LOS ANGELES : Council Panel OKs Sweeps of Quake ‘Ghost Towns’

Moving to eliminate dangerous earthquake ghost towns, a Los Angeles City Council committee this week authorized police sweeps of vacant quake-damaged buildings, to be followed by boarding up and patrolling by private security guards.

The get-tough strategy would begin with a blitz by city building inspectors to identify which buildings are public safety hazards. The approach was developed by a task force of city department heads, who have identified 13 neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and the Mid-City areas where clusters of vacant buildings have become havens for squatters, vandals, scavengers and drug users.

The emergence of the so-called ghost towns, each with about 10 vacant apartment buildings or condominium projects, have left neighboring homeowners and merchants fearful that blight and crime will spread--and in some cases is spreading--to adjacent communities.

“The vandals are coming into our units even though they are boarded up,” Pam Nelson, one of 20 townhouse owners at the El Dorado Townhomes in Sylmar, told the committee. She said only eight owners are willing to rebuild their units there. “We’re stuck and we need security and we can’t afford security.”

The task force has about $240 million in local and federal emergency funds. It has outlined a 120-day schedule for clearing out, securing and demolishing buildings in the ghost towns.

Some of the costs of sealing up the buildings might be passed on to property owners, particularly if federal money is not secured. But to encourage reconstruction where possible, funds also would be set aside for rebuilding loans to those who cannot secure loans elsewhere.