Soured on the Experience : City Delay in Expansion of Lemon Grove Park in Hollywood Irks Neighbors

Alma Pedroza couldn’t wait to sell her property to the city of Los Angeles as part of a project to expand Lemon Grove Park in Hollywood.

Three years later, she’s still waiting.

“This is terrible,” said Pedroza, who bought the home on North Hobart Boulevard in 1948. Every time she called the city, she said, “I thought it would be taken care of. But the bureaucracy at City Hall keeps stalling. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

A 77-year-old widow, Pedroza and other residents of the Lemon Grove Park neighborhood have been in limbo hoping the city will eventually purchase their properties and follow through on a 3-year-old project to expand the neighborhood park.

Instead, they complain, their neighborhood has been blighted with abandoned lots and homes the city purchased in a piecemeal fashion when funding to acquire all seven lots fell short.

The project to expand the park is part of Proposition A, or the Safe Parks Act, which was overwhelmingly approved by county voters in November, 1992. The plan targeted $10 million in regional county tax money for parks and recreation acquisition and development around Los Angeles County.

Rather than wait for the Proposition A funds, the city began in early 1992 to purchase the first of three pieces of property on North Hobart. As the project got under way, city officials found they did not have enough money to buy the four remaining parcels.

After some legal haggling between the city and the county, $840,000 of the Safe Parks Act funds were appropriated for Lemon Grove Park in November, 1994, said Laura Yoshizumi of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department.

Although the legal questions have been resolved, residents have had to tolerate abandoned houses--often inhabited by squatters, the homeless and drug users. One such house, since razed, caught on fire as the occupants tried to keep warm early one morning last year, say neighbors.

Residents say they want the park expanded. But some wish the process would be better managed.

“The vagrants and drug users come and use the house at night,” said resident Linda Donis. “It is really dangerous when houses are left abandoned.”

Pedroza agrees. The house next door to hers, a property owned by the city, had been left unattended--doors unlocked and windows broken for a year. Inside the dark, damp house there was evidence of human habitation. Clothing was scattered throughout and a bathroom was filthy, the stench of human feces hanging in the air.

City officials acknowledge that, as owners of the properties, they are responsible for keeping the area clean and safe. But many times, they say, their attempts prove futile. “Despite our best efforts, you’re going to have people breaking in,” said George Stigile, a grounds maintenance supervisor.

“We do check the property, but people break into them on a daily basis, especially in areas where you have a home sitting all alone,” he said, adding that park rangers and maintenance workers routinely inspect the area.

Although the city does what it can to secure the property, Stigile said, it must rely on neighbors to bring problems to its attention.

“My office is always available. We need to work together on this and open up a better communication,” he said.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose district includes Hollywood, is also aware of the complaints, and an aide said the office is moving to expedite the park’s expansion.

“We have talked to Recreation and Parks (and told officials) that we need to move forward with this,” said Goldberg’s field deputy Conrado Terrazas. “We are pressuring them and we are aware of the problem.”

Residents are also eager for the park to be expanded.

“We use the park all of the time,” Donis said. “They should make it bigger, because there are a lot of kids and people that use it.” She added that many of the park’s users, mostly families, sit on sidewalks during summer months because there are not enough picnic tables.

City officials say they intend to continue the park project with the newly appropriated funds. And they estimate that the remaining properties should be purchased within two years.

But residents are skeptical.

Said Jose Hernandez, who runs the park’s baseball leagues: “They can say one thing, but we’ll see if they do it.”