COVER STORY : A Place in the Crowd : Nowhere in L.A. Do the Problems of Crime, Density and Language Barriers Converge With Such Intensity as They Do in Westlake.

It is one of the most crowded neighborhoods west of New York City.

In Westlake, small shops bursting with merchandise spill out onto sidewalks, pedestrians squeeze past rows of street vendors and drivers circle in search of a space among unbroken rows of parked cars.

The neighborhood, dominated by once-elegant brick and stucco apartment buildings, isnow twice as crowded as any other area of Los Angeles. In the one-room apartment shared by the five members of Graciela Hernandez’s family, for example, overcrowding means toilet paper cannot be flushed because it strains the building’s plumbing.

“That’s just part of life here,” said Hernandez, a street vendor and mother of three.

Like Hernandez, most people who live in the 2.7-square-mile neighborhood between Downtown and the Mid-Wilshire district are Latin American immigrants. Many are locked into low-wage jobs and struggling to learn English.

Westlake residents must also deal with some of the worst crime in Los Angeles. Parents escort their children past prostitutes, drug addicts and homeless people en route to school bus stops. “They try and call out to me and my son just looks scared,” said Javier Dominguez, father of the 6-year-old.

On May 3, many Angelenos got a rare glimpse of life in Westlake after a fire ripped through a Burlington Avenue apartment building, leaving 10 dead. But the media coverage of that tragedy presented only part of the picture. A broader view of the neighborhood reveals that nowhere in Los Angeles do the problems of overcrowding, language barriers and crime collide with such intensity as they do in Westlake.

“This is an area that is forgotten,” said Jaime Flores, economic development coordinator for El Rescate, which provides social and legal services to local immigrants. “But these problems aren’t just happening in Westlake. It’s symptomatic of the problems of Los Angeles--of the economic problems. Here, it’s simply harder because we are poor and new immigrants, but these problems exist everywhere.”

City Councilman Mike Hernandez, whose 1st District includes Westlake, said the social ills facing Westlake and its mostly working-class residents often are seen as somebody else’s problem.

“The sad part about all this is the city has treated these people as if they have no rights, as if they didn’t exist,” the councilman said, adding that the city has been slow in funding social services in the area.

“Discrimination in its purest form” is to blame, he said. “We can work in people’s homes and mow their lawns, but we can’t live in their communities.”

In Westlake, “Now Renting” signs hang from rows of apartment buildings, suggesting there is enough room for everyone. In reality, families must pool their meager resources and rent small apartments while many units remain empty.

“We’re a big family, so we’ve always had to live in crowded conditions” said Andress Candido, who came to Westlake from El Salvador. “When we moved here there were about 25 of us living in a one-bedroom apartment.”

Candido recalled hiding in the bathroom with 10 other family members when the manager stopped by one day in 1989 to inspect the apartment. The others said they were guests.

Such stories are not unusual in Westlake, home to an average of 84.5 people per acre. In contrast, the average citywide is 14.4, according to the 1990 Census. A study prepared for Councilman Hernandez found that in the area between 3rd and 8th streets in Westlake, the figure is 147 people per acre.

Westlake has always had high-density housing, but it hasn’t always been so crowded. The area’s mix of middle-class apartment buildings and hotels was built in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. MacArthur Park, before the drug dealers, addicts and Metro Rail construction came along, was an oasis on the western edge of the community for more than a century. The community remained stable for decades, composed of ethnic enclaves, retirees and a flourishing arts community.

However, the eviction of thousands of people from the Bunker Hill area during redevelopment there in the 1960s brought an influx of displaced families into Westlake, according to Mike Davis, author of “City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles.”

Over the next two decades, the neighborhood continued to change as large numbers of immigrants, many of them fleeing war in Central America, arrived in Westlake, drawn by a growing Latino community.

The population of Westlake has far exceeded the estimations of city planners. In 1974, the city projected that by 1990, there would be 80,500 people in the 3.2-square-mile Westlake Planning District, which includes the Westlake and Pico-Union neighborhoods. But by 1990, there were 108,702 residents.

The population growth has meant an increase in the number of people crammed into single units because they cannot afford rents that often exceed $550 a month. A city housing survey found 67.5% of Westlake’s housing units to be severely overcrowded, which the U.S. Census Bureau defines as those with more than 1.5 people per room (such as four people in a two-room apartment.)

Overcrowding takes its toll in large and small ways, residents said.

“The difficult part of living like this is at night, when you want to go to sleep and the person next to you needs to get up to go to the bathroom,” Candido said. “That means you have to get up too, or if you are sleeping next to the bathroom you have to get up and move.”

In Graciela Hernandez’s studio apartment, a supermarket cart for her street-vending supplies, three chairs and a small table fill the kitchen and make it difficult for the family to eat meals together. Her 12-year-old son, Juan Carlos, sleeps on a blue cot in the closet. Graciela, her husband and two daughters sleep in two single beds.

“This is hardest on my son,” she said. “He can’t go out and play because there is no space (outside) and there isn’t enough room for him in here. He just gets restless.”

The city has an ordinance intended to regulate occupancy and room dimensions, but it is an ineffective tool for dealing with the root causes of overcrowding, said Gary W. Squier, general manager of the city’s Housing Department.

“If you force residents to move out (of overcrowded apartments), what have you accomplished?” Squier asked. “The high vacancy rates and the high level of overcrowding are both driven by economics.”

Squier said there is a “mismatch” in Westlake not only between the large stock of one-bedroom units and the large number of families that need two bedrooms or more, but also between landlords that need rents of more than $550 a month to pay their mortgages and renters who can pay only about $300.

Inspectors for the city’s Building and Safety Department say it is nearly impossible for them to determine how many people are living in any single unit without the tenants’ cooperation. Inspectors rely on landlords to regulate the number of people per apartment, but some landlords allow overcrowding and charge extra for each additional person, one inspector said.

Residents say absentee landlords and poor conditions in many buildings add to the hardships of daily life.

Graciela Hernandez said she cleans and uses roach spray in her apartment, but still must frequently swab her children’s insect bites with alcohol. She and her neighbors tell stories of living in a building with broken toilets, moldy and torn carpets, peeling paint in graffiti-covered hallways and cockroaches scurrying over furniture, floors and residents. Many apartments do not have smoke detectors, as required by law.

While acknowledging that some owners let their buildings fall into disrepair, one owner of an apartment building on Witmer Street, who asked that his name not be used, said he and other struggling owners have difficulty paying their mortgages and maintaining their property when gangs drive tenants away and prospective tenants cannot pay the rent.

Gangs and drug dealers are the main sources of fear among Westlake residents. Yet many are afraid to speak out, even when preyed upon.

“Last night I could hear a man yelling for help,” a 45-year-old factory worker, who did want to be identified, said recently. “It was as if he was being tortured, from the sounds of his scream. But none of us came out to help him, and you know why? Because everyone is afraid.”

John Mills, 69, a resident since 1985, said gangs are “terrorizing the neighborhood.” He tells of extortion attempts against senior citizens by gang members who threaten to break their car windows unless they pay them $50.

“I thought I was safe living on the 13th floor until they shot out the windows on the 14th floor,” he said. “I would move, but I’m not rich.”

The Police Department’s Rampart Division, which includes the Westlake area, tops the city in violent incidents, last year ranking first in robberies and assaults and second in homicides. Overextended police say they could use help, but many residents fear retribution from criminals or questions about their immigration status.

“Some undercover cops came and asked me to let them use my house for surveillance,” said Juana Delgado, who refused the request. “I told them, ‘Who is going to protect me when the cops leave?’ The drug dealers know who the residents are and they’ll know it’s my house.”

Police say they are also hampered by some residents’ distrust and fear of officers. “There’s nothing worse than going out on a call and when you get there they don’t want to get involved or even talk to you,” said Rampart Division Sgt. Herman Kaskowitz.

Officers stress that crime tips can be made anonymously and are treated with confidentiality.

Even those who are often blamed for many of the community’s problems express concern about the danger around them.

“I don’t want my kids to grow up in this neighborhood because they’ll do drugs and get killed,” said Blackie, a member of an area gang who lives in a local hotel.

Police say there are 49 gangs in the Rampart Division, which also covers Pico-Union, Temple-Beaudry and parts of Koreatown, Mid-Wilshire, Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park. Blackie said he knew of at least nine gangs in Westlake.

On the streets, brazen drug dealers peer into passing cars, whistle and make a quick sales pitch or hand gestures to let potential customers know they are looking for business. Police say customers from all parts of the city come to Westlake to buy narcotics because the area offers better quality at lower prices.

“I resent what I see,” said Mills, who organizes neighborhood cleanups and other improvement activities. “I would do more, but there is a risk I could be killed. I don’t even go out at night. These should be my golden years, but I’m a prisoner in my own home.”

More police officers are only part of the solution, said Capt. Gregory Berg of the Rampart Division. “Most of the stuff that actually cause our problems are beyond our control,” he said, referring to poverty, unemployment and other social ills.

“We need more money for young people and recreational programs to give them something to do besides hanging on street corners,” Berg said.

The alienation young people feel in an area with high unemployment and few resources is mirrored in the experience of their parents, most of whom remain in low-paying jobs and are often held back by their immigration status and lack of English skills.

The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term linguistic isolation to refer to a household in which no one older than 14 speaks English “very well,” as judged by the members of the household. In the Westlake district, 45.4% of the residents fall into that category.

“Most people don’t speak English and I think that’s part of what keeps us here,” said Fernando, who has been unemployed for nearly six months and didn’t want his last name used. “Part of it is my fault. There are places you learn English. If I spoke English I wouldn’t live here, I can assure you of that.”

In Westlake, basic needs can be met using Spanish. But many doors inside and outside the neighborhood are closed without English skills. For instance, residents often express frustration at not being able to get information or report housing problems because of the language barrier.

“The last time a (building) inspector came here, she didn’t speak Spanish, and she just seemed really annoyed,” said Maria Sierra, who lives in a small apartment on Crown Hill Avenue. “So how are we going to learn to trust or even communicate our problems to them?”

Mike Hernandez echoes Sierra’s frustrations, adding that he also must persuade his colleagues at City Hall to realize the need for addressing issues such as overcrowding, crime and language barriers.

“I’m one voice on the City Council for an area that is five years ahead of its time,” the councilman said. “Nobody has the intensity of problems that exist here. Here we had this fire, this tragedy, and the council still voted to (lay off) building inspectors.”

Efforts are under way to improve housing conditions in the area.

The city’s Housing Department, working with several nonprofit groups such as the Pico-Union Housing Corp., recently announced plans to begin seven affordable-housing and rehabilitation projects in Westlake by the end of the year. The 382 units, ranging from single rooms to three-bedroom apartments, will be reserved for low-income families.

Housing officials are also working with their counterparts in the fire and building and safety departments to find a way to accelerate building inspections for safety violations, even as layoffs of building inspectors continue because of the city’s budget crunch.

Meanwhile, transit authorities and city and private planners have grand visions for Westlake, including the construction of a retail and residential village and attracting commercial and residential developments west of the Harbor Freeway.

Part of that project will be a refurbished MacArthur Park neighborhood. The park is undergoing improvements and will reopen by the end of the year. In addition, planners want to turn the 12 acres around the Metro Rail station into a residential village, which would include 250,000 square feet of retail space, 250 housing units, medical facilities and a day-care center. Plans for the village, estimated to cost $80 million to $100 million, are under review.

But such projects can hardly keep pace with the housing problems of Westlake and, increasingly, other parts of the city. “There is a crisis in affordable housing,” said Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, president of the city’s Affordable Housing Commission.

Dupont-Walker referred to a 1991 housing study prepared for the city that found a vast shortfall between population growth and housing production, a widening gap between wages and housing costs, renter incomes too low to support renovation costs, and a 75% reduction in federal resources devoted to housing since 1980.

The study suggests that housing-related problems contribute to a downward spiral that includes joblessness, gang activity, expanding drug use, violent crime and accelerated housing deterioration--problems that have already merged in Westlake.

Despite these overwhelming conditions, Westlake neighborhood groups press on. The 5th and Bonnie Brae MASH (More Advocates for Safer Homes) group, the Westlake Protectors Neighborhood Watch Group and the Westlake Task Force focus on one block at a time, cleaning alleys, painting out graffiti, reporting crime to the police and sharing information on scarce city and private resources.

“Residents are starting to organize and ask the tough questions,” said Tom Coyle, chairman of the Westlake Task Force. “They’re not saying they want more than other communities. They just want their fair share.”

On the Cover

The weekly Saturday throng of Westlake vendors and residents clog Sixth Street, just west of Downtown.

Westlake is twice as crowded as any other area of Los Angeles, and the neighborhood of 108,702 residents tops the city in robberies and assaults.

Residents are mostly Latin American immigrants who must double up in small apartments to afford the rent.