Bernson Backs Off Effort to Evict Tenants of Project

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson pulled back Tuesday from a controversial proposal that would have made it easier to evict 3,000 predominantly Latino, low-income residents from a run-down, crime-ridden apartment project in an otherwise middle-class area of Northridge.

Bernson’s action came four days after Mayor Tom Bradley publicly announced that he opposed the proposal, which was approved on an initial 8-4 vote of the City Council in August. Bradley said he would veto the measure if it got to his desk. That appeared to doom the proposal.

Bernson said he was asking the city attorney’s office for an indefinite delay in drafting the final ordinance so that “we can determine exactly what help, if any, will be needed to achieve our goal” of ridding the area of crime and slum conditions. Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for City Atty. James K. Hahn, said his office would agree to the request.

Not Ready to Concede Defeat

Bernson added that he is not ready to concede defeat, despite Bradley’s opposition and intense criticism from civil rights and tenant groups.

However, support for the ordinance, which required a final vote of the council, had also been eroding among the 15 council members, making it unlikely that Bernson could round up the 10 votes he would need to override Bradley’s veto.

Also Tuesday, Bernson released to the press an angry letter he had written to Bradley.

“It is easy to veto an ordinance with a cavalier swipe of the pen,” Bernson said in the letter, “but it is much harder to provide leadership towards a solution to this problem.

“One can only assume that you either don’t care or you support the continued growth of prostitution, crime, drugs and slum conditions.”

Letter ‘Misses Entire Point’

Bradley, who is out of town on a trade mission for the Port of Los Angeles, was unavailable for comment. Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said Bernson’s letter “misses the entire point, which is his proposal to turn these people out on the street.”

Bernson’s proposed ordinance would grant owners of the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue apartments a one-time exemption to the city’s rent-control law, allowing them to evict tenants after spending $7,500 on renovating an apartment, instead of the $10,000 now required. The renovated apartments could be rented to new tenants at higher rents.

Bernson previously argued that the exemption to the rent-control law is needed in order to make it financially feasible for landlords to renovate the deteriorating structures.

The councilman said he is examining whether he still needs to change the rent-control law to accomplish his objective. He said he is looking, for example, for a landlord to take over management of the 30 separately owned apartment buildings in the Bryant-Vanalden area who would evict only the most troublesome renters.