Wilshire Center District Team’s Activities and Other News

Last quarter, the security team assisted the City in getting over 810 bulky items picked up, made 39 calls/reports to the City for street repairs, and assisted in getting 465 graffiti tags cleaned up. The team responded to 38 calls for assists to the LAPD and others. They issued 53 illegal vendor warnings and assisted 41 homeless individuals. Additionally, 674 illegal signs were removed.

Last quarter, the sidewalk maintenance team collected 2107 bags of trash (48,461 lbs), and removed 133 graffiti tags on sidewalk pots, poles, and news racks. The crew is out every Monday and Thursday sweeping the sidewalks, picking up trash, clearing gutters and painting out graffiti from street poles and flower planters. The team empties 59 trash cans throughout the District due to the City’s reduced efforts which had led to overflowing of the cans.

This month the Team pressure washed some of the worst sidewalks in our area. We were successfully able to remove all the stains, graffiti, bird droppings and other gunk.

The landscape crew for the District’s Wilshire streetscape continues to maintain all 15 medians and about 160 flower pots along Wilshire Blvd. The work consists of removal of trash, trimming of plants, watering of plants, and repairing broken sprinklers. We have replaced the plant material in some of the medians along Wilshire Blvd, plus adding wood chips in medians and in all of the flower pots.

The WCBID holiday lights will be installed by November 15th along Wilshire Blvd. and stay up for two months. One of the best places to keep informed of Wilshire Center District’s activities is on Facebook; become a friend of the Wilshire Center District at facebook.com/wilshirecenter

Community Events

On August 2nd, 2011, about 500 people gathered at Seoul International Park to conduct a National Night Out march against crime. The group walked from the park to the LAPD Olympic Station, where we joined with hundreds of other community friends. By coming together the citizens showed tremendous unity in their efforts to stop crime, gangs, violence, graffiti and drugs. The groups could be heard chanting anti-violence slogans in English, Korean and Spanish. This event was organized by UDLA, CRA/LA, WCBID, WCKNC & the LAPD Olympic Station.

On September 7th the WCBID participated in the CIT College Health and Wellness Fair at Wilshire and Vermont. The fair provided free medical services to the local community. We had a booth at the fair, which provided a platform for community dialogue. We received numerous positive comments about the event and all of the services provided.

On September 17th, 2011, over 100 people gathered at Seoul International Park to conduct a community beautification day in honor of the Firefighters and Police Officers of the WC/K community. UDLA, CRA, and the WCBID recognized LA Fire Station 13, LA Fire Station 29 and the LAPD Olympic Division for their invaluable commitment to keeping the community safe. After the awards ceremony, hundreds of community volunteers hit the streets to plant trees, clean up trash and remove graffiti with the help of KYCC and KIWA.

On Oct. 20th the 4th Night Out for Safer Neighborhoods of the year was held at the Oriental Mission Church. The purpose of a Night Out is to meet neighbors and to join with our Elected Officials, Communities Leaders and the Officers of the Olympic Police Division to empower citizens and to regain control of our communities.

On October 22nd, 2011 the WCBID co-sponsored the KHEIR community Health Festival at RFK Community Schools by providing re-useable bags.

WCBIC and the Los Angeles Business Council invite you to the 10th Annual Mayoral Housing, Transportation & Jobs Summit on November 16, 2011 from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at UCLA's Korn Hall; for more information and to register, visit labusinesscouncil.org.

The 14th annual The Calle Ocho Festival, the largest Latino Christmas festival in L.A., will be held on December 3-4 on 8th Street from Irolo Street to Vermont Avenue. The Festival will have 10 blocks of entertainment and tastes of Latino and Asian food.

The next meeting of the Wilshire Center Business Watch will take place on Thursday, December 15th, 2011, 12:00 noon at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, 3424 Wilshire Blvd., El Camino Real Conference Room (5th floor). Complimentary light lunch will be provided by the Wilshire Center BID.

WC Cool District Program

Energy Upgrade Los Angeles Commercial Building Performance Initiative is a grant funded program which offers a suite of no-cost resources and support services to assist property owners/managers in carrying out holistic, cost-effective energy efficiency projects. This program will provide more access to free energy assessments and free investment grade audits along with project financing support.

Energy Upgrade LA is still accepting applications for free energy audits; for the application and for more info go to lacommercialbpp.com. We will be working with those owners who have had the assessment energy audits done by our program to see if they want to participate in the City’s Energy Upgrade program for a possible free investment grade energy audit.

CRA Programs for WC/K

After discussions with the CRA about funding repairs for the crosswalks and sidewalks on 8th Street near Harvard they have agreed to provide over $800,000 for these public improvements. The funds will be transferred to the Bureau of Street Services to do the work.

Another project that we are working on with CRA and LAPD-Olympic Division is the purchase of (9) Wireless Camera Surveillance Systems. We were able to get CRA to fund up to $359,000 for this project. The LAPD will make the purchase with these funds. The initial planned public improvement project is intended for the following locations: Western Ave/Melrose Ave (NW/C), Western Ave/Beverly Blvd (SW/C), Western Ave/3rd Street (SW/C), Western Ave/5th Street (SE/C), 6th Street/Alexandria (SW/C), 3rd Street/Vermont Ave (SW/C), Shatto Place/4th Street (SW/C), and 6th Street/Berendo Ave (NE/C).

These projects will be executed following the CA Supreme Court’s final decision on the status of CA-CRAs on 1/15/12.

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To all residential tenants: please make arrangements to have your bulky items removed for free from the curbside, by calling 1-800-773-2489, from Monday through Friday, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., at least one day before the regular collection day. Bulky items are collected on the day of the regular trash collection day. For more information and on-line service go to www.lacitysan.org.

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