Three UCLA students were assaulted and robbed in Westwood during the first half of February – a less than two-week span.
All three crimes took place near the same stretch of Ophir Drive, which spans the North Village from Landfair Avenue to Veteran Avenue, an area heavily populated by UCLA students.
The number of crimes raises doubts about the safety of students living in the apartments adjacent to campus, and the stretch of Ophir where the recent incidents took placeis noticeably unlit – fewer than 10 streetlights illuminate the street at night.
Promising to light up the streets of the North Village is a mainstay of campaign platforms for undergraduate student government candidates and often surfaces as a response to crimes in Westwood. But between the good intentions of student advocates and a better lit neighborhood is a thicket of financial and organizational barriers.
Because student organizations like the Undergraduate Student Association Council have a limited pool of funds to pull from, the Westwood Neighborhood Council, which serves the greater Westwood community, must step up to help reduce crime.
The Westwood Neighborhood Council can petition the city for funds to increase the number of streetlights. At the very least, the councilcan make lighting the North Village a priority at its meetings in the future.
For their part, the three student representatives who hold renters’ seats on the council – Angus Beverly, Armen Hadjimanoukian and Samuel Haws – should push the organization to make the streetlights a priority, as the lack of adequate lighting is an important concern for the student residents they represent.
Hadjimanoukian and Haws, who sit on USAC as the facilities commissioner and general representative, respectively, could also use their political clout in student government to mobilize student support for better lighting and outreach to the neighborhood council on the issue.
University police told the Daily Bruin that they increased patrols in the area and talked to building owners about safety concerns in response to the recent incidents.
The UCPD also continuously urges students to protect themselves by being aware of their surroundings, pocketing their phones, avoiding walking alone and refraining from using headphones. These are all reasonable and helpful suggestions, and students would do well to take heed.
But these suggestions are individual measures, and must be accompanied by a greater, concerted effort to improve the safety environment through deterrents like improved lighting. In this effort, Westwood officials must do their part.
The call for better lighting in Westwood is not new, and bears repeating. But until the relevant stakeholders take up the cause, it will continue to create an unsafe environment for student renters.
It is unlikely that the Los Angeles municipal bureaucracy will take note of Westwood’s lighting issue unless students and advocates speak up.
Yes, real problems that need real solutions. These are things that can be put in place relatively quickly while also improving the quality of life for the immediate area around campus. The lack of progress and activism from those able to push for and secure the funds demonstrates that improving lighting in the neighborhood doesn’t “look as good” on the resume, so therefore “not worth their while.” It’s easy for leaders to blame bureaucracy and red tape, but when there’s a will, there’s a way! The city can change all the street lights on Westwood Blvd. to LED, give Stan’s Donuts a plaque commemorating it’s 50th anniversary, but they can’t maintain the existing lighting or add more in the North Village? Perplexing.