Metro Red Line Is Invading Shangri-La

To the studio people, it has been Shangri-La: a small row of apartment buildings tucked away in an island defined by the Hollywood Freeway, the L.A. River and Universal Studios.

Over the years it has developed a special character as animators, film editors, sound technicians and actors moved in to take advantage of the one-block commute to the world’s largest movie studio.

But now it’s doomed.

The complex of about 25 buildings on Willowcrest Avenue has been targeted by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the future North Hollywood Metro Red Line station, scheduled to be open for service in the year 2000. And its residents, who estimate their number at about 200, now find themselves cast adrift in the Twilight Zone of eminent domain.

The residents say they learned almost two years ago that they’d have to move. But they say the MTA won’t tell them when.

“We just want to know where we can predict our lives to be in a year from now,” said Britton Payne, a resident who is a personal trainer for people in the studio business.

Payne and dozens of her neighbors clamored in vain for answers Thursday when a team of MTA officials held a four-hour open house to establish formal relations with the community at the future transit station site.

Signaling that the 10-year-old plan for the station is at last warming up, the transit agency plans to open a field office July 7 at 3939 Lankershim Blvd., one of the 10 commercial properties scheduled for demolition.

MTA Public Affairs Manager Arthur Gomez led the delegation, bringing along several associates plus a gallery of aerial photos, maps, color brochures, cardboard fold-up Metro cars for the kids and a spread of pastries and soft drinks.

The residents accepted the hospitality, but generally went away as angry as when they came.

“Surprise, they’ve got a lot of food for us,” actress Lorna Scott told one of her neighbors as the man arrived. “But the people that know the answers and don’t want us to know, they’re not going to show up.”

Jim Wiley, the MTA’s manager of real estate, said in a telephone interview Friday that it is impossible to tell tenants individually when they will be contacted to begin relocation negotiations. However, he said, the first contacts will probably be by August and the last tenant may not move until next June.

The MTA is required to pay relocation benefits, which include moving costs and a 42-month subsidy based on the difference between each tenant’s current rent and comparable rents in the area.

Some of them are counting on the money to help them buy homes, but can’t look seriously until they know how much they will get and when, Scott said.

“We’ve read the plans. We’ve seen the maps. We don’t care,” she said. “We aren’t going to be living here. All we want to know is when we have to move and how much we’re going to get.”

But most of the residents were just depressed about losing a situation they considered one of the last great deals in renting.

The out-of-the-way community has only two access routes. It has a virtually private park--Weddington Park South--a bank and a post office within walking distance, not to mention Universal Studios. And rents are low--as little as $350 for a two-bedroom--because tenants seldom move.

“The biggest thing of all is that it’s a social little community,” said Payne, who has lived there 15 years. “The park is a gathering point. At any given time, you can step outside and there are people who will be stepping outside in a few minutes. We’ve all lived here for a few years. We really know how to look after each other a lot.”

“Just think about coming home and there’s a note saying please call me in the next day or two to talk about your moving out,” said animator Michael Foley, who said he is the leader of a Neighborhood Watch group dubbed the South Weddington Attack Team after the park.

Foley said some tenants are still living in a dream world, hoping the whole thing will just go away, as it has always seemed to do during the past 10 years of studies and public hearings.

“I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of denial in this neighborhood,” Foley told public affairs officer Robert Mooney, one of half a dozen MTA officials who listened to the complaints.

Foley said he was impressed with Mooney’s calm assurances that the MTA would stay in close touch with the neighborhood.

“I feel a lot better after talking to him,” Foley said later. But he still didn’t know any more than when he came.

“They hold all the cards,” Foley said. “They can keep us here for months.”

Not everyone was angry about homes being taken. Some were upset because theirs weren’t being taken. MTA officials also fielded anxious inquiries from owners of the nearby Universal Park condominiums who are not currently on the agency’s purchase list, but want to be.

“They’re taking everything else and we’ll have no more neighborhood,” said Susan Zwerman, president of the Universal Park Homeowners’ Assn. “Would you want to live across the street from a subway station with a six-lane highway in between?”

Sandro and Alexandra Lattari brought along their infant daughter and toddler son to show how desperately they need to leave their two-bedroom condo.

“We’ve had real estate agents come,” Alexandra Lattari said. “We can’t sell our home. We might as well give it away.”

“We’ve very distressed about the Metro,” Sandro Lattari said.

Although he had good news of a sort for the condominium owners, Gomez couldn’t offer a specific timetable to the apartment dwellers. He said a study to decide whether the condos should be included will be out in three or four months, he said.

Gomez took satisfaction in finding one member of the community who wasn’t angry at all.

“I think public transportation is great,” said Paul DeLucca, a Universal Park condo owner who wants a transit stop next door.

“I think people are getting a little nuts right now worrying about what is going to happen,” he said.

“When you’re going to be able to go from here to Long Beach, or the Forum, or the racetrack, no problem, it’s great.”