Group Lists 62 Ways to Improve Community

A consortium of Valley service agencies released a list of 62 recommendations Wednesday that they said will help focus efforts to improve North Hills.

The list includes specific recommendations on subjects ranging from crime prevention and housing to recreation and health services. Its aim was to identify the most effective ways to meet the disparate needs of North Hills residents, said Vince Velivis, the director of Bridge Focus, which took a lead role in preparing the document.

“There are a lot of different agencies out there and a lot of different programs, but until now there wasn’t something that tied all of these efforts together,” Velivis said. “There are enough resources out there, we just have to have better focus and utilization of those resources.”

In addition to Bridge Focus, the consortium, the North Hills Community Based Organizations, included El Proyecto del Barrio, the San Fernando Valley Partnership, the North Hills Coordinating Council and about a dozen other groups.

Recommendations were made directly by participating organizations or taken from one of several analyses of the area made during the last two years, officials said. The collaborative has been meeting since June to prepare the report.

The list includes simple steps, such as sponsoring crime-prevention workshops for senior citizens and youths and improving local parks and more complex ones, such as the establishment of a North Hills community center.

The report makes no recommendation on the subject of gang injunctions in North Hills.

The Los Angeles city attorney, with the support of Councilman Richard Alarcon, is conducting a survey to learn, among other things, if area residents approve of a gang injunction that has been proposed for Orion Street--a move that some members of the collaborative have opposed.

On Wednesday, Alarcon praised the consortium for its efforts to improve North Hills and for remaining neutral on the subject of gang injunctions until the city attorney’s office releases the results of its survey.