UCLA Students Want More Say in Local Development Matters

Students attending the University of California, Los Angeles, have decided they are fed up with the anti-development politics of local interests in the neighborhoods around the university campus. They have decided to set up their own neighborhood council, splintering from the Westwood Neighborhood Council, reports Bianca Barragan.

The city of Los Angeles offers a platform for community engagement in the form of neighborhood councils—the politics of each of the city's just-under-100 neighborhood councils vary. The UCLA students, however, say the Westwood Neighborhood Council has a track record of opposing and defeating developments that would add housing and amenities to the neighborhoods adjacent to the university.

Barragan quotes UCLA Urban Planning Professor Paavo Monkkonen in support of the students' decision to form their own neighborhood council:

“It makes no sense that a handful of local homeowners should be able to block new student housing projects and prevent Westwood village from being a vibrant area that appeals to students with restaurants and bars,” he says. He looks forward to having “a rare west LA neighborhood council that wants more housing and more activity.”