Wilshire Center District Team’s Activities Updates

Last quarter, the WC District Safety Team assisted the City in getting over 452 bulky items picked up, made 24 calls to the City for street repairs, and assisted in getting 238 graffiti tags cleaned up. The team responded to 32 calls for assistance to the LAPD and others. They issued 56 illegal vendor warnings and provided resources to 39 homeless individuals. The team assisted in getting 23 street lights repaired. In addition to repairing broken street lights, the City has also changed many of the bulbs in the residential areas to brighter and more energy efficient LED’s.

Last quarter, the WC Sidewalk Maintenance Team collected 1,114 bags of trash, removed 1,206 stickers and used 5 gallons of paint on graffiti on sidewalk pots, poles, and news racks. Since Portals will soon be curtailing their services, we have reached an agreement to use Chrysalis for sidewalk maintenance. Chrysalis has a long history working with BIDs in Los Angeles. We have worked with them for a number of years on different specific maintenance projects. They provide services to about 13 other BIDs within the City. Chrysalis is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a pathway to self-sufficiency for homeless and low-income individuals by providing the resources and support needed to find and retain employment. Since their start in 1984, they have helped over 35,000 individuals change their lives through jobs.

We have finalized an agreement with the Koreatown Youth & Community Center (KYCC) to take on the responsibilities of the landscape work for the District’s streetscape along Wilshire Blvd. The new crew began work on February 15th. KYCC is a non-profit, community based organization that has been serving the Wilshire Center District  since 1975. KYCC's programs and services are specifically directed towards recently immigrated, economically disadvantaged youth and their families who experience coping and adjustment difficulties due to language and cultural barriers. Since its inception, KYCC has striven to improve the quality of its programs, as well as to diversify its services to appropriately meet the evolving needs  of the community.

To all residential tenants: please call 1-800-773-2489 to have your bulky items (sofas, dressers, mattresses, etc.)  removed for free from the curbside.

4th Annual, April 22nd Earth Day – Car Free Day

The WCBID staff is currently planning the 4th Annual, April 22nd Earth Day – Car Free Day event, which will take  place on the lawn at 3700 Wilshire Blvd., between Oxford Ave. and Serrano Ave. This year’s event falls on a Friday (4/22/11) and is scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM and will feature a movie screening of the director’s cut of “Avatar” with a possible appearance by James Cameron. Other features include a presentation of the Cool District Program and the Carbon Master Plan, face painting for the kids, community booths, ewaste recyclers and free tree adoption. The Earth Day banners will be up along Wilshire Blvd. from Feb. 23rd to Apr. 24th. For more information about the event visit wilshirecenter.com/earthday.

DON'T MISS THIS FREE SCREENING OF AVATAR, THE DIRECTORS CUT!!!

Community Events

The Bangladesh community celebrated the official unveiling of the "Little Bangladesh" sign on 1-15-11 at Alexandria Ave. and 3rd St. This is the first officially designated Bangladesh community in North America. Little Bangladesh, along with Koreatown, are now officially part of the Wilshire Center District.

The WCBID staff helped organize and participate in a community clean up on January 8th, 2011, which mainly
focused on the business and residential area around 8th Street.

The Wilshire Center/Koreatown Night Out for a Safer Community was held on Thursday, February 17th, 2011, 6:30pm on the south east corner of 8th street and Irolo Street. The purpose of this Night Out was to help residents get to know their neighbors and to join with political representatives and the officers of LAPD Olympic Division to
empower them to regain control of their community.

Please attend the next meeting of the Wilshire Center Business Watch on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 12:00  noon at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, 3424 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles (5th floor). Complimentary light lunch provided by the Archdiocesan Catholic Center.

Cool District Update

CRA/LA has decided to audit about 28 buildings of varying sizes and types which will be comprised of: 3  apartments, 1 industrial, 2 institutes, 7 large commercial offices over 200,000 sf and 15 small commercial buildings less than 200,000sf (2 shopping centers) for a total of 1,800,000 sf. It looks like we will not be making a final selection of buildings to be audited until March.

Along with the CRA, we have planned a public meeting which will allow us to meet with and educate building owners within the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area about the program and to encourage them to invest in energy  efficiency upgrades.

CRA/LA will have more funds available for energy audits sometime this year. It is anticipated the City Council may approve the Commercial PACE program for the City of Los Angeles sometime early this year.

BUILDING OWNERS/MANAGERS SIGN UP FOR A FREE BUILDING ENERGY AUDIT – CONTACT US AT GARY@WILSHIRECENTER.COM

New CRA Program for the Wilshire Center District

CRA will be working to get a consultant to develop a Parking Management Plan for the District. The Parking Management Plan will address parking issues and analyze ways to provide a broad range of parking alternatives to those wish to live, work or shop in the District. The plan will define how parking demand will be met using a combination of parking management, permit parking, shared parking and parking expansion. The plan may explore angled parking and one way streets, the use of Overnight Parking Districts (OPD), Preferential Parking Programs (PPP) and the need for more local shuttles and bike lanes along with the promotion of these and other alternative transportation modes.

CALL TO ACTION: OPPOSE THE ABOLISHMENT OF REDEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

It is critical that you contact your California legislators, Senators or Assembly Members, to ask them to oppose the abolishment of redevelopment agencies. More information and materials are available at www.protectourlocaleconomy.com. See our last newsletter for an in depth discussion on the CRA/LA programs for the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area. “One redevelopment dollar attracts five dollars of private investment.”

LACBC Kicks off 7th St. Bike Lane Campaign!

The first phase of the bike lane will start from Wilshire Center/Koreatown and stretch to Downtown (see blog for more details). As the Bike Plan calls for, it will eventually extend all the way to Boyle Heights--at an impressive 5.4 miles!. More Info

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