We attended a meeting at the Central City Association (CCA) where Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck addressed Los Angeles' success in reducing crime over the last 10 years. Comparing Los Angeles to other major cities such as New York, Los Angeles has a fraction of the police force per capita and still delivers higher quality services with a smaller budget. Los Angeles is now the safest big City in the U.S. due to work of the police department as well as the help of BID Safe Teams throughout the City.

Chief Beck also talked about the Department's struggles addressing homelessness, pointing to the Jones settlement and Lavan v. City of Los Angeles as two legal instruments which limit his officers' ability to address homelessness constructively. He admitted that much of the solution is driven by the lack of affordable housing in Los Angeles and the need for the City to implement policies to increase housing capacity and density. Anderson Cooper reports on the benefits of the housing first model in this 60 Minutes piece. 

The Downtown Los Angeles Streetcar has officially been accepted into Project Development under the federal Small Starts grant program. This means Los Angeles' Streetcar partners will begin working with the Federal Transit Administration to develop the  project toward consideration of a $75 million federal grant request. What does this mean for LA Streetcar? Read about in Councilmember José Huizar's Downtown Community Newsletter, here.

Plan Re:code LA Update  

Recode LA released an evaluation report and a calendar of upcoming public meetings. You can view them here.

Streets Closed for Broadway Resurfacing Project
The Broadway Streetscape plan transforms the Broadway corridor between 1st and 11th Streets into a more pedestrian and transit-focused street. Beginning with a "dress rehearsal" that will be fully implemented by June, the streetscape will be reconfigured to have the following:

• 1 lane of vehicular traffic southbound
• 2 lanes of vehicular traffic northbound
• Pedestrian plazas that will act as sidewalk extensions
• Planters, tables, benches and bollards that will make pedestrian areas safer and more enjoyable for residents and visitors alike
• Consolidated bus stops no longer in the way of traffic flow

Note: Be advised of new traffic patterns and parking bump-outs along Broadway. New lane configurations are now in place, restricting all left hand turns for traffic traveling southbound between 3rd to 11th streets.