MTA’s Need to Raze Houses Is Questioned

Despite continued protests Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving ahead with plans to bulldoze critically needed housing bought to make way for an Eastside subway that may never be built.

Community activists who staged a demonstration in Boyle Heights at fenced-off property bought for the now-mothballed project posed a fairly simple question: Why?

“The subway is not going to happen, so why demolish homes?” asked Elizabeth Blaney of the Eastside Coalition advocacy group.

Since this is the MTA, the answers were anything but simple.

“These are abandoned buildings which are an eyesore,” said Noelia Rodriguez, press secretary to Mayor Richard Riordan, the MTA board chairman. An aide to the area’s City Council representative, Richard Alatorre, who favors demolition, added: “MTA’s business is transit, not housing.”

The controversy has divided the Eastside between those who believe that the much-heralded subway project in their area is dead and those who expect it to be revived, even if years from now.

According to the Eastside Coalition, the MTA has torn down about 120 units and--although no demolition occurred Wednesday--the agency plans to raze about 30 more units any day.

When 43 units were still standing, MTA officials estimated that it would cost close to $1 million to renovate them--more than the agency could afford, even with its $2.5-billion annual budget, they said. The agency expected to spend $200,000 to demolish the units.

“The MTA should at least do the logical thing and wait till they get a definite yes or no on the subway,” said Eastside Coalition member Manuel Bernal. “Affordable housing is scarce as it is, and here comes the MTA demolishing more homes. Someone needs to hold the MTA accountable.”

Boyle Heights, already one of the city’s most congested neighborhoods, has seen a reduction in housing stock because of the MTA’s acquisition of homes for the subway, the expansion of County-USC Medical Center and the renovation of the Pico-Aliso housing projects.

At Wednesday’s demonstration, Shantee Hayden, 29, and her two small children marched amid a crowd of about 50 people in front of a large, boarded-up apartment building next to Mariachi Plaza. Homeless and living in a shelter, Hayden said the loss of potential dwellings means she and her family will find it harder to find a permanent place to live.

“I think that people who are poor or on welfare would benefit from rebuilding these properties,” she said. “It would mean a lot for my children to be able to call a place a home of their own.”

Despite spending more than $100 million on the project, the MTA in January called off construction of the $1-billion, 3.5-mile extension from Union Station to Boyle Heights because of funding problems. Officials have promised to study other ways to improve mass transit to the Eastside and other neighborhoods, such as building busways.

An aide to county Supervisor Gloria Molina said Wednesday that the MTA’s stance is as much motivated by the desire to save face as the instinct to save money in financially tough times.

“You send the message that [the subway] ain’t going to happen any time soon, if ever, if you renovate the properties, so you’re better off just tearing the properties down,” said Molina’s assistant chief deputy, Miguel Santana.

Molina, an MTA board member, asked a fellow member to introduce a motion at a recent meeting to preserve the housing, but she did not show up herself to lobby for the proposal, which was ignored by other board members. She was attending a staff retreat.

According to Santana, the supervisor is against the demolition of the homes, but believes that, at this point, nothing is likely to prevent the bulldozing. He said Molina is more concerned now with forcing the MTA’s hand to make sure Boyle Heights is not pockmarked with “wastelands” for long.

“This community has already seen Chavez Ravine, freeways and other private interests running through Boyle Heights,” Santana said. “The MTA shouldn’t be another interest that bulldozes through the neighborhood.”

The agency released a statement Wednesday declaring that “the MTA board of directors voted to proceed with the demolition of the properties due to their poor conditions.” The MTA says it also wants to avoid spending money maintaining vacant buildings, some of which have already been vandalized.

Residents and activists say they are puzzled by the financially strapped agency’s bullish determination to tear down the properties in the face of what they call the subway extension’s strong odds that the subway will never be built.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he would consider voting to spend money to refurbish the housing units--if the MTA has the funds, and if the houses are deemed “salvageable.”

Yaroslavsky said he voted for the demolition, but only because Alatorre and the MTA’s own staff recommended it.

“Alatorre brought in the recommendation. The councilman of the district . . . strongly encouraged this, as did the staff,” Yaroslavsky said. “They said the buildings were in terrible condition, public hazards, a nuisance and a liability.”

Yaroslavsky, citing the conflicting positions of Alatorre and Molina, said the Eastside also is deeply divided “over what should be done with those buildings.”

“Obviously if it is salvageable, it would be a good idea,” Yaroslavsky said. “But the information we had was that it was not salvageable.”

An aide to Alatorre, who also serves on the MTA board, accused many of the protesters of being the same people who, a year ago, asked that the buildings be demolished to avoid problems of vandalism and gang activity. The councilman, moreover, has not given up on the subway extension.

“It’s a tough call, but we still hope the subway happens,” said Dan Farkas, Alatorre’s transit deputy.

Times staff writers Jim Newton and Josh Meyer contributed to this story.

* ANOTHER SETBACK: Senate panel urges giving MTA just a third of subway funds sought for next year. B1