Results Take Root in Community-Led Make-Overs

Anyone seeking a glimpse into Mayor Richard Riordan’s philosophy for turning around neighborhoods need look no further than the knot of locals who trudged along Highland Park’s sagging commercial strip one recent showery morning.

Umbrellas bobbing in unison, they stopped periodically to point out the possibilities they see in a once-grand movie theater, a long-empty bank building, even in the harsh metal security doors shuttering stores not yet open.

The imaginations belong to participants in the Los Angeles Neighborhoods Initiative, a locally devised, federally supported experiment underway in eight Los Angeles communities.

From its emphasis on letting the community run the show to its deliberately short life span as a publicly funded project, LANI embodies Riordan’s view of government’s proper role: Get people together, give them the tools to get started--in this case, a little money and some professional guidance--and you’ve “empowered” them to make their own decisions and continue with their task of rebuilding their communities long after the government funds have dried up and the bureaucrats have departed.

So far, the program is showing visible, if modest, results--enough that an enthusiastic Clinton administration, which hopes to make LANI a model for similar efforts nationwide, is planning a celebratory visit Thursday to Los Angeles.

Among the signs of LANI at work are street banners, tree plantings, custom-designed (and ad-free) bus shelters and newly repaired, cleaned up or fancied up sidewalks and streets. In the works are community gardens, park projects and street lighting improvements aimed at making pedestrians feel safer.

But there also are reminders that it will take a lot more hard, persistent work to make a lasting difference.

On a recent visit to Highland Park, the mayor received a progress report from the enthusiastic core of business and community leaders that are guiding this version of LANI. And he heard about some of their more ambitious plans to restore the once-thriving business district by capitalizing on the area’s historic flavor and its proximity to the more upscale communities of Mt. Washington and Pasadena.

But the group also spoke frankly about vacant buildings, struggling shops and a fear of crime that keeps many residents away from the ample parking lots behind the stores that line Figueroa Street.

On the same day he visited Highland Park, Riordan met with leaders of another LANI project, Vermont Square in South-Central Los Angeles.

He joined them in a triumphant walk along bustling Vermont Avenue for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new bus stop shelter--already bearing traces of graffiti vandals’ unrelenting assault on the neighborhood.

LANI is the brainchild of Rae Franklin James, a Riordan deputy mayor who has recently moved to a key administrative post at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

James, a City Hall veteran who once worked for the Community Redevelopment Agency, was ready when federal Transportation Secretary Federico Pena came to town in August 1993 looking for projects that would “help humanize” public transportation.

Main thoroughfares are one of the few things that link scattered, diverse Angelenos in a region long known for its car culture, James told Riordan, then little more than a month into his administration. Since many of the communities bisected by these busy streets are struggling economically and have many residents who depend on public transportation, why not focus on projects that improve the streetscape?

Riordan loved the idea. Especially, he said, if neighborhood people could be allowed to take the reins, tailoring projects that might grow into a substantive community revitalization movement.

Pena also was enthusiastic, and the mayor asked James to develop a funding proposal for Pena to take to Washington.

Now, LANI is anchored by a three-member staff, volunteer board of directors and a two-year budget of about $3.5 million. Council members helped pick the neighborhoods and set up a Recognized Community Organization for each.

In addition to Highland Park and Vermont Square, neighborhoods in North Hollywood, Sun Valley, Boyle Heights, Virgil Village in east Hollywood, Jefferson Park in Southwest Los Angeles and Leimert Park in the Crenshaw district each received $250,000 in federal funds.

They have until next February, when LANI is scheduled to go out of business, to complete their projects, but the mayor hopes that that will be just the beginning.

“It’s my job to empower people to get involved and improve their own communities,” Riordan has told LANI participants. “We can’t do it from City Hall and, even if we could, that’s not the answer.”

Some longtime City Hall insiders wonder whether Riordan isn’t expecting too much from a limited, if laudable, initiative. Council President John Ferraro, whose district includes LANI’s North Hollywood arts district project, said the efforts have brought “a positive influence,” especially in sparking community interest.

But Ferraro said “LANI represents just one of the tools” the city has at its disposal and cautioned against depending too heavily on any one of them.

Joyce Perkins, LANI’s executive director, who has much experience in community organizing, sees the project as a crash course in the skills required for success over the long haul. Each organization was given money to hire a full-time advisor to help it learn how to deal with City Hall, tap into other resources, hone communications and outreach skills, resolve differences and enlist volunteers.

“Two years is not a long time when you consider all that has to be done to get some projects done and give people the tools they need to keep going,” Perkins said.

The real test, she believes, will come once LANI is over: “When we take off the training wheels, will they be able to ride?”

She makes no apologies for LANI’s modest scope.

“You can’t do a whole lot with $250,000, so we wanted to keep the areas small” in hopes of creating “an immediate visual impact” that would spur larger efforts, Perkins said.

Nor was LANI intended for the poorest communities. James, the former deputy mayor, said the program was conceived for “neighborhoods on the margin . . . to catch them before they go down” too far. The city’s application for federal funding reflects this thinking, noting that neighborhoods considered for the experiment “must possess the ingredients for short-term economic and social improvement,” lacking only the technical assistance, planning initiatives or funding needed for restoration. At least some evidence of community organization was another requirement.

Listening recently to the Vermont Square leaders bringing Riordan up to date on their efforts provided a little insight into the quick-results-oriented mayor. One community leader was venting frustration over attempts to work with the absentee owner of a longtime eyesore at 54th Street and Vermont Avenue.

Tracked down at her home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the woman refused to spend money on cleaning up her lot, which is vacant except for a broken-down truck gathering rust among the weeds. After coming close to accepting the group’s offer to plant grass and flowers at its own expense, she backed out, saying she didn’t want the group to waste its money.

How often does she visit the property? Riordan asked. Hardly ever, came the response.

“Well,” offered the mayor, his brief laugh and light tone making it difficult to tell whether he really meant the forthcoming hint for the group. “Sometimes it’s much easier to get forgiveness than permission.”

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Fixing Neighborhoods

The Los Angeles Neighborhoods Initiative is a two-year experiment in helping struggling neighborhoods turn themselves around. It was devised by the mayor’s office and paid for by the federal government. Community leaders in each of the eight LANI neighborhoods along major thoroughfares make the decisions about ways to improve their areas.

1) SUN VALLEY

Centered on the intersection of Sunland Boulevard and San Fernando Road.

2) NOHO ARTS DISTRICT

Along Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards.

3) VIRGIL VILLAGE

Centered on Virgil Avenue between Melrose Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

4) HIGHLAND PARK

Figueroa Street between avenues 43 and 61

5) BOYLE HEIGHTS

1st Street between Boyle and Evergreen avenues.

6) JEFFERSON PARK

Jefferson Boulevard between Arlington Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.

7) LEIMERT PARK

The Degnan Boulevard commercial center, including Leimert Park.

8) VERMONT SQUARE

Vermont Avenue between Vernon and Slauson avenues.