After living in Los Angeles nearly 50 years, Shelley Taylor,
founder of the North Village Improvement Committee, will leave
Westwood next month in favor of a slower-paced life in the Pacific
Northwest.
Since its creation, Taylor’s group has initiated many
improvements to the North Village, a residential area west of the
UCLA campus and enclosed by Gayley, Le Conte and Veteran avenues.
The area consists of apartment buildings and is home to many UCLA
students.
Taylor, a retired actress known for roles on “General
Hospital,” “Days of Our Lives” and
“Hunter,” among other shows, founded NVIC in the late
1990s in response to the “general apathy” that she saw
in the neighborhood.
The group has been responsible for the installation of trash
cans, the maintenance of lamp posts and red curbs and the insurance
of weekly curbside collection of bulky items such as couches and
refrigerators by city employees.
Operation Clean Sweep, a program in which fraternity members
clean the streets of the North Village twice a year, is also a
product of NVIC.
The physical preservation of the the North Village is not
Taylor’s only concern.
NVIC has also worked to establish dialogue between property
owners, UCLA and the student population.
Taylor’s family has owned residential space in the North
Village since they moved to Westwood in 1956, and Taylor has owned
two area businesses ““ an arcade and a bakery.
For Taylor, the decision to leave the North Village was
difficult, and she will depart next month with deeply ambivalent
feelings.
She is simultaneously enamored with her history with Westwood
and relieved to be unburdened of that connection and liberated from
her history.
Taylor currently resides in the building in which her late
parents lived, which serves as a constant reminder of them.
Though Taylor has long been connected to the neighborhood, it
was not until her retirement from acting that she had the time to
become active in the community.
Taylor was prompted to found NVIC when a fellow property owner
voiced her intention to leave the North Village, citing the
increasing student population and the high noise level in the
area.
“When I was a kid growing up, there were always students,
but there were families, professional people, kids playing ball in
the street. It was very much a family community here,” she
said.
Her desire to preserve the historic character of the North
VIllage led her to work for the physical upkeep and the social
welfare of the village.
Taylor and her husband are among the last of a dwindling class
of Westwood property owners. The two live in their own building and
directly oversee their property and tenants.
The proliferation in recent years of owners who do not live in
Westwood has altered the character of the neighborhood for the
worse, Taylor said.
Her efforts to improve the condition of the village have been
substantial, but the outward appearance of her own building, from
the lush landscaping to the unique paint job, is perhaps the
clearest manifestation of the extreme care that Taylor invests in
everything she does.
The pride with which Taylor cares for her own property is
indicative of her concern for the quality of the neighborhood.
Taylor was an advocate for the removal of a sober living
facility that was intended to provide a sanctuary for recovering
addicts. The facility apparently fell short of that goal, and its
tenants were responsible for numerous drug-related emergencies.
Though some criticized Taylor for a perceived lack of compassion
and elitist attitude, she defended her position as being in the
interest of the neighborhood.
“If it had been what it was supposed to be, that would
have been fine with me,” she said.
Community involvement has allowed Taylor to utilize the same
skills that made her a successful actress. Those who have worked
with her are quick to mention her outgoing personality as an
important factor in her ability to organize and motivate diverse
groups of people.
“She was enthusiastic and easy to work with. Everyone she
helped wanted to help her,” said Nancy Greenstein, the
director of university police community services, who worked with
Taylor on various projects.
Susan Strick, a neighborhood prosecutor at the city
attorney’s office who worked with Taylor to establish a
coalition of property owners to provide responsible oversight of
buildings and tenants, described Taylor as both
“tenacious” and “charming.”
Both Greenstein and Strick said the North Village community is
indebted to Taylor and will miss her.
“She bridged the gap between fraternities, apartment
owners and non-students. I don’t see anyone who will fill her
role,” Strick said.
Taylor’s efforts to eliminate graffiti in the commercial
area of Westwood have garnered the admiration of local business
owners.
Though it may seem that Taylor’s decision to leave the
area was motivated by her frustration at not being able to improve
the neighborhood satisfactorily despite her painstaking efforts,
she says the reasons behind the move are more personal.
Taylor and her husband look forward to the uncrowded way of life
that awaits them in the town of 8,000 where they will make their
home.
Her husband, a retired contractor, plans to build a house from
scratch. Taylor plans to relax.
“People say to me, “˜Aren’t you going to be
bored up there?’ But the truth is, I don’t always have
to be involved in something,'” she said.