CRA to Spend More for Housing, Transit

With detractors of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency lobbying to deprive it of money and power, the agency’s executive laid out an agenda for the 1990s on Monday that would reverse dramatically the CRA’s spending policies while ensuring its role as a catalyst for downtown development.

In an interview, Administrator John Tuite said that in the next decade, 95% of the CRA’s downtown budget should go toward housing, transportation, public safety and job creation.

For the last 10 years, the agency’s considerable financial muscle has been directed at rebuilding the city’s downtown financial center. But now, said Tuite, the city faces problems, especially homelessness, that require a different emphasis.

“We need a new vision appropriate to the issues we are facing today,” Tuite said.

Tuite’s remarks come amid a highly charged reassessment of the agency by the City Council. Critics accuse the CRA of being an arm of the mayor and of corporate leaders who have used the agency’s resources to build a downtown power base.

Until now, less than 20% of the $683 million spent by the agency downtown has gone toward housing and less than 10% to transportation. Comparisons in other spending areas are difficult because the agency has not broken out separate categories for jobs and public safety.

Critics maintain that it will not be easy for Tuite to put a sympathetic face on an agency that has condemned thousands of homes and apartments and displaced hundreds of small businesses.

“Trying to paint a pretty picture of future deeds can’t disguise what they’ve done in the past,” said Michael Bodaken, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, who is trying to persuade City Council members to take over the CRA.

“The CRA’s spending priorities ought to be worked out in public hearings in front of the City Council,” Bodaken said. He described Tuite’s comments as “vague, seat-of-the-pants proposals.”

The CRA’s assets, derived largely from property taxes it controls, and its power to condemn property make it one of the more potent governmental bodies in the city, but the commission that oversees the CRA is not elected. With the help of Mayor Tom Bradley, the agency has gained a considerable degree of political independence, even though it is supposed to be subject to City Council supervision.

Flow of Tax Money

But now the agency’s independence is on the line. Under terms of a settlement agreed to in 1979, the flow of downtown property tax revenue from the CRA could soon be diverted unless Bradley and the council work out a deal with Los Angeles County officials to alter the settlement.

Meanwhile, the City Council is being pressured by a coalition of social activists, led by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, to disband the CRA’s ruling commission and set up a new one directly responsive to the council. Legal Aid and others have long been critical of the CRA for spending so little on housing.

For the time being, at least, agency critics believe they have momentum on their side. One source close to the lobbying effort at City Hall said opponents of the agency need two or three more votes to win a motion to put the agency under the control of the 15-member council.

Those votes won’t come without a struggle. Eight of the 15 council members have CRA projects in their districts and would think twice before crossing the agency. Other council members argue that the council already has all the authority it needs over the agency.

Limited Outlook

Tuite avoided the question of how the CRA ought to be run, restricting his remarks to his proposed new agenda for the agency.

Tuite said Monday that one of the CRA’s first priorities in the next decade ought to be the creation of a downtown multipurpose center for homeless people.

“We need a major center that provides shelter and an array of services that will help people find jobs or the particular kind of attention they need,” Tuite said.

Tuite also advocated building a transit system that would loop downtown from Union Station on the north to the Convention center on the South.

“I’m going back to the people-mover idea,” Tuite said, referring to the proposed $250-million transit project that ran into financial and political obstacles eight years ago.