Up From Rubble Rises Test of Wills : Matter of Principle Puts Mall on Hold at Notorious Corner

For years it was the kind of crime-ridden bar where orders for illicit drugs sometimes outpaced orders for drinks. But on Friday the notorious bar, at the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue in Pacoima, came crashing down as a scoop loader cleared the site for a mini-mall.

But whether the mall will rise on the site depends on a developer’s quirky stand on what he regards as the financial nit-picking of the city bureaucracy, and what others say are simply routine requirements in the construction business.

The sound of the bulldozer-like loader dumping bricks and boards into a truck cheered some nearby residents who for years put up with drug dealing that, by some accounts, went on 24 hours a day. Dealers hired boys to hustle drugs out to waiting buyers idling their car engines on Bradley Avenue.

“Any time you’d come here, you’d see action,” developer Erez Kaminski said as the bulldozer attacked the mound of debris. “It’s very hard to describe how it used to be.”

The bar was boarded up a year ago, but drug dealers and transients would break in and continue to do business, Kaminski said.

“It made my business bad,” said Jackie Fields, owner of the Touch & Essence Beauty Salon and Boutique across the street. From her shop windows, Fields had watched the loiterers and drug dealers for five years. “They used to stand in front of my place too.”

The bar scared off customers, Fields said. But maybe now that the bar is gone, they’ll start coming back, she said. A customer was also pleased to see the bar come down. “That’s a good sign,” she said with a nod.

But the scene did not cheer Kaminski, who proudly announced plans for the mini-mall 18 months ago. Now Kaminski says he’s not sure when--or if--he will begin building the two-story, 8,700-square-foot shopping center.

Kaminski said he refuses to comply with a city order to post a $10,000 bond to guarantee that he will replace the sidewalk after construction ends. Kaminski insisted that the bond is not necessary. The city should provide incentives for businessmen willing to build in high-risk areas, he said.

The order to post the bond is insulting, he said. “It’s like telling me, ‘Hey, we don’t want you to build it.’ ”

Kaminski insists that the issue is not money. He owns a check-cashing business a few blocks away on Van Nuys Boulevard, and he said he had the funds to post the bond.

His architect, Uri Arbel, conceded that such bonds are a routine part of doing business with the city of Los Angeles. But Kaminski believes that the city should recognize efforts such as his mini-mall, Arbel said. “It’s a personal principle for him,” he said.

As a matter of principle, Kaminski said, he also refuses to pay $3,600 for permits to install a fire hydrant.

City planning officials familiar with Kaminski’s case could not be reached for comment.

Plans Endorsed

When Kaminski’s plans for a mini-mall were unveiled, they were endorsed by community leaders and state and local politicians. Kaminski agreed not to allow liquor sales. He also agreed not to install public telephones, often used by drug dealers to set up sales.

“We wrote a letter in support of his efforts, principally because he wanted to create an alcohol-free store,” Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said. “We think it’s a good project to go there.”

Katz said he was not familiar with Kaminski’s position on the bond. Katz said that as a state official, he could not speak for the city, but he noted that sometimes there is not much that can be done to cut through what a developer perceives as red tape.

“We want to encourage him, but there are rules that must be followed if you are going to build things in Los Angeles,” he said.

Kaminski, meanwhile, said his plans are on hold. For now, he said, the site will remain a vacant lot surrounded by a chain-link fence.