On Wednesday, our community experienced a truly horrible day of violence. After murdering his father, brother and severely injuring his mother in Canoga Park, the suspect shot several more victims throughout the Valley, including killing one person on the Orange Line. While this murderous shooting is spree beyond disturbing, I am incredibly grateful for diligent work of our LAPD officers who swiftly found the suspect and prevented an even worse tragedy. Many officers from multiple divisions were mobilized to track the suspect and keep our community safe.
I hope to never see another day like this in our community but I am thankful that we have such dedicated and capable officers ready to protect and serve when those crises arise.
Team Blumenfield Co-Hosts Homeless Connect Day in Reseda
On July 18, Team Blumenfield co-hosted a Homeless Connect Day with State Senator Henry Stern at the Reseda Recreation Center. Although the West Valley has fewer homeless people compared to all other areas of our City, Blumenfield continues to fight for more resources to address homelessness. It is necessary to ensure the Valley’s homeless are offered the services and assistance they need to get off the street. Homelessness is a humanitarian issue as well as a critical quality of life issue throughout our community. Homeless Connect Days are an efficient way to directly link people experiencing homelessness with specialized social services, such as mobile showers, assistance getting up-to-date identification cards from the DMV, and support with tickets and warrants from the citation clinic.
“Each time I have hosted a Homeless Connect Day, more than 100 homeless people have come to seek help, and most of them turn out to be West Valley natives,” said Blumenfield.
Homeless Connect Days started with LA Family Housing creatively bridging the gap to bring services to people where they actually were living, rather that assuming they would come to a central location where the services were being offered. Getting into different neighborhoods allows the service providers to meet the homeless where they are to determine how they could best be helped.
As leaders in homelessness outreach, Blumenfield and his staff have hosted a dozen Homeless Connect Days since he took office, and they continue to recruit volunteers, food donors, and coordinate with venues. After seeing the diligent work done by Team Blumenfield for Homeless Connect Days, other governmental offices have reached out to co-host, learn best practices, and partner up on this important venture.
Homeless Connect Days are just one of the tools Blumenfield uses to address homelessness in the West Valley. To learn more about his legislative efforts focused on the issue, please click here.
This summer Councilmember Blumenfield provided funds and space in his district office for West Valley residents to take Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training program classes.
As a strong advocate of emergency preparedness, Blumenfield encourages residents to learn how to keep themselves and their families safe for the next disaster. CERT training is a fantastic way to be more prepared and know how to help your family and neighbors before, during, and after an emergency.
“Every one of us must be prepared for any type of disaster, because it is not a matter of IF, but WHEN the next disaster will strike,” said Blumenfield. “CERT is invaluable to the community because it turns everyday people into educated, confident volunteer responders that can triage victims or contain a small fire before professional first responders get to the scene.”
People of all ages signed up for this exciting course to learn valuable skills to handle any type of emergency, including an earthquake or a large scale fire. In the City's 2019-20 Budget, Blumenfield secured additional funding for LAFD to eliminate the backlog in requested CERT training city-wide.
The CERT program is led by LAFD CERT Instructor Randy Opperman, who has been with the department for 18 years. He has been teaching attendants on the basics of earthquake readiness, triage, fire containment, handling survivor stress, responding to a terror attack, and many other vital lessons. These classes take place every Tuesday morning from 9:00am-11:00am from July 9 to August 20. Registration for this class is closed, but to find other CERT classes please click here.
Did you know you can drop off bulky items such as TVs and couches at the West Valley Sanitation Yard? On August 17, LA Sanitation will be open for Bulky Item Drop Offs at 8840 Vanalden Ave., Northridge, CA. The West Valley Sanitation Yard will be open for residents to drop off bulky items from 9:00am-1:00pm on August 17, September 14, October 19, and November 16. Please be sure to use this great service to help de-clutter your home.
If you can’t make it, you can always take advantage of the MyLA311 app or call 3-1-1 to report bulky items pickup or illegal dumping for free.
The LAPD is seeking civilian hearing examiners to judge cases for officers facing serious misconduct allegations. Due to a measure passed last April, police officers are given the option to have three civilians judge a misconduct case. This is an excellent opportunity for those who are interested in helping out the community and wish to assist in a fair review of police discipline cases. Please submit your applications to the LAPD starting July 9th. Hearing examiners will earn $900 for a full day hearing and $450 for a half-day hearing. To learn more, please click here.
We fought for, voted for and deserve a rail line that will finally connect the Valley to the Westside! Metro is hard at work to improve travel options for residents in the Valley. For more than a year, Metro has been studying options for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor, a new rail line between the Valley and the Westside that will accelerate travel and help business grow. Come learn more about this transformative project--including potential routes, station locations and type of train--August 3 in Van Nuys. The presentation will be in both English and Spanish; the English presentation will begin at 10:30am and the Spanish presentation will begin at 11:45am. Please join Metro at 6262 Van Nuys Bl, Van Nuys, CA 91401. To learn more about theSepulveda Transit Corridor Project, please click here.
“Koda" ID# A1874373- Koda is a delightfully friendly and fun-loving little fellow! He is just 3 years old, and keeps you smiling with his cheerful, playful, outgoing ad fun-loving style. Koda is great with other small dogs too, so Koda will fit right in at home if you have one wanting a sibling. He loves to go to the dog park, play and make lots of dog and people buddies. Afterwards, he is tiny enough at 9 petite pounds to fit in your lap for cozy cuddle-time, which Koda also loves! If you want a little dog for lots of playtime and also lots of love and snuggle time, come meet and adopt fantastic little Koda today!
“Buffy” ID# A1871541- Buffy has exquisite Calico/Tortie colors and her sweetness shines just as brilliantly. Buffy was very well cared for and loved for her 8 years, but sadly her person passed away and now Buffy needs a new family to love! Buffy is a perfect choice for a moderate or low activity home, so you can spend quiet time petting and hugging her and fully enjoy her sweet nature and give her all the ear rubs and under-the-chin scratches she so loves you to give her!
Bring home forever love, smiles, purrs and wags -- come adopt a shelter pet today! Dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, bunnies, all sizes, types and fur lengths, from playful youngsters to gentle, loving seniors -- they are waiting for you at your local CD 3 Animal Shelter! Come fall in love at the West Valley (L.A. city) Animal Shelter at 20655 Plummer St., Chatsworth, (818) 756-9325. See all the L.A. City Shelter animals at http://www.laanimalservices.com/.
auticon is an international IT service provider that recently opened its doors in Woodland Hills and prides itself for its autism-positive work culture. In 2011, founder Dirk Müller-Remus started auticon because his son who is on the autism spectrum opened his eyes about the drastic underemployment of persons with autism. Recognizing their talents for sustained concentration and their analytical mindset, he launched auticon to employee persons with autism to work in information technology.
auticon still maintains its offices in Santa Monica and Culver City and chose to open a third office in Woodland Hills for its easy access to public transportation, great local restaurants, and connecting hub of tech companies in the community. Blumenfield attended auticon's ribboncutting ceremony and learned how the company is bringing diversity and jobs to the West Valley. For many who find it difficult to work in traditional offices, auticon gives them an opportunity to have a life-long career where autism can be an asset to clients in the Woodland Hills area.
To learn more about auticon and their backstory, please visit www.auticon.us or find them on social media at https://www.facebook.com/auticonus/
On July 20, Team Blumenfield and volunteers from Scouts Care SFV joined in an effort to clean up Lanark Park.
NEW PARK UPDATE- This week Blumenfield was joined by LA Sanitation and the LA Conservation Corps to see the progress on his newest pocket park located in Winnetka near Pierce College. The next step will be to install decomposed granite walkways with additional amenities before it is set to open.
Blumenfield cut the ribbon at the opening of the Vela on Ox apartment building, one of the first completed developments under the Warner Center 2035 plan.
This week, Blumenfield helped kick off the new 'Powerhouse Women of the San Fernando Valley' exhibit at the The Museum of the San Fernando Valley. It was special to celebrate his friend and former Councilwoman Joy Picus as well as Leah Cartabruno, two legends who continue to make an indelible impact on the Valley and beyond.
As part of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal's Top 200 influential leaders, Blumenfield joined local leaders from a wide array of fields including non-profit, health care, education, and government.
Blumenfield joined local families at the West Valley Library for the 'Drag Queen Story Hour.'
Blumenfield celebrated Skyler's Little Free Library, a great local program encouraging community-building and literacy in the West Valley.