The City Council voted May 27, 2025 to support a state bill being considered by the Assembly to curb wire theft. The NHNENC voted to support the bill and submitted a Community Impact Statement to City Council declaring our support. This is an example of a Neighborhood Council hearing concerns at a community level and speaking up to address a serious problem felt across the state.
Our own NHNENC Vice President Jennifer Clark was quoted in an article in the Daily News:
Clark said Tuesday that a statewide law would help strengthen the city’s ongoing enforcement efforts. She added that while the city’s task force has cracked down on recyclers operating within Los Angeles, thieves are now selling stolen materials to dealers outside the city limits.
“So just going to a state level on having this type of impact is just going to up the impact and hopefully the enforcement,” she said.
Copper wire theft, Clark said, has had a tangible impact on residents — from unlit portions of freeways including the 170, where cars speed through in the dark, to parks and community centers left without lighting for extended periods.
“The Bureau of Street Lighting, obviously, has to prioritize the streets when they replace the copper wires to get those lights up and running, so what often happens is that our parks are left in the dark even longer than our street,” she said. “And of course there’s not as much representation of law enforcement, or even the park rangers from our Los Angeles (Department of) Recreation and Parks.”
