LA Councilman Seeks Funding To Crack Down On Street Racing In San Fernando Valley
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A Los Angeles City Councilman has proposed allocating funding towards tackling the issue of street racing in the San Fernando Valley.
L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield announced Wednesday he will allocate $100,000 from his office's discretionary funds to pay police overtime to support specialized enforcement against street racing and speeding in his district, which includes the neighborhoods of Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Reseda and Canoga Park.
Blumenfield said the $100,000 would be used to support LAPD overtime costs for specialized enforcement by the LAPD Operations Valley Bureau to target areas of organized racing and speeding over the next five months.
The chosen areas include Vanalden Avenue from Gleneagles Drive to Ventura Boulevard, Valley Circle Boulevard and Victory Boulevard, and other Council District 3 locations that Blumenfield said are used for street racing or frequent speeding.
"I have constituents who are often woken up in the middle of the night by a half dozen cars going three times the speed limit, screeching around turns in what were recently quiet neighborhoods. This isn't just a quality of life issue, people are dying and this is beyond unacceptable," Blumenfield said in a statement Wednesday.
The allocation needs to be approved by the full council.
Blumenfield noted a report from the Los Angeles Times in October that stated that, as of July, races and "street takeovers" in Los Angeles had increased by 27% in 2021.
On Dec. 11, a USC student was struck and killed by a suspected street racer while in a crosswalk about a mile from the school.
In October, the L.A. City Council approved a motion to explore crafting an ordinance that would make it illegal to encourage, promote or aid in street racing or any exhibition of reckless driving.
In August, three young people were killed and two others seriously injured in a fiery multi-car wreck in Burbank that investigators believe was caused by street racing. A few weeks after the crash, two teens were arrested on murder charges in the case.
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