The Long, Long Shadow of ’94

Recent developments could lead to the assumption that recovery from the 1994 Northridge earthquake is largely complete, or sure to be fully funded by a generous federal cash flow. In recent months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has offered $7 million to move a Castaic elementary school that stands downstream from a dam. Four hospitals will be able to restore facilities or build new ones thanks to $868.6 million in federal funding. And Los Angeles officials can pretty much bank on the fact that they will be reimbursed with state and federal money for much if not all of the cost of repairing access ramps and channel walls of the L.A. River.

But guess again if you think that the 1994 Northridge earthquake no longer casts a long shadow. Just look at the one created by “the mountain,” a 600,000-ton pile of quake-created Santa Monica Freeway rubble dumped in Huntington Park, whose officials want it removed by 1997.

Moreover, substantial costs remain and resources are dwindling. It will cost about $100,000, for example, to repair the not-so-great brick wall that runs past Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Seal Beach. The Los Alamitos City Council recently punted, moving its city boundary 18 inches to the east, leaving the wall on the other side. And in Santa Monica, the council recently had to cough up $692,000 to demolish a single eight-story building.

It is the cost of dealing with such structures that figures to be the last big challenge presented by the 1994 disaster. Nearly 400 buildings remain vacant and unrepaired in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and South and Central Los Angeles, a blight that, not removed, could spread to adjacent communities.

City officials must do four things: press the federal government for additional monies to help demolish or restore these structures, move ahead with placing liens against owners who have failed to respond regarding structures that have been declared nuisances, put the funding request for additional city monies on a fast track, and follow City Controller Rick Tuttle’s advice to screen expenditures from the city’s quake loan program to prevent improper use.

There’s still much work to be done.