Larchmont Chronicle; Larchmont Charter
Your community newspaper is concerned about community issues. A critical issue relates to one of the four campuses of Larchmont Charter School (LCS), whose original campus is just a few blocks from our newspaper office on Larchmont Boulevard.
Larchmont Charter School also has a campus in Hollywood, on Selma and Cherokee avenues, adjoining Schrader Boulevard and the so-called, but useless to families, “Selma Park.” The elementary school and mini-park are located in City Council District 13, now overseen by Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.
On this matter, we hope his oversight is constant and helpful.
Many more details about the recent “Inside Safe” cleanup — for which Mayor Karen Bass, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and the councilmember are sharing credit — are contained in the story on Page 10 of this, our annual “Back to School” edition. It was good to see the Aug.10 all-day mobilization that helped street dwellers find transitional housing while cleaning the neighborhood’s streets, sidewalks and pocket park. For the children, their families and others going back to school this month at the Selma campus, a return of the prior civilized sidewalk environment is very welcome.
The previous unacceptable situation along this stretch of Selma Avenue was one where vagrants took over the sidewalk and the park adjacent to the school, creating an extremely hostile environment.
On multiple occasions, the new councilmember (who took office last December) promised that the situation would be addressed and that the sidewalks would be free of vagrant encampments when school started in August. The community — not just the school but residents of many multi-family units within a block or two of the former encampment — is grateful that the crisis was addressed on Aug. 10, a dozen days before LCS students returned to school on Aug. 22.
Now, the community’s charge to its councilmember is to support continuing and vigorous enforcement of the city council-adopted ordinance that prohibits such hazards near schools. Councilmember Soto-Martinez may dislike that ordinance (which has been on the books prior to his taking his oath of office) and its Section 41.18 (e), a point he made during his campaign, but he is obligated to follow the law — as are all the public safety, sanitation and other officials who work for the city. See the ordinance at: bit.ly/3OJrVTl.
Category: News