Game of Zoning: How Steve Sann’s appeals have obstructed businesses in Westwood

This post was updated June 10 at 1:30 p.m. Businesses in Westwood have experienced difficulty operating due to appeals and protests – and 61% of the appeals in the last 20 years have been lodged by three community members: Steve Sann, Sandy Brown and Wolfgang Veith. Appeals are requests to change a project proposal that […]

The Centennial Issue: History of Westwood

The Village is quiet. Blinking lights illuminate “Westwood” on top of the observatory tower overlooking the undeveloped land of Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres in 1925. Decades later, Westwood is crowded with students, residents and travelers in line for the next big movie premiere. And yet in the following years, the Village goes quiet […]

LAPD announces increase in Westwood Village crime rates compared to 2018 report

Westwood Village saw an increase in theft and burglary as well as a decrease in robberies and aggravated assault from 2018-2019, according to a Los Angeles Police Department report. The LAPD shared a four-month summary report to the North Westwood Neighborhood Council at its May 1 meeting indicating a 37% increase in part one crimes […]

Westwood Village Improvement Association recap – May 16

The Westwood Village Improvement Association is a nonprofit organization tasked with improving the state of Westwood Village. Property and business owners created the association in 2011 to provide the Village with functions the city of Los Angeles could not provide. Its board of directors will next meet July 18, 2019. Erin Schneider, a field deputy […]

North Westwood Neighborhood Council discusses Sepi’s closure and reasons for it

Westwood stakeholders said the closure of a local sports bar was a failure as a community at a meeting Wednesday. The first agenda item of the North Westwood Neighborhood Council addressed the closure of Sepi’s, a longstanding Westwood sports bar. Sepi’s closed Tuesday after being unable to relocate. Other agenda items were tabled for later […]

UCPD looking for four men involved in burglary at Venice Boulevard apartments

This post was updated May 2 at 11:18 p.m. University police are searching for four men involved in a burglary Wednesday morning. Four men were seen breaking into multiple vehicles in the Venice-Barry Apartments parking garage from 1 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., according to a UCPD crime alert. The men entered at least two unlocked […]

Document shows three people account for majority of property appeals in Westwood

Nearly two-thirds of appeals against Westwood businesses and properties in the last 20 years were made by the same three community members. A document compiled by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning listed 72 appeals made since 1998. Of the 72 appeals, 61% were filed by the same three community members in a community […]