Politics: The meat and potatoes of local Los Angeles government

Tonight, I attended a neighborhood meeting to hear about some issues in our community.

Tom LaBonge came with one of his aides. Also, in attendance was a lighting engineer and his crew and the captain and a few officers from the Wilshire district LAPD.

We stood on the street corner as LaBonge introduced the lighting engineer and we were told about some of the technical details about how street lighting works and how much it costs to fix and upgrade. There was talk of increasing the wattage of the lights at one of the intersections in the hopes it will help reduce crime. Some residents mentioned that on some streets, the trees have overgrown so much that they block the lights. LaBonge's aide took note of which streets were mentioned so that the city service tree trimmers could be sent.

The next speaker was the LAPD district captain. He told us to report all crimes because if it doesn't get reported, the police will think the neighborhood is safer than it actually is. He shared that they recently arrested three people in the area who were suspected to have been involved in 20 robberies. He stressed the need to call in all crime incidents. One person asked what should they do if 911 is busy. LaBonge said the city is continuing to improve the 911 system but sometimes it still gets overwhelmed. The Captain asked one of his officers to pass out cards with phone numbers that reach the front desk of the police station. He said, call 911 first but if that doesn't work, then call the desk number. He encouraged our group to send people to the monthly community policing meetings at his station. They also will work with the neighborhood to establish citizen patrols.

We then walked to the neighborhood fire station. We got a tour of the firehouse! We then went to their kitchen/dining area to discuss parking. The station was very busy. Every few minutes an alarm would sound and some firemen would leave our meeting to go check on something or to go on a call. The station has a paramedic truck for more serious calls and a ambulance truck for other calls. Additionally, the station has a long hook-and-ladder truck, a pumper truck and a battalion chief's vehicle.

LaBonge and his aide discussed parking issues. Plans are underway to make another street into diagonal parking which opens up a few more spaces over the usual parallel parking. However, LaBonge said some streets can't go diagonal because the fire trucks are so wide that some streets have to be kept in parallel parking configuration for them. The aide shared that she is in discussion with the office of the neighboring City Council district to discuss parking. There might be some realignment of parking regulations. Lastly, there was a discussion about possible use of commercial property parking lots which are empty at night.

All in all, a nice night of meeting some of the people in my neighborhood and seeing the wheels of government turn.