Los Angeles

City Attorney Joins Social Network to Improve LA Neighborhoods

City attorneys who work directly with Los Angeles neighborhoods will now be able to communicate with residents through Nextdoor, an online discussion board and network, City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Thursday.

The site, Nextdoor.com, allows residents to join online discussions with neighbors as part of a private group accessed only by members of their respective neighborhood zones. Topics on the boards range from bulletins about yard sales and lost pets to alerts about suspicious or criminal activity in the
area.

Don Barfield of Cheviot Hills used the site, and his neighbors were able to stop a burglary ring responsible for nine break-ins.

"People were walking home, took photographs of individuals that were suspicious," Barfield said. "They later turned out to be burglars. Two months later, in Torrance, the same burglars acted again and were arrested."

Some of the site's postings will now come from Feuer's neighborhood prosecutors who are working at the city's 21 police stations and an East Hollywood site handling issues such as school safety, illegal dumping, slum
housing, patient dumping, illegal medical marijuana shops, immigration fraud and pollution.

The prosecutors will only be able to see replies to their own postings and will not be able to view other discussion threads posted by residents.

Feuer said this "unique partnership with Nextdoor" will "deepen the connection between our office and the residents and neighborhoods we serve."

Nextdoor co-founder Nirav Tolia said the company is "honored that the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office is using Nextdoor to give the Neighborhood Prosecutors the ability to more easily and efficiently connect with the residents that they serve."

Feuer's partnership with Nextdoor marks a joining of forces with a notorious tech industry figure.

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Tolia last year pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge for leaving the scene of a crash on Highway 101 near San Francisco, Reuters reported. The Reuters story noted that Tolia resigned as the chief operating officer of Shopping.com 10 years ago, after it was discovered that he lied about graduating from Stanford University.
 
Nextdoor issued a statement saying "the company is aware that Nirav has resolved all matters regarding this incident," and that they "have supported him throughout the process and are pleased that this unfortunate situation has come to a close."

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