Partnership Between the Northridge West NC, the City of Los Angeles and the Northridge Beautification Foundation Means Great Things for the Tampa Median

When you have a minute, take a drive along Tampa Ave and check out the median which runs from Devonshire to the 118 Freeway. You’ll see the results of a partnership between your Northridge West Neighborhood Council, the City of Los Angeles, and the Northridge Beautification Foundation, your local 501.c3 nonprofit.

This partnership is multi-faceted, and one of the first steps in the renewal of the Tampa Medians, all seven of them, was to install a low water drip system for the mature growth on the medians. The original watering system had been turned off by the City of LA because drought requirements. However, the partnership of the Northridge West NC under the leadership of President Peter Lasky, LA Street Services Urban Forestry, and Don Larson representing the Northridge Beautification Foundation, your neighborhood nonprofit, resulted in the designing of a drip system for all seven medians. This low water system allowed city services to commit to turning the water back on, guaranteeing that the mature trees and bushes on the seven medians would continue to be watered.

Then began a process of the cutting and removal of all the weeds that were extra abundant after our higher than usual winter rainfall. After that weed removal came a thorough mulching of all seven medians. This process would not have been possible without the support of a number of city services, including Street Services and our friends at the Department of Sanitation West Valley District Yard.

This multi-week process resulted in medians which are no longer an eyesore, as well as ones which will now support healthy tree and bush growth, while keeping their manicured appearance. In the words of NWNC President Peter Lasky, “The Tampa median has been neglected for over two decades and as a consequence we lost many old trees that were valuable to the ecosystem and appearance of Northridge”.

A final step in the beautification of the Tampa Medians is the proposed topiary project, which will create a series of large-scale topiary plantings on each of the medians, resulting in a “living” public art project. Subjects for that topiary project are under discussion now, with details to follow. Look for more information on the status of the topiary project in future Community Connection issues.

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Northridge Vision 2025

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