West Hollywood, California (November 19, 2009) - As perceptions in West Hollywood grow that transient and related crime problems are on the upswing, neighborhood watch activity is also increasing, as is the demand for crime information. 
Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies in front of the 7-Eleven store. Photo by WeHo News. |
As reported last week, the desire for accurate and timely information about crime in neighborhoods spurred the Sheriff’s Department to eschew the traditional Crime Blotter for a property crimes summary and the blotter’s twenty first Century equivalent, crimereports.com.
What to do, though, with that information perplexes many people who care about the safety of their neighborhood but who lack a way to act on that impulse.
Recently, two neighborhoods newly-beset with urban problems – transients and burglaries – made moves to beef up their own community policing efforts, CenterCity Alliance Neighborhood Watch in West Hollywood and the 900 block of Laurel Avenue in Los Angeles.
Based in part on a new push by the neighborhood watch captain Jake Lee, who took on two co-captains to recruit new members, the CenterCity Alliance Neighborhood Watch saw a 45-person turn out at its last meeting.
“It was easily the largest neighborhood watch meeting I’ve ever seen,” said council member Jeffrey Prang, who said he has seen his fair share of them.
One reason for the sizeable attendance lay in the fact that the merchant community stretching along Santa Monica Boulevard and the residents living below Santa Monica Boulevard between Crescent Heights and Fairfax, areas hitherto outside the watch’s coverage joined the now-expanded group.
Transients drinking and lounging at the corner of Laurel Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. Photo by WeHo News. |
Beginning one lot north of Romaine on Laurel stands Los Angeles to the south, and the block of homes in the 900 block of that street have seen a recent uptick in burglaries, causing them to get organized.
Patrice Messina’s house was entered through a doggy door, Harley Pasternak’s hit by a burglar so brazen he not only smiled and waved to the security camera before defecating on the front stoop.
Both neighborhoods complained about a transient encampment that grew up recently at the vacant building at the corner of Santa Monica and Laurel, where a copse of trees and a long ledge invite the weary to pause.
Business owners complain about the transients panhandling at their door. Madhu Chillar, owner of the 7-Eleven store at Hayworth and Santa Monica, complained, saying, “On any given day, I have up to 5 or 6 panhandlers outside of my 7-Eleven store. They scare away customers, curse my employees, and even curse me. When the store gets busy, they come inside and steal since the employees are busy with the customers. They even do more obscene things like urinate in the alley next to the store.”
She complained of playing Whack-a-Mole with them. “When I call the Sherriff’s department to come and take care of the panhandlers, the panhandlers leave, but as soon as they see the Sherriff is gone, they come back.”
Neighbors on Laurel also complained. “Over the past six months, I have had numerous interactions with the West Hollywood Sheriff's Department, reporting vagrants and suspicious looking men loitering on Laurel,” said David Kalstein.
Photo by WeHo News. |
Those complaints were heard by the Sheriff’s deputy, Kevin Connors, in attendance at the meeting. The following day LASD stationed a decoy squad car at the corner.
No reports of transients loitering at the corner came in the whole time the car stood there, ten days in all, a result Sgt James Farrell of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Branch Station said this week he expected, but wanted to implement judiciously.
“We can’t leave then there all the time, although there’s one neighborhood that would love me to cement one to the ground,” he said, “because they get used to seeing it empty and return.”
He said that the way for neighbors to keep transients on the move was to call them in when they congregate, especially if they sleep, as much time and effort as quality of life policing might take up for patrol deputies.
Laurel neighbor Mr. Kalstein said he has lived in a variety of crime-plagued cities, and looked forward to the time when the shops would be leased.
“If anything, business development in our neighborhood will help solve the problem. Empty storefronts, empty streets, and dark alleys are what create crime, not business owners,” he said.
WeHo News. |
Sgt. Farrell said he valued the neighborhood watch meetings highly because hearing from residents directly helps him do his job. “When we hear people expressing their concerns, we say, OK, what are we going to do? Here is the problem, here is the solution, let’s fix it and move on,” he said.
“We’re here trying to catch bad guys and keep everyone safe, we really are, and hearing from residents about what’s going on along their street helps us do that.”
A few hundred yards away, the LA residents, surprised by the sudden crime wave, took measures to reach out to the LAPD and also join Melrose Action Network, a much-acclaimed Los Angeles neighborhood watch group with an extensive website that provides safety and crime information to an otherwise underserved community.
Their first step was to have the Senior Lead Officer from LAPD’s Wilshire Station (Los Angeles south of West Hollywood used to be patrolled by Hollywood Station, but responsibility shifted to Wilshire Station last year) give the neighborhood a talk on how to come together as a neighborhood watch.
As an adjunct to that initial step, the neighbors at the meeting determined to join Melrose Action Network, which was formed in the aftermath of the Katan Khaimov killing and has grown into the most vital neighborhood watch group known to Westsiders.
Paul Koretz, Los Angeles Council member for the fifth district in which Melrose Action Network rests, told WeHo News, “I’m incredibly impressed by Melrose Action. They were created in response to a murder, and were outstanding in how they got so much of the neighborhood involved to make that area safer.
Even as a West Hollywood City Council member and CA State Assembly member, he said, “I’ve seen participation with Melrose Action that probably surpasses every other neighborhood watch that I’m aware of. I have seen a number of their meetings where hundreds and hundreds of people1 have shown up. Melrose Action displays amazing community spirit.”
Paul Koretz, Los Angeles Council member for the fifth district. Photo by WeHo News. |
They do an amazing job of organizing. As a new 5th Council District councilmember, it’s truly been a great pleasure to serve in partnership with such wonderful and dedicated activists, and I look forward to working with them to restore Melrose to what it was like in its heyday.
Patrice Messina told WeHo News that the residents came away from the block meeting not only believing that they had “touched base with someone at LAPD who has us on our radar…” but also came away with a sense that “we’re responsible for our own safety and for one another.”
She said, as neighborhood watch captain, she was busy organizing, gathering contact info, encouraging sign ups and active involvement with Melrose Action, and planning a next neighborhood-wide safety/crime prevention function, possibly in association with the as yet unorganized 800 block of Laurel.”
The large gathering at the CenterCity Alliance’s meeting was unusual, even for a new group, according to Sgt. Farrell, who also told WeHo News that enthusiasm for neighborhood watch group meetings tends to be rise and fall on the situation.
He said people only make the effort to show up when problems get really out of hand, not when things are quiet. He cited a recent attempt at drumming up interest without catalyzing events as a spur. “We had a new group form not long ago,” he said, “but only two people showed up for the meeting.”
Mr. Lee expects CenterCity Alliance meetings will continue to remain vigorously, if not house-bustingly, attended because
WeHo residents interested in attending a meeting or creating a neighborhood watch group should click here to view West Hollywood’s Neighborhood Watch web page.
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