Dr. Naomi Nightingale

By Jon Wolff

The following is from a conversation with Dr. Naomi Nightingale about her appointment as chair of the Venice Neighborhood Council Community Development Plan / Venice Coastal Plan Ad Hoc Committee.

Jon Wolff: You’ve been recently appointed to a new ad hoc committee of the Venice Neighborhood Council. What can you tell us about that new committee?

Dr. Nightingale: The new ad hoc committee is formed to take a look at the Los Angeles City Community Development Plan, to see what its effect would be on neighborhoods within the Venice community. It’s part of the L.A. City Community Development Department’s Westside Community Development Plan. This committee will take a look at the areas, our neighborhoods (There are twelve sub-areas that are in the plan), to look at what the Plan proposes for these neighborhoods, and to get input from residents and stakeholders in each of these areas… what their preferences are for the Community Development Plan. The Plan itself is part of the L.A. City’s General Plan. There are thirty-five Community Plans within the City’s larger General Plan, and it comes through the City Council. We want to influence decisions that are being made, or will be made, in terms of our areas. It focuses on land development, open space, and housing. Those are the three major categories. And then, of course, there are sub-categories within each of those categories. But those are the major headings that the Community Development Plan focuses on.

JW: What do you expect will be the outcome from leading this committee?

NN: Based on input from stakeholders at individual meetings (And we will also send out a survey to a six-thousand-name list, that the VNC has, to solicit the information from the stakeholders), we will take that information and code it with a computer system. We’re using Google Forms to send out the survey. That information will be collected within the survey area. We’ll aggregate it in each of the neighborhoods, formulate an assessment of the data that we receive, and give a report of recommendations to the Venice Neighborhood Council, which we then expect will go forward to the Community Development Department. At some point, the Community Development Plan is to align with the Venice Coastal Plan. That is also a goal of the Plan: To make sure that the Venice Coastal Plan and the Community Development Plan are aligned with its directions and plans for the future of Venice.

JW: What can Venetians do to help you achieve these goals? Should they come to meetings?

NN: They should come to meetings. There is a schedule of meetings on the Venice Neighborhood Council website [www.venicenc.org]. We’ve set meetings up each week. That schedule might change, so pay attention to the website. At each meeting, we will focus on a particular sub-area or neighborhood in the Venice community. It would be important for people from that particular neighborhood to come to meetings to share their input and their preferences. That information will be collected and used as a part of our survey information.