Hard Work of De-Grunging Westwood Village Has Begun

Efforts are underway to make Westwood less of a barren wasteland and more of the happening place in its eighties heyday--at UCLA's cityLAB think tank last week, architects shared big ideas for the Village, including burying parts of Wilshire and getting rid of parking garages. The Westwood Village Improvement Association, which just launched in August, is shooting a little smaller. According to the Association's first newsletter, distributed in newspaper boxes in the Village, modest but significant improvements started for real this week: "Maintenance, pressure washing, and public safety ambassadors have hit the streets and are diligently working to make the Village clean, safe and beautiful." The Improvement Association is a business improvement district, or BID, in which business owners are charged an assessment to cover services like power washing the sidewalks (which do look better already), pruning trees (see newsletter image), and paying for the safety ambassadors (who are now patrolling the area on foot and Segway). "Along with our ambassador programs, the WVIA is actively engaging with businesses, property owners and community members on a variety of projects that will make Westwood Village the vibrant and unique destination it once was and we all know it can be again," reads the newsletter.
· What Would a Revitalized Westwood Village Look Like? [Curbed LA]