Letters, Petition Back Eviction at Bryant-Vanalden

Neighbors of a crime-ridden, run-down development in Northridge began a campaign Friday to besiege Los Angeles City Council with letters and petitions supporting a proposal that would make it easier to evict 3,000 residents of the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue apartments.

“We’re not racists,” said Bonnie Siegel, who lives near the Bryant-Vanalden development, in response to criticism that the eviction plan, which would primarily affect low-income Latinos, is discriminatory. Lorna McVicker, a neighbor, said, “This is a question of law and order, not race.”

The proposal to facilitate evictions was tentatively approved by the council earlier this month but faces difficulty in winning final approval because of growing opposition. The plan calls for reducing crime and upgrading the area by making it easier for landlords to evict tenants, renovate units and rent them at higher prices.

100 Letters, 500 Signatures

On Friday, Siegel and McVicker delivered to council offices about 100 letters and a petition containing 500 signatures in support of the plan. The two women said they and three other neighbors began collecting the letters and signatures about a week ago.

Many of the letters recounted personal experiences of people living near the Bryant-Vanalden apartments. One was written in Spanish by a woman who identified herself as a Mexican immigrant. She also complained about high crime in the neighborhood.

Other comments:

“I have been awakened at all hours of the night with gunshots, helicopters flying overhead with loudspeakers.”--Beulah Chaney of Chase Street.

“We realize the people who live in these apartments are not entirely to blame, but it does seem the only way to eradicate the problems is to completely clean out the area. The Police Department cannot be expected to solve the problems. That would take a small force 24 hours a day.”--Mr. and Mrs. Warren Moore of Wystone Avenue.

“Councilman (Ernani) Bernardi yells ‘racism.’ I don’t care what kind of people live near me if they are good neighbors. But I am tired of the shootings, the stabbings, the robberies, the helicopters, the huge cockroaches climbing over the garbage in the alley filtering into my house”--Julie Konigsfeld of Malden Street.

“We cannot obtain homeowners insurance because these apartments make us a crime area. We have been broken into three times. Once I was robbed at gunpoint and tied up and my house burglarized. . . . . Those people have no regard for the law. And, to add insult to injury, they now have sidewalk taco stands and taco wagons all over the area.”--Richard Perrone of Community Street.

Siegel, a teaching assistant with the Los Angeles Unified School District, said that “not everyone” in her neighborhood supports the eviction plan.

Other Methods Tried

But, she said, “Their question to the City Council is, if this is not the way to do it, what is?” She said Councilman Hal Bernson, who proposed the eviction strategy, has tried other ways to reduce the crime and unsightly conditions, including stepped-up police patrols and building inspections. “None of these programs have been effective,” she said.

Siegel said that none of the letters or signatures on petitions came from residents of the Bryant-Vanalden apartments who are targeted for eviction. That, she said, is because she will not go to the apartments for fear of her safety.