The Wilshire Center District Safety Team started out the 2013 year in style with brand new uniforms. When you see these sharp dressed men out there in the WC District don't forget to wave hello. They are here to help.

Last quarter, the security team assisted the City in getting over 293 bulky items picked up, made 12 calls/reports to the City for street repairs, assisted in getting 449 graffiti tags cleaned up; 32 potholes were reported. The team responded to 114 calls for assists to the LAPD and others. They issued 16 illegal vendor warnings and assisted 29 homeless individuals. 302 illegal signs were removed. The team addressed the subject of 7 individuals drinking in public and 12 belligerent transients. The team captain attended 5 LAPD crime control meetings.

Last quarter, the sidewalk maintenance team collected 2,229 bags of trash (51,267 lbs), and removed 108 graffiti tags on sidewalk pots, poles, and news racks. The crew is out every Monday and Thursday sweeping the sidewalks, picking up trash, clearing gutters and painting out graffiti from street poles and flower planters. The team empties 59 trash cans throughout the District due to the City’s reduced efforts which had led to an overflowing of the cans.

The landscape crew for the District’s Wilshire streetscape continues to maintain all 15 medians and the over 160 flower pots along Wilshire Blvd. The work consists of removal of trash, trimming of plants, watering of plants, and repairing broken sprinklers. A number of repairs have recently been completed on several of the street medians due to car accidents and the need to replace irrigation control timers and remote control valves.

The Wilshire Center District Safety removes illegally posted signs every day. These signs make our city look bad, reduce visibility and eventually become trash on the gutters and sidewalks creating a negative impact on health conditions, the environment, and the quality of life of our neighborhoods. This is a violation of Los Angeles Municipal Code "Sec. 28.04 L.A.M.C - Hand-Bills, Signs Public Places and Objects." To report illegally posted signs for removal call 311 or (213) 847-6088. Violation fees start at $194.20.

Community News & Events

On the last Thursday of every month, 6:00pm - 10:00 pm at Wilshire & Western, the WCBID will host the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Art and Architecture Walk. The Art Walk is a monthly celebration of sustainable urban living showcasing local historic architecture, galleries, artists, photography, restaurants, bars, cafes shops, and businesses. The next event will take place on Feb. 28th. For more info visit wilshirecenter.com/artwalk.

Artist Ann Bridges has completed the murals for the utility cabinet at the south-west corner of Wilshire and Western. The themes of the murals are the Streets of Wilshire Center District. She applied four coats of anti-graffiti coating. Her work includes restoring the murals for the next two years. A comment from a local resident: “I just wanted to say how great your work is at Western/Wilshire on the utility boxes. In my opinion, you really hit it with the colors. I live nearby and see them all the time now. I didn't realize how much work they involved. I didn't really notice until one day, BOOM! I thought I saw someone scraping the old gray paint off one day, but didn't realize it was prep work for your art until a little while ago. Thanks again”.

A groundbreaking ceremony and beam-signing on Jan. 31st signaled start of construction for the Anderson Munger Family YMCA at the Third St. and Oxford Ave. Doors of the new facility are expected to open in the spring of 2014. For more info visit www.ymcala.org/anderson-munger.

Stop by the Wilshire Center Farmers Market which takes place every Friday from 11am-3pm at the Wilshire Vermont Station. The Market features locally grown fresh produce, eclectic prepared foods, bakery goods and crafts!

The next meeting of the Wilshire Center Business Watch will take place on Thursday, March 14th, 12:00 noon at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, 3424 Wilshire Blvd., El Camino Real Conference Room (5th floor). A light lunch will be provided.

Last year the Los Angeles Business Improvement District (BID) Consortium completed a survey of 29 of the city’s 39 BIDs with the following findings: The number of BIDs is growing rapidly in the United States, from about 400 in 1999 to approximately 1,000 in 2010. BIDs have also been created in recent years in several jurisdictions in England, Canada and Germany. The average budget of a BID in L.A. is $1.1 million. Los Angeles BIDs pay $33M a year in total assessments. BIDs contribute $11.5M a year toward public safety efforts. For every $10,000 a BID contributes to crime prevention efforts, the community receives $200,000 in societal benefits. BIDs contributed $8.5M a year in street and sidewalk cleaning efforts. 61% of a BID’s budget is allocated toward Clean & Safe programs. BIDs collect 9,000 tons of trash a year.

New Business Spotlight

The Line Los Angeles Hotel at Wilshire & Normandie, the former Wilshire Hotel, is scheduled to open in July 2013.

The Well and Pure Vitamin Outlet at 3508 1/2 W 8th St. is now open. Stop by today for all your vitamin and supplement needs.

The Wilshire Center BID would like to welcome a new art gallery to the district. Please be sure to stop by the Co-LAb Gallery at 3952 Wilshire Blvd. today.

The best place to keep informed of Wilshire Center District’s activities is on Facebook; become a friend of Wilshire Center District at Facebook.com/wilshirecenter.

To all residential tenants: please make arrangements to have your bulky items removed for free from the curbside, by calling 1-800-773-2489, from Monday through Friday, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., at least one day before the regular collection day.  Bulky items are collected on the day of the regular trash collection day.  For more information and on-line service go to http://lacitysan.org/solid_resources/refuse/services/bulky_items.htm. 

PLEASE CALL 311 IF YOU SEE BULKY ITEMS AND GRAFFITI – TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE OUR COMMUNITY A BETTER PLACE

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Video highlighting much of the work that the Wilshire Center Business Improvement District does on a daily basis was presented at the last Annual Membership Meeting.

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