‘Like Christmas’ : Phoenix House’s Decision Elates Neighborhood

To Janet Jackson, whose home backs up to the defunct Lake View Medical Center, the Saturday before Memorial Day seemed more like Christmas.

Jackson and her Lake View Terrace neighbors fought for more than a year to block the proposed 210-bed Nancy Reagan Center for drug-abuse treatment and just when the battle seemed lost, the former First Lady on Friday backed away from the fight, citing the neighborhood opposition.

And Phoenix House, the drug treatment organization that had proposed operating the center, quickly announced that it was pulling out of the project.

“There’s a feeling of lightness,” said Jackson, 37, whose Luanda Street home overlooks the 14-acre former hospital property. “It’s almost like Christmastime.”

Community Amenity

Telephones rang repeatedly Saturday as neighbors shared their elation. They talked excitedly about how the three-story building and its grounds might be transformed from a white elephant into a community amenity, such as a library, a senior citizens center or a theater. Others relived the battle, repeating arguments that the center’s drug-addicted residents would have posed security risks to the area.

“It’s just incredible,” Jackson said. “We don’t know what happened, but we know it was a miracle here.”

The neighborhood’s battle had often seemed lopsided during the 13 months since the politically connected Phoenix House announced plans to buy and renovate the hospital, which had gone bankrupt in 1986.

Phoenix House had Nancy Reagan, who as First Lady had become the nation’s most well-known drug fighter, on its side. But it also had the money and prestige of Hollywood, with such personages as Merv Griffin and Grant Tinker supporting the center.

The racially integrated community around the hospital site--a mixture of aging tract homes with barred windows and almost-new homes with good views--seemed an impossibly mismatched underdog. But residents from a variety of races and income groups joined to fight back by lobbying Los Angeles city officials, community leaders said.

Beyond the immediate vicinity of the site, Phoenix House had vocal supporters, including City Council candidate Lyle Hall. But Lynne Cooper said opposition was nearly 100% in her neighborhood.

Now that the battle with Phoenix House has been won, Cooper, president of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., one of two groups of organized homeowners in the community, talked about the new challenges.

“We’ve got some momentum going now, and I think that will help us get a community center,” said Cooper, 28, whose three-bedroom home overlooks the back of the hospital building.

“We felt we were fighting a losing battle,” said Brian Cooper, 29. “But we kept going.”

The homes in the Coopers’ neighborhood were built between 1984 and 1986. Landscaping is maturing. Pools are going in. And home values have gone up substantially, to between $170,000 and $200,000, real estate agents and residents say.

But several residents said the escalation in value nearly halted last year when it appeared that Phoenix House would win city approval of its plans. Although some residents were ready to move away anyway, Cooper said, the proposed drug-abuse treatment center caused them to accelerate their plans. In some cases, residents said, houses sold for less than they were worth as residents fled.

Values Increase

Shirley Russell, a real estate agent active in the neighborhood, said homes immediately next to the former hospital probably went up in value between Friday afternoon and Saturday.

Phoenix House “was a barrier to getting the price that the houses were really worth,” she said.

Those not ready to pick up and move began taking precautions as well. Bob and Joycelin Furgunson moved into their Luanda Street home three weeks before Phoenix House officials confirmed plans to buy and renovate the property just beyond their back fence.

They considered leaving, but feared that they would be unable to sell the house for a high enough price. So they decided to erect tall trellises, plant rose bushes and install an alarm system, something they had thought unnecessary in what appears to be a serene suburban neighborhood.

“We were planning on fortifying the back yard,” said Bob Furgunson, 38, a sculptor and artist. He said he wanted to discourage Phoenix House residents from coming on his property.

The Furgunsons said they would not have opposed a center for voluntary drug treatment. But Phoenix House residents would have been assigned to the center by courts and might have tried to escape, they said.

The Furgunsons and others insisted that their fight against Phoenix House was not just another case of a neighborhood resisting an idea from outside. They said they supported the program until they learned more about it.

The unity formed during the fight, the residents said, will be important in continuing to battle drugs in the neighborhood and in fighting expansion of the nearby Lopez Canyon landfill. They also want to make sure that whatever is proposed for the former hospital site meets with the community’s approval.

Now, however, the community is planning a huge block party.

“We’ve been promising ourselves this party for a year and a half,” Lynne Cooper said. “We deserve it.”