Get up-to-date crime statistics for neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles. Being informed about crime in your community is the first step in preventing future occurrences.
The Los Angeles Police Department will directly feed its crime data to the Omega Group to ensure that each crime is reported accurately on the site. The records themselves are also put through an exclusive data scrubbing process that works to locate each crime incident geographically, to a hundred block. A link to the crime maps can be found at www.lapdonline.org, and by clicking on Crimemapping in the left navigation or the link above. Once on the Crimemapping.com site, users can “filter” crimes from a list of law enforcement agencies that provide data to the site, and click on Part One crimes for specific information such as the date and time each crime occurred. Important links are also provided, as well a feature that allows users to view crime trends and subscribe to receive free Crime Alerts via e-mail when new activity occurs in their area.
More than four decades after it was dedicated, a memorial to Granada Hills residents who served during the Vietnam War has been updated and refurbished by a student born 20 years after the fall of Saigon.
Doug Smith, left, a 17-year-old Granada Hills Charter High School senior, is leading an effort to renovate the school’s Vietnam War Memorial.
The renovation was inspired by the reconstruction of a similar monument at the intersection of Zelzah Avenue and Chatsworth Street in Granada Hills, known as the “triangle.”
“When the `triangle’ was re-done last year, I noticed that some of the names on the plaque at the high school library did not match those on the triangle, and vice-versa,” said Doug Smith, 17, a senior at Granada, which serves roughly 4,200 students in grades 9-12. “I needed an idea for my Eagle Scout service project (and) after we started looking into it, the interest and support from the school and our community really snowballed.”
The renovated memorial will be re-dedicated in a ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Friday, May 25, and Smith is seeking out relatives and friends of those honored to participate.
The renovation will add the names of six young men that did not make it onto the high school’s memorial when it was dedicated in the 1970s. It is unclear why some were listed and others were not, but may stem from the fact the high school serves other communities besides Granada Hills, and that some students who lived in the area may have graduated from neighboring John F. Kennedy High School after that campus opened in 1971.
Frank Allender, Granada Hills High alumnus, killed in Vietnam in 1967
Along with new bronze plaques for the missing six, the project includes cleaning the 17 existing nameplates, as well as adding a tile mosaic of the U.S. flag. Materials and labor are being provided through donations and a grant from the Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council, an elected volunteer town council that serves the area. The memorial has been approved by Smith’s scout unit, BSA Troop 92, and the board of Granada Hills Charter High School, and has been supported by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2323.
One of the young men to be honored is Frank Allender, who attended Granada Hills High and enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduation, serving as a helicopter crewman in Vietnam. He was killed in 1967, when his aircraft crashed due to a mechanical failure. Allender was 20.
Smith said renovating and expanding the monument is only fitting.
For more information, contact Granada Hills High at 818-360-2361 or Douglas Smith at 818-602-3330.
Reduced Snowpack & Increased Water Use Call for Increased Conservation
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) today reminds customers that Mandatory Water Conservation remains in effect and urges customers to increase their water conservation efforts where possible. Overall, water conservation in Los Angeles has been remarkable over the past five years, but recently customer use has been on the rise.
Since 2009, when Mandatory Water Conservation took effect, LADWP water customers have successfully reduced water consumption citywide by nearly 20%. Though overall water use continues to be significantly lower than it has in the past, water use in recent months has risen sharply since January. Year-to-year trends are more modest, but are still cause for concern with overall water use from July 2011 to March 2012, up nearly 3% when compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. Single-family residential customers alone have demonstrated an increase in water use of more than 5% for the same period, while multi-family residential customers are up just over 1%.
LADWP urges all customers to keep saving water, and money, by continuing to abide by Mandatory Water Conservation measures put into effect in 2009. Reducing water use is as simple as checking sprinkler timers, checking indoors for leaky faucets and toilets, and using a hose fitted with a shut-off nozzle when watering landscape or washing your car.
“In 2011, our customers reached a per capita water usage of 123 gallons daily – the lowest in Los Angeles in more than 40 years and the currently the lowest among any U.S. city with a population over one million,” said James McDaniel, Senior Assistant General Manager, LADWP Water System. “Still, even with this remarkable achievement, recently we’ve noticed water use on the rise and with temperatures climbing and summer coming, we’re asking our customers to once again take a look at their water use and see how they can use less.”
The recent uptick in water use this fiscal year is especially concerning following a dry winter and a below-normal snowpack this year. Dry years require increased purchases of expensive imported supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to supplement Los Angeles’ water supply, resulting in higher costs for customers. LADWP customers can curb the impact of the dry winter by increasing water conservation efforts to reduce the city’s overall water demand and thereby reduce the amount of purchased water needed. Since LADWP customers pay only for water used, without any fixed water charges, any additional reduction in water use will result in direct savings on their water bills compared to what they would have paid without conservation.
In June 2009, the City of Los Angeles instituted Mandatory Water Conservation, which restricted outdoor watering and prohibited certain uses of water. The outdoor watering restrictions currently in effect allow customers to use sprinklers three days a week based on their street address. Customers whose address ends with an odd number – 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 – are allowed to use sprinklers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Customers whose addresses end in even numbers – 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 – are allowed to use sprinklers on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Watering with sprinklers is allowed before 9:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m. only, regardless of the watering day, for a maximum of eight minutes per station.
Mandatory Water Conservation also places restrictions on specific water uses, which also remain in effect. Restrictions include prohibiting customers from hosing down driveways and sidewalks, requiring all leaks to be fixed, and requiring customers to use hoses fitted with shut-off nozzles only, among other measures.
To assist customers in conserving water, LADWP offers numerous rebate programs and incentives for switching to water-efficient devices as well as tips for easy ways to reduce water use. Information on the water conservation rebates, as well comprehensive information on Mandatory Water Conservation, is available at www.ladwp.com or by calling 1-800-DIAL DWP.
