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GHOST TOWN : Battered, Nearly Abandoned, a Neighborhood in West Adams Struggles to Piece Itself Back Together Eight Months After the Earthquake

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Sherlene Taylor surveys her home of 20 years and the once-bustling block of Harcourt Street in West Adams with heavy sighs and an air of despair.

She points to the lopsided houses and empty plots of dirt and rocks--the remains of the thrashing this street and the neighborhood took in the Northridge earthquake.

In front of her own house, Taylor carefully steps over bricks, old lumber and trash strewn throughout the front and back yards. She peeks through a gaping hole to view what was once her living room, now a hollow shell of wooden beams and floors. Her driveway is a mass of gravel, dust and debris.

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It’s the middle of a weekday afternoon in an area dominated by retired senior citizens, but Harcourt Street is strangely quiet.

“It’s depressing to see your house like this, all broken down,” Taylor, 55, says in a low voice. “And the neighborhood, too. Old friends gone, their houses just sitting there with no one in them. You don’t know if they’ll move back. It’s all changed.”

Scattered along this block-long stretch of Harcourt--and two adjacent streets--between Adams Boulevard and Hickory Street are the quake’s vivid scars: vacant houses, empty lots where homes once stood, skeletons constructed for new buildings.

Eight months after the temblor shook Los Angeles, the city is still plagued with single blocks and neighborhoods of vacant, wrecked buildings, dubbed ghost towns by the Los Angeles housing department because of the physical devastation and the increase of vandalism, theft and vagrants.

Though most of the 15 ghost towns in Los Angeles are in the San Fernando Valley, West Adams is the site of an often-overlooked designated area.

Bordered by Adams and Rimpau boulevards, Palm Grove Avenue and Hickory Street, this cluster of mostly single-family homes and duplexes was hard hit. Several dozen chimneys toppled. Hairline cracks created what looked like replicas of freeway maps on walls. About 10% of the area’s 1930s-era houses were knocked off their foundations.

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Plywood boards now cover windows and padlocks block the doors, while grass grows into tall weeds at some houses. On the corner of Palm Grove Avenue and Hickory Street, the shell of a duplex that burned during the earthquake stood precariously on one side while the other side started to buckle under its own weight. The building was recently demolished.

There are also reconstructed houses on these streets-- sans the brick chimneys, but with new driveways, foundations and the same homeowners who retain some hope along with large loans to repay.

To outsiders, these streets initially seem to have few problem houses. The four-block section can hardly compare to the devastation that remains in parts of the Valley, where crushed frames of quake-ravaged apartment buildings sit dormant, further wrecked by looters, prostitutes and transients.

“Other ghost towns are more compact. You may have a cul-de-sac totally obliterated. (In West Adams), the earthquake left a scattered trail of damage over many, many blocks,” said Bob Moncrief, director of major projects for the city’s housing department. “So, it doesn’t look like a ghost town.”

Nevertheless, there remains significant quake damage in West Adams. It is the only designated ghost town made up predominantly of single-family homes. According to city statistics, of 2,159 buildings still vacant from the earthquake, 263 are in ghost towns. West Adams accounts for 53 of those buildings and its ghost town has a 30% vacancy rate. City figures also show that the West Adams area suffered an estimated $1.2 million in damage.

In addition, while several quake-damaged areas of the Valley are financially stable, West Adams is a neighborhood with low- to moderate-income households. Many residents are senior citizens living on fixed incomes who have been in these neighborhoods for 20 years or more.

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“This is not a transient group of people. They’ve had considerable structural loss, which has led to lots of emotional and psychological pain for them,” said Cheryl N. Grills, an associate professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University who conducted a survey of earthquake damage in South Los Angeles for the Community Coalition.

Grills, like several residents, community activists and political leaders who represent this area, blamed the media’s lack of coverage of quake-damaged South Los Angeles for the lack of attention and resources for quake victims.

City Councilman Nate Holden, whose district was the hardest hit in South Los Angeles, said the media “displaced the core of the damage from the earthquake. Yes, it was in Northridge. But it’s down here, too.”

Taylor and her husband have been living with their son while their house is being repaired. Taylor complained that stories like hers have been ignored by media and officials.

“Everybody talks about the Valley this and the Valley that, but look here, right here around Crenshaw, there’s damage all around here,” she said.

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Indeed, some earthquake recovery officials assisting residents in the West Adams-Crenshaw area say labeling a small section a “ghost town” takes away from the other significant damage in South Los Angeles.

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“There’s a lot more damage in Crenshaw than people know about,” said Dennis Sylvester, a hazardous mitigation specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Sylvester, who works in the Crenshaw Earthquake Service Center, sneers at the ghost town label, saying that it draws attention away from other local neighborhoods that are still recovering from the quake.

“You hear about the (repair of the Santa Monica) freeway so much, but there are so many houses around Jefferson and Adams that have been damaged . . . so you can’t talk only about the (Valley) ghost towns,” he said.

Paula Walker’s home of 27 years on La Brea Avenue is one of those buildings Sylvester is talking about. Just south of the Santa Monica Freeway and five blocks west of the designated ghost town, the house sits on stilts awaiting repairs that could lag into next year.

The building has been burglarized about six times since the quake, Walker said. “Bicycles, tools, even the dog was taken.”

In the meantime, Walker, 58, is living in a matchbox-sized, two-room apartment in Leimert Park that she moved into in February while she tries to figure out what to do about her home. Most of the cost of the repairs will have to come out of her own pocket, she said. With help from the Crenshaw Earthquake Service Center, Walker has received a $17,000 loan from a special homeowner program. Repairs, however, could cost as much as $80,000.

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“My house is not a thing I want to talk about because I’m still sore,” Walker said, pointing to her chest to signify the emotional pain she has suffered since the earthquake. “It’s been a real adjustment to deal with. I don’t know when I’m going to get back home.”

Although an estimated 40% of the West Adams residents whose homes were damaged had earthquake insurance or were able to repair their homes through assistance from FEMA or the Small Business Administration, others were rejected for SBA loans or have run into roadblocks in getting repairs made or houses rebuilt, said Capri Wiggins, project manager of the West Adams ghost town for the city’s housing department.

The psychological toll from the earthquake and the frustration among residents who feel they are the last to receive financial and technical assistance is evident.

“You keep thinking it’ll get better next week, but it takes months, and each month gets harder so it makes you feel like you want to give up,” said homeowner Salvador Sarabia, whose house on Palm Grove Avenue was damaged so badly that it had to be demolished. Sarabia is rebuilding from scratch.

“I feel like we’re last on the totem pole,” said a frustrated Sherlene Taylor, pointing to the open space between her back yard and her neighbor’s. A five-foot-high cinder block wall that once stood there collapsed during the quake. A pile of cinder blocks now sits on the side of Taylor’s back yard.

Her neighbor, Jose Alvarez of Rimpau Boulevard, complains that his back yard has now become a shortcut for pedestrians since the wall fell.

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According to the Crenshaw Earthquake Service Center, which includes representatives from a variety of government agencies, 42,242 people had applied for some kind of assistance from their office as of late September, the largest number of applicants in the 10 government-sponsored earthquake service centers. Applicants have come from as far as the South Bay and Hollywood, but the majority are from the Crenshaw area, said Lorraine Harrell, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Emergency Services.

In the meantime, the city is pouring several million dollars into repairing and protecting these disaster-stricken ghost town zones in the hopes of a quick recovery.

In June, the city designated the ghost towns from the worst devastated census tract areas. In July, it established a task force to broker deals between lenders and ghost town landlords, hoping to help get financially strapped owners a break on mortgage payments while they rebuild. If a bank is willing, the city will provide zero- or low-interest repair loans up to $50,000 to single-family homeowners from a pool of federal disaster aid and local housing funds.

The task force also launched a two-month plan to clean up and secure the 15 ghost towns with $2.8 million in FEMA funds. The work includes boarding up and fencing off abandoned or vacant buildings, and providing 24-hour roving security to ward off the transients, vandals and drug addicts who have rummaged through vacant buildings and back yards.

In addition, the SBA announced in June that it would give top priority to loan requests from ghost town property owners. By late September, the SBA had approved 179 loans totaling nearly $55.5 million to ghost town property owners. The agency rejected 91 of the 325 requests received. Seventeen loan requests totaling $660,000 from the West Adams ghost town were approved by late September. Fourteen of the 42 requests were rejected and three applications are pending.

SBA spokesman Rick Jenkins said applicants are denied usually because of inability to repay the loan. However, applicants are able to reapply for reconsideration rights from two weeks to two months after they are first denied.

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Sarabia, 29, and Michael LaChapelle were two of the rejected applicants. Neither earned enough money to repay the loans. Sarabia, who owned his house for only five months before the temblor, had earthquake insurance that has covered most of the costs of demolishing and completely rebuilding his home.

But LaChapelle has had little luck with the Harcourt Street home, where he has lived all of his 36 years. His earthquake insurance expired in November. The house shifted eight inches off its foundation during the quake and was immediately red tagged, designating it uninhabitable. Two weeks after the quake, LaChapelle was laid off from his job as an auto mechanic.

LaChapelle said building and safety inspectors have been urging him to either tear down the house and rebuild from scratch or work with what’s there now, a dangerously unsteady building with myriad structural problems. LaChapelle said he is thinking of starting anew or moving away, possibly as far as Lancaster or Palmdale.

“There’s too much damage for me to try and put this house back together again,” LaChapelle said of the house, which had been in his family for nearly 40 years. He is currently living in a two-bedroom apartment on Burnside Avenue with his wife and their two daughters with the help of federal housing assistance for quake victims, which in their case lasts until September, 1995.

In the meantime, LaChapelle has complied with city requests to secure his house with a six-foot-high chain-link fence and large padlock that the city’s housing department provided for free.

Sarabia, on the other hand, has been living in a trailer in the back yard of his property with his wife, Maria, and their 3-year-old son.

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The couple received $3,200 in housing assistance from FEMA, which allowed them to buy the trailer instead of trying to find an apartment for more money. There is a shower, but no kitchen or running water. The couple strings a hose from a spigot into the shower stall to bathe and cooks with camping stoves under a blue tarp attached to the outside of the trailer.

“It’s not very pretty, but if it rains we won’t get wet and we’re able to lock the door and get a good night’s sleep,” Sarabia said. The family had spent nearly two months living in his cousin’s dank garage before getting the trailer.

The Sarabias’ new home is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month, said the contractor, Lou Stanley of J&L; Construction in Long Beach. Sarabia helps with the construction to keep the costs down and has used the lumber from his demolished house to build a fence separating the trailer from the house under construction.

Although he and his family are grateful that they have enough money to rebuild and know it will happen soon, Sarabia is still impatient.

“If we can get a certificate of occupancy I don’t care if the house is not pretty,” he said, sifting through a briefcase filled with file folders and documents relating to the earthquake.

“I don’t care,” he said. “All I want is a house where I can stay, so things can get more back to normal.”

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RESIDENTIAL MITIGATION MEASURES:

These measures are recommended to further strengthen and protect homes against earthquakes:

* Install reinforced concrete foundation.

* Remove damaged chimney and install a metal chimney, metal framing and metal studs to house.

* Bolt house or mobile home to existing foundation.

* Strengthen “cripple walls”--a short supporting wall between the foundation and the floor beams--with plywood and sill bolts.

* Reconstruct or strengthen chimney with ties and bracing.

* Mark utility shut-off valves.

* Anchor water heater to wall and floor.

* Install cabinet and drawer latches.

* Secure picture frames and mirrors to walls.

Senior citizen and disabled homeowners with low to moderate incomes are eligible for free or low-cost minor repairs through the Los Angeles Housing Department’s “Handyworker” program. Eligible repairs are limited to work that does not require a city building permit and are subject to a standard limitation of $500 in material costs. Emergencies that directly affect the occupants’ health and safety are also provided.

Information: 213-389-2373 extension 256, or 213-751-8573.

HOME EQUITY FRAUD PREVENTION:

Homeowners in immediate need of earthquake damage repair can become targets for scam artists, officials said. To prevent home improvement fraud when rebuilding, officials suggest that residents use the following measures:

* Do not hire a contractor who has solicited you by telephone or at your door. Find a licensed contractor in the yellow pages.

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* Do not sign a work order with the first contractor you contact. Get bids from several contractors and compare prices.

* Check the contractor’s license before signing a contract. Ask for the license number and check with the Contractors State License Board at 1-800-321-2752.

* Make sure any promises made by the contractor are included in the contract.

* Be sure to thoroughly read and understand the contract before signing it. Never sign a contract that says “Security Interest” or “Deed of Trust” anywhere on the document. Signing such a document means that you are using your house as collateral and could lose it if you miss any payments to the contractor.

* If a down payment is required, do not pay a contractor more than $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, whichever is less.

* Keep all papers relating to any work done to your house and all phone numbers of people you’ve contacted.

Information provided by Crenshaw Earthquake Service Center, 3420 Jefferson Blvd. (213) 730-5764.

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* THE FIGHT TO REBUILD

The Crenshaw neighborhood where Mattie Dyer Martin and her husband, Alvin, have made their home for 22 years was turned into a “ghost town” by the Jan. 17 earthquake. In Voices, they recount their struggle to recover. Page 22

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