All Politics Is Local – And It’s The People Who Show Up
BONC AWARDS - There is service. And then there is service.
Los Angeles is a city so large that government can sometimes feel a very long way from the people it serves. Yet, tucked into neighborhoods across nearly 500 square miles are volunteers who keep shortening that distance — people who sit through meetings, read agendas, answer emails, organize events, advocate for their neighbors and, very often, show up long before anyone is paying attention.
They are Neighborhood Council members. They are not paid for the hours they give. They are residents, business owners and community stakeholders who have jobs, families and lives of their own — and still make room for public service.
On September 22, Los Angeles stopped for a moment to recognize some of them at the Neighborhood Council Excellence Awards, presented by the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. This year, the awards carried a new name: the Joy P. Atkinson Neighborhood Council Excellence Awards.
Six Neighborhood Councils — one from each represented region — were recognized for community impact, engagement, collaboration and service: North Hollywood Northeast, Pacoima, Los Feliz, Historic Highland Park, Mid City and North Westwood.
AN AWARD WITH A NAME THAT MATTERS
The name on the award matters.
Joy P. Atkinson, who died earlier this year, spent decades in Los Angeles civic life. She served on the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners for more than a decade, including as its president, and was known as a mentor to generations of community leaders. Her public service extended well beyond the Neighborhood Council system, including leadership in the Los Angeles African American Women’s Public Policy Institute and decades of work advancing civic participation and leadership opportunities for Black women.
The NAACP Los Angeles remembered Atkinson as a “bridge-builder and mentor” whose work helped ensure that marginalized voices — particularly those of Black women — were not simply heard but were part of leadership itself.
It was Commissioner Keren Waters who championed the dedication and renaming of the awards in Atkinson’s honor, ensuring that going forward they will bear the name of the Joy P. Atkinson Neighborhood Council Excellence Awards.
For Commissioner Keren Waters, who was herself mentored by Atkinson, the tribute was personal as well as civic.
Commissioner Keren Waters knows Neighborhood Council service from the ground up. She spent 6½ years on the Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council — four years as vice president and one year as president — before moving to BONC, where she has now served three years.
Commissioner Keren Waters chaired the 2026 awards ad hoc committee with Commissioners Randell Erving and Gina Fields, with approval from the commission and Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
Pacoima Neighborhood Council President Mikayeel Khan, BONC Commissioner Keren Waters, and Pacoima Neighborhood Council Treasurer Anna Justice at the 2026 Neighborhood Council Excellence Awards.
THE RENT WE PAY FOR BEING
Civil-rights lawyer and Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman once put the idea of service in words worth remembering:
“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”
Look at what these councils actually did and the line stops sounding ceremonial.
North Hollywood Northeast took board members out from behind the meeting table and into the neighborhood through its “Walk and Talk North Hollywood” program, connecting with residents and 311 reporting while rebuilding the kind of face-to-face relationships that were disrupted during the COVID era.
Pacoima was recognized for the breadth of its outreach and partnerships, including door-to-door engagement and advocacy for public Wi-Fi and digital literacy — the unglamorous but essential work of making sure residents can actually connect to information and services.
Los Feliz created a Community Defense Committee, adopted a resolution declaring the community a safe haven for immigrants, produced accessible City-information videos, maintained 17 standing committees, and reported 120 Community Impact Statements along with a broad range of events and partnerships.
Historic Highland Park combined emergency preparedness and environmental work with direct community investment. It supported earthquake and disaster preparedness, blood drives and resource efforts; provided $10,850 for community programs; supported long-running neighborhood traditions; and used bilingual outreach to reach both English- and Spanish-speaking residents.
Mid City built its work around listening first. Volunteers surveyed residents and businesses, converted the responses into ten priorities and an action list, created a coordination tracker with City partners, and identified potholes as an early concern because that was what constituents told them mattered.
North Westwood, in a neighborhood rapidly reshaped by UCLA students, tenants, businesses, parents and longtime residents, created an Olympics-focused committee and began preparing for UCLA’s role as the Olympic and Paralympic Village — treating 2028 not simply as an event, but as an opportunity for long-term community gains.
None of that sounds like people sitting around throwing a tea party.
It is nuts-and-bolts community work.
CITY HALL NOTICED
Mayor Karen Bass could not attend the ceremony, but a representative delivered her appreciation and support for the Neighborhood Council system, encouraging members to keep making a difference in their communities.
Neighborhood Councils are advisory bodies, not lawmakers. Yet council offices, City departments, police and fire officials, developers and elected representatives come to their meetings because that is where residents organize around the issues affecting their neighborhoods.
Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill is famous for the observation that “all politics is local.”
In Los Angeles, Neighborhood Councils are one of the places where “local” becomes literal.
MAKING A BIG CITY SMALLER
In a city this large, residents may not know whom to call, how to read a planning notice or how to get an agency’s attention. A Neighborhood Council cannot guarantee an outcome, but it gives residents a room to walk into — and people who know the neighborhood well enough to understand the question.
At their best, these councils make a sprawling city feel smaller: somebody knows the intersection, remembers the last meeting, has the field deputy’s number and cares enough to follow up.
That matters now as changing housing and land-use rules bring increasingly technical questions to neighborhoods. Whatever one’s view of those policies, Neighborhood Councils give residents a public place to learn what is happening, ask questions, organize and put their concerns into the City record.
THE PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP
There is service, and then there is service.
Sometimes, the people who benefit the least personally are the ones who give the most. They sit through meetings, read documents, knock on doors, organize community events and advocate for the everyday needs of their neighborhoods.
Neighborhood Council board members are volunteers, and BONC commissioners serve without compensation as well. This year’s awards gave Los Angeles a moment to recognize people who spend so much of their time showing up for everyone else.
Sometimes a plaque really does mean something.
Hats off to Commissioner Keren Waters and her fellow commissioners, to the six Neighborhood Councils recognized this year, and to the thousands of volunteers across Los Angeles whose names may never appear on an award.
They help make an enormous city feel, every once in a while, like a small town where somebody knows your name — and cares what happens on your block.
Don't wait until you have a problem to discover your Neighborhood Council.
Go to a meeting. Introduce yourself. Lend a hand. Support the people who keep showing up.
Because all politics may be local — but so is community.
And you never know when you might need each other.
REFERENCE LINKS
Board of Neighborhood Commissioners / Keren Waters profile
September 22, 2026 BONC special meeting
About Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils
NAACP Los Angeles tribute to Joy Atkinson
Marian Wright Edelman Institute
(Eva Amar is a West San Fernando Valley community organizer, contributor to CityWatch Los Angeles, and National Sexual Assault Victims Advocate.)
