Bryant-Vanalden Mass Eviction

Regarding the article by Richard Simon, addressing a mass eviction of the “Bryant-Vanalden” neighborhood:

I live two blocks from the area discussed. Night after night, my husband and I lie awake listening to gun shots. When they get too close, we dial “911.”

Driving through one Saturday night, looking for my dog, I witnessed a shameful scene: grown men urinating against a wall; another throwing his recently emptied beer bottle into the street; scantily dressed toddlers playing together, supervised by a 6-year-old; people hanging out of windows, shouting at their neighbors across the street; countless trash bins overflowing onto the sidewalks, no trash bags in sight.

The issue here is not race, or even these individuals’ status, whether legal or illegal. The issue is this: These people are not what hard-working, middle-class citizens care to live next to. The value of our homes is dropping, people don’t want to drive through Bryant-Vanalden to even look at our homes. Many families in the area are Hispanic, and cannot be compared to the low-class, unsanitary tenants found lying drunk in the gutter on Bryant Street.

This is what Councilman Bernson is trying to change, not, as Bernardi stated, “racism.”

As for having a “different class of tenants,” those families that do not contribute to the unkempt look of the area will be the type welcome in Northridge.

Those evicted are even being offered $1,000 to assist them in moving! What more could be asked? And remember, if these people had been acting like decent, law-abiding, clean neighbors, they wouldn’t be asked to leave.

MARY JANE ROSENBLATT

Northridge