Two Neighborhood Council elections are Sunday, April 30

n 2023 vote is in person and by mail for Mid City West and GWNC

By Suzan Filipek

Two hyperlocal elections are being held this month for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC) and the Mid City West Neighborhood Council (MCWNC) — advisory groups that discuss and opine about issues at City Hall, from development to homelessness.

Both councils are holding in-person elections Sun., April 30. The GWNC’s will take place at The Barking Lot, 336 N. Larchmont Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Stakeholders in Mid City West can vote at Pan Pacific Park, 7600 Beverly Blvd., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Vote-by-mail ballot requests for both areas close Tues., April 11. Information about that is at tinyurl.com/5n7hevr4.

Besides local residents, stakeholders include employees and property owners plus individuals who are a member of, or participate in, a community organization (such as a local business, school or religious or other nonprofit organization) within the boundaries of the neighborhood council.

Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council

In Greater Wilshire, 39 candidates are on the ballot vying for one of 21 seats to serve as Directors of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC) for the following two years.

Among categories, 15 are for geographic areas; others are renters, business, education, religious, other nonprofit and at-large. (Also, 21 alternates will be elected; they are usual-

325 N. Larchmont Boulevard, #158 Los Angeles, California 90004 www.windsorsquare.org

157 N. Larchmont Boulevard

Three Great Ways to Save Money on Your Water Bill

No matter how much rain falls on Southern California, or how deep is the snow pack in the Sierra, it’s a fact that we live in an arid climate and must always be mindful of water usage. But what’s good for California can be good for your wallet, as well. Below are three useful tips:

One

We all know that running sprinklers during rainy periods is wasteful. But it’s sometimes hard to anticipate weather patterns — and easy to assume that someone else (your gardener, maybe) will adjust sprinkler timers accordingly. Here’s an easy solution: Install a Weather Based Irrigation Controller (WBIC). These “smart” devices will irrigate according to the needs of the landscape, automatically reducing times or skipping cycles during cool, rainy or windy periods, and increasing times or cycles as needed for warmer seasons. These WBICs potentially can save you more than 10,000 gallons of water a year, and hundreds of dollars on your water bill during the device’s lifetime. WBICs start at about $150, and they can be eligible for an $80 rebate from the LADWP. To learn more, go to: bit.ly/3ySyviN.

Two

Did you know that the sewer service charge you receive in every water bill is based solely on how much water you use in the winter? That rate is applied all year round, so if you reduce water usage during cooler months (defined by the LADWP as October through March), you will reap the benefits during summer as well. To learn more about how the Winter Water Use rates work, go to: bit.ly/39sbrvf.

Three

The best way to save substantially on your water bill is to install a sub-meter, which will divide your water use into separate household and landscape charges. The sewer service charge does not apply to water used just for landscape needs. Sub-meters require professional installation and can cost several hundred dollars, but they will pay for themselves relatively quickly. By some estimates, the sub-meter can save as much as $100 per bill. To learn more, go to www.ladwp.com and search in the Residential section for “Sewer Sub-Meter.” ly those who come in second.)

Let’s be smart and keep our Windsor Square neighborhood — and our wallets — in the green.

Don’t forget to vote on or prior to April 30, 2023 in the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council board of directors’ election. You must register if you want to receive a mailed ballot or to vote in person at The Barking Lot, 336 N. Larchmont Blvd. between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 30. Further information about voting is at greaterwilshire.org/2023-elections.

The Windsor Square Association, an all-volunteer group of residents from 1100 households between Beverly and Wilshire and Van Ness and Arden, works to preserve and enhance our beautiful neighborhood. Join with us! Drop us a line at 325 N. Larchmont Blvd., #158, Los Angeles, CA 90004, or visit our website at windsorsquare.org. ADV.

The bylaws of the GWNC provide that people who document their eligibility to vote in specific categories must vote in person at the polling place on election day. At that time, voters must bring their driver’s licenses (or other photo ID showing birthday and address). If you also are voting for one of the special interest board seats in addition to the geographic area where you live, work or own property, you also must bring evidence of your participation in that special interest con- stituency. Therefore, as has been the case since the founding of the local neighborhood council in 2001 and the official certification of GWNC in 2003, an individual voter who lives, works or owns property within GWNC may cast up to two votes. As noted, vote-by mail also is available this year.

Detailed information about 2023’s GWNC election is at greaterwilshire. org/2023-elections.

Information about the certified candidates for the GWNC seats is at tinyurl.com/824npp2j.

Mid City West Neighborhood Council

In Mid City West, 41 candidates are running for 13 seats.

There are seven zone representatives, and there are seats for youth, homeowners, renters, business, nonprofit organizations and members at large.

Meet the candidates for Mid City West at tinyurl.com/ mua29fum.

The list of certified candidates for MCWNC (in Region 5 of 12 regions) as well as for other councils can be found at tinyurl.com/y2xajrn4.

Candidates for April 30, 2023 Elections

Mid City West Neighborhood Council

Zones (1 seat each):

Zone 1

Hunter Burgarella

Zone 2

Sam Roseme

Zone 3

Amy Goldenberg

Zone 4

J. Keith Van Straaten

Zone 5

Tedd Cittadine

Zone 6

B ob Shore

Zone 7

Brent Kidwell

Thao Tran

Special Interest Categories:

Youth Representative (1 seat)

Clark Raustiala

Homeowners (3 seats)

Shem Bitterman

Valerie Jaffee Washburn

Don Whitehead

Renters (5 seats)

Lauren Borchard

R amiro Castro, Jr.

Lynda La Rose

Ava Marinelli

Xcevio Zuluaga

Business (6 seats)

Craig Brill

Sara Griebe

Frank La

Henry Mantel

Terence Mylonas

Danielle RodriguezDonovan

Nick Starr

Nonprofit Organizations (6 seats)

Cindy Bitterman

Chris Dower

David Mann

Elizabeth Margaret Mason

Christina Mondy

Matthew Peskay

Julian Stern

Members At Large (8 seats)

Shelby Blecker

Aimee Garcia

Ellie D. Goralnick

Dre Guttag

Andrew L. Herman

B enjamin Kram

Christian La Mont

Charles A. Lindenblatt

Michael Schneider

Sandra Sims

Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council

Geographic Areas:

1 — Brookside

O wen Smith

2 — Citrus Square

Jeffry Carpenter

3 — C ountry Club Heights

Selene Betancourt

4 — Fremont Place

Mark McQueen

5 —Hancock Park

David Trainer

Jennifer Devore

6 — L a Brea-Hancock

Sixto J. Sicilia

7 — L archmont Village

Charles D’atri

Vincent Cox

8 — Melrose

Neighborhood

Craig Au

Jesseca Harvey

Jason Wood

9 — OakwoodMaplewood- St. Andrews Square

Tess Paige

Alex Nava

10 — Ridgewood-Wilton/

St. Andrews Square

Patricia (Patti) Carroll

11 — Sycamore Square

Conrad Starr

12 — Western-Wilton

(“We-Wil”

Neighborhood)

(None)

13 — Wilshire Park

John Gresham

14 — Windsor Square

David Meister

Gary Gilbert

15 Windsor Village

Bianca Sparks Rojas

Claire Ortiz

Julie Kim

Special Interest Categories:

At-Large

Lucy Pinkwater

Cindy Chvatal-Keane

Diran Yanikian

Business

Michael Knowles

Romi Cortier

John Winther

Education

Scott Appel

Other Nonprofit

Mark Alpers

Brian Curran

Religious

B enjamin Rosenberg

Suzana Kim

John Halbert

Renters

Lourdes Gomez

Tommy Atlee

Annah Rose Verderame

MJ Anderson

John Marchesini

Opportunities on the horizon with Metro expansion

Last month, I received great news — Mayor Bass announced my appointment to the Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors. This is a big deal for the Fifth District. For those of you who aren’t familiar, LA Metro is made up of 13 voting members, and only four of those members — which includes Mayor Bass — represent the city of Los Angeles. We have a lot of work ahead of us, including making the transit system safer, improving wait times and continuing our work to greatly expand our rail and bus network. But I want to specifically talk about the opportunities we have as they directly relate to Greater Wilshire, Mid City and surrounding communities.

Metro is currently in the process of extending the Metro D (Purple) Line along Wilshire all the way to the VA in West LA, connecting job centers like UCLA and Century City to Downtown LA. There will be five new stops, the first of which will be Wilshire / La Brea. Although there now will be three stops serving the communities between Western and Fairfax avenues (on Wilshire Boulevard at Western, La Brea and Fairfax), this presents a small challenge

Preparing for the next storm

CD 5 Council Report by

Katy Young Yaroslavsky

for those closest to Larchmont Boulevard, given its distance from both the existing Wilshire / Western station and the new La Brea station, but it’s also an opportunity.

The success of our new rail lines will not just be measured in distance or number

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After neighborhoods across our community dealt with countless power outages caused by the recent storms, we saw firsthand how our city’s infrastructure is unprepared to deal with the increasing effects of climate change and other potential disasters, like earthquakes.

Folks were left in the dark — both literally and figuratively — enduring extended power outages without accurate information about when their power would be restored.

We received multiple messages from elderly constituents and folks on ventilators who didn’t know whether to make arrangements for other

CD 13 Council Report by

Hugo Soto-Martinez

accommodations because of the extended outages. At minimum, outages are a major inconvenience for residents. But for some, it can literally be a life or death situation.

Decades of disinvestment in our critical infrastructure, continuing to today, have led us here. We must realign our priorities as a city to focus on the real needs of our com-

Brookside safety and construction discussed

By John Welborne

LAPD Senior Lead Officer

Hebel Rodriguez spoke about community safety at the Brookside Homeowners Association meeting on March 8 at Memorial Library. Attendees said they were happy to be back gathering in person.

Representatives from local security firms also attended, as did three representatives of Brookside property owner, CIM Group.

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As a start, we seconded a motion from councilmembers Yaroslavsky and Raman for the Dept. of Water an Power (DWP) to report back on:

The causes of power outages by area, responses to them and recommendations for better systems for the future; Whether staffing levels and operations are able to respond urgently to outages and emergencies; and

How we can improve data collection, outage notifications and public communication.

But that won’t be enough. After the storms, I joined Councilmember Yaroslovsky and DWP representatives to discuss the city’s lackluster response at a Virtual Town Hall.

While I appreciate DWP showing up and letting folks ask questions, their answers, in my opinion, lacked empathy and accountability. I felt they failed to truly acknowledge the broadly felt frustration in the community.

Our office, City Council, DWP and the city of Los Angeles can all do better to respond to what our neighbors need in times of crisis. We are committed to leading that work in District 13 and across the city.