A Wise Veto of a Developmental Folly : Housing: Why build 35 townhouses on a busy street at outrageous public cost? The area most needs retail development.
Public officials are often criticized for giving in to special interests and ignoring the voices of ordinary citizens on issues of neighborhood development. Often, politicians rush to embrace any development scheme--no questions asked.
Last Thursday, however, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan did something all too rare. He listened to the community and vetoed an ill-advised housing project proposed for Vermont Avenue and 81st Street.
The citizens of Vermont Knolls and vicinity do not want a housing project at Vermont and 81st. Instead, they want to have stores they can shop in and businesses that create jobs. They want retail development.
For the past three years, the Vermont Knolls/Vermont Manchester and Vicinity Assn. has been dutifully organizing to make known their views. They have met with their city councilman, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and with First Interstate Bank representatives and with federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros. They have held countless community meetings, protested at First Interstate and sent hundreds of letters to everyone involved. They have taken out newspaper ads.
In short, they have done everything a community can do to give leadership on behalf of the needs and desires of community residents.
When Mayor Riordan vetoed this $8.57-million project, he was rejecting a scheme that would do nothing to create serious business, entrepreneurship or ownership in the Vermont Avenue corridor.
This project, being shoved down the throats of the community by First Interstate and Ridley-Thomas, would build 35 townhouses at a cost of up to $200,000 per unit, well above the market rate for the area. Los Angeles taxpayers would subsidize this project to the tune of as much as $100,000 per unit.
The project would occupy valuable commercial property on Vermont Avenue, which was once a vibrant business street and can be again.
This does not make good sense.
If the city is interested in home ownership, there are more than 60 well-kept homes available in Vermont Knolls and vicinity for appreciably less than $200,000. Why this insistence on building 35 townhouses on a business street at an outrageous cost to the taxpayers?
This $8.57 million represents only the first phase. Millions more would follow. These are scarce dollars that could be used as loans to entrepreneurs and business owners who want to build businesses and create jobs in our community.
I worked hard to win federal economic development dollars for Los Angeles for precisely these needs. Instead, Ridley-Thomas wants to take federal community development funds primarily designed to be used for economic development in underserved areas and put it instead into townhouses. South-Central Los Angeles will never have businesses and jobs so long as this kind of madness continues.
I know politicians don’t always listen to their constituents. These constituents, however, are organized. The Vermont Knolls/Vermont Manchester and Vicinity Assn. has received a $200,000 grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to do economic development on Vermont Avenue. The association helped to get the Vermont Corridor designated as a part of a supplemental empowerment zone.
The association has called on Ridley-Thomas to meet with them and other officials to develop a credible economic development project for the Vermont Corridor that can provide business opportunities and create jobs.
There are no residency requirements for members of Congress. I choose to live in South-Central Los Angeles. I believe that with hard work and a better vision we can revitalize our community. I will continue to support the community and stand ready to work with the City Council, the private sector and the community development department to get the job done.
