By Paul Lerner

Melrose Action Neighborhood Watch was formed in March 2008, after the tragic murder of our neighbor Katan Khaimov near Poinsettia Recreation Center. Melrose Action is an entirely volunteer-run community organization.

Yet in our first year in existence, we staged several events that were well attended and that received heavy media coverage. We developed strong relationships with City officials, the LAPD, and local businesses. And we put in place several very successful efforts that will become ongoing programs.

As a result, the volunteers of Melrose Action have made our community a safer, cleaner, and better place to live.

Here are the achievements of Melrose Action Neighborhood Watch during our first year:

• We coordinated a community forum to express our outrage over the murder of Katan Khaimov. Even though the forum was organized in just a few days by Melrose Action founder Peter Nichols, it was attended by more than 300 residents.

• One month later we held a candlelight vigil, featuring a moving speech by L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

• We worked with our City Council office and the L.A. City Office of Community Beautification to get funding for a proactive graffiti clean-up crew that is now dramatically reducing the amount of graffiti in our neighborhood. Councilmember Jack Weiss directed $40,000 of funding to this new clean-up

• We developed a close working relationship with Melrose Area Neighbors in Action (MANA), led by residents Gloria Mao, Mitch Singer and Bob Emerson, which has been tirelessly working to clean up the Melrose area for the past several years. We also helped MANA obtain the distribution of neighborhood council funds for trash removal and litter clean-up on Melrose Avenue for 2009.

• We created a Block Captain system that now has dozens of Block Captains who help keep their blocks safe and their neighbors informed about crime prevention.

• We created a web site filled with neighborhood information that is now a valuable resource for the entire Melrose community. As a community oriented website with a focus on crime and other quality of life issues, Melroseaction.com has become a recognized leader of this effort in the Los Angeles area. It has inspired and motivated other neighborhood watch groups to improve their efforts. Melroseaction.com is updated regularly, and provides space for comments and forum postings by residents. We recently completed a major upgrade to our site to better serve the community.

• We continue to add to our e-mail database list that now numbers more than 1,400 residents, who can be instantly informed of serious crimes and other timely issues.

• We are beta testing a emergency text alert system that can be used when emergencies occur such as very serious crimes. terrorism, and natural disasters like earthquake and fire in order to quickly disseminate critical safety information to our local neighborhood.

• We developed a very productive, cooperative relationship the L.A.P.D.'s Wilshire Division command staff that includes Captain Eric Davis, Lt. Detective Bryan Wong, Sgt. A.J Kirby and our area's LAPD Senior Lead Officer Arthur Gallegos who works tirelessly on many quality of life issues in and around our neighborhood.

• We developed a solid, productive, and responsive relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Area Director Fabiola Vilchez. Fabiola has quickly proven to be a invaluable asset to our efforts and our area.

• We developed a valuable and productive relationship with our local District 5 Council office and the field deputy for our area Maya Zutler. Maya has come through for our area and we appreciate her efforts.

• We provided support to local businesses, led by The Village Idiot, as they created the Melrose Action Business Watch – the first business association in this neighborhood in many years. We continue to support their efforts to establish a Business Improvement District for Melrose.

• We held a Community Forum at Fairfax High School to inform the neighborhood about police jurisdiction changes when the LAPD Wilshire Division took over policing our neighborhood.

• We immediately informed the neighborhood about a rash of armed robberies during August 2008, and got extensive media coverage about the crime wave on all of the local TV stations, as well as in the Los Angeles Times.

• We produced the first-ever National Night Out event at Poinsettia Recreation Center. The event included a safety walk, presentations by the LAPD and our local Fire Station, and a raffle featuring prizes from Target and other local businesses. The National Night Out at Poinsettia Recreation Center will become an annual event, held every August. This year's event will take place on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009.

• We met repeatedly with Poinsettia Recreation Center Directors and staff including park police officers to improve safety and crack down on illegal activities in the park. Melrose Action co-coordinators Peter Nichols and Paul Lerner were appointed to the new Park Advisory Board, and will provide neighborhood input into how to spend $1,750,000 of new funding that will be used make improvements at the park.

• We promoted and provided volunteers for the first-ever Melrose Clean-Up, which was organized by LAPD Senior Lead Officer Art Gallegos and sponsored by City Councilmember Jack Weiss, Melrose Action, and MANA. Melrose Action obtained high-profile corporate sponsors as well as media sponsors for the event.

• We arranged to have Melrose Action members speak to each new group of LAPD Wilshire Division police officers at their incoming orientation sessions and assist in securing local restaurants to host the event.

• We held meetings with separate private security firms to explore the possibility of the neighborhood hiring a private security patrol with dedicated car and armed guard patrolling our neighborhood to further reduce area crime and make our area safer.

• We worked with the City and environmental organization Green Way LA to help move forward a “Green Street” project on the block of 600 N. Vista Street. Melrose Action was asked to maintain the site once it's completed.

• We reached out to the city of West Hollywood, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's West Hollywood Division, the West Hollywood Public Safety Commission, and encouraged LAPD's Wilshire Division to build an even stronger cooperative effort with West Hollywood at fighting crime in both areas. West Hollywood Officials attended a recent block captains meeting to share their efforts.

• We developed a good relationship with our neighborhood council, Mid City West Community Council. Melrose Action co-coordinator Paul Lerner was elected to the Mid City West board of directors, and now serves as the co-chair of its Public Safety Committee.

• We developed a strong on-going relationship with Fairfax High School officials to work at reducing issues related to students transversing through our neighborhood.

• We work closely with Pacific Graffiti Solutions, the city's contractor for graffiti removal services in our area to quickly remove graffiti vandalism from our neighborhood and business district.

• We met with and formed relationships with homeowner associations in areas like Venice Beach to learn who they took action to fight graffiti vandalism, blight, and crime in their area.

• We met with the West Hollywood Greater Food Coalition Founder to discuss ways to lessen the impact of homeless/transient issues in our area and work at better cooperation in the future.

• We developed a strong relationship with our new Neighborhood Prosecutor, Deputy City Attorney Capri Maddox, who prosecutes quality-of-life crimes that may otherwise “slip through the cracks.” Capri has already worked to curtail several neighborhood nuisances.

• We encouraged the City to increase lighting in the alleys off Melrose Avenue. In response to our concerns and those of other neighbors, the City recently installed enhanced lighting in many of the alleys – making them less hospitable to illegal activities.

• We arranged for a free self-defense class to be given by Krav Maga Worldwide at Poinsettia Recreation Center, in response to concerns from residents about their security in walking on our neighborhood streets. Twenty residents participated in the class and learned how to defend themselves.

• We developed a relationship with the Target Corporation, which in addition to being a popular local retailer, is also an important sponsor of National Night Out events and public safety programs in communities around the country.

• We participated in a coalition of community groups that sponsored a forum for the City Council candidates running to replace Jack Weiss – so that the candidates became aware of the specific public safety issues in our neighborhood. Additionally, all six of the candidates were invited to speak at a Melrose Action Block Captains meeting, and three of them came and gave presentations.

What's Ahead

We plan to do even more in the coming years – and we need help from you and your neighbors! We need more volunteers to help make our Melrose neighborhood a safer, cleaner, and better place to live. We are also in need donations. To volunteer, or contribute, please e-mail info@melroseaction.com.

Together, we are making an enormous difference in our community!