Tenants’ Meeting : Bradley, Bernson to Face Off

A meeting scheduled for Sunday between Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and tenants in the troubled Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue neighborhood of Northridge may turn into a confrontation between Bradley and Councilman Hal Bernson, who proposed a revitalization plan for the area that the mayor denounced.

Bernson, angered that he and residents who live near the Bryant-Vanalden apartments were not invited, said Wednesday that he will attend the meeting and that he has mailed 4,000 letters to his constituents urging them to attend as well.

“We cannot stand by and allow a small group of outside agitators to contrive with the mayor to stop our plan,” Bernson said in the letter.

Spurred by Deputy

Doris (Dodo) Meyer, Bradley’s San Fernando Valley deputy, said she urged the mayor to call the 3 p.m. meeting at the Wilkinson Senior Center in Northridge to discuss with tenants and landlords ways to combat crime and poor housing conditions in the area.

Meyer said she did not invite the predominantly middle-class neighbors of the Bryant-Vanalden apartments because “we felt this was kind of an in-house thing.” But she said the meeting is open to the public.

Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said it will “destroy” the meeting if residents from outside the Bryant-Vanalden area show up.

Explaining why the neighbors were not invited, Houston said, “You want constructive dialogue between the landlords and the tenants. And it’s their immediate problem.”

Meyer accused Bernson of overreacting to the meeting.

The dispute between Bradley and Bernson began in September when Bradley announced his opposition to Bernson’s controversial plan to clean up the area by making it easier to evict tenants and replace existing apartments with a gated, middle-class community.

After opposition from many civic groups and the mayor, Bernson decided to delay a final City Council vote on the measure.

Bernson complained Wednesday that his proposal has been misrepresented and does not call for mass evictions. He said he will show up at Sunday’s meeting to explain the details of the plan, which he still intends to pursue.

“It is interesting to note that, in the past six years, the mayor’s only interest in Bryant-Vanalden has been to threaten to veto my efforts to eliminate the crime, prostitution, drugs and slum conditions that exist in that two-square-block area,” Bernson said.

Organizing by Tenants

Bernson’s plan prompted civil rights and tenants’ rights groups to organize tenants to fight the plan. The resulting Bryant-Vanalden tenants organization, called Padres Unidos, or United Parents, has been meeting with police in an attempt to form a Neighborhood Watch group. The group has also organized cleanup days in the neighborhood.

Meyer said Bradley waited to schedule a meeting because he wanted talk with “responsible residents rather than outside organizations. Now, there seems to be good leadership.”

Raul Morales, president of Padres Unidos, said Meyer gave him about 1,000 flyers to publicize the meeting.

“We had sent letters to the mayor thanking him for his support,” Morales said. “No one personally asked to meet with him. . . . I honestly think this came about because of the pressure the community put on everybody to oppose the plan.”

Neil Seigal, a Northridge resident who supports Bernson and helped lead a petition and letter-writing campaign in favor of the councilman’s plan, said he and his neighbors “have a right to tell our complaints and problems.” He said he will urge his neighbors to attend the meeting at the senior center, 8956 Vanalden Ave.