WELCOME TO ONE OF
L.A.'S BEST KEPT SECRETS
Letter from South Carthay Neighborhood Association President Brad Kane
Dear South Carthay Members, Residents and Interested Stakeholders,
Happy New Year! On behalf of the South Carthay Neighborhood Association Board, I want to wish you all a joyous New Year! As the neighborhood enters 2023, I want to thank all of you, especially our devoted board members, donors and volunteers. Your truly impressive contributions and work helped move the needle on many important levels. The surrounding areas of South Carthay along Pico and La Cienega have witnessed record development in the past few years. With impending legislation, further development projects, and growing infrastructure, South Carthay continues to see unprecedented growth.
Here are some of what your association worked on this past year. We led off the year with our South Carthay Summer Festival post-Covid in June, spearheaded by Board Members Chuck Marquardt and Kelly DeLaat. We had several hundred residents and community stakeholders present and announced a special award to Councilmember Paul Koretz who was terming out of office.
Heading into the elections, we served as a voice for the community by hosting two candidate forums for Koretz’s successor. Our new Council Member is Katy Young Yaroslavsky, who is a South Carthay resident and the first woman to serve as our district in over 50 years! Congratulations to Katy and her new team and we look forward to working together!
We also held two town halls with Carmel Partners, developers of the 1050 La Cienega tower to address community concerns. We sponsored a community survey for the 1050 project with over 100 participants who provided valuable feedback to the developers on the needs and concerns raised by our residents. (Other community members formed, "Friends of South Carthay” a group organized to help raise financial resources for research and legal fees related to development projects of concern for the community.)
On the historic front, we collectively raised over $100,000.00 for a successful application for Federal and California National Historic Register for the combined South Carthay, Carthay Square and Carthay Circle neighborhoods, “The Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District.” This newly acquired status will help protect our neighborhood as multiple large-scale residential developments are under construction on our bordering commercial corridors. Board Member Walter Dominguez not only chaired our Historic Preservation Efforts, he organized the South Carthay design and bulk purchase of our Bronze Historic Marker Plaques. He will even be providing a video on how to install them.
Our work did not stop there, Board Member Ed Friedman, updated the associations’ bylaws bringing them into compliance and managing the association’s treasury which grew this year due to increased membership and generous donations for security.
Through the joint efforts of South Carthay and Carthay Circle neighborhood associations and after years of effort to address the parking constraints created by increased development along Pico, CD 5 under Paul Koretz helped us to revise our Preferential Parking District (PPD) to EXCLUDE most development along Pico and La Cienega except those grandfathered in or under development.
To combat the increasing cut-through traffic, we obtained additional speed humps along with those installed pre-Pandemic on the 1200 blocks of La Jolla and Alvira. This year we include the newly installed speed humps on Packard between Alfred and Alvira. In addition, we have filed an application with the city’s Speed Hump program in October which is on a lottery basis and we secured a place to include speed humps on Orlando between Olympic Place and Packard.
The association relaunched its website, www.southcarthay.org under the leadership of Board Member Ron Sokoloff by automating the membership process and keeping our community up to date on all things South Carthay. Our membership increased this year as a result which will help keep our community engaged. Again, another example of how the community has joined together. If you are not a member and wish to join to stay informed about your community, please click here https://www.southcarthay.org/donate.
As many of you are aware, we also saw an increase in local crime, including theft, drugs, arson, vandalism and assault with a substantial increase in the number of homeless encampments along Alfred, Alvira, La Jolla and Pico. Under the leadership of Lisa Kaye with board members, Walter, Ron, Ed and the dozens of community residents who came together to help raise funds to hire private security, purchase plants and materials to beautify the surrounding post office and to restore the neighborhood deserve our thanks. With help from our council office, LAPD, and LAHSA, the Preuss Post Office was declared a protected site under Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18, which allows anti-encampment enforcement based on prior assaults at that location. This was a monumental achievement that proves our tenacity, dedication and passion in protecting our community.
Another area of concern, is the abandoned property located at 1240 Orlando adjacent the alley behind the Post Office which has been the recurring scene of break ins, drugs and vandalism. The association demanded that the property owners hire ACS security, install cameras and lights and to clear the surrounding area of debris. Under threat of a public and private nuisance action, the response has been slow and the owner appears to have difficulty maintaining the security of the property and preventing repeat trespassing. We will continue to manage this situation and update the residents.
Please help me to offer thanks to the SCNA’s board members who include, Carl Sunshine, Vice President, Edward Friedman, Treasurer, Ron Sokoloff, Secretary and SCNA Webmaster, Chuck Marquardt, Communications, Kelly Delaat, Events, Walter Dominguez, Urban Affairs and Lisa Kaye, Area Representative, South Carthay PICO Neighborhood Council. We also have an open seat in Safety & Security vacated by Michael Stokes this past year and we want to thank him as well for his years of service. Please let one of the board members know if you are interested in joining our team!
With your continued support, engagement and participation we can move forward with the work we are doing and provide the residents with great quality of service and response. Thank you again to all our board members for their hard work and dedication and we look forward to a productive and prosperous 2023.