I was born and raised in Inglewood. I love this city! I remember when there was a Ralphs supermarket at Manchester and Crenshaw and a Safeway Supermarket across the street at 85th and Crenshaw Boulevard. I remember the 5th Avenue Theatre, the Academy Theatre and the Imperial Theatre on Imperial and Crenshaw Boulevard. Brolly Hut at Crenshaw and 111th had the best charbroiled burgers to eat after racing your slot car at Dave’s Grand Prix Slot Car Track on Manchester Boulevard between 7th and 8th Avenues.

It hurts me to see neglected infrastructure and the slipshod maintenance of streets The streets were once Slurry Sealed and paved; they were smooth as glass. Upon being elected councilman, one of my top priorities was to make District 1 stand out from the rest of the City of Inglewood. It then followed naturally that when my friends and neighbors contacted my office about trees needing trimming, abandoned or burnt out houses, overgrown and trashy landscaping, graffiti, abandoned furniture, dumped refuse and other such issues, I followed up with an intense passion.

A lot of follow-up calls and e-mails later, to a number of city employees up to and including the city manager, and taking property owners—some of which are large organizations—to task to do a better job of maintenance and cleanup of their property, and I am sure you’ll agree we are seeing some improvement. I feel there are more to come in 2013.

As an example, I had a very difficult time of convincing the previous owner of the Forum to do a better job of keeping the grounds maintained on a regular basis. I had to personally write the owner letters from my office because upper city management at that time simply would not cite them for the upkeep of their own trees and shrubs. There was a great amount of paper and debris that would blow around the parking lot too. My philosophy is, “What is good for the resident is good for the multi-million dollar corporation.” Since the new owner, Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), purchased the Forum, the grounds have been better maintained. They have hired a landscape maintenance company, and the new Forum management has told me that the parking lot will be repaved and the landscaping improved this year.

Sadly, the most difficult property-owning organization to deal with has been the City of Inglewood.

When I first arrived at city hall, I repeatedly asked the city manager to clean up the lots, to fix the fencing, and to better maintain city- owned properties. I had little success.

One example was the city- owned property on the southeast corner of Florence and La Brea. Requests to repair the tattered fencing and the sand bags rotting from years of neglect were all but ignored. It has taken a one- man campaign of tenacity,
dedication and relentless hands-on determination to prompt upper-level city management to undertake a “let’s beautify Inglewood” campaign. Even better, the city council—as members of the Successor Agency— recently voted to replace the dilapidated fencing around ALL former Redevelopment Agency-owned properties.

Our new Public Works Director has heard my message and is currently working with MTA attempting to do a better job of keeping the rail line along Florence cleaned up. So far this is a work in progress, but I can assure you I will be follow- ing up. The city manager is also becoming more responsive to my clean-up requests of properties owned and controlled by the City of Inglewood.

On a related note, I wish to extend a very special “Thank You” and honorable mentions to Ms. Martha Hunter, Ms. Ethel Alexander, and Ms. Mildred Hackett, the members of the District 1 Beautification Committee. I am very proud of them for responding to my call for such a group—and you should be proud of them too.

Last spring these three ambitious residents of District 1 volunteered to become the District 1 Beautification Committee. Their successes are visible all over District 1 as well as throughout Inglewood. They have called in to report landscaping maintenance or cleanliness issues to city employees or my office, if necessary, for remediation.

With the help of my office and city employees, they have contributed significantly to the ongoing clean- up and improved maintenance at the District 1 Community Center on 7th Ave. and Manchester. they have also prompted the cleanup of business facades, empty lots and landscaping on Manchester from Crenshaw Boulevard to Van Ness Avenue.

Improving and maintaining the beauty and cleanliness of our wonderful City of Inglewood is something we can all participate in. I know many of us are already doing a fantastic effort. I’ve seen plenty of my friends and neighbors sweeping between the weekly street sweeper visits, cleaning the streets in front of their house and landscaping the front yards of their homes so beautifully they could grace the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

For those of us trying to make a difference in Inglewood here are some tools. It is a directory of commonly needed city services to help us succeed as a team in further beautifying the great City of Inglewood:

Code Enforcement
Supervisor Woodrow Taylor
Manager Linda Tatum

Tree Trimming and City Property Maintenance Supervisor
Rita Gardner
Director Sabrina Barnes

Street and Sidewalk Repair, Street Sweepers
Manager Harry Frisby
Public Works Director Louis
Atwell lat-

Trash Pickup, including abandoned furniture and dumped refuse
Angela Williams
Public Works Director Lou- is Atwell

City Manager: Artie Fields


And, of course, if the city management employees noted above are not being responsive to your requests, please contact the District 1 Council Office at . If you have access to e-mail I prefer to document these types of requests in writing.

My e-mail is . Also, see my officeholder website at www. CouncilmanMikeStevens. com to easily access the City of Inglewood online service request system.

Happy 2013!
Sincerely,
Councilman Mike Stevens