Police to Barricade Westwood Village : Crowds: Vehicle traffic will not be allowed into the area on weekend nights because of congestion and growing violence.

Westwood Village, and busy Westwood Boulevard, will be blocked off to vehicle traffic on weekend nights in the wake of a melee three weeks ago in which nine people were arrested and three people injured, city officials said Wednesday.

Weekend night crowds have gotten so large and unruly that police had to declare an unlawful assembly and clear the entire Westwood Village area four times in the last year, officials said.

Beginning this weekend, Aug. 24, all streets into Westwood Village will be closed on Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Currently, most streets into the village are closed on those nights, but only from 9:30 p.m. to midnight.

In the past, Westwood Boulevard, the main artery through the area, had stayed open throughout the weekend but now will be shut to traffic during the specified hours, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said.

Although city officials rank the intersection of Westwood and Wilshire boulevards as among the busiest in the city--if not the busiest--traffic engineers determined that shutting down Westwood Boulevard would not worsen the flow.

Yaroslavsky, who represents the district, said street workers will take special pains to close off Westwood at Wilshire last, putting other barriers in place beforehand. The councilman said that might push the actual closure time of that intersection closer to 8 p.m.--after rush-hour traffic disperses.

On any given day, 100,000 cars on Wilshire alone pass through the intersection, Yaroslavsky said, and thousands more travel down Westwood Boulevard on their way to UCLA, Westwood Village or the San Diego Freeway.

“The village is too small to accommodate the combination of foot traffic and vehicular traffic that crowds in on weekend nights and, during certain hours, cars are just going to have to give way to people,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

The Los Angeles Police Department requested the street closures, and increasing complaints about overflow crowds and violence helped city officials override protests by some area merchants, Yaroslavsky said.

On Aug. 3, it took nearly three hours to quell a disturbance that police said broke out about 10:30 p.m. Dozens of youths began fighting, police said, and some ran through the crowds randomly punching and robbing people.

In particular, authorities are becoming increasingly concerned that gang members from other parts of the city are moving into Westwood Village on weekend nights, confronting each other and causing congestion.

The fatal shooting of an innocent bystander in 1988 drew national attention to the fact that gangs were moving out of their traditional inner-city turf and spreading into affluent areas. The victim, Karen Toshima, was window-shopping with friends when she was struck by a stray bullet during a skirmish between two rival gangs.

In the past, Westwood Village merchants had opposed traffic restrictions, first implemented in June, 1988, and then scaled back several times to allow more vehicle traffic through.

“We have a cautious appreciation of the city’s taking a position to protect the pedestrian environment,” said Scott Regberg, executive director of the Westwood Village Merchants Assn.

Visitors to Westwood Village can still use a shuttle service that runs constantly from the parking lot of the federal building on Veteran Avenue south of Wilshire Boulevard.

“We are aware it will create a hardship for some businesses, but it will be a boon to others,” said Yaroslavsky. “We have to look out for the health and welfare of the whole village and the people who visit it.”