VAN NUYS : Anti-Panhandling Efforts Discussed

The Sepulveda/Van Nuys Boulevard Business Watch, a recently merged crime prevention group, will discuss its campaign against panhandling at a meeting at 6:30 tonight.

The Business Watch groups from the Sepulveda and Van Nuys boulevard areas merged about four months ago, hoping to create a more efficient group to fight crime.

Chairman Flip Smith said he believes the idea of Business Watch groups are expanding, noting that others are forming in Sun Valley and Encino.

The Sepulveda Boulevard Business Watch started in fall, 1993, and was soon followed by a group of Van Nuys businesses who created their own Business Watch program.

Van Nuys Boulevard features smaller storefronts and a greater diversity of languages than businesses along Sepulveda, but the divergent groups have forged unity together.

“It’s important we create a positive business atmosphere,” Smith said. He added that those who have become block captains in the group have gotten to know their neighbors better.

At tonight’s meeting, the group will discuss its anti-panhandling campaign and attempts to get signs on off-ramps of the San Diego Freeway to discourage begging.

In August, the state Department of Transportation took down signs that the Sepulveda Boulevard Business Watch had put up to discourage panhandling. Caltrans officials said state law prohibits non-traffic signs from being posted on state rights of way.

Lisa Zeni, a field deputy for Councilman Joel Wachs, said that she has been working with Caltrans to get an encroachment permit approved so the anti-panhandling signs can be put back up.

The Sepulveda/Van Nuys Boulevard Business Watch meeting will be held at Economy Office Furniture, 6300 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys.