Inner-City Oasis Fights to Save Homes From School Expansion

The residents of Arlington Heights have fought hard over the years to keep urban blight from encroaching into their neighborhood of stately, turn-of-the-century homes.

Banding together, they have waged successful battles to shut down rock houses and evict drug dealers from their palm-lined streets.

But these days, the residents are facing what they consider the toughest battle of all--saving their homes from demolition.

Last month, area residents received notice that 29 houses in the neighborhood might be purchased and torn down by the Los Angeles Unified School District to expand nearby Mount Vernon Junior High School. The proposed expansion would displace about 70 residents of the neighborhood, which is bounded by Washington Boulevard to the south, Venice Boulevard to the north, Crenshaw Boulevard on the west and 7th Avenue on the east.

Neighborhood Protests

In an effort to defeat the proposal, members of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Assn. organized two demonstrations last week against the planned expansion. Residents have also posted red-lettered “Save Our Homes” signs on their wide porches and well-kept lawns and have distributed T-shirts bearing the same slogan.

The spirited response of Arlington Heights residents mirrors that of homeowners throughout the city where battles are being waged with the district over expansion of school sites. The district--under mounting pressure to alleviate overcrowding and accommodate the influx of more than 70,000 new students expected over the next five years--is intensifying its search for more space.

In the last two years, the district has put the homes of as many 6,000 people on a list for possible demolition. Most people put on notice have fought the district and some have succeeded in having their neighborhoods withdrawn from consideration. Residents in the Beverly-Normandie area west of downtown, in South-Central and Southeast Los Angeles and Hollywood, particularly, have fought the district, holding protests, picketing and staging candlelight vigils.

But Arlington Heights residents believe that protests may not be enough. They plan to ask Los Angeles to confer historical landmark status on their neighborhood, which is made up mostly of California Bungalows or large, Craftsman-style homes.

Currently, 92 applications are on file for expansion of existing campuses or construction of new schools, said Max Varney, director of school construction for the district. About half of those are expansion projects, like that planned for Mount Vernon Junior High School.

Eight Additional Classrooms

Projected for Mount Vernon Junior High is the addition of eight classrooms and a storage facility, Varney said.

The district is considering four expansion alternatives, he said. Two alternatives would entail the demolition of about two dozen homes. But a third choice would be to build additional stories on existing school buildings, an option that has gained momentum since legislation was approved by the state Senate last September offering incentives to districts that build multistory campuses. A fourth proposal would involve the purchase of commercial property on 7th Avenue, which adjoins the campus.

Not surprisingly, the residents favor the latter two options. They plan to recommend to the district that it expand onto property that adjoins the school and now houses a large storage-leasing building and a parking lot.

Varney said either of the latter options might be workable because the school district “tries to avoid taking dwelling units and putting people out of their homes.”

Still, the very uncertainty of the plan is what most concerns the residents of Arlington Heights--a virtual inner-city oasis of flower gardens, picket fences and wide, inviting porches.

“How can you go on with your life when you don’t know what’s going to happen with your home,” said Susan Honeycutt, who moved into the neighborhood three years ago after the house she shared with her husband in the Miracle Mile District was demolished to make way for a commercial development.

The residents of Arlington Heights are from a variety of ethnic and age groups. Young professionals in their first homes live next door to retired people who have been in the neighborhood for 30 or 40 years.

“This is one of the few stable neighborhoods in the area,” said Natalie Neith, who with her husband, Kent Catbagan, and teen-age daughter moved here from Monrovia in November, 1986. “I feel safer here than I have ever felt anywhere. And this is the friendliest neighborhood I have ever lived in.”

Longtime residents Margaret and Roman Grayer are eager to take visitors through their showcase California Bungalow-style home. The library, dining room and living room of the 3,200-square-foot house are replete with antiques and imported European furnishings. Like many of the houses in the area, there are two fireplaces and windows with leaded, beveled and stained glass.

A retired couple--she was a nurse and he was a police officer--the Grayers had no intention of moving from the home in which they have lived for 23 years and raised four children.

“I know my neighbors and they know me,” Margaret Grayer, 59, said. “I know the second generation coming up now and we look out for each other.”

Two years ago the Grayers were offered $200,000 for their house, after it was featured in Sunset Magazine, she said. The school district has offered them $95,000.

“You tell us where we can go for that,” she said. “Houses like this one are irreplaceable.”

But district officials say it is still not clear that anyone will be forced to relocate.

Called a First Step

Los Angeles school board member Jackie Goldberg said the notice that the Arlington Heights homeowners received does not automatically mean that homes will be destroyed. It is only the first step in a year-long process that involves extensive study of proposed expansions and environmental impact reviews.

“We’ve made no decision on how much land, if any, to acquire, “ said Goldberg, who is on the board’s Building Committee. “There may not even be any money for this project.”

But, she said, because of the controversy surrounding school expansions, she has directed her staff “to write alarmist letters” to warn residents of the possibility that their homes may be in jeopardy.

“It’s better to do that than to have everybody find out when it’s too late--when they can’t do anything about it,” Goldberg said. “We’re saying ‘your house may be involved, so get noisy, so that if we’re making a mistake we’ll know early on.’ It’s not that we want them to yell at us--we want them to work with us.”

But this approach has annoyed the Arlington Heights residents, who see no point in the alarm.

“We’ve been enshrouded in ambiguity,” said Jim Matsuo, a 28-year-old landscape architect. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.

“It’s like they’re telling us, ‘We may shoot you or we may not.’ ”