Picfair Village Neighborhood Association

Minutes prepared by Judy Riha from Picfair Village

PICFAIR VILLAGE MEETING OF August 10, 2013

UPCOMING MEETINGS
TONIGHT: Pico Neighborhood Council at Tom Bradley Center, 7pm : Wednesday, August 14th

Why should you attend? There will be 25 representatives from all of our neighborhood groups, and they have created sub-committees to address our concerns such as The New Medians, Zoning, Senior Services, and several others. This is where you will hear what is planned for our neighborhoods, and what the city, developers, or various groups would like to have happen. Come and listen, contribute, and increase your knowledge about the future.

Every 3rd Thursday of the month at the LAPD station on Venice at 7 pm: August 15th
What kind of issues are discussed? I imagine crimes, etc.

Every 4th Thursday of every month at 6:30 pm: LAND USE MEETING: August 22nd
Held at the Herb Wesson Bldg. at Stanley and Pico, this is an extremely important meeting involving the community, consisting of 9 community members, as well as developers. If you want to know what the future might hold, please come to this meeting. We will try to post a link for the Zoning Map soon.

PICFAIR VILLAGE: Saturday, Sept.14TH at the Friendship Center, 10 am
Please come and meet your neighbors, ask questions, voice concerns and get informed!

This is what was discussed, wish you were here…

1. Elections will be held in November, if you are interested in being on the ballot, there are certain things that you must do (like currently attend meetings) – the bylaws will be checked and we’ll post what you’ll need to do.
2. Block Captains are needed, so please email us (hit reply) with a block (or blocks) which you will adopt. We’re going to set up a map of PicFair Village, so that everyone will know which areas need to be represented.
3. The Vons has a recycling center, and Sierra Bonita suddenly has a Goodwill container. Although both are important, they are attracting a lot of homeless people, and someone will speak with reps at each area to find out what can be done.
4. Medians: We discussed the history and reason for their existence. It was a way to stop the attempt, about 5 years ago, to have Pico made into a one direction street. This ensured that it wouldn’t happen. Meetings have been held over the years at the LAND USE MEETINGS, and the PICO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL. Many departments from the City worked with these committees to decide the medians locations, and what type of landscaping would be used. It was brought up that we would like to have Drought Resistant plants, because we have seen that many of the medians east of us have dead plants and trees. We are going to see what type of foliage was planned, and hopefully put the planting on hold until we discuss our options.
5. Traffic Patterns: As the construction on the medians in going on, there have been a lot of accidents, and crazy drivers trying to take short cuts though the alleys. Please be careful! Neighbors voiced their concerns about the overflow of traffic on their street because of the medians blocking certain streets, but the medians are there forever now.
6. Preferential Parking: From Hauser to Stanley, except for Sierra Bonita ( where everyone is trying to park now). This is part of an ongoing issue which will need to be addressed more as the development of Pico impacts our streets. Wilshire Vista has put a lot of the Preferential Parking restrictions in place, and now PicFair is going to have to figure out what we are going to do. Bloom only has 2 parking places, and Paper and Plastic / The Dance Studio doesn’t have any parking – it is becoming a problem.
7. New Development: What is the Vision for PicFair Village? Do we have one? Various developers certainly do:
 The Hi-Point Projects, near McDonalds, are zoned for multiple use, and will be condos. They will have 5 homes on each side of a existing private home that wouldn’t sell to the developer.
 A project on Venice planed to have 71 homes, but the Fire Department put that on hold for 30 days because they didn’t have enough space between the homes.
 Mid-town (former site of World on Wheels, the Bowling Alley, Maria’s café, and soon, the Bank of America and Osh: Discussions are being made, perhaps a movie theater will be part of the new site development. There is now a Ross near the Lowe’s.
 Hound Dog and Cat Food and Supply just opened at the new shopping center at Hauser and Pico. It has a great selection, come and check it out! We were told that upcoming shops will include a French Café, a Kosher Taco, and a Day Care. AT+T will also be installing a cell phone tower in the Clock Tower, though it won’t be visible to the public.
 A new restaurant, My 2 cents, has gotten rave reviews.
 The former Mood Fabric store, across from the Post Office will be a David’s Bridal.
8. Vons Market: So many issues, it needs its own set of bullet points!
 Is it ever going to be re-done? When? What type of bldg., parking, landscaping?
 Currently, it has dirty floors, bad produce, and the building need to be repainted .
 A city planner made a comment that it would be a good Mixed-Use site (Market on the street level, apartments on higher floors). Traffic concerns?
 Many neighbors wish it would be sold to Trader Joe’s.
 A neighbor stated that there is a phone, and an electric outlet near the water machine in the front that is used by drug dealers. Could both be removed, please?
 The store always looks messy. They stack grocery carts in the aisles to block access though closed registers, and they only have one door open at night.
9. Can the city purchase a site to create a Parking Facility? The Tire Company across from Vons would be a good location, but the owner won’t sell. There is a Plant Store on Pico, but it is actually a motel, hidden away in the back..the owner won’t sell it either. Omar’s Body Shop was closed for 6 months, but it has a new tenant.
10. The Green Mile, as Pico has been named by the LA Weekly for its concentration of Medicinal Marijuana Clinics – has an 8 pm curfew at every location. The city does not have the resources to close them down (per the recent legislation), but they will act to enforce the curfew.
11. Good Riddance to the Barber Shop on Spaulding – the site of various crimes, and a local hangout for some of the culprits.
12. The Medians East of PicFair Village need to be cleaned up, from Cochran to La Brea.
13. The San Vicente Medians Project involves 9 neighborhood councils, who contributed a total of $20,000 to have it created. More information to come.

Reminders

Pico Neighborhood Council at Tom Bradley Center, 7pm : TONIGHT Wed. August 14th
Every 3rd Thursday of the month at the LAPD station on Venice at 7 pm : August 15th
Every 4th Thursday of every month at 6:30 pm: LAND USE MEETING : August 22nd
PICFAIR VILLAGE: Saturday, Sept.14TH at the Friendship Center, 10 am

P.S. There’s a Party coming up!

LITTLE ETHIOPIA, ALONG FAIRFAX, IS HAVING AN EVENT ON SEPT. 8TH!

A big thanks to all the neighbors who came to the meeting. We’ll try to keep everyone informed once again through both our PicFair Village, and the Next Door websites.