When a big earthquake hits your area, your house might fly off its foundation and collapse if:
It’s wood–framed
Built before 1980
Has a crawl space and/or a cripple wall
It’s never been retrofitted before
The good news is that this year the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is offering as much as $3,000 each to 4,400 California homeowners to help pay for retrofitting their places.
There are an estimated 1.2 million homes across the state that could be vulnerable, according to the CEA. Considering it could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in fixes, and years out of your house if your home is thrown off of its foundation, the program might be worth looking into.
Election “Day” is so 2016. Californians have been voting by mail since the beginning of this month, and in L.A. and Orange Counties, voting in-person starts Saturday morning, when the first round of centralized “vote centers” will open.
Most neighborhood polling places are going away, so your old voting spot may no longer be there. Instead, you’ll probably have to travel a bit farther to a new vote center.
The first group of these centers is open for 11 days beginning this weekend. The rest open on Feb. 29th, through election day.
You can go to any location in the county where you’re registered — and you don’t need to bring a mail-in ballot to surrender if you decide to vote in-person.
HOW to vote is also different in 2020:
In L.A. County, most in-person voters will use a new ballot marking machine that prints a paper ballot. If you’d rather vote on paper at your kitchen table, you have until Tuesday, Feb. 25 to request a vote-by-mail ballot.
WILL THESE CHANGES LEAVE SOME VOTERS BEHIND?
New research is painting a troubling picture about whether Angelenos know about the new vote centers, spelled out in a 2016 law called the Voter’s Choice Act.
On Thursday, the USC Price-Schwarzenegger Institute published results from its California Issues Poll showing just over 37% of likely voters in the 15 counties implementing Voter’s Choice Act changes in 2020 were aware that where and how to cast ballots was changing.
In Los Angeles, 62.2% either didn’t know about the changes or couldn’t answer the question. In contrast, over half of respondents (51%) in Orange County knew about the changes.
Please join your Granada Hills neighbors for an important discussion about Balboa Boulevard resurfacing, homelessness, public safety, and more! — light refreshments will be served —
The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the City’s Sidewalk Repair Program is now available for public review and comment. The comment period closes on February 24, 2020.
The report is available on the City’s website at this link: https://sidewalks.lacity.org/environmental-impact-report. As one can imagine, this is a very large report but it is posted online in sections so you should be able to review or download it in pieces.
In addition, hard copies of the report are available at three public libraries in Council District 12. These are:
Granada Hills Library at 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills (map) Mid Valley Regional Library at 16244 Nordhoff St., North Hills (map) Chatsworth Branch Library at 21052 Devonshire St., Chatsworth (map).
🚨 HOLIDAY SERVICE REMINDER 🚨 – Due to the holiday, LA Sanitation offices will be closed on Wednesday December 25th. There will be no bin collection service on Christmas Day. If your collection day is normally on Wednesday, your bins will be serviced Thursday. If your collection day is Thursday, your bins will be serviced Friday. If your bins are usually serviced on Friday, collection will be pushed to Saturday. Sanitation will resume their standard collection schedule on Monday – December, 30th and Tuesday – December, 31st.
In addition, your bin collection services may be impacted during heavy rain, if it’s deemed too dangerous to attempt collections on your street/neighborhood. Collections will be completed as soon as streets are dry enough and safe to travel. Thanks for your patience! Please visit their website at www.lacitysan.org/holidayschedule for information about other holidays. Although the LA Sanitation offices will be closed on December 25th, their Customer Care Center is available to assist you twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year at 1-800-773-2489. Also, Marketing will have limited access to their social accounts during the holidays. Please call their call center with any questions you may have about their programs and services. We wish you a safe, healthy, and sustainable holiday season!
Before you rush out to work or to complete your shopping, please take a moment this morning to fill the reservoir stand of your natural Christmas tree with fresh water!
Los Angeles County now has an interactive map allowing you to view the distribution of the County’s current homeless population, as well as sites where shelter or supportive housing already exists or is under development. Info on population numbers and density is drawn from the January 2019 Countywide Homeless Count. New info and capabilities will continue to be added to this map tool, which just launched Dec 12.
On October 31, 2019, the County Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures (ACWM) detected two Peach Fruit Flies (PFF), a major agricultural pest, in Granada Hills. In response, the ACWM will be implementing eradication efforts to prevent the growth and spread of the pest infestations, and protect backyard fruit, community gardens, and California’s commercial agriculture.
The eradication effort will include the use of an attractant to lure the flies to a “bait station”. Specifically, small spots of bait will be squirted onto street-side tree trunks, with approximately 600 such bait stations placed about eight feet up on trees. The flies feed on the bait and are killed by a small amount of natural pesticide in the bait. These activities will be occurring this month, and possibly extend into December, and will take place in parts of Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, and Northridge as shown in the map below.
Residents with questions about this or any exotic pest can call the California Department of Food and Agriculture Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899.
LADWP customers interested in transforming their lawns to drought-tolerant landscaping have a free resource in the form of hands-on workshops offered by LADWP’s Turf Replacement Program. The free workshops tach customers how to remove turf, grade soil for capturing rainwater, and the step-by-step process to create sustainable landscapes in their own yards.
LADWP’s residential customers are now eligible to receive $3 per square foot rebate for up to 5,000 square feet of turf removed (up to a potential $15,000 in rebates!).
The North San Fernando Valley Bus Rapid Transit Project will Move Forward into Environmental Review
Thank you to all who attended Thursday’s Board meeting and provided feedback. Metro’s Board of Directors received and filed staff’s recommendation to begin the environmental review for the project. The feedback received at the meeting will continue to help shape the project.
If you were unable to attend Thursday’s Board meeting, the meeting minutes and audio of the meeting will be available here.
Next Steps
Metro will continue engaging stakeholders as the process moves forward and we will keep you informed of all upcoming meetings. Metro looks forward to seeing everyone at the Latino Expo and Dia de los Muertos Festival at Panorama Mall today, October 26.
As of LAFD’s 7 am update this morning (Friday), the Saddleridge Fire is 68% contained and has burned almost 8,500 acres.
Please note that Limekiln Canyon Park and O’Melveny Park remain closed for the time being. Please do not enter these parks until they are re-opened in the next few weeks.
Please take the time to double check that you have signed up for emergency notification systems:
The City Council adopted the Home-Sharing Ordinance (CF 14-1635-S2) in December of 2018. To prevent the wholesale conversion of homes into rental properties, the legislation establishes a regulatory framework to restrict short-term rentals to one’s primary residence. The Home-Sharing Ordinance requires hosts who wish to engage in short-term rentals to register with the City and post their registration number on all advertisements. Further information on eligibility requirements and host responsibilities may be found on the City Planning Department’s Home Sharing webpage.
Eligible hosts may now apply to the program through the Home-Sharing Online Registration Portal. The City will begin enforcement of the Home-Sharing Ordinance on November 1, 2019. Anyone who continues to engage in or advertise short-term rental activity after November 1 without posting an approved registration number will be in violation of the Home-Sharing Ordinance. Sign up here to receive email updates on the Home-Sharing Program.
Los Angeles City Planning will be holding several Home-Sharing Program Information Sessions throughout October and November. Please fill out the RSVP form on the session you would like to attend: http://bit.ly/LAHomeShareRSVP
More Info For additional information, please contact:
Home-Sharing Unit Department of City Planning – Development Services Center 201 N. Figueroa Street, 5th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 202-5464 24/7 Complaint Hotline: (213) 267-7788 [email protected]org
If your mobile phone service provider is AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon, you can now report spam texts by forwarding them to 7726 (which spells SPAM). A report will be automatically made to your carrier, who will handle it from there.
Neighborhood Councils sponsor family-friendly festivities throughout the year, and especially during the holiday season. Now that Halloween is coming up, here’s a quick overview of how to look up events sponsored by your local NC.
Click the button below to open our Citywide list of Councils, and select yours to open your NC’s EmpowerLA webpage. At the top right of that page, you’ll see a link to the NC’s full website, where you’ll be able to see news about upcoming events and also get onto their mailing list to get news sent to you directly.
Residents & businesses impacted by the Saddleridge Fire: get recovery help & resources from the city, county, state, and other agencies now through Saturday October 26th at the Sylmar Recreation Center, 13109 Borden Ave, Sylmar, CA 91342. Hours are 8am-4pm Sat/Sun and 9:30am-7pm Mon-Fri. Get help replacing lost records, filing insurance claims, applying for disaster assistance & info on cleanup/repair/rebuilding. Get full details by clicking below.
Metro Board Report on the North San Fernando Valley Bus Rapid Transit Project Available Online
Metro’s staff report and agenda for the North San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor Project is now available on the Metro Board page. You are encouraged to check out Metro’s blog The Source article for more information.
The Board meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 24 at the Metro headquarters located at One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles 90012 in the third floor Board room. All Board meetings are open to the public. Links to watch the Board meeting live in English and in Spanish can be found here: https://boardagendas.metro.net/
Next Steps
Metro will continue engaging stakeholders as the process moves forward. They will be at the Latino Expo and Dia de los Muertos Festival at Panorama Mall on Saturday, October 26.
Contact Metro
Thank you again for your participation in the North San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor Project.
All Metro meetings are held at ADA accessible facilities. Spanish translation will be provided. Other ADA accommodations and translations available by calling 323.466.3876, at least 72 hours in advance.
Se encuentra disponible en Internet el informe de la junta de Metro sobre el proyecto del autobús de tránsito rápido del norte del Valle de San Fernando
Se encuentra disponible en Internet el informe de la junta de Metro sobre el proyecto del autobús de tránsito rápido del norte del Valle de San Fernando El informe del equipo y la agenda de Metro para el proyecto del corredor de transporte público del norte del Valle de San Fernando ya se encuentra disponible en la página web de la junta de Metro. Lo invitamos a visitar el artículo del blog de Metro llamado The Source para obtener más información.
La reunión de la junta se llevara a cabo el jueves, 24 de octubre a las 10:00 a. m. en la sede de Metro ubicada en One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles 90012, en la sala de la junta en el tercer piso. Todas las reuniones de la junta están abiertas al público. Los vínculos para ver la reunión en vivo en inglés y en español se encuentran aquí: https://boardagendas.metro.net/
Le agradecemos, nuevamente, por su participación en el proyecto de autobús de tránsito rápido del norte del Valle de San Fernando.
Todas las reuniones de Metro se llevan a cabo en instalaciones accesibles conformes a la ADA. Se brindará traducción al español. Se encuentran disponibles traducciones y otras adaptaciones conformes a la ADA, llamando al 323.466.3876 con, al menos, 72 horas de anticipación.
