeting Report

Another packed meeting hall! The following is a summary of the issues that were covered.

Outreach – Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie, who makes the phone calls each month, said that we now have 198 people on our database. She asked for help making the phone calls. Anyone that feels like they can make a few phone calls once a month, should call her at 323-467-4614.

KC acknowledged the hard work of Anne-Marie, Steven Carthy, and the Franklin-Hollywood Hills Community Council’s Action Team helping empower Eastwood Coalition.

Fire Station 82 – Steven Carthy

Steven Carthy gave background and details on the progress of the proposition F. (see Website: www.FranklinHollywoodHills.org)

Rory mentioned that Kawaguchi reported to the Oaks that three sites are still being considered for Fire Station 82 – Billiards, Florentine Gardens and the Taft/Van Ness/Hollywood location. He also said that he was told that our presentation to the Administrative Oversight Committee was extremely compelling and that the council office is very impressed.

Rory reminded us that Tom has listened to the community and is opening the door to consider other sites.

Whole Foods – Dave Monks

The Design Committee attended a meeting in Westwood where they saw preliminary designs. They were instructed to look at the Wilshire & 23^rd Street Whole Foods to get an idea of what they are doing. Whole foods will have an impact on this community bringing many car trips in and out. Dave suggested that the neighbors get involved in this process.

They are talking about a front entrance between the Downtowner and Garfield. The committee asked the architects to consider a corner entrance rather than a mid-block entrance to cater to the pedestrian population. The design is important because it is planned between the Gershwin (1920 building) and the Downtowner (mid century).

The committee suggested that the design be integrated with the historic feel of the neighborhood. The committee also asked that the building be set back more to give the neighborhood some physical breathing room. They asked for bike racks and residential parking to serve the local neighborhood. Palm trees were a consideration – they should be relocated, not destroyed.

The community is eyeing the lot across from Whole Foods as a possible place for a much needed park/playground. Possibly the trees could be replanted from one lot to the other in this unique situation. Perhaps Whole Foods and other developers in the neighborhood can assist.

There was also some concern regarding the elevators – the design so far includes glass elevators.

Ira Dankberg – He said that he has been taking some of the concerns from the meeting in Westwood and placing them in the design. They will bring an updated drawing to the Eastwood Coalition meeting in April. They are considering perhaps disguising the elevators and adding landscaping and other augmentation to the design. He appreciated the free flow of ideas from the community. He said that he is very concerned that they have buy-in on the design from the neighborhood. The plan will have to gain the approval of the Zoning Administration, Planning & Land Use as well as the CRA. There will also be traffic studies. The neighbors will have to attend hearings to help with this process.

The Gerschwin manager (Heidi) expressed the concern of her tenants over construction and the time line. Ira said that construction will begin at the end of this year and take approximately a year.

Harry Bedrosian asked about the trash and delivery services – because the trash trucks currently come at 5am in the alley next to his building. Ira said that so far, the hours would be 7am – 7pm.

Another neighbor asked about security for the project. Ira doesn’t have information on this yet.

New Neighborhood Business

Espresso MiCultura: K.C. shared the plans of Espresso MiCultura to change their entrance to Gramercy Place.

Awning for Mel Pierce Camera : George (Camera shop owner) wants to get a new awning but has had no luck getting a response from the city – Rory said that he will help him with the process.

Safety Committee Formed – Neighborhood Watch Groups Planned: Gershwin manager said that she doesn’t feel safe going out at night near Garfield & Hollywood Blvd. Graffiti is being sprayed by the kids on Garfield. Heidi says that there are cameras mounted up on the building but they are not being effective. The criminals also tried to burn down the hot dog stand.

Steven Carthy announced that we would be starting neighborhood watch programs and asking the city for signage. In addition he will coordinate the installation of additional security lighting and the removal of the pay phones at the dark edge of the parking lot at the base of Taft Ave at Hollywood Blvd. Additional Details about Taft Ave’s official LAPD Neighborhood Watch will be presented at the next meeting along with printed information on how to establish block by block neighborhood watches.

Heidi says that the neighborhood watch meetings can be centered in her building – she will provide space and participate in those meetings.

Missy suggested that the group would like to organize a meeting with Captain Downing – several expressed interest in being part of a committee to address the safety issues in this community. Eastwood coalition now has a safety committee with ten members. Fran foresees block captains attending Eastwood Coalition meetings with local neighborhood safety reports and issues.

Blood Donors Needed For Children’s Hospital: Missy asked people to donate blood to the Children’s hospital. She asked that we all consider this an important part of community activity. She will bring brochures next time.

Stairs on St. Andrews Place: Adam lives on St. Andrews Place and found out there is a proposal to close the stairs. Neighbors submitted petitions to the city in opposition to the closing of the stairs. They want to designate them as historic. The engineers need to make sure that there is no criminal activity on the stairs and that neighbors still use them.

Bill Kysella said that this issue started when there was a squatter living in a house on Tryon Road. The neighbors were afraid for the neighborhood. There was narcotics activity on those stairs at that time. It was justified hysteria and a mini-crime wave was in process. This action was the neighbor’s recourse to try to stop this. The city responded accordingly and a motion was passed at city council in January to go forward with the closure.

Since then the person was evicted and the owner of the house has taken over. The crisis is solved. Some people are pushing forward with the effort to close the street. There will be a public hearing at some time in the future.

Rory said that the council is not taking sides at this time. What happened on Tryon Road was extreme because of the individuals that occupied the house. Rory visited the neighbors directly across and next door. He found out that a homicide was involved with home invasion and more. A community meeting was conducted in the midst of all this crime and violence. Their were many officials there and neighbors were demanding attention from the city. Lots of testimony came forward about the crime – the stairs were depicted as an on-going problem.

But since then the problem has been mitigated. Now there is a lot of other input from other folks. Much of the passion to close the stairs may be backing off. There will be a public hearing as is part of the process.

The city engineer needs to hear from the community that the stairs are a community asset and are being used by many people in Hollywood.

A neighbor from the oaks had a comment about the city council. He said that their was actually strenuous opposition to closure back in that first well-attended meeting. He added that he was having difficulty obtaining public records until lately.

Fran acknowledged his frustration and explained how sensitive Tom LaBonge is to many people showing up and speaking out. She suggested that the neighbors be informed well in advance of any hearing so that they could speak out.

A Motion was made to support Friends of St. Andrews in their attempt to keep the stairs open for the public (Missy Kelly/Dave Monks) Motion carried unanimously.

Chuck Arnold (Land-use planner) said that the meeting time of 6PM is inconvenient. He attends lots of meetings and feels that we should change our meeting time. Eastwood Coalition will speak to the Church for permission to adjust the meeting time.

Taft Street Resurfacing: Rory was asked about resurfacing and speed humps on Taft Ave. He said that the budget cuts have cost us many miles of resurfacing. We went from 15 miles to just under 6 miles to be resurfaced. Taft, along with other streets was removed. Plus there is a hiring freeze. Rory said that he will check to see if Taft can be put back on the list. Even if Taft is put on the list, residents should expect at least an 18 month turnaround.

The request to make “speed humps” a priority over street resurfacing was not addressed because of Mary Jo’s (Taft Avenue resident) enduring disruptions to the meeting and verbal abuse to Rory and K.C. in general.

This very productive and well-attended meeting ended abruptly.

Meeting reports are posted at www.FranklinHollywoodHills.org or go to Google.com and type in “Eastwood Coalition”.

Our next meeting will be on April 6^th, 2004 – time to be announced. Check the website. Cards will be mailed out and calls will be made.

Our first item on the agenda will address proper decorum at community meetings. A loose guideline outlining our simple code of conduct will be proposed and a show of hands will signify its value and importance.

We look forward to seeing you all at the April meeting. Look for a card in the mail.