Leaders Fear Bradley Lacks Commitment to Valley Issues

It wasn’t so much what Tom Bradley said as the way he said it.

That was the reaction of some disappointed San Fernando Valley community leaders to Bradley’s Tuesday night campaign appearance in Sherman Oaks. He met with three of the Valley’s most influential groups in what was billed as one of the mayor’s most important reelection campaign appearances.

Bradley seemed to say the right things in response to questions about lingering neighborhood problems, but he avoided making commitments to resolve them, community leaders complained in interviews immediately following the talk and on Wednesday.

An audience of more than 200 queried Bradley about growing concerns in their communities, including jet noise from Burbank Airport, congestion along Ventura Boulevard and the prudence of the proposed Metro Rail subway. But some said they walked away from the Sherman Oaks meeting feeling little satisfaction with Bradley’s assurances that the issues were under study.

‘Not Getting Answers’

“We’re not getting any answers,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, which has long fought for a slowdown in the density of development along Ventura Boulevard. “I send him all our letters, but he acts as if he hasn’t heard about the problem.”

When asked by Silver if he would support a moratorium on development along Ventura Boulevard between Van Nuys and Balboa boulevards, Bradley responded that he was not familiar with the specific problems of the area and would ask a staff member to study them.

Bradley also said he has supported neighborhood efforts to reduce the density allowed under city zoning codes in order to bring those codes into compliance with the more restrictive community land-use plans.

“That has been a long and tedious process,” he said. “We are trying to speed it up.”

Bradley was greeted at the auditorium of Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School in Sherman Oaks by a number of individuals carrying picket signs to protest jet noise over their homes. A coalition of East Valley homeowners has been fighting for several years to reduce the number of flights at Burbank Airport and to force many of the jets to be rerouted over the communities of Burbank and Glendale, which, along with Pasadena, own and operate the facility.

Panel Will Work on Solutions

Bradley said Los Angeles city officials “have been with you” on that issue and noted that he had appointed a committee to work with the airport to negotiate a solution to residents’ concerns. He also reminded the audience that the city filed a lawsuit against the airport in 1983 challenging the facility’s environmental impact documents, but lost the issue in Superior Court.

He said the Federal Aviation Administration is studying the feasibility of using different takeoff and landing routes to reduce noise over the East San Fernando Valley. That comment prompted one man in the audience to remark that asking the FAA to regulate airport noise is “like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.”

Bradley added that the city is about to undertake a pilot project along with Los Angeles International Airport in which the airport will pay to try to soundproof a number of homes. If the project succeeds, he said, it might be expanded to include homes near the Burbank and Van Nuys airports.

But one woman in the audience responded, “It is repugnant to most of us to think about the soundproofing of our homes. It will make cave-dwellers of all of us.”

Noise pollution control activist Richard Bliven echoed the woman’s concern on Wednesday, saying, “The homes aren’t the only thing we bought our property for. We want to enjoy the property as well--the gardens and outdoor spaces. To have the aircraft going over . . . is objectionable.”

Overall, however, Blivens said he was “fairly pleased” with the mayor’s comments.

Addresses Issues

“Maybe he didn’t have solutions to everything, but he was willing to address the issues.”

Blivens, of Studio City, said, however, that he has not decided whether to vote for Bradley in the April election.

The meeting Tuesday night was sponsored by the Studio City Residents Assn., the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. and the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn., three of the most active and influential community groups in the Valley.

Democrat Bradley, who has served as mayor of Los Angeles for 12 years, hopes to make a better showing in the Valley than he has in past campaigns, losing the conservative region to opponents in all but one election--the 1981 mayor’s race. He is facing a strong challenge from Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro, who portrays himself as more conservative than the mayor and has targeted the Valley as a potential major source of support.

Queried on Metro Rail

Noting that support for Metro Rail is waning in the Valley, one man in the audience asked Bradley sharply, “Under what conditions would you stop allocating city resources in pursuit of Metro Rail?”

After explaining that local funds for Metro Rail would come from a countywide transit tax approved by voters in 1980, not from city coffers, Bradley responded, “I’m going to lobby on Metro Rail as long as that project is alive. I think it’s that important to the city. If it’s declared dead this year, I think it will be declared dead for all times.”

Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said after the meeting, “He says the right things, but the issue is leadership. I think he’s concerned and has the right ideas, but I’ve heard it for 12 years.”

Pointed to Progress

In his opening remarks, Bradley said that when he became mayor, he was determined to focus attention on the city’s neglected senior citizen population. At that time, he said, there were only about half a dozen nutrition and recreation centers for seniors throughout the city. Today, he said, there is at least one senior center providing counseling, meals and activities in each of the city’s 15 council districts.

He also cited three development projects in the Valley that have been undertaken during his stewardship--the revitalization of Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys, the redevelopment of Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood and a series of new, privately financed commercial projects at Warner Center in Woodland Hills. The mayor called the latter project the “finest planned residential, retail and commercial center anywhere in this country.”

‘Total Commitment’

Those projects and the senior services are “part of a total commitment which has been made and will be faithfully kept,” Bradley said.

Jerry Hays, president of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce, questioned whether Bradley was prepared to commit his energies to the city for the next four years or could be expected to run again for governor in 1986.

Although failing to promise to complete his mayoral term if reelected, Bradley told the evening audience, “I started at 4 a.m. this morning. That’s the kind of commitment you get from Tom Bradley.”