Bryant-Vanalden Tenants Rally, Seek Support of Wary Neighbors

As Luis Rosas and Richard Alarcon approached the doorstep of the Green residence on Schoenborn Street in Northridge Saturday, Rosas timidly fell behind, letting his partner ring the doorbell and make the first introduction.

When Susan Green answered the door, Alarcon introduced himself as a community activist involved in a tenant organization fighting to improve the blighted conditions in the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue neighborhood a few blocks north.

Then, in broken, shaky English, Rosas, 27, spoke his first words ever to one of his neighbors to the south: “I am with Padres Unidos (United Parents). We want to work together with you.”

After a pep rally where more than 100 Bryant-Vanalden tenants vowed to push city officials and property owners to clean up their neighborhood, Rosas and about two dozen other tenants teamed up with community activists and ventured into what is, at least for the tenants, little understood territory--the front porches of neat middle-class homes near their troubled apartment complexes.

Petition Drive

Their goal was simple: to get nearby neighbors to sign a petition stating that they supported Padres Unidos, a newly formed Bryant-Vanalden tenants’ organization. But a two-month controversy over how the run-down, crime-plagued area should be cleaned up brought mixed results.

At some homes, doors were slammed. At one, a Bryant-Vanalden tenant became so upset after talking with the resident that she cried.

But at others, including the Green residence, neighbors listened and were sympathetic with the tenants. At the close of the afternoon rally and walk, tenants had more than 50 names of neighbors who said they would support Padres Unidos and possibly attend a joint meeting between tenants and neighbors.

The rally came five days after Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson pulled back from a controversial proposal that would have made it easier for landlords to evict the 3,000 predominately low-income Latino residents from the three-block development.

As part of his solution to ridding the area of crime and slum conditions, Bernson had proposed an ordinance that would grant apartment owners a one-time exemption to the city’s rent control law. The exemption would have allowed landlords to evict tenants and fix the apartments in order to rent them at higher prices and attract what a council committee called a “different class of people.”

After the proposal was tentatively approved by the City Council in August, political support dwindled in the face of accusations from tenant and civil rights groups that it was racist. Several outside organizations, including the Fair Housing Council and the Coalition for Economic Survival, converged on the area to organize tenants to fight off the proposal and clean up the development.

Opposed by Mayor

On Sept. 27, Mayor Tom Bradley said he opposed the proposal and would veto it if it was passed by the City Council. Bernson had little hope of rounding up enough votes for an override. Bernson has said that he will try to come up with another plan to clean up the area.

Even though the immediate threat of eviction has been lifted, Raul Morales, head of Padres Unidos, told the crowd at Saturday’s rally that the need still persists for tenant organization.

“Up until now we have only reacted to a crisis situation,” Morales said in reference to the proposed ordinance. “But the real work is just beginning. We have to work with the police, pressure the landlords. We want the people who supported the councilman to know that we want their advice. We want them to put out their hands and work with us.”

Morales said his group met with Los Angeles Police Capt. Mark Stevens last week in an effort to improve police relations and set up an area crime-watch group. Police have stepped up patrols in the development on weekends, with as a many as 16 patrol cars at a time giving traffic tickets and making arrests for public drinking in the area.

Neighbors Meet

Saturday’s door-to-door walk brought many of the tenants in contact with neighbors who favored Bernson’s proposal and had signed petitions and written letters in support of it.

Bonnie Siegel, who led one such petition drive, said she has no solutions to offer the tenants who came to her door and did not sign their petition because, she said, she still supports Bernson’s efforts.

“But I did give them my name and phone number because I would like to meet Raul Morales. I know the only way things get done is when neighbors get together,” she said.

Cautious Conversation

As Susan Green cautiously talked with Rosas and Alarcon through her screen door, she said she was not aware of the tenants’ organization. She gave the pair her phone number and said she may attend a community meeting.

For Angela Aragon, 49, who has been active in Padres Unidos, the results were different. She began to weep when she returned to the corner of Bryant and Vanalden, saying a man refused to sign her petition because he thought there were too many criminals and drug dealers in the development.

“He said I was a good person, but most of the people are not,” Aragon said. “He told me he didn’t want our filth on his street. I know they have reason to feel that way, but I am human, too. He made me feel very bad.”