Closure of Streets Near Low-Income Project OKd

The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday voted to close portions of two public streets that intersect the crime-ridden San Fernando Gardens housing project, the first phase of a long-awaited plan to upgrade security.

The street closures, approved without debate on a 10-0 vote, are needed to restrict access to the 448-unit project, said David Mays, chief deputy for City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represents the area. A nearly 1-mile-long, 8-foot-tall wrought iron fence will then be built around the low-income housing project.

“The street closures are a first step forward and everyone is very excited,” Mays said. Closed will be Lehigh Avenue between Van Nuys Boulevard and Pierce Street, and Carl Street between Pala Avenue and Lehigh.

Bernardi, who introduced the street closure plan, was not present during the council’s consideration of the matter.

The proposal to enclose San Fernando Gardens, whose 2,000 tenants are mostly Latinos, including 1,500 children, caused a brief flap during Bernardi’s 1989 reelection bid. Lyle Hall, Bernardi’s major foe, insinuated that the incumbent’s support of the fencing plan was racially motivated. However, Hall’s comments backfired with tenants of the project.

“We’re doing this at the request of the housing project’s tenant’s association,” Mays said. “We have continuing crime problems there, most of them drug-related. The community wants to have more control over their environment and this . . . will help.”

City Councilman Hal Bernson has said a similar enclosure of Park Parthenia, a 60-building private housing project in his district in Northridge, proved to be an effective crime-fighting tool.

The Los Angeles Housing Authority, which owns and operates the project, has the $400,000 needed to erect the fence, and construction should be completed within two to three months, Mays said. Two entrances to the housing project will remain when the fence is built, and the authority is seeking grants to hire security guards to man the entrances, Mays said.

Additionally, Bernardi is supporting a plan to build a 5,300-square-foot community center that would house day-care, social services and recreational facilities for the project.

San Fernando Gardens is the only city housing project that does not have such a facility.