Tenants Lead Tranquil Life Amid Blight

Luis Rosas, 27, who works as a laborer at a Chatsworth factory, has a 10-speed bike, sparse home furnishings, a small electric organ and a $550-a-month apartment on Bryant Street in Northridge where he has lived for four years with his wife, 3-year-old daughter, cousin and his cousin’s young daughter.

Five days a week, Rosas rides his bike to work, gets home by 5 p.m., eats a quick dinner and then leaves for an English class. When he returns home, he likes to play the organ.

Although he lives in a neighborhood plagued with crime, dirty streets and poor housing conditions, he said in Spanish that he tries to make a “very tranquil, very simple” life for his family.

No Problems Inside

“When we are here inside, there are not problems,” Rosas said. “But outside, the trash piles up and spills because it is not picked up often enough. People who don’t live here come to sell drugs.”

Rosas said it frustrates him that most of the apartment buildings are unsightly and that street-sweeping trucks seldom pass along his street. Stagnant water from leaky pipes collects in puddles in outside planters, he said. And when loud music blasts from a nearby apartment, there is no manager for him to call.

“Is it our responsibility to take care of these things?” he asked. “We pay our rent like other people. Why are we ignored? What can we do?”

His solution has been to make his two-bedroom apartment as comfortable, clean and safe as he can. He has put up flowered wallpaper in the kitchen, and there are no obvious signs of deterioration, such as falling plaster or leaky plumbing.

With gray-painted fiberboard, he has converted his balcony into a partially enclosed play area for his daughter and his cousin’s child. And, although an occasional cockroach scurries over the living room rug, he said he is fortunate to have one of the nicest units in the area.

Doors Kept Open

But, it is the outside that troubles him and several of his neighbors who share a courtyard between their apartment buildings. Most keep their doors open in the hot weather.

“I know there are many bad images about this area,” said Martha Puentes, 47, who lives across from Rosas. “People think it is bad to see so many people, so many children out on the streets. But we are all watching out for each other.”

“I am not afraid of my own people,” Rosas said. “But I am afraid of the outsiders.”