Messengers of Hope Arrive at GM Plant
Up near the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Blythe Street, near the old headquarters of United Auto Workers Local 645, are a pair of murals that say much about recent history here.
The first, painted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Auto Workers, is a vibrantly colorful testament to optimism and faith. The center is dominated by the artist’s vision of things to come, of futuristic autos on a futuristic freeway. Flanking this high-tech wonder, curiously, are images of Christ in modern settings.
The second, never finished, is just black outlines with no color. This mural, begun to mark the UAW’s 55th anniversary, is a grim salute to the brotherhood of organized labor. On the right are workers assembling an auto. On the left are grape pickers laboring under a pesticide-spewing helicopter that is depicted, not subtly, as the skull of death.
In those intervening five years, hope took a beating around here. The vision of a bright future was replaced by a fight for survival. But now a team of developers and city officials say there’s new reason for hope--that the stage is set for major commercial and industrial development of the General Motors plant that, before its shutdown in 1992, employed nearly 3,000 workers.
The presentation was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Monday. So first, I drove up Van Nuys Boulevard to see what I could see.
*
“Do you smoke?”
That was the question the young man, perhaps an oversized teenager, asked as I walked toward the old union hall.
No, I don’t smoke. Here I was, wearing a dress shirt, slacks and a new tie, looking very businesslike. It didn’t matter. He was, in code, wondering if I might want to buy some drugs.
“I’m a reporter. Are you dealing?”
Sounds stupid, I know, but you never know. I’ve gotten quotes this way before. This young man, however, just answered no and kept walking.
If you want to get a look at the troubles bedeviling Los Angeles--the recession and gangs--this isn’t a bad place to start.
Over at the GM Powertrain site, heavy equipment is chewing up concrete and creating big piles of rubble. Across the boulevard, Blythe Street is rebounding from its recent run as the most notorious drive-through drug bazaar in the Valley.
Blythe is one of those streets packed with low-rent apartments, a place where some people hang laundry to dry on a chain-link fence and the occasional sofa sits abandoned at curbside. The Latino neighborhood is a mix of working poor, people on welfare and gang members.
The gang that dealt drugs here was targeted with a special effort by police and prosecutors. A barricade erected to slow traffic has since come down, now that the narcotics business has slowed.
Despite my encounter with the young man just a few minutes earlier, Manuel Rivero and Martin Reyes say that Blythe isn’t nearly as dangerous as it was even a few months ago.
Rivero, 68, has owned a six-unit apartment building here since 1978. Reyes visits daily, selling groceries from a truck to people who can’t get to stores. To announce his arrival, his truck blares “La Cucaracha.”
Now the cops cruise by all the time, they say. Blythe isn’t so bad, all considered.
The gang crackdown on Blythe began not long after the GM plant closed. Some activists have linked the increased influence of Los Angeles gang culture to the disappearance of so many manufacturing jobs in recent years. Rivero, however, sees no connection with Blythe, since the auto workers could afford to live elsewhere.
Rivero had heard something about plans for the GM site and he was pleased. More jobs and more stores--all that was well and good, he said, as long as the stores don’t sell liquor.
But what really mattered to Rivero was the possibility of a police station.
“A police station is very important, so if you call them, they’ll come very soon . . . Many people are happy here when they see the police.”
*
Manuel Rivero, I think, would have liked the messengers of hope. Looking back, I should have invited him to the presentation made by developers and city officials to editors and reporters of The Times Valley Edition.
Rivero, I suspect, would have been pleased with City Councilman Richard Alarcon’s promises to do all he can to make sure the LAPD opens a satellite station on the vacant property. “It’s the highest crime area in the Valley,” Alarcon explained.
I think Rivero would have been pleased with the estimate of the developers, Selleck Properties Inc. and Voit Industries, that in time, about 2,000 permanent jobs will be created a short stroll from his apartment building. Maybe he’d be pleased that both Selleck and Voit are local developers. “We used to cruise Van Nuys Boulevard as teenagers,” Dan Selleck said.
And he might have been impressed by the star power. That’s Selleck as in Tom; he wasn’t there, but he’s a partner with his father and brothers. Manuel Rivero emigrated here from Spain in the late ‘60s. Robert Selleck moved to the Valley in ’48 from Detroit. That’s why Tom always wore that Detroit Tigers cap in “Magnum, P.I.”
Another star may be involved. Reporter Hugo Martin asked if it were true that Magic Johnson might be expanding his theater chain in the old GM plant.
Nobody would confirm or deny. An Edwards or AMC or whatever would be nice, of course. But if you want to have a successful comeback, who better than Magic?
Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.
