The Los Angeles City Council will be voting on a motion to remove the only free public parking in Westwood Village, this Tuesday, December 14th at 10:00 a.m, citing budgetary reasons.  Public comments will be heard on the issue that would outsource the Broxton Parking Garage located at 1036 Broxton Avenue in Westwood Village to a private contractor for up to possibly 50 years. This is important to us as the Village is literally at our doorstep and many of us go there regularly.

Eight other city parking garages three in Hollywood, and one each in Downtown L.A., Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, and on Robertson Boulevard will also be considered as part of this motion.

If the City Council votes to support this motion, the two-hour free parking in Westwood Village will be eliminated and may possibly double or triple parking fees in these nine city garages. 

The city would be prohibited from building any other public parking garages within 1/8 mile of any of these nine garages, which may lead to no other public parking facilities being built in the Westwood area for the duration of the contract. 

The business and homeowners communities worked tirelessly in the past to ensure a parking facility owned and operated by the City.  The need for the City to continue this operation is vital to the community since free short-term parking is essential for Westwood Village is to compete with local shopping districts and malls that offer plentiful free parking, and with neighboring and outlying cities that also offer free short-term parking (Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Third Street Promenade, Culver City, Century City, Westside Pavilion, Pasadena, and many other cities and shopping districts).  Many of us remember the Westwood community working nearly 40 years with the City to secure the land and amass the funds from our own Westwood Village parking meters to build the Broxton Garage and establish two-hour free parking in the Village.  This was achieved thanks to the visionary leadership of our Councilmembers (Ed Edelman, Zev Yaroslavsky, Mike Feuer, and Jack Weiss), and with the support of our Westwood neighbors.

 I encourage everyone to voice their concern by doing the following:    

 1.  SIGN THE PETITION

•   Sign online petition or return the petition below by fax to 310-317-7400. 
•   Online: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/save-broxton-free-parking   
•   Or email signed petition to SaveWestwoodVillage@hotmail.com

2.  FORWARD THIS EMAIL AND PETITION

•  Please share this message with your friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, customers, classmates, and anyone else who cares about Westwood.
• Please help us reach and exceed our goal of 1,000 petition signatures by this Monday, December 13.
• Post a message on Facebook, Tweet it, Text it, get the word out.  Let’s go viral!

3.  ATTEND THE PUBLIC HEARING THIS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14

The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Business Journal, and UCLA Daily Bruin all have published editorials opposing this short-sighted proposal. 

The following organizations are opposed including:

• Westwood Community Council
• Westwood Neighborhood Council
• Westwood Village Business Association
• Westwood Village Improvement Association
• Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association
• Westwood Hills Property Owners Association
• Westwood Homeowners Association
• Comstock Hills Homeowners Association
• North Westwood Village Residents’ Association
• Save Westwood Village.

The public hearing is this Tuesday, December 14 at 10:00 a.m. in City Hall (200 North Spring Street)  in the City Council Chambers, Third Floor.  If you would like to arrange parking, please call Councilmember Koretz’s office at (213) 473-7005 or if you would like to carpool with others, please contact Steven Sann by email at stevesann2001@yahoo.com or at (213) 448-8147.

Numbers count so please consider attending the City Council meeting to show support of the Westwood community’s efforts to revitalize Westwood Village and oppose the motion. 

Thank you in advance for your immediate attention and critical support.  I hope you will join members of the Westwood community at the City Council meeting this Tuesday, December 14th at 10:00 a.m.

Sincerely, 

Please read the following as it relates to customers of Jerry’s Deli in Westwood.  This is was forwarded from our friends at UCLA:

http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=865

For all those anxious about what to get for the holidays, Playgroup and RoBG have worked together to make it easy, convenient and fast.

As part of a fundraiser for Playgroup, they sell gift cards to all sorts of merchants and receive a percentage of gift cards sold.  For everyday purchases such as Starbucks, Whole Foods, California Pizza Kitchen to holiday time purchases such as American Airlines, Hilton and Marriott.

Best part, it doesn’t cost you anything more than what you purchase in gift cards.  If you buy $25 Starbucks card, you get $25 worth of stuff at Starbucks (that is at least one day of coffee :-).  The merchant (Starbucks) then donates 9% to Playgroup (or $2.25), for doing nothing more than purchasing a gift card to use for everyday purchases.  Each merchant’s donation is different but you get every dollar you purchase in gift cards at the merchant/store, costs you nothing more to help Playgroup.

As a long time and important part of our community, Playgroup is a unique asset and like any non-profit, struggles to provide high quality education and reasonable prices.  Fundraising like this is a key part of ensuring it can purchase new books, chairs and other items to help our children develop and grow.

There are lots and lots of choices, for just about any purchase you do, you can get a gift card.  Playgroup will be at the Holiday Party on Sunday, they will have the following gift cards on hand:

• Starbucks,
• Whole Foods,
• Gap,
• Shutterfly,
• Jamba Juice,
• Restoration Hardware,
• Ruth’s Chris

Additionally, Playgroup can take orders from any of the following merchants and deliver them to you by December 13th, in plenty of time for the holidays.

Playgroup Gift Card Merchant List

For those who want to search online, you can visit the website by clicking here:

Online Merchant List

Only takes a few minutes, think of any gifts, everyday purchases or even special purchases, by using your purchasing power for everything you spend money on, you can help Playgroup raise money.