By Shelley Taylor
I am a long-time resident in Westwood’s North Village, the
apartment-house neighborhood west of campus between Veteran and
Gayley. My family bought our small apartment house in 1956. In the
1950s the majority of the residents were families with children and
professionals.
Today we estimate that this group makes up about 40 percent of
the population, while students constitute upward of 60 percent. Our
culture has changed radically since the 1950s, especially the
relationship between students and residents. In fact, it has
deteriorated. It seems we’ve lost the sense of being good
neighbors.
Being a good neighbor is more important now than ever before
because the North Village has become such a dense and urban
community with people living almost on top of each other. Traffic,
congestion, parking and noise have done anything but improve.
As I’ve walked the streets here I’ve seen a dramatic
increase in street trash, abandoned furniture and graffiti. There
are many other problems but these seem to be among the most
visible.
This downward spiral to my home saddened me so that about two
years ago I founded the North Village Improvement Committee to
address these concerns. We’ve had numerous meetings with
UCLA, the city council and city services to strategize
improvements.
Since the NVIC has been working on neighborhood problems, we
have been able to make some improvements. The city now tries
““ and I stress “tries” ““ to make regular
sweeps through the neighborhood to pick up abandoned furniture.
It’s been difficult getting the word out that it is the
resident’s responsibility to call the city to have these
items picked up ““ students should know that reporting this is
their responsibility, and the service is free.
With students moving in and out year-round, cleanliness has
become a constant issue. Abandoned furniture has become an
additional concern for us, since fires are being set with
increasing regularity. I hope I’m wrong, but it seems only a
matter of time until someone is hurt or an apartment house is
burned down.
I also fear that in the event of a fire, the fire department
would have difficulty hooking up to a fire hydrant; students seem
to forget there is a large fine involved for parking too near a
fire hydrant.
The UCLA fraternities have increased their presence in the
neighborhood by organizing a biannual Operation Clean Sweep where
fraternity members work together with other residents to pick up
trash and remove graffiti. This is a city sponsored program and the
city provides all of the necessary supplies. Each time we’ve
held this event, more than five tons of trash and furniture have
been removed.
Sadly, as soon as the trash is picked up and the graffiti
removed, it’s back again. Awhile back the city was going to
post “no graffiti” signs in the neighborhood but
abandoned the idea when some students approached the installers
complaining that “graffiti is free speech.”
The NVIC is looking into getting funds together to install
decorative trash cans throughout the North Village ““ trash
strewn on yards and on the sidewalks and streets is a daily
occurrence. You’ve all probably noticed the city-provided
green/blue/black trash cans.
This is a free service to property owners and comes with certain
requirements ““ each bin color is for a particular type of
trash. Green for lawn cuttings, black for regular trash, and blue
for certain recyclables. But for all of our desires to help the
environment, the recycling bins are usually contaminated; this ends
up contaminating the entire truckload and defeats the purpose.
Since UCLA’s founding, parking has been a huge problem and
city trash bins have only added to the lack of parking space: the
bins must be put in the street for the automated trucks to empty
them. Since most of the buildings taking advantage of this service
are smaller ones that lack on-site management, the bins are often
put out days early and left for days after pickup.
The North Village loses about 40 street parking spaces a day to
these bins. This program is not viable in an apartment-house
area.
These are just some of the problems and some of the beginnings
of solutions. I can imagine that it’s difficult for a student
who is only living here for a short period of time to develop a
sentimentality about Westwood, but like any long-established
community, it has a rich history and holds many memories for
residents who have chosen to make the North Village their home.
My wish is that students develop the attitude that this is their
home too and that we should all work together, students and
non-student residents, to keep this neighborhood a desirable and
enjoyable place to live.