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WESTSIDE - Several months ago, a “Westside Renaissance” was declared on the Westside. Councilwoman Traci Park was credited with the Renaissance. However, we are not feeling it in Westchester. In fact, these last two years feel like a relentless assault on Westchester that just won’t let up.
As I have said in a previous column, my parents were born in Mexico and emigrated to this country when they were young children. My husband was born into an immigrant family. Each of our families lived in Venice long before it was gentrified, and neither of our families would have been considered “privileged” in the material sense. Like others, we support affordable housing and see the need for more of it across the city. I do understand what people in Venice have been through as a “containment zone” because I have lived through it with them, and longer than most of them. I am happy the Venice crime rate is down. I am also happy for my parents that Venice is enjoying a Renaissance.
However, now my family and I live in Westchester. We moved here to be in a safe community. The last two years in Westchester have not been a Renaissance, on a number of fronts.
We noticed our homeless numbers increasing as Venice was cleared of homeless in early 2023. Since then, our homeless numbers have increased dramatically, while nearly all other areas in the council district have experienced huge reductions. After all the cleanups in CD 11 over the last two years, many of the homeless from other areas of the district have apparently been shifted to Westchester, along with their tents, cars, vans, and RVs.
Also in 2023, Westchester was also targeted with massive upzoning, unlike any other community in the Council District. Thousands of single-family Westchester residences were proposed to be upzoned by several levels to create “density districts”. That upzoning was far out of scale with upzoning in any other area of the Council District.
Westchester fought back. Presumably, news teams were interested in the hot-button issue of upzoning single family residences, and Westchester was the poster child for upzoning of single-family residences with the proposed upzoning of thousands of them.
Westchester managed to get some relief from that plan, although now the upzoning is concentrated in “regional centers” in Westchester and Playa, with buildings of heights of up to “no limit”. Executive Directive 1 projects are in the pipeline to be jammed into those areas. Westchester now has far more ED 1 projects in the pipeline than all other CD 11 communities combined. Westchester has more safe parking, more Homekey projects and beds, and more homeless beds overall than another other community of CD 11 and more than most combined.
What’s worse, the ED 1 projects are being jammed into areas with high levels of noise and air pollution next to LAX, and that doesn’t seem to matter to our elected officials so long as it is in Westchester. It also doesn’t seem to matter to our elected officials that they is creating, by their actions or acts of omission, a new containment zone in Westchester.
Westchester is one of the most diverse communities in the Council District, both in terms of race/ethnicity and income. By concentrating most ED 1 projects here, Councilmember Park and other elected officials in decision-making roles seem to be affecting those who lack the financial and political clout other areas enjoy.
That’s not all. After Councilwoman Park took office, our Westchester Playa burglary rate increased dramatically. Apparently, this got the attention of news teams because at this time, citywide burglary rates were decreasing and we had hundreds of them. The news teams turned out in droves to cover the stories.
There many were home invasion robberies in Westchester in 2023 and 2024, meaning people were in their homes when a burglary crew smashed their way into the home. In one case, a mother and her young children were threatened by the crew of burglars. In another case, an LMU student who lives near campus in Westchester was pepper-sprayed in the face by a burglar who broke in while she was home. In yet another case, a teenage girl was home alone when a burglary crew smashed their way into the home. In another case, a grandmother in her 90s was home alone when burglars smashed her sliding glass door and entered her home. One resident was in his home on two separate occasions when burglars smashed their way in, hitting his home more than once, and he’s not the only one with multiple burglary hits.
I have never lived in an area where so many of my friends and neighbors have been burglary victims. Our Westchester Playa burglary rate in the last couple years has far outpaced the rate for the city and the rest of the communities in CD 11, many of whom had large reductions in burglary rates. In fact, there was a city-wide reduction in burglary rates during a time when the Westchester Playa burglary rate was up by about 50%.
Two weeks ago, one of our Westchester residents had the good sense to post a petition to bring attention to the issues in Westchester and to request help from our elected officials. This resident is primarily concerned about safety, and not about targeting politicians. I am personally grateful for this petition, because nothing else has worked. It seems that we finish one battle, and then there’s another attack and things just get worse, like in a scary sci-fi movie. Within a short time, well over 500 people signed the petition.
Westchester, and that includes those who live here now and are provided housing here, are facing a grim reality and future if we do not get help from Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Traci Park. This petition asks that our representatives:
1. Address the disproportionate concentration of RVs and unsheltered homeless in Westchester.
2. Prioritize our neighborhood for ongoing RV and encampment cleanups and operations of all types, as has been done in Venice for the last two years. These efforts have been very effective in Venice, but the problem has been shifted to Westchester.
3. Reduce the number of ED1 projects targeted to build in Westchester and spread them into other communities that seem to have been omitted in taking on this issue. This is necessary to avoid further concentration of homeless housing in Westchester, which already has more than any other community in the council district as discussed in this column: Watch LA ED1 Fallout
4. Request an exemption from ED 1 pursuant to the request of our Neighborhood Council
5. Comply with the terms of the Alliance settlement which prohibits concentrations of homeless and homeless housing and requires geographic equity
6. File a motion in City Council asking for exemption from ED 1 for the areas close to LAX that are within the noise contour of LAX, within the airport specific plan of LAX, and those burdened with high levels of noise and air pollution that may not be within either the noise contour or the airport specific plan. Prior to filing this motion, we ask Councilwoman Traci Park to work with community stakeholders to discuss language of the motion.
Please consider signing the petition as a matter of solidarity to tell our representatives that we are fed up.
(Rosa Padilla is a retired trial attorney and lifelong Los Angeles resident who has been a vocal advocate for her Westchester community, challenging city upzoning plans that threaten local neighborhoods with overdevelopment and environmental risks.)
