Proposals to Revitalize South-Central Unveiled

A task force appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley announced Friday a broad set of proposals for revitalizing South-Central Los Angeles, a distressed area that City Hall has been criticized for neglecting over the years.

The task force was created last July to, in Bradley’s words, “resurrect South-Central from the grasp of drug peddlers and gang members.”

In general, the task force’s report deals with ways to increase housing and jobs as well as business and educational opportunities. Its proposals do not touch on drugs or gangs, and in some areas, such as economic development, they list few specific projects.

In addition to the task force’s efforts, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is considering a major expansion of its current project in Watts. John Tuite, the CRA’s administrator, said Friday that the agency’s board will decide in March whether to authorize $175 million to $200 million worth of housing rehabilitation and economic development across a 2,000-acre residential and commercial area of Watts.

Bradley greeted the task force’s report with a promise to act quickly on its recommendations for more low-income housing, but he also cautioned that some of the goals of the task force may be difficult to attain.

“Some of these things are going to require a lot of money in a day when we don’t have a lot of money,” Bradley said. He did not elaborate.

The mayor also signaled his sensitivity to charges that he has given short shrift to the part of town originally responsible for electing him to public office.

“People ask me, is this a new focus? Why now instead of 17 years ago? . . . It (South-Central Los Angeles) has not been denied our attention or our services,” Bradley said, recounting a series of residential and commercial projects initiated by his administration since 1973.

The 72-member task force is calling for an initial focus on a 10-square-block area, bounded by Vernon Avenue on the south, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the north, McKinley Avenue on the west and Hooper Avenue on the east. If successful, the proposed recommendations would be applied to a much broader area, ranging from Washington Boulevard on the north, 120th Street on the south, the Harbor Freeway on the west and Alameda Boulevard on the east.

Specifically, the task force recommends building 150 housing units in neighborhoods near the intersection of Vernon and Central avenues--a recommendation that Bradley said can be acted on quickly. He noted that one site had already been acquired.

Other recommendations include: developing 5,000 new jobs over the next three to five years and training of 6,000 people for employment within South-Central Los Angeles; creating a job-training program at the city’s Housing Authority; founding a residential preparatory school for high achievers on the campus of Southwest College and creating a nonprofit organization to follow through on the recommendations of the task force.

William Elkins, a special assistant to Bradley and chairman of the task force, said Friday that he had hoped to be able to announce that two new businesses, capable of hiring 200 South-Central residents, would be relocating there. But Elkins said that negotiations with the two firms, which he did not identify, should be completed by June.