Council Recap: Town Square project moves ahead; security guard patrols

Published on June 27, 2024

At their June 25 meeting, Lakewood City Council members selected an architectural/engineering firm, the Dahlin Group, to design a Town Square for the three-acre dirt lot at the corner of Clark Ave. and Del Amo Blvd.

The Town Square will include art, landscaping, seating and an entertainment area. It will be attractively secured and not accessible when not in use. It will be a gathering place for public events and will be available for rent for weddings and private parties. It's expected to be used and visited by thousands of Lakewood residents in the years to come.

City Council members were enthusiastic, saying this will be a legacy project that gives Lakewood a creative and attractive centerpiece to the civic center area. City Manager Thaddeus McCormack said the dirt lot at one of Lakewood's most prominent intersections has long been something the city wanted to develop, but "we needed to wait for the right time and the right idea to move ahead with. And we think both of those have come together now."

The design process is expected to take about 11 months, with construction following after that.

In other action, the council approved a 60-day trial period of adding two security guard patrols to daytime shifts seven days a week.

Currently, four security guards patrol the city during overnight hours. The addition of daytime hours was proposed after seeing an increase in daytime property thefts, including burglaries and one incident where a homeowner walked in on a burglary in process that resulted in her being attacked by the thieves. 

"Our preference always is to add more Deputy Sheriffs," said City Manager Thaddeus McCormack. "But the Sheriff's Department still has a limit on the number of its personnel and won't allow cities to increase their full-time allocation of Deputies. Thus, adding security guards is the next best way to get more eyes and ears on the streets of Lakewood, driving through every neighborhood every day in highly visible vehicles with lights flashing. We can also have the guards do extra saturation patrols in neighborhoods where there has been an increase in thefts or suspicious behavior. In our two years of having the guards work overnight, we've seen many instances where they have spotted and quickly reported suspicious behavior or have caused overnight loitering or troublemaking in parks and shopping areas to cease. So they've been valuable at night, and we will see during this two-month trial whether they can be equally valuable during the day."

"We continue to be concerned with the actions of the L.A. County District Attorney that release and do not prosecute many suspects arrested for property and other quality of life crimes that others incorrectly deem as being 'low level,'" said McCormack. "But we're doing everything we can at the local level here in Lakewood to continue to keep our community safe, which is why many people choose to live and stay in Lakewood."