Subject line: NCs’ status | Lessons from the coronavirus | Open streets | Save our trees | Ecosystems event | Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! April 22^nd will be the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. If there was ever a reminder of our interconnectedness, the coronavirus pandemic is it! More on that (and Earth Day) below.

Neighborhood councils up and running?
The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) has asked all neighborhood councils to continue to delay meeting virtually while DONE establishes virtual-meeting protocols and training, expected May 1. However, neighborhood council presidents have been advised by the City Attorney’s office that if neighborhood councils want to meet earlier, they can follow the requirements provided in Governor Newsom’s executive order on how to follow the Brown Act while sheltering in place. And some neighborhood councils have, in fact, begun meeting. Yay!

Lessons for us from the coronavirus pandemic—Saturday, May 16
Please join us Saturday, May 16 via Zoom for a discussion about lessons we can learn from the coronavirus pandemic with Garen Baghdasarian, a marine biologist and professor at Santa Monica College. We will talk about the implications for sustainability and how we can use these lessons to strengthen our work going forward. RSVP at ncsa.la/lessons_from_the_coronavirus.

Streets For All
Our brand-new transportation committee has hit the ground running by signing on to a letter by Streets For All in support of opening up our streets so that we can practice physical distancing on major streets. Check it out here: Streets For All letter. And if your neighborhood council is up and running, please follow in the Del Rey Neighborhood Council’s footsteps and sign on to this letter: safe streets for NCs. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact our transportation committee chair, Nancy Matson, at [email protected].

Support for our mature trees
The City of LA’s Sidewalk Repair Program—a 30-year project of sidewalk reconstruction—is slated to remove a low estimate of 12,000 mature trees with no due process, as reported by the NCSA’s Trees Committee. And since neighborhood councils have been unable to meet, we are once again asking that the public comment period be extended to accommodate neighborhood councils, until June 24. Visit ncsa.la/safe_sidewalks_la_sidewalk_repair_program to learn more, and please send your individual requests for an extension before April 24th!

Want to learn more about what we can do to restore our ecosystems?
Join us for a live-stream event Saturday, April 18 from 9 to noon. It is hosted by Ecosystem Restoration Camps and Woodshed Recording, featuring filmmaker and ecologist John D Liu. Visit The Great Work of Our Time to learn more and to RSVP.

Earth Day film screening
The City of Santa Monica and Sustainable Works are hosting an online screening of the widely-acclaimed film The Biggest Little Farm on Earth Day, April 22. RSVP at The Biggest Little Farm.

Thank you, and we hope you are able to stay safe and healthy!