Newly elected North Westwood Neighborhood Council sets sights on fire

A fresh slate of student leaders, long‑time residents and small‑business owners is preparing to guide North Westwood into a pivotal recovery year after the Los Angeles City Clerk certified the neighborhood council’s biennial election earlier this month. Ten of the 19 open seats went to UCLA students or faculty, while incumbents retained five key positions, underscoring Westwood’s blend of campus energy and village experience. Roughly 1,500 stakeholders cast mail‑in ballots, the highest turnout since the council’s 2018 formation, according to EmpowerLA, the city agency that oversees the 99 neighborhood councils. The new board will be sworn in on July 1, but transition meetings begin next week.

Wildfire fallout still front‑and‑center

Three months after January’s Palisades and Eaton fires, Westwood Recreation Center on Sepulveda Boulevard remains one of the county’s last active evacuation shelters, housing 88 displaced residents as of Wednesday, the Red Cross told LAist. Even so, one volunteer joked that tracking down the best personal injury lawyer in Vegas might be easier than untangling the paperwork for federal disaster grants here.

At the council’s February meeting, officials from Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s office confirmed that the center will stay open “until every household has a rehousing plan.” Newly re‑elected Business Board Member Kevin Crummy said this week that the council’s first act will be to release the remaining $1,000 in its emergency budget to the UCLA Bruin Wildfire Relief Fund and to draft a Community Impact Statement urging the city to waive water bills in damaged areas. “We can’t let relief fatigue set in just because headlines have faded,” Crummy told Patch.

Wilshire headaches intensify during Metro’s D Line build‑out

While fire recovery dominates human‑services discussions, transportation is the village’s daily pain point. Metro contractors closed the westbound bus lane on Wilshire Boulevard at Federal Avenue on April 14 for emergency water‑line trench work, part of Section 3 of the D (Purple) Line Extension that will eventually bring two subway stops—Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA—to the neighborhood in 2027. The lane is scheduled to reopen before Monday’s commute, but nighttime reductions will continue throughout spring for sewer‑line relocation between Westwood Boulevard and Veteran Avenue.

Small businesses say the rolling closures are cutting into foot traffic already weakened by UCLA’s spring holiday and lingering fire‑related street detours. “Lunch sales drop 20 percent every time those orange cones appear,” said Maryam Amini, owner of a sandwich shop on Gayley Avenue. The council’s Transportation, Environment and Public Space Committee—now chaired by fourth‑year student Elizabeth Brady—plans to lobby Metro for earlier notice and dedicated way‑finding signs directing drivers to alternate parking garages.

A council that mirrors its constituents

The April election slightly shifted the demographic balance of the 15,000‑resident district: renters under 30 now hold four council seats, up from two, while homeowner representation fell from six seats to five. Graduate pharmacology student William Crosson, newly elected to the Graduate Student seat, says that mix will matter as Westwood tackles housing affordability. “We’re the neighborhood with both multimillion‑dollar condos on Wilshire and six‑to‑a‑room apartments north of campus. We need zoning that acknowledges both realities,” Crosson said, pointing to the coming Metro stations as “a once‑in‑a‑generation chance to add density near world‑class transit.”

What’s next

Council President‑elect Andrew Lewis has called a special strategy session for April 30 at Weyburn Commons to set 90‑day goals. Early agenda drafts include:

• Finalizing a $32 million county motion that channels wildfire recovery grants to Westwood renters and small businesses;
• Negotiating construction‑period mitigation with Metro, including free garage validation for customers on nights when Wilshire lanes close;
• Endorsing a pilot reopening of the Los Angeles National Cemetery pedestrian gate at Constitution Avenue to improve first‑mile/last‑mile links to the future VA station.

Meetings are open to the public in person and via Zoom, and the council is still soliciting volunteers for its Ad Hoc Wildfire Relief and Housing Equity task forces. Stakeholders can register comment at northwestwoodneighborhoodcouncil.org through April 29.

As Lewis put it in a statement to Patch, “Westwood has always balanced the academic, the entrepreneurial and the residential. With fires behind us and a subway under us, that balancing act is only getting harder—and more exciting.”