Stormy Meeting Over Slum : Anglos, Latinos Clash on Rehabilitation Plans

At a stormy meeting attended by more than 700 Northridge residents, Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Hal Bernson on Sunday promoted different plans for halting crime and blight in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Northridge.

The two sparred before an overwhelmingly Anglo crowd that repeatedly cheered its approval of Bernson’s controversial proposal for cleaning up the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue neighborhood by forcing out at least some of the 3,000 tenants.

About 25 tenants of the crime-plagued apartments attended the town hall-style meeting at the Wilkinson Senior Center.

Tenant leader Raul Morales said most tenants declined Bradley’s invitation--extended only to tenants and landlords--after reading news reports that Bernson had sent letters to 4,000 residents who live near the apartments urging them to attend.

‘Scared Away’

Many tenants were “scared away because they feel the people in the neighborhoods hate them,” said Morales, who engaged in several angry exchanges at the session.

Bernson said he packed the meeting because he was angry at not being invited “even though it’s something in my district” and because those living near the Bryant-Vanalden area “have a point of view that also should be heard.”

Bernson, invited up to the stage by Bradley, vowed to continue pushing his plan for upgrading the neighborhood.

But the councilman announced he has dropped a proposed exemption to the city’s rent control law that would make it easier for Bryant-Vanalden landlords to evict tenants.

Charges of Racism

A Los Angeles City Council staff report said the evictions would pave the way for transformation of the area into a gated, middle-class community.

Last August, the council voted 9 to 4 to tentatively approve the exemption, setting off widespread protests that the plan was racist. Bradley threatened to veto the measure.

Bernson said Sunday he now intends to rely on voluntary action by the 31 landlords who own the 650 blighted apartments.

The councilman said he will attempt to organize the landlords into a single management entity that would transform the neighborhood into a gated community.

Bryant Street would be vacated and turned into a greenbelt under Bernson’s plan, and all buildings would be refurbished inside and out.

Rents Would Rise

The councilman acknowledged that rents “would have to go up and some present tenants would not be able to afford the higher rents,” but said he could not predict how many would be forced out.

Bradley, who said his staff erred in not inviting Bernson to the meeting, declined to take a position on the councilman’s revised plan.

Throughout the session, the mayor pushed his own plan for cleaning up the neighborhood through a task force made up of tenants and landlords. The group would rid the neighborhood of crime by helping police keep an eye on the burglars and drug dealers who plague the area, the mayor said.

Assured that the area would not deteriorate further, landlords would be willing to refurbish their units, he said.

The mayor said a similar plan was “very, very effective” in cleaning up crime several years ago at the 430-unit Van Nuys Pierce Park apartments in Pacoima.

Bradley predicted that a 12-officer task force that is scheduled to start patrolling the Bryant-Vanalden area today would sharply reduce crime.

Gerald Glick, a landlord invited to speak by Bradley, got murmurs of approval from the audience when he said that newly arrived immigrants from Central America are the problem at Bryant-Vanalden.

“I rent to four people for a two-bedroom apartment,” he said, “and a week later there are three families living there. If you evict them, the process repeats itself almost immediately.”

Morales, president of Padres Unidos, or United Parents, said tenants would not agree to Bernson’s revised plan for a gated community because “we don’t want to be in a cage.”

He also predicted that the cost of the refurbishments advocated by Bernson would push up rents, forcing “many, many people out. It would destroy the neighborhood.”

Although Bradley and Bernson stayed out of the fray, Morales and other tenant representatives several times traded angry insults with the crowd.

At one point, Morales’ microphone was cut off after he ignored the mayor’s attempts to calm him. Leaning toward the crowd, Morales shouted angrily: “I’m proud to be an American, but you people are embarrassing me!”

The pro-Bernson crowd heckled several of the tenant leaders, shouting “Talk English! Talk English!” and “Where’s your green card?”