Here are some of the latest updates on important news for our community.
Included in this week’s Westside Bulletin: City Budget Updates, COVID-19 Updates, Low-Rise Housing Challenge Winners, Purple Line Extension Update, Hire LA’s Youth, Naturalization Virtual Fair, Business Relief, and Community Events
CITY COUNCIL APPROVES MAYOR GARCETTI’S JUSTICE BUDGET
Last week, the City Council unanimously approved the $11.2 billion City Budget for the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year that focuses on reopening our city, improving our neighborhoods, and fulfilling long-delayed promises of equity and justice. This new budget includes significant funding for solutions to homelessness, responses to increases in crime, expanding neighborhood sanitation efforts, improvements to our parks, enhancing our urban forest, repaving our streets, and fighting climate change. It also includes resources to help small businesses, renters, seniors, and parents with young children.The 2021-22 City Budget reflects the beginnings of economic recovery following a challenging year of devastating losses due to the pandemic.
Here are some new expenditures that build upon the remarkable programs from Mayor Garcetti’s Justice Budget:
- Adding $5M to Basic Income Guaranteed: LA Economic Assistance Program (BIG: LEAP) for a total of $29M.
- $10M for the expansion of the Senior Meals Program, in partnership with restaurants in disadvantaged communities.
- $25M for Business Assistance Programs in Disadvantaged Communities with $5M specifically set aside for the implementation of the JEDI (Jobs and Economic Development Incentive) Zones and Good Food Zones Programs.
- $30M to fund the expansion of solar energy, energy storage and EV charging stations at City facilities.
- $10M for Utility Assistance Debt Relief.
- $10M set aside for Child Care Business Assistance.
- $20M for the operation of eight childcare centers in disadvantaged communities.
- $75M for deferred maintenance at Recreation and Parks facilities.
In the next week, there will be more details about the budget. To learn more, please visit https://cao.lacity.org/Budget/index.htm.
COVID-19 UPDATES
Last week, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the next phase of the City’s vaccination program, transitioning from the mass vaccination model to a mobile-first strategy designed to bring vaccines directly and conveniently to L.A.’s hardest-hit communities. The City’s vaccination program is expected to transition entirely to mobile clinics by August 1. Now, the City will expand the number of mobile units and deploy more agile teams based on community assessments that determine areas with high vulnerability and low vaccination rates. Mobile units will also focus on high traffic locations and special events to meet communities where they are and make it even easier to get vaccinated. This new phase focuses on three primary components:
- Expanding the mobile program with more agile teams
- A partnership with Toyota will allow the City to add new van-based mobile vaccination teams that will help reach more neighborhoods and can be deployed to high traffic locations and special events.
- Amplifying strategic deployment
- Building on the existing MOVE model, the Mayor’s Office and the Los Angeles Fire Department will continue to operate in areas with high vulnerability and low vaccine rates, while developing weekly strategic deployment plans that focus on high traffic locations and special events, in collaboration with community groups.
- Expanding access and incentives
- Mobile clinics will offer more evening and weekend vaccination options, in convenient locations, while working with local partners to provide vaccination incentives.
Scaling down the mass vaccination sites will happen gradually, and these centers will remain open to the public over the next two months. On June 19, the mass vaccination site at Pierce College will close permanently, followed by Los Angeles Southwest College on June 26.
Here are the facts you need to know:
· ELIGIBLE NOW: All Angelenos 12 and older are eligible to receive their vaccine at City sites. Eligible Angelenos can pre-register for a vaccination or find the nearest location. Please note that only the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for those 12 years and older, while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are authorized for those 18 years and older.
· ‘MOVE’ MOBILE VACCINE PROGRAM: We’re still vaccinating Angelenos in our hardest-hit neighborhoods through our MOVE vaccination program. Since launching this initiative, we’ve delivered over 113,842 doses to Angelenos, with over 90% given to people of color. These sites are offering the vaccine Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. – 2:45 p.m. appointment-free. These mobile sites visit new areas of our city weekly. You can find the latest information plus locations and hours on our website.
· BY THE NUMBERS: The City of Los Angeles has administered 1,310,996 vaccine doses at our City-run vaccination sites and mobile clinics, skilled nursing facilities, and fire stations. Since last Monday, our centers have provided 39,268 life-saving vaccinations.
· VACCINATION SITES: More than 755 locations are currently vaccinating people in L.A. County. Remember to bring proof of age to the site. While appointments are not required, you can still pre-register for your vaccine ahead of time by contacting the County’s Call Center –– open from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. –– at (833) 540-0473.
· NOTIFY LA: As we continue expanding our vaccination efforts, it’s important to get the latest news. You can sign up for Notify LA to receive text alerts from the City about vaccine rollout, locations, and more.
· STAY INFORMED: As we continue expanding our vaccination efforts, it’s important to get the latest news.
o You can sign up for Notify LA to receive text alerts from the City about vaccine rollout, locations, and more.
o Sign up for email updates from the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
o Tell your friends and family to sign up for this VaxFacts newsletter or follow us at @MayorOfLA on Twitter.
Vacúnate Ya, Los Ángeles/Get Vaccinated, L.A.
Last week, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a bilingual public service announcement campaign to encourage vaccination among Latino communities in Los Angeles, featuring artists Angélica María, Danny Trejo, Pepe Aguilar, Ángela Aguilar, and Leonardo Aguilar. Titled Vacúnate Ya, Los Ángeles / Get Vaccinated, L.A., this effort is focused on ramping up vaccination rates, reaching residents deeply impacted by COVID-19, and helping Los Angeles move closer to the end of the pandemic. Vacúnate Ya, Los Angeles and Get Vaccinated, L.A. will air on local news networks and appear on social media platforms, thanks to donated air time. The first 30-second Spanish language PSA will be broadcast starting this week on Telemundo 52 Los Angeles/KVEA, Univision Los Angeles KMEX Ch. 34, and EstrellaTV’s Los Angeles flagship station KRCA-62. The English PSA will air next week on FOX’s local stations KTTV and KCOP.
Eds. The ¡Vacúnate Ya, Los Ángeles! PSA can be viewed here. Lea este comunicado de prensa en español aquí.
FEMA COVID-19 Funeral Assistance
FEMA began accepting applications for Funeral Assistance on Monday, April 12, 2021. Call 844-684-6333 to get a COVID-19 Funeral Assistance application completed with help from FEMA’s representatives. Multilingual services will be available. There is no deadline to apply. More information will be available on this page.
MAYOR GARCETTI ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF LOW-RISE HOUSING CHALLENGE
Last week, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the winners of Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles, an international, first-of-its-kind design challenge to produce appealing, accessible visions of new housing options to boost the City’s housing stock in areas zoned for single-family housing and low-rise apartments. Together, the designs offer a compelling, achievable vision for how Los Angeles can add more housing in single-family and low-rise neighborhoods — areas that make up more than 80 percent of residential land in the city. At the same time, the entries offer new paths to homeownership, protect against displacement, and take measurable steps to reverse the damaging environmental impact of sprawl.
Winners were selected in each of the following categories:
· Fourplex, which imagines four units on a lot covering 7,500 square feet;
· Subdivision, a freestanding duplex on a 50-foot-by-50-foot parcel;
· Corners, with six to ten units spread across two newly combined residential parcels;
· (Re)Distribution, which asked entrants to reimagine famous single-family houses, by architects including Frank Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright and R.M. Schindler, as fourplexes.
A fact sheet will the names of the winning teams and other details can be found here, with downloadable renderings here.
MAYOR GARCETTI BREAKS GROUND ON THIRD PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT
Mayor Eric Garcetti today broke ground on a 2.5-mile subway extension of the Purple Line (Metro’s D Line) from Century City to Westwood, which will ease congestion and improve access to the Westside from Downtown Los Angeles. Scheduled for completion in 2027, Section 3 of the Metro Purple Line Extension Project is part of a larger three-phase, 8.9-mile, seven-station project that will extend the Purple Line from the current terminus at Wilshire/Western to the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Medical Center (VA) just west of the 405 Freeway. The 2.5-mile stretch will connect to the final station of the Purple Line Section 2 in Century City, and include one station at Westwood Village and another at the VA.
Metro is now actively building all three sections of the subway extension, which are planned to open in 2024, 2025 and 2027, respectively. The first section between Wilshire/Western and Beverly Hills is nearly 70 percent complete, and the Section 2 extension is now nearly 45 percent complete. Metro has established a $3.6 billion budget for the Section 3 project, applying a $1.3 billion federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation that will be delivered through a Full Funding Grant Agreement with the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program. The grant is a stand-alone agreement with no required loans. More than $2 billion for the project will come from the half-cent sales tax increases generated by Measures R and M, local measures approved by voters in 2008 and 2016.
MAYOR GARCETTI JOINED COMMUNITY AND INTERFAITH LEADERS IN CALL FOR NON-VIOLENCE AND UNITY
Mayor Garcetti joined City Attorney Mike Feuer, Councilmember Paul Koretz, public safety officials, and interfaith and community leaders to call for non-violence and unity after recent hate crimes in LA. “Los Angeles stands against antisemitism,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. “We stand against the ideas that Jews should be singled out and attacked because of who they are. It mirrors what we have done too many times together, when we have stood up against Islamophobia or racism.”
HIRE LA’s YOUTH
This year, Hire LA’s Youth is offering virtual and in-person jobs for young people, between the ages of 14 and 24, who live in the City of Los Angeles and meet the eligibility criteria. All COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at in-person job sites. The program will help youth prepare for a summer or year round job. The program will also help youth write their resumes, practice interviews and learn how to manage the money they will be earning. Applications are available here.
NATURALIZATION VIRTUAL FAIR
Mayor Garcetti’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) are collaborating to bring a Naturalization Virtual Fair to your community to help eligible immigrant Angelenos learn more about applying for naturalization and becoming a U.S. citizen. We want to encourage our eligible Angelenos to apply for citizenship as soon as possible. The waiting period for someone to become a citizen once the application is filed can be lengthy, it is best to start now! Citizenship is also the best protection against deportation .
Angelenos that want to participate in the Naturalization Virtual Fair must sign up using this link or call CARECEN at (213) 814-5248 to set up a virtual screening appointment with CARECEN. After the screening, individuals who qualify to become citizens will receive a free, legal consultation with CARECEN to start their naturalization application on Saturday, June 5, 2021 between the hours of 9am-2pm. Assistance with fee waiver applications will also be available and all services provided by CARECEN in this effort are free of charge.
If you know folks who may be interested in participating in the Naturalization Virtual Fair, please have them sign up through this link or call CARECEN at (213) 814-5248 by Monday, May 24, 2021. All information will be kept confidential. Here is the link to the google form: tinyurl.com/CITIZENSHIPLOSANGELES
BUSINESS RELIEF
FEDERAL UPDATES
PPP Extended:
President Joe Biden signed the PPP Extension Act of 2021 into law on March 30, extending the Paycheck Protection Program an additional two months to May 31, 2021, and providing an additional 30-day period for the SBA to process applications that are still pending.
Shuttered Venue Operators Grant:
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program was established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, and amended by the American Rescue Plan Act. The program includes over $16 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance. Application opened Thursday, April 8, 2021. Eligible applicants may qualify for grants equal to 45% of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award of $10 million. $2 billion is reserved for eligible applications with up to 50 full-time employees. Please click here for more information, and to apply.
Restaurant Revitalization Fund
The American Rescue Plan Act established the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) to provide funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open. This program will provide restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Recipients are not required to repay the funding as long as funds are used for eligible uses no later than March 11, 2023. More information is available here.
Free PPE for Small Businesses
The PPE Unite™ program is a joint effort to give small business owners and their employees access to much-needed personal protective gear. This public and private partnership program creates access to PPE, promotes PPE use, and provides additional resources for businesses. We need to work together to safely reopen our local economy for the health of our businesses and the general public. Get your 30 day supply of free Personal Protective Equipment to keep your business compliant and employees safe. Sign up now to get PPE while supplies last.
L.A. Optimized
LA Optimized provides individualized tech support to help small businesses adapt to the digital marketplace. The program helps businesses create or optimize websites, increase online sales, create business listings, and access branding and marketing help.
Open For Business
Open For Business is designed to support local restaurants and stimulate economic activity in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Open For Business provides Los Angeles restaurants commission-free digital ordering tools to expand contactless options for customers, as well as access to an over $1 million marketing budget to incentivize customers to order.
BusinessSource Centers
Technical assistance for COVID-19-related business loans and grants. Click here for more information.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness Webinar
Monday, May 24th from 7pm-8pm
Join the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelssness to hear from Dr. Jonathan Sherin, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, who will discuss pathways to addressing issues related to mental illness among unhoused Angelenos. Register here.
RESOURCES
RENTER PROTECTIONS
HCIDLA: COVID-19 Renter Protections
FREE LEGAL SERVICES
INFO: LA Represents
COVID-19
VACCINATIONS: Vaccine Appointments
TESTING: Free COVID-19 Testing
HOMELESS SERVICES
GET HELP:
PARKING CITATION ASSISTANCE
LADOT: Payment Relief Options
Please forward this along to anyone who may find it useful. As always, if you have questions about anything mentioned in this email––or if the Mayor’s Office can help you with something else––please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Best,
Brad
—
| Brad Fingard West Area Representative & Citywide Interfaith Liaison Mayor’s Office of Legislative & External Affairs p. (213) 309-2116 | e. [email protected] coronavirus.lacity.org |
Scheduling Requests: [email protected]
Certificates: [email protected]
Website: lamayor.org
If this issue is a public safety matter, please use one of the following numbers to contact first responders and other City personnel:
· General City Services: 3-1-1
· LA Dept. of Mental Health (including mental health emergency): 800-854-7771
· To assist with outreach services for people experiencing homelessness: LA HOP or 2-1-1
· Center for Conflict Resolution: 818-705-1090
· CA Coalition Against Sexual Assault: 661-327-1091
· National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
· Parking enforcement (blocked driveway, parking violation, etc): 213-485-4184
· Traffic control (signal light out): 213-485-4184
· Dept. of Water & Power: 800-342-5397
· Police non-emergency: 877-ASK-LAPD (877-275-5273)
· Immediate life threatening emergency: 9-1-1
Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles
Results Fact Sheet
May 17, 2021
The Low-Rise design challenge was organized by the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, Christopher Hawthorne, and was free to enter. It received a total of 380 submissions from around the world, responding to a brief with four categories: Corners, Fourplex, (Re)Distribution, and Subdivision.
Details on the categories, as well as the community-engagement listening sessions that were required viewing for all entrants, can be found at www.lowrise.la. The website also includes a list of jury members and other information.
Of the 12 winners of first-, second-, and third-place awards, seven are from Southern California (with six of twelve from the City of Los Angeles specifically); two from New York City; two from the UK; and one from Austin, TX.
Each of the four first-place winners will receive a cash award of $10,000. Each of the four second-place winners will receive a cash award of $3500. Each of the four third-place winners will receive a cash award of $1500. Total prize money is $60,000.
An additional 23 submissions received Honorable Mention citations. Of these, 11 were from teams with members from Southern California. In all 35 entries, or 9 percent of total submissions, were selected to receive an award or Honorable Mention recognition. Of those, 18 — or more than half — were from Southern California teams.
Support for Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles was provided by the James Irvine Foundation, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Citi, and the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles. Other partners include the L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design and the Los Angeles chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council. The challenge is part of a larger research effort into new paths to homeownership and affordability led by the Mayor’s Office in collaboration with the Urban Institute and other partners.
What are the next steps for Low-Rise? We will organize a series of re-engagement sessions to get feedback on the winning designs from our community partners and other groups, including architects, planners, and affordable-housing developers, over the next several months. We will then work with our colleagues at City Hall to incorporate the most compelling and feasible ideas from the design challenge into updates to our affordable-housing, zoning, and land-use policies. More broadly, our hope is that these winning designs, with their focus on community amenity and self-determination, will set the stage for a more productive and less polarized conversation about the future of our low-rise neighborhoods.
LIST OF WINNING ENTRIES:
Corners Category
First Place:
- Vonn Weisenberger (Brooklyn, NY)
Team Members:
- Vonn Weisenberger
Second Place:
- Studio TAAP (Austin, TX)
Team Members:
- Amaya Lucas
- Anna Lake-Smith
- Patrick Till
- Trent Tunks
Third Place:
- Kevin Daly Architects (Los Angeles, CA)
Team Members:
- Kevin Daly
- Ciro Dimson
- Jeff Rauch
- Courtney Gibbs
- Connor Verteramo
Honorable Mention: 1+1+ Architects (Chicago, IL), for its proposal’s critique of existing land-use approaches in Los Angeles and its calls to reorient zoning “from a focus on transactions to kinship” and to address “the scale of the anthropocene itself”; Built for NELA (Los Angeles, CA), for the proposal’s deep familiarity with its context, emphasis on new models of multigenerational living, and thoughtful ideas to promote stability and self-determination in communities of color; Ignacio Espigares and VIQ architecture (Jersey City, NJ), for flexibility at the level of residential units, turning a low-rise community into a “canvas painted by its inhabitants, giving them a sense of identity”; LowDO + KDI + Positive Energy (Austin, TX and Los Angeles, CA), for a focus on multi-unit housing that finds “new ways to bring people together” and brings “balance to a technology-saturated world”; Neighbourhood/Morris + Company (Kent, UK), for updating the bungalow-court typology to include a productive communal garden, private outdoor spaces for each unit, and lively public space at the street corner; PIE Design Collective (Los Angeles, CA), for an emphasis on community outreach and cooperative housing models and use of existing architecture to guard against displacement in Venice; RADAR, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA), for its proposal’s ingenuity about financing models, phasing, and streamlined approvals and careful analysis of its site and the surrounding Pacoima neighborhood; and Ericka Song and Justin Oh (New York, NY), for proposing a “generative landscape” weaving among compact and well-designed housing units while producing food, collecting rainwater, and providing shade.
Fourplex Category
First Place:
- Omgivning and Studio-MLA (Los Angeles, CA)
Team members:
- Albert Escobar (Omgivning)
- Shahr Razi (Omgivning)
- Taylor Carlin (Omgivning)
- Amy Kaplin (Studio-MLA)
- Ian Miller (Studio-MLA)
Second Place:
- Bestor Architecture (Los Angeles, CA)
Team members:
- Bestor Architecture
- SALT Landscape Architects
- ARUP
Third Place:
- Danielian Associates and Urban Arena (Irvine, CA)
Team members:
- Danielian Associates and Urban Arena
Honorable Mention: Lever Architecture and Urbanworks (Portland, OR), for creative thinking about parking, modular construction, and maximizing shaded outdoor space; Damian Madigan and Alysia Bennett (Adelaide, Australia), for a thoughtful balance of individual autonomy and collective care and focus on a financing and design model that can be applied to existing housing stock as well as ground-up construction; Riley Projects (Los Angeles, CA), for an elegant update of the bungalow-court typology to suit the needs of 21st-century Los Angeles, as well as an emphasis on inclusiveness and universal design; Shin Shin (Santa Monica, CA), for a thoughtful deployment of unconditioned and semi-enclosed spaces to make residential units more flexible, livable, and cost-effective, especially for multi-generational households; and TOLO Architecture (Los Angeles, CA), for a careful analysis of the needs of and obstacles facing younger renters in Los Angeles and arrangement of interior and exterior spaces to maximize privacy and autonomy for residents.
(Re)Distribution Category
First Place:
- Arts and Creatives Designs Ltd (Banstead, UK)
Team Members:
- Sonda Mvula
- Lola Tartakover
- Chandni Rakhra
- Sameera S. Rauf
- Verity Roweth
Second Place:
- Henry Aldridge (Kent, UK)
Team:
- Henry Aldridge
Third Place:
- ROART (New York, NY)
Team Members:
- Ran Oron
- Tara Hagan
- Ajin Ryu
- Danny Hudson
- Jeff Evans
Honorable Mention: Anna Richter (Hamburg, Germany), for the use of technology in service of a communitarian approach to rethinking the Schindler House; ARCHDUX (Jawaharnagar, India), for proposing contextual yet thoroughly contemporary additions to the South Seas House; Cal Poly LA Metro: Erica David (Los Angeles, CA), for the sharpness of the proposal’s analysis of Frank Gehry’s Schnabel House and its neighborhood context in service of a plan that stays true to the house’s basic ethos without seeking to preserve it in amber; Kendall Mann and Xile Zhang (Los Angeles, CA), for the layered approach of its call to reimagine Irving Gill’s late Dodge House as a series of “cooperative residences rooted in engagement and care,” reached by ramps in place of stairs, and surrounded by fruit and vegetable gardens as well as new public park space; offTOP & RALX (Los Angeles, CA), for the strength of its narrative’s critique of colonialism in Los Angeles architecture and its ideas for advancing “the development of a Black aesthetic in architecture” by remaking the Hollyhock House without a shred of nostalgia; and Twin Projects (Chicago, IL), for its nuanced proposal to reimagine the original design for sleeping baskets at the Schindler House “using the ancient Persian concept of the Badgir, or wind-catcher.”
Subdivision Category
First Place:
- Green Alley Housing (Los Angeles, CA)
Team Members:
- Louisa Van Leer, Louisa Van Leer Architecture
- Antonio Castillo, Urban Planner
- Garen Yolles, Urban Planner
- Aang Castillo, Cal Poly Pomona, College of Environmental Design, Dept. of Architecture
- Galin Aghkyan, Cal Poly Pomona, College of Environmental Design, Dept. of Architecture
- Don Chavez, Cal Poly Pomona, College of Environmental Design, Dept. of Landscape Architecture
Second Place:
- Omgivning and Studio-MLA (Los Angeles, CA)
Team members:
- Karin Liljegren (Omgivning)
- Albert Escobar (Omgivning)
- Dawn Dyer (Studio-MLA)
Third Place:
- Elaine Kwong and Kristy Kwong (Los Angeles, CA)
Team Members:
- Elaine Kwong (Architectural Designer and Urban Designer)
- Kristy Kwong (Sustainability Engineer and Building Performance Specialist)
Honorable Mention: Joanna Grant, Jimenez Lai, Kyoung Eun Park, Kevin Pazik and Tanvi Rao of Bureau Spectacular (Los Angeles, CA), for the strength of their ideas for rethinking city codes and protocols and applying design pre-approval programs to multifamily projects; KEAZU (Providence, RI), for its proposal’s use of modular, movable features to give residents more control and agency, as well as design elements that appeal to “the people who are already in the community” and not solely “the people contractors are trying to attract”; Plataforma AR (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), for its proposal’s thoughtful balance of well-designed interior space with generous green space, especially the public-minded “green laneway” at the back of the lot; and Georgi Todorov and Petya Petrova (Chicago, IL), for exploring in depth the argument that the Subdivision category, while taking on fewer units per site than the other categories, has the potential to produce housing solutions for Los Angeles with wide impact.
