The City of West Hollywood hosted its first first Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy focus group on Tuesday, October 25th from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Aquatic & Recreation Center. Community members were invited to meet in person and share feedback, ideas, and contribute to the City’s public safety priorities. There will be a virtual meeting on Thursday, November 3, 2022, from 12-1:30 PM by Zoom. Get Zoom details and register online at: https://www.weho.org/cswb
The actual start of the meeting was at 7pm. West Hollywood Council member candidates, Chelsea Byers, Adam Darvish, and Steve Martin joined WeHo residents, and City of West Hollywood advisory board and commission members for a night of activities and dialogue on safety and well being in West Hollywood.
West Hollywood Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy Meeting – WEHO TIMES
West Hollywood Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy Meeting – WEHO TIMESThe City of West Hollywood is bringing a creative, progressive, and proactive approach to public safety and community well-being. After hearing concerns from the community about income and housing insecurity, mental health and addictions, and crime, our City Council began developing a responsive Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy (CSWB) earlier this year.
From initial consultation with stakeholders, the city received important feedback about prioritizing accessibility to key social services and programs and identifying ways to proactively address crime.
West Hollywood Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy Meeting – WEHO TIMES
West Hollywood Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy Meeting – WEHO TIMESIn August, the City adopted ten Community Safety and Well-Being (CSWB) Strategic Priorities. This fall, the City is bringing this initial plan to the community for feedback! Staff will take information gained from this process to refine it to develop a final Strategy for roll-out later this year. Join us at a public meeting, community pop-up, focus group, or take an online survey to:
Learn more about the CSWB project and what the initial Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy is all about
Share your perspectives and feedback on the initial Strategy’s priorities and initiatives
On August 15, 2022, City Council adopted ten initial CSWB Strategic Priorities.
Download the Initial CSWB Strategy Report.
West Hollywood Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy Meeting – WEHO TIMESIssue Based Priorities
The priorities below are issues requiring close attention or immediate action.
- Crime: Increase focus on preventative and situation-based measures (e.g., technology, visible presence of deputies) to address crime and curb reliance on enforcement-led incident response.
- Emergency Preparedness: Protect community members from natural and human-made emergencies through robust emergency planning and mitigation initiatives.
- Homelessness: Provide integrated individualized supports to unhoused community members with complex needs; work to ensure that appropriate shelter is provided and that public spaces are available for residents to use as intended.
- Housing Insecurity: Keep individuals at risk of losing their homes, housed and healthy by focusing on services and interventions related to income/rental support, affordable housing, food insecurity, transit, and other upstream community development supports.
- Mental Health and Substance Use: Respond to the acute mental health and substance use challenges of both housed and unhoused individuals by maintaining seamless access to comprehensive service offerings (counselling, psychiatry assessments, safe shelter, etc.).
- Poverty and Food Insecurity: Provide targeted supports for individuals experiencing poverty and food insecurity to combat the effects of stagnating wages and the increased cost of living.
- Senior Care and Isolation: Support community members with wraparound services tailored to the needs of the elderly (health care, food delivery, transportation, and socialization, etc.)
Integrated System Priorities
The priorities below are focused on the process of community-building and interaction.
- Law Enforcement Trust, Transparency, and Accountability: Define what the desired future state of law enforcement looks like (i.e., setting clear expectations), and what models best support that vision. Improve trust between the local law enforcement and priority populations (e.g., BIPOC and LGBTQ+).
- System Capacity and Innovation: Harness data to bolster system efficiency – do more with the existing resources and make informed funding decisions.
- System Connectivity: Update existing, and create new, mechanisms to foster public awareness of City-led safety and well-being initiatives; improve digital, physical, and cultural accessibility for a range of groups (i.e., those who are marginalized, older, immigrants or have disabilities); increase communication, collaboration, and cooperation between the City’s stakeholder groups as well as with neighboring municipalities and the County.
Basically nobody showed up because it’s not that complicated. If the City (or council candidates) need to participate in this exercise in order to understand what public safety is and what residents want, then they’re out of touch, or worse.
So true.
How much does the city pay these consultants with their silly dots and post-it notes??? Too much, I’m sure. They had the same process for the Hart Dog Park revamp that was curtailed due to Covid then they never finished the process. The city wastes money with these community engagements when they know EXACTLY what they are going to do all along. It’s pathetic. The city has admitted that they spend much more money maintaining fake turf for dogs but completely ignores the realities of turf being hotter on the dogs paws, the smell and bacteria and the waste of… Read more »
Everyone claims to be so concerned about public safety, but I only count 8 people who actually showed up to a public safety meeting and 2 of them are running for city council. Take note of the candidates who didn’t show up. People like Lauren Meister and Robert Oliver are running their campaigns on being pro public safety but where were they last night that was so important?
Oliver is one of the first ones to recommend defunding the sheriffs dept. He only changed position after backlash. Unfortunately, many people are so turned off by the current council (minus Meister) not listening the people that they’ve tuned out.
So what??? It shows character. It shows he’s paying attention and he’s big enough to admit he’s wrong. Why hold it against him? You people and your dumb rules.
He changed his stance because he saw it wasn’t popular. He never admitted that he was wrong to support the measure in the first place. (that shows character?!) Second, he’s backed by Unite Here 11…they have way too much control in our city already. He is their mouthpiece. We don’t want a union to control our city council. NO on OLIVER. (and childish personal attacks say more about you than it does about anyone else – grow up).
REFUND the sheriff’s department. And we’re part of the PRIORITY population when it comes to public safety.