2022 Alma Park Neighbors Accomplishments
Towards the end of 2022, Alma Park Neighbors coordinators met to reflect on the group and community's accomplishments throughout the year. In particular, we reflected on how our work helped create a more clean, safe, and welcoming neighborhood.
Consistency
Coordinators were pleased to realize the group:
We facilitated twelve in-person neighborhood meetings at the Park on 21st & Meyler, with an average monthly attendance of around 20 attendees. We welcomed new participants at almost every meeting. In April, after the meeting had concluded, coordinators were happy to see that attendees stayed to chat with each other and catch up. Seeing these friendly interactions helped us realize our neighborhood group has created a vibrant community.
We hosted twelve AlmaNet radio check-ins to ensure our emergency communications equipment was in good working order. To learn more about AlmaNet, please check out our AlmaNet article by clicking here.
We published the neighborhood newsletter every single month all year! Our 2022 newsletters were read over 1200 times! If you aren’t already signed up for our newsletter, please sign up here and maybe recommend a neighbor to do the same.
Vandalism removal
Using the MyLA311 app, coordinators reported about 80 incidents of vandalism throughout the neighborhood, excluding vandalism found in the park.
In addition, donations were used to fund cans of spray paint to around 40 pieces of vandalism in our neighborhood.
Coordinators also worked with the Los Angeles Recreations and Parks department to remediate damage from our local vandals. The Park was massively vandalized 20 times. Each incident was reported to the police, and incident numbers plus pictures of the vandalism were compiled into a document for future use.
In summary, Alma Park Neighbors were responsible for remediating:
Over 120 pieces of vandalism throughout the neighborhood
And 20 major acts of vandalism inside the park.
Our group has been documenting and reporting all acts of vandalism in Alma Park since mid-2020. In addition, we ask the community to provide information on other incidents and culprits confidentially.
In addition, we ask that all neighbors report vandalism for remediation by:
Using the MyLA311 website or downloading the mobile app
Calling 311
Emailing us so we can either report it or cover it up. You may reach us by clicking here
Please do not assume someone else has reported the vandalism.
Emergency Preparedness
2022 was a big year for emergency prep in our neighborhood! Through partnerships with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program and the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council (CSPNC), we have secured funding, training, and equipment to help prepare our area for an emergency.
Alma Park Neighbors coordinators secured funding for four emergency kits. Two kits will be placed in the Alma Park area and two in the Point Fermin area. These kits contain essential supplies to help respond to emergencies. One kit has already been deployed in the Alma Park area.
The Alma Community Emergency Squad (ACES) partnered with CERT to host an emergency response drill in the neighborhood. More details and some pictures can be found in our article by clicking here.
Ten commercial radios were secured and will be placed in our emergency kits. These radios were paid for with a Neighborhood Purpose Grant (NPG) provided by the CSPNC. The radios ensure we can communicate in an emergency when cell phones aren’t working.
By working with CERT and the Los Angeles Yacht club, coordinators have scheduled a CERT training series right here in San Pedro. These important trainings ensure that attendees know the basics of emergency response.
Other community accomplishments
In January 2022, we launched our website! Since then, we have had almost 900 neighbors visit the site in 2022!
Picnic in the Park
Our Picnic in the Park event drew 160 neighbors together for food, music, and a fun raffle! We learned a lot of lessons about what worked well and what can be fine-tuned for an event in the Park in 2023!
Park upkeep
Coordinators worked with the Los Angeles Recreations and Parks department to report vandalism and maintenance issues. We sent 35 emails to LARAP to notify them of things including:
Overflowing trash buckets
Outed lights
Vandalism
Neighborhood troublemakers
In April 2021, neighbors began reporting some young kids trespassing in people’s yards, throwing rocks at windows, and stealing things. In the weeks that followed, dozens of additional complaints came in.
Neighborhood coordinators reached out to Senior Lead Officer Melody Shortle, who quickly engaged with the children’s parents. But unfortunately, their behavior continued to spiral out of control. Reports of the boys releasing their aggressive pit bull on other dogs and people began coming in.
Coordinators logged each complaint and encouraged neighbors to report such incidents to the appropriate authorities. In addition, we provided information on how to make reports.
On October 26, 2021, the boys threw their dog over a six-foot tall fence into a neighbor’s yard, where a violent dog fight ensued. All of this was caught on a security camera. The footage was provided to animal control and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Soon after, coordinators learned from LAPD that the dog had been released on a young boy in the neighborhood. The boy’s arm was torn up, requiring multiple stitches.
Alma Park Neighbors coordinators continued consolidating neighborhood complaints to create a record. Due to this dog's increasingly dangerous nature, we partnered with Animal Control to ensure any reports of the dog’s aggressive behavior were on file.
On March 18, 2022, neighborhood coordinators testified at a hearing about the dog attack that took place in October 2021.
After the hearing, we had only two additional reports from neighbors, the last being on 6/10/2022. The neighborhood has been remarkably peaceful and quiet since that date.
We don’t know what happened to the boys or their family. However, Alma Park Neighbors are confident that the unified, coordinated response from the neighborhood contributed to the situation’s resolution.
Thank you to all neighbors who contributed to working through this challenging situation. We are stronger together.
Donations
Donations were used to help cover the costs of events such as the picnic. In addition, we used donations of materials to keep the neighborhood looking good, such as paint and clean-up supplies (the trash picker-uppers and trash bags, etc.), raffle prizes, and various support services we use for organization and communication purposes.
