Andrew Garsten
Echoing about community involvement

We are delighted to regularly feature the works of Andrew Garsten, a resident of Echo Park. Andrew is an involved community member, and a contributor in both the public safety and the neighborhood council systems.

In his writing, he frequently seeks opportunities to raise the level of a discussion, especially as it pertains to being inclusive and bringing more people into the process.

LA Community Policing recognizes Andrew as a longtime community policing enthusiast. We are grateful for his active, enthusiastic and ongoing participation.

Below you will find a list of Mr. Garsten's LACP articles, with the most recent offerings at the top:

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Police Accountability Begins with an Open Input Process - April, 2003
As Chief Bratton continues to develop the high tech COMPSTAT system to track crime statistics and deploy resources in a more real-time manner, a fatal and unglamorous flaw of the system may remain unnoticed and unimproved. This is the "input," or reporting side of the system for both crimes and tips. No report, no accountability. Here are two suggestions: (1) Voice Menu and Recording and (2) Web Base Reporting.

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AB 406 Gives Communities More Power - March, 2003 (followed up in May)
Issues of appropriate development and land use are paramount in each of the emerging Neighborhood Councils. With AB 406, the California Assembly will help a community level the playing field because it insures that an Environmental Review becomes objective. With this very important piece of legislation Neighborhood Councils will stand a much better chance to promote historic preservation or other environmental issues.

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"At-large" representation and organizing a Neighborhood Council - February, 2003
The best way to prevent any special interest group from easily overwhelming an NC election would be to not make the mistake that it seems HUNC (Hollywood Unified Neighborhood Council) and the Historic Core Neighborhood Council (Chinatown) did. Each had a great deal of "AT-LARGE" representation. In Echo Park we had a similar situation, but our council resolved it and insured diversity ... for now.

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Neighborhood Watch & Neighborhood Councils - January, 2003
Neighborhood Watch should be the first priority for Neighborhood Councils. Yes, a Neighborhood Watch is for public safety, but more importantly it's for our local community, society at large, a shared quality of life, and a political system that now touches the ground with Neighborhood Councils. It is about farming for the future while having real, achievable impact almost immediately.

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E-group helps a community dialogue - January, 2003
Having an e-group in a community is much like having an ongoing, electronic Town Hall ... We demonstrated for you the way a local community, in this case a Neighborhood Council, the EchoElysisnNCForum, used its e-group to have a dialogue about the recent Police Commission decision to change its Burglar Alarm policy. We followed, and published, all the Alarm Policy e-group discussion for a month.

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Mr. Garsten resides in Echo Park with his wife and their two small children. He invites your comments and will be happy to hear from you. Feel free to email him at the address below:

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Andrew Garsten

andrew.garsten@sbcglobal.net

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