Apartment Building Is a Rare Refuge From Street’s Mayhem

To get to her aunt’s apartment from her own, Lidia Olmos, 15, takes a scary walk.

She passes dilapidated buildings covered with graffiti. She sees gang members selling drugs. Sometimes she hears gunfire.

But once she is inside her aunt’s apartment complex, everything changes. There are no graffiti, loud music, broken windows or young men selling cocaine.

“I usually don’t come out,” Lidia said. “I stay in my house. But I like coming here. Cholos don’t come in here like they do in my apartment. It’s quiet.”

This building at 14753 Blythe St. is a rarity, though planners of Project Renaissance hope it will become typical.

It is one of a few well-maintained, safe buildings on the street, Police Officer Chuck Leber said.

Strong management is “the key to keeping the place from deteriorating,” he said.

It is not easy, said co-owners Arnold Goldman and Dorothy Shaffier.

“We put a chunk of money into the building trying to fix it up,” Shaffier said. “We have wonderful tenants, and we try to keep the best building that you possibly can under the circumstances.”

An eight-foot fence surrounds the building. The gate is kept locked. Only residents and their guests are allowed inside. Floodlights illuminate the complex and the street at night. Although a tree in front is covered with graffiti, the building has none.

Co-managers Terry Fleischman and Memo Mendoza are constantly making repairs, Fleischman said. Double-paned windows were recently installed to keep out noise.

The managers also rigorously screen tenants, Fleischman said. They do credit checks, interviews and “I go out and talk to other owners where they lived before and where they are currently living.” Half of the would-be tenants don’t make the grade.

One result is a 45% vacancy rate.

Good buildings are not necessarily good business.

Goldman said expenses are about $94,000, and rent receipts for 1991 were about $60,000, he said.

The owners have received a mortgage reduction.

“Being diligent pays,” Goldman said. “We hardly ever have to do eviction. But we also don’t have tenants. They’re driven away.”

In 1990, the owners borrowed $75,000 from the Community Development Department’s Rental Rehabilitation Program to improve the property and, they hoped, make the tenants eligible for rent subsidies.

But the calm inside the building is often shattered by the mayhem outside.

“The shooting doesn’t bother me I guess because I hear it so much,” said Stella Vega, who lives in the building with her children, Stevie, 4, and Belinda, 1 1/2.

But she said five years of Blythe Street, even in a good building, has taken their toll.

“As soon as I can get enough money to go, I’m moving out,” Vega said. “I’m going to Texas. It’s bad, but it’s not bad like this.”