Ivicevich is a UCLA alumnus.
By Christopher Ivicevich
It’s encouraging to see that a number of new retail
establishments, such as Ralph’s, are opening in Westwood
Village. The advent of a full-service, upscale grocery store is a
blessing for students and an auspicious development for the
Village’s revitalization efforts.
Unfortunately, a formidable obstacle remains in the way of a
truly student-oriented Village. That impediment is the leadership
of the local homeowners’ associations, personified by Sandy
Brown. Every Bruin should memorize that name ““ she is the
enemy.
She is the primary opponent of nightlife in the Village, a
latter-day Puritan busybody who ceaselessly invigilates Westwood to
ensure that no one dances without a permit (and, thanks to her, no
Westwood establishment has such a permit), and that no bar installs
billiards tables, dart boards, large-screen televisions or other
such instruments of sin.
She is a self-appointed Victorian nanny-at-large who is of the
opinion that children such as UCLA students should be at home
studying ““ presumably with milk and cookies ““ on
weekend nights, rather than enjoying a beverage of choice with
their friends at the Village nightspots, what few there are.
Brown seems to be of the opinion that Westwood nightlife must be
suppressed in favor of “daylife”, as if flourishing
nightlife and “daylife” were mutually exclusive
phenomena. In essence, Brown is the reason nightlife in the Village
is so tepid and restricted.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council has failed to
raise even a finger in protest against Brown and her cadre. In the
years that I was involved with Westwood politics, not one UCLA
student government representative spoke at or even attended any of
the community forums and commission hearings where the future of
Westwood was debated and decided.
USAC is more concerned with ineffectual protests, blocked
traffic on Wilshire Boulevard and pompous proclamations about such
nebulous concepts as “diversity” than with concrete
problems and solutions affecting the student body as a whole.
UCLA students must defend their interests in the Village and
speak out against the absurd regulations hampering nightlife. If
they do not, Brown will succeed at making her vision of Westwood a
reality: a placid senior citizens’ paradise that closes at 9
p.m.