Mayor Hahn on Improving Neighborhoods

By James Kenneth Hahn

Highlights of Mayor Hahn's record

Making neighborhoods safer has been a top priority for Mayor Hahn. His efforts to put more police on our streets and restore our community policing program helped reverse a three-year trend in increasing crime. Now, violent crime is down 18 percent compared with just two years ago.

Mayor Hahn is working to ensure that people in neighborhoods have a voice at City Hall. Under his leadership, the city has certified over 80 neighborhood councils, representing over 3 million homeowners, business people, students, and other community members. In addition to giving neighborhood councils a meaningful role in determining the city's budget, Mayor Hahn has provided $50,000 for every neighborhood council for operating expenses and community projects of their choice.

Mayor Hahn is also working with city and neighborhood leaders to make provide more neighborhood amenities such as after school programs, libraries and parks.

Below are highlights of Mayor Hahn's record on improving neighborhoods.

MAKING NEIGHBORHOODS SAFER

• Worked to put more police on our streets and restore Los Angeles' community policing program, which has resulted in an 18 percent decrease in violent crime compared with just two years ago.

• Expanded the city's nationally-recognized LA's BEST after school program to serve over 5,500 additional students at over 45 additional schools. The program now provides free of charge a safe, educational, and fun place for more than 20,000 Los Angeles students at over 120 elementary schools. Mayor Hahn has pledged to expand LA's BEST to every public school where students are not currently served by a quality after school program.

• Helped increase the number of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers for the first time since 1997.

• Created the Safer City Initiative to reduce violent crime in targeted neighborhoods by focusing on reducing quality of life crimes such as graffiti and drug dealing.

• Led the effort to reinstate the Senior Lead Officer (SLO) Program, LAPD's community policing program. The SLO program provides a direct link between Los Angeles communities and the police department.

• Created a Joint Park Safety Task Force and directed the LAPD to deploy specialized resources to neighborhood parks that most need additional security. The task force created stop-in centers at over 60 city parks to enhance police presence.

• Created the Gang Reduction Program in East Los Angeles to provide millions of grant funds to after school, college preparation, and other programs that give young people positive alternatives to gangs.

• Strongly supported LAPD's efforts to establish plans for protecting critical locations in our neighborhoods, such as schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, movie studios, office buildings, the Port of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles International Airport. Known as Operation Archangel, the program has been designated as a national model.

• Co-hosted public safety town hall meetings in neighborhoods across Los Angeles to give local residents an opportunity to discuss safety concerns.

• Provided funding to improve a record number of miles of streets.

• Rehabilitated or opened more than 80 new park facilities, including skate parks, childcare centers and parks designated for children with disabilities.

• Worked with the Los Angeles Public Library to open or renovate over 25 branch libraries, including the Sun Valley Branch Library, which replaced dilapidated homes that were being used for gang and drug activity.

• Launched the Housing and Business Team that works to use housing as a catalyst for revitalizing Los Angeles neighborhoods, and created a $100 million Housing Trust Fund to help finance new housing.

• Provided financial and technical assistance to the Neighborhood Land Trust to help create more park space and open space in Los Angeles.

• Expanded the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, which is helping to adapt vacant buildings into thousands of quality housing units.

• Negotiated an agreement with the Los Angeles Unified School District to allow greater community use of school facilities and expand recreation and open space for Los Angeles families.

• Brought together Port representatives and Harbor community leaders to break ground and complete the first stage of the Bridge to Breakwater project at the Port of Los Angeles. The project is converting 400 acres of formerly industrial land to open space and recreational areas along 8 miles of waterfront.

• Through the city's recycling programs, helped Los Angeles achieve a 60 percent rate of trash diversion from the landfills and has directed all city departments achieve a 70 percent diversion rate by 2020.

• Created a pilot program to pick up recyclables from over 100,000 housing units at large apartment complexes throughout the city.

• Strongly supported the North Hollywood Arts and Entertainment District's efforts to beautify and improve the quality of life in the neighborhood through the Neighborhood Block Grant program.

• Worked with the library department to successfully advocate for a $5.7 million state grant for the construction of the Harbor Gateway-Harbor City Branch Library, which will work with the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide a homework center for students, including those at Nathaniel Narbonne Senior High School.

• Gave neighborhood councils a meaningful role in shaping the city's over $5 billion budget.

• Created a process to give neighborhood councils more input on goals for department general managers.

• Provided $50,000 for each neighborhood council to use for operating expenses and neighborhood projects of their choice, such as an anti-graffiti program in the Harbor Area, a literacy program in the San Fernando Valley, a neighborhood emergency preparation plan in South Los Angeles, and planting hundreds of trees in East Los Angeles.

• Provided free computers to neighborhood councils to provide greater access to the city's online resources.

• Worked to create regional offices to help the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment better serve the needs of neighborhood councils.

• Helped launch the Empowerment Academy, which offers classes to help residents learn how to organize and successfully run a neighborhood council.

• Set a goal for the Department of Water and Power to produce 20 percent of the city's power supply from renewable energy sources by the year 2017, and established a Green Ribbon Commission to develop a plan to meet this goal.

• Stopped the Department of Water and Power's plan to invest in a new coal plant in Utah, and instead invest in efforts to develop clean energy sources.

• Strongly supports closing all landfills in the City of Los Angeles and appointed a Landfill Oversight Committee to evaluate and recommend ways to achieve a landfill-free city by 2006. Mayor Hahn called for a public hearing and a full Environmental Impact Report on the Bradley and Sunshine Canyon Landfills, and directed the Environmental Affairs Department to deny a permit for the expansion of the Bradley Landfill.

• Successfully advocated for additional protections against groundwater contamination at the Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

• Created the Alternative Maritime Program (AMP) at the Port of Los Angeles, which allows ships docked at the port to use shore-side electric power instead of burning diesel fuel on board. Each time a ship docks using AMP, it prevents about the same amount of air pollution that would be generated by a diesel truck driving for 70,000 miles.

• Issued an Executive Directive that requires the Board of Harbor Commissioners to implement a "no net increase" in emissions at the Port of Los Angeles.

• Created the Street Smart program, which targets for traffic-reducing improvements 35 of Los Angeles' busiest streets and when completed will save Los Angeles drivers an estimated 15 million hours per year.

• Created the Traffic Safety and Congestion Relief Plan, which identifies and makes improvements to 25 of Los Angeles' worst intersections every year. These improvements make the intersections safer and help reduce traffic congestion for 1 million drivers every day.

• Worked with neighborhood councils and other civic leaders to stop the Ahmanson Ranch development, which would have developed over 3,000 new homes and generated 45,000 additional car trips each day in the San Fernando Valley. As a result of these successful efforts, the area will become a state park. Mayor Hahn received Heal the Bay's "Walk the Talk" award for his efforts to save Ahmanson Ranch.

• Successfully advocated for the expansion of the Metro Rapid Bus Program, a national model program that adjusts traffic signal timing as buses approach.

• Deployed traffic officers around the city during rush-hour traffic to ease congestion on busy streets.

• Lobbied successfully to secure federal funding for the 6-mile Eastside Light Rail project to extend the Metro Gold Line into East Los Angeles.

• Created the Transportation Task Force, which brings together engineers, consultants, pedestrian activists, urban planners, and transportation experts to develop innovative solutions to address traffic issues.

• Launched the city's 3-1-1 "One Call to City Hall" system, which allows callers to easily access city services.

• Created the LA STAT program to monitor and improve customer service performance of city departments.

• Developed Teamwork LA, which brings together city department leaders to identify and solve neighborhood problems ranging from addressing crime associated with cyber cafes to removing shoes hanging on utility wires.

• Opened Neighborhood City Halls in the South Valley, Harbor, and South Los Angeles areas. Other Neighborhood City Halls are in progress in Hollywood, West Los Angeles, the North Valley, and East Los Angeles.

• Established the Port Community Advisory Committee (PCAC) to give the community most impacted by the Port of Los Angeles a permanent and strong voice at the Port. This committee has helped address environmental, traffic and other issues.

• Initiated the citywide Eyes on the Neighborhood program, which encourages city employees who work in the field to report neighborhood problems such as potholes, street damage, and graffiti.

• Launched a program to increase arrests of those who illegally dispose of items such as couches, televisions, mattresses, or other hazardous waste on city streets or alleys.

• Signed into law an ordinance that allows the city to seize and forfeit vehicles used in illegally dumping waste.