Redevelopment Agency’s Role

We have read with interest the continuing saga of the controversy surrounding the Los Angeles CRA because of our personal experience in a mishandled CRA housing project. We are glad the financial power of that agency no longer silences critics. But we have seen little indication that the new outspokenness will lead to a quick resolution to our problems and an end to the incredibly costly legal battle of which we have been a part.

As trapped owners at Eaton Crest in the Monterey Hills Project, we spent nine months in a damages trial, listening to defense attorneys who are said to have rung up bills totaling about $20 million. Much more than the $9.9 million the jury indicated we are to divide with the mortgage bond holders. The legal costs dwarf the $6 million we offered to settle for two years ago.

Rather than settling with us in accordance with this decision of the incredibly patient jury, the defendants, including the city of Los Angeles and the CRA, indicate they want to prolong this costly battle.

How can CRA officials claim the ability to proceed with large projects affecting the welfare of this city if they cannot face up to the responsibilities they owe to the owners they have abandoned in their largest housing project, the planned community in the Monterey Hills? We hope the City Council will begin to hold them to the highest of standards, by resolving the disputes with Eaton Crest now, and proceeding with the repairs necessary to return the Monterey Hills to the model community it was intended to be.

JOE and PEPI FEINBLATT

Los Angeles