Operation Knockdown
I read with great concern your story “Home Knockdowns Roust More Than Drug Dealers” (Part A, Jan. 23). Operation Knockdown was initiated to free neighborhoods from homes that are public safety hazards, and that often serve as dens for drug dealers and gang members. No innocent homeowner should be forced to live side-by-side to a derelict, abandoned building such as the ones targeted by the knockdown program.
Only if a property is in serious disrepair--with open windows and doors and roofs that have been burned down by fire--should the Department of Building and Safety activate Operation Knockdown. The program has worked. Throughout this city, we have removed dangerous structures from law-abiding neighborhoods.
Last week, as part of my review of the anti-gang, anti-drug knockdown program, I ordered that the following three actions take place:
1) The Department of Building and Safety should take extra steps to certify these homes designated for knockdown cannot be rehabilitated.
2) Information regarding housing-rehabilitation grants through the Community Development Department and Community Redevelopment Agency must be made available to homeowners through the program who wish to save their homes.
3) My recently appointed housing coordinator, Michael Bodaken, will undertake a review of the entire program to ensure that it meets these tough, well-intentioned goals. In particular, Bodaken will review how vacant lots may be used to construct affordable housing.
Operation Knockdown is an important tool for the city to wake up property owners to the fact that abandoned, derelict buildings can often serve as breeding grounds for crime. If an owner neglects a property, the city has legal authority to hold the owner responsible. And we will take that action to protect our neighborhoods.
However, I don’t want to see this program catch those property owners who are making a good-faith effort to improve their building in the middle. The city will make loan information and other rehabilitation tools available to any property owner who shares our goal of improving the quality of life for those living in inner-city neighborhoods.
MAYOR TOM BRADLEY
Los Angeles