Council Weighs Crackdown on Businesses on Skid Row

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday agreed to investigate the complaints of skid row residents who have been pressing the city to crack down on hotels, bars, liquor stores and other businesses that they contend are breeding grounds for criminal activity.

More than 100 placard-waving, chanting community members marched to City Hall to demand that officials take action against 13 locations that were targeted more than a year ago as alleged nuisance businesses.

The council agreed to call zoning Administrator Robert Janovici, who heads the nuisance abatement branch, before the city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee next week to explain why no public hearings have been held on the complaints.

“We want a report explaining why this request for a revocation hearing has not been reacted on,” said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the committee vice chairwoman who called for the meeting.

Community activists who led the march said they were pleased that they had gotten the council’s attention.

“Once again we have some hope,” said Zelenne Cardenas, a director of the United Coalition East Prevention Project, an alcohol and drug treatment program with offices in skid row. “The zoning administrator is going to have to respond to somebody. The system is so arbitrary, there has to be some accountability.”

Community members have filed nuisance complaints against 13 businesses that allegedly tolerate public drunkenness, drug sales, prostitution, public urination, harassment of passersby and assaults.

They want the city to require a number of operating conditions, including security guards and cameras, additional lighting, trash cleanup and limits on the sale of alcohol. The residents contend that officials have been slow to respond to their concerns because they are mostly poor and live in a rundown community.

Longtime skid row resident James Foust told the council that some community members had risked their lives to document drug deals, beatings, harassment and prostitution only to be frustrated by the lack of action.

“We are working to make the community safer, but we are frustrated and asking for help,” Foust said.

Zoning administration officials say they have been hampered by a cumbersome system that must rely on corroborating information from other city departments, particularly building and safety and the police. They deny that they have ignored the complaints.

“We have been as responsive as we can be within the authority we have,” Janovici said. “At this point we haven’t received either the quality or quantity of documented information we need to proceed.”

Janovici said his staff had identified about 25 skid row businesses, including the 13 filed by the coalition, for possible nuisance enforcement. He said he has enough information to move on about half of them but intends to deal with the problem businesses in a comprehensive manner rather than piecemeal.

“We have requested additional information from the police and will be meeting with them next week,” he said. “This was already in play before the City Hall march. We will tell that to the committee.”