‘What can I do? I can’t live with my kids. I don’t want to go into a retirement home.’

In late 1986, tenants in eight apartment buildings on Detroit Street in the mid-Wilshire area learned they were going to be evicted. A development company had bought and planned to demolish the 1920s-era buildings, replacing them with four new buildings with about twice as many units at double the rent.

Several tenants formed a coalition to try to save the two-story buildings, which exemplified a small-scale charm fast disappearing in Los Angeles. The fight to save Detroit Street became another chapter in the continuing Los Angeles battle between residents/preservationists and developers/landowners over who controls a neighborhood’s future.

The developer, Homestead Group Associates of West Los Angeles, largely won. Today on Detroit Street, three five-story buildings are either finished or under construction, and another is going up on nearby Cloverdale Avenue. About 150 tenants in all were evicted.

However, the fight over Detroit Street did result in a 1987 City Council ordinance, covering 10 square blocks in that area. It set some design criteria for new buildings that included height limitations, landscaping requirements and “Period Revival” exteriors.

It was an interim ordinance, pending the results of a study on the architecture of the area, so that the council might consider making the area a “historic preservation overlay zone.” The study is likely to come before the council this month, and if the area is designated as such a zone, future demolitions and redevelopment there would be more difficult.

Interim Ordinance

The interim ordinance came about through the efforts of Councilman John Ferraro (who represents the area), Homestead and the Miracle Mile Residential Assn., a homeowners’ group. “It was the best of a bad situation,” architect Bill Christopher of the homeowner’s group said, because even in spite of it, “the (new) buildings are still somewhat out of scale, and tenants got evicted for the sake of development.”

Homestead, stung by negative publicity over its plans, paid $305,839 in relocation assistance to the displaced tenants, according to a company spokesman, who said it was $168,000 more than the city required. The company also agreed to build a 30-unit complex for low-income senior citizens in the same area to compensate for the 30 elderly people who had been evicted to make way for the new buildings. “I feel satisfied I did the right thing,” said Ronnie Schwartz, Homestead general partner.

But some former tenants said they are paying double the rent or more since they moved out of their rent-controlled apartments. Frances Pisman, a senior citizen, said her current $760 a month rent is beyond her means, despite the $6,100 she received from Homestead--$1,100 more than the city requirement for landlords to pay senior citizens they force to move. She worries what will happen when that money runs out.

“What can I do? I can’t live with my kids. I don’t want to go into a retirement home,” she said. “Meanwhile, I pay the rent. Next year, let God worry.”