Inspectors Sweep Bryant-Vanalden as L.A. Drafts New Cleanup Plan

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson on Thursday led two dozen building and health inspectors on a sweep through the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue area of Northridge, as a new plan was being drafted to clean up the blighted neighborhood.

The plan, being prepared by the city Community Development Department, does not call for the eviction of 3,000 predominantly low-income Latino tenants of 30 apartment buildings in the Bryant-Vanalden area, as did an earlier proposal that was dropped in the face of strong opposition.

It calls for the city and the owners of the buildings to pay for a multimillion-dollar cleanup program for the neighborhood, or--if the owners refuse--for the city to declare the entire neighborhood a redevelopment project and take over the 650 units there.

Bernson, who has called the Bryant-Vanalden area the major problem in his otherwise middle-income district, said he will support “anything that works.”

Joined Inspection

He made the comments after joining the city and county inspectors on the daylong sweep at the apartments that resulted in hundreds of citations for such building and health code violations as broken windows, torn carpeting, stopped-up toilets, leaky pipes and cockroach infestations.

“We’re going to go with the best thing that works,” Bernson said, adding that he wants to meet with the apartment owners to see if they will cooperate.

Whatever option is ultimately proposed stands a better chance of winning the necessary approval from the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley if it has Bernson’s support because the plan affects his district.

Bernson caused an uproar in September when he proposed cleaning up the Bryant-Vanalden area by making it easier for landlords to evict the low-income tenants. He later withdrew the plan after strong opposition from civil rights and tenants groups and a threat by Bradley to veto it.

The mass inspection Thursday, which was requested by Bernson, was the first of the area since December, 1981. Bernson said the sweep--which was announced to apartment owners beforehand to give them a chance to make improvements--was in response to complaints from tenants about slum conditions in the area.

“It just stinks in here,” Bernson said as he made his way through a vacant apartment cluttered with debris, including rotting food. In another apartment, Bernson found wall-to-wall mattresses. Twelve people were living in the two-bedroom apartment, a tenant told inspectors.

Officials did not say how many citations were issued Thursday.

According to Bernson’s staff, one of the buildings written up for such violations as cockroach infestations, exposed wiring and lack of hot water is owned by Lance Robbins, who was working closely with Bernson on the earlier neighborhood cleanup plan.

Bernson said he has dropped Robbins from any lead role in the cleanup effort.

Robbins could not be reached for comment.

A number of tenants invited inspectors into their homes with open arms. “I’m glad they’re here,” tenant Juan Rodriguez said in Spanish. Rodriguez complained that he has repeatedly asked his landlord to make repairs but has received no satisfaction.

Apartment owners were given from a few days to a couple of months to make repairs, depending on the seriousness of the violation. If they fail to make repairs, they can be prosecuted.

The plan proposed by the Community Development Department offers three options. The first, preferred by the department as the cheapest and quickest solution, calls for the city and apartment owners to each spend about $3.5 million to improve the area. A security gate would be built around the neighborhood, the area would be landscaped and the apartments renovated.

No tenant would be forced to move except for the reasons now allowed under the city’s rent-control law. “There’s no reason for any of the tenants to be displaced if they’re responsible tenants,” Bernson said.

Rents could be increased to pay for the landlord’s costs of the improvements but the department proposes to provide rent subsidies to low-income families to ease the impact.

Idea Used Elsewhere

A similar concept was recently used to clean up a drug-trafficking area known as Sherm Alley in the Crenshaw district. “But it hasn’t been done on this scale,” a department official said.

Even if this option receives Bernson’s blessings, however, it could run into rough sledding from the full council. As part of the proposal, the city would have to make available to Bernson’s district a large share of the funds provided under a federal program for renovating low-income housing. Other council members may be unwilling to provide the money for use in Bernson’s relatively affluent district.

Department officials said they hope to present the option to apartment owners at a meeting in early March. If the owners refuse to participate, department officials said, two other options would be available.

The first is that the city look for a developer who would buy all of the apartment buildings and renovate them. The city would provide funds for the project from the sale of tax-exempt bonds.

If apartment owners refuse to sell, under the second option the city could declare the entire neighborhood a redevelopment project and, using its power of eminent domain, take over the buildings and convert them into a city housing project. Officials said that option would be costly.