LEIMERT PARK : Community Advice Sought for City Plan

During a city-sponsored workshop on the future of Southwest Los Angeles, participants from the 8th District were told that their suggestions for improving the area may become part of the city’s development plans.

The city has been conducting the post-riot workshops the last three months, seeking advice about how to improve the neighborhoods bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway to the north, the city limit to the south, La Cienega Boulevard to the west and Arlington Avenue to the east.

Last week, members of several Crenshaw-based community groups gathered at Christ the Good Shepherd Church to review a 12-page report summarizing their criticisms and suggestions gathered at previous Crenshaw Neighborhood Planning Workshops.

The report included advice on improving housing, transportation, economic development, social service and environmental issues.

Michaele Pride-Wells, a planning consultant who is coordinating the neighborhood workshops, said similar reports will be issued for other council districts in Southwest Los Angeles and meetings will take place to discuss the reports.

The city is revising its General Plan for future commercial and residential development, and the reports will be taken into consideration during that process, said city planner Aleta James. The revisions will be complete by November, 1994.

Some of those who attended the meeting were happy to see their discussions condensed in written form, but were also skeptical that the fruits of their labor will ever become reality.

“It’s nice to see this thing moving ahead, but at the same time, you wonder if any change will come directly out of this,” said Debra Allen, a member of Rebuild Crenshaw. “The bottom line is: Will the streets and the business district be cleaned up because we asked the city to do it? We hope so.”

Information: (213) 296-0924.