The Facts About Fireworks
July 4, 2020: the Verdugo Hills burned again, less than three years after the La Tuna Fire, L.A.’s worst blaze in half a century. Illegal backyard fireworks started the last conflagration, seen here from Verdugo Mountain Park.
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Krekorian’s Childcare Initiative Launches in City Parks
During the budget cuts of the Great Recession a decade ago, the City reduced the number of childcare centers in parks from 24 to just two. This year, Councilmember Krekorian delivered funding to begin restoring quality childcare services across the city, beginning in the East Valley.
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Council Appoints L.A.’s First Chief Heat Officer
Acting on a motion authored by Councilmember Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles has joined cities such as Miami, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; Monterrey, Mexico; Athens, Greece; Freeport, Sierra Leone; and Santiago de Chile in naming an officer to oversee the City’s response to extreme heat events.
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Lankershim Arts Center Reopens In NoHo to Serve the East Valley
As Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, Councilmember Krekorian secured the funding to renovate, reopen and reactivate the Lankershim Arts Center.
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Wat Thai Temple Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Councilmember Paul Krekorian joined the monks and congregants of Wat Thai of Los Angeles in celebrating the temple’s 50th anniversary. For the last half century, this temple in North Hollywood has been the spiritual and cultural center of the Thai community of Southern California, and has also provided a haven of spiritual comfort for refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, as well as people of many other backgrounds and birthplaces.
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Councilmember Krekorian Honors See’s Candies
Council District 2 staff met with See’s Candies CEO Pat Egan at the See’s store in North Hollywood to present See’s with a framed City Council resolution, authored by Councilmember Krekorian and signed by all members, congratulating See’s on their 100th anniversary.
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Responding to Homelessness
The 2022-23 budget allocates over $1 billion, nearly a tenth of the total budget, to addressing the ongoing crisis of homelessness. This includes substantially increased funding for housing and services, and for sanitation and protecting public health.
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Highlights of the 2002-23 Budget: Staffing Up For Better Service
Many departments are understaffed and services have suffered. The new budget beefs up the Personnel Department so it can fill funded vacancies faster. The budget also expands the wildly successful Targeted Local Hire program that gives unhoused people and others who have struggled to find employment an opportunity to prepare for entry-level public service career jobs working for the city. With the new budget, the City will have more crews for street cleaning, street lighting, tree trimming, sidewalk repair and traffic safety. More staff means faster response time to service requests. For example, the budget provides resources for the trimming of 10,000 trees throughout the city. Additional crews will be hired to repair street lights and fortify them against the copper wire theft that has left so many streets in the dark.
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Metrolink Converts to 100 Percent Renewable Fuel
Metrolink, Southern California’s regional commuter rail agency, has become the first railroad in the United States to complete the transition from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable fuels for all of its locomotives. Biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil costs less than ten cents a gallon, and can cut CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent.
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L.A. Adopts Electric Vehicle Master Plan
On April 6, the Council approved a motion by Councilmember Paul Krekorian and his colleague Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell to create the City’s strategic long-term Electric Vehicle Master Plan, a comprehensive roadmap to establishing an all-electric fleet of City vehicles.
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Krekorian and City Council Take Aim at Plastic Pollution
Starting on April 22, 2022 (Earth Day), restaurants in Los Angeles will no longer automatically offer customers single-use plastic utensils and condiment packets with their takeout and delivery orders. Customers who desire such disposable foodware items may still request them, but the wasteful practice of automatically providing unwanted disposable items that go straight to the trash will no longer be permitted. This “Skip the Stuff” ordinance has applied to larger establishments since last November.
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North Hollywood Welcomes New Economic Development Zone
One of the most significant features of Councilmember Krekorian’s Comprehensive Jobs Plan for Los Angeles was the creation of the Jobs and Economic Development Incentive (JEDI) zone program. JEDI zones now give the City a menu of resources that can be used for targeted economic revitalization in underserved areas.
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Fighting Organized Metal Theft
The high prices of metals such as copper, platinum and rhodium have caused a spike in theft of such metals across the United States. Thieves damage public property to strip wires out of lampposts, plunging entire streets into darkness. While looting streetlights may net the thieves a few dollars, it costs the city thousands to repair them.
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Modular Construction Saves Time and Money in Permanent Supportive Housing Project
Councilmember Krekorian has pushed aggressively to build adequate emergency interim housing in our district, adding two congregate shelters and three Tiny Home communities in just over a year. But interim housing is only the first step in giving people experiencing homelessness an opportunity to stabilize and restart their lives. The longer term solution, especially for those who have experienced chronic homelessness and more persistent challenges, is permanent supportive housing (PSH).
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Reducing the Plague of Plastic Waste
Throughout the world, the use of plastics has proliferated, and so has plastic pollution in our neighborhoods, open spaces and waterways. By the year 2050, there will be more plastic trash in the world’s oceans than fish. Councilmember Krekorian has fought against this scourge throughout his time in public service.
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