Seeds of Discord Grow Over Downtown’s ‘Cornfield’

There’s a growing controversy over an abandoned railroad freight yard next to Chinatown--a significant piece of real estate that some say holds the key to that neighborhood’s future.

It pits different visions for the 50-acre parcel known as the “Cornfield.” On the one hand, there’s a proposal, backed by Mayor Richard Riordan, to create an industrial park that would emphasize manufacturing businesses. As many as 1,000 jobs could be created as a result of the plan, the backers say.

The other vision is more environmental and community-related in scope, featuring green space, affordable housing, a swimming pool and a large lake.

The dispute has led some opponents of the mayor’s plan to make analogies to Roman Polanski’s 1974 movie “Chinatown,” in which powerful figures get control over land and water. Lewis MacAdams, who is chairman of the board of the Friends of the Los Angeles River and a booster of the lake concept, insists that the mayor’s office is using political influence to steer business to his friends.

“This is a sweetheart deal in which the promise of jobs is an utterly empty promise,” MacAdams said.

For more than 100 years, the Cornfield was a Southern Pacific rail yard. Before the Civil War, the parcel was nourished by a canal that carried water from the nearby river to its vineyards and fields of corn. That’s how the land got its name.

These days, the parcel, which is shaped like a giant ear of corn and located just east of Chinatown between North Broadway and North Spring Street, is a deserted lot with ample supplies of steel, dirt and pavement.

As part of Riordan’s plan to turn around 15 blighted spots in the city, his economic team has proposed transforming 37 acres of the Cornfield into an industrial park. Companies involved in manufacturing, food processing, importing and exporting and some warehousing are targeted for the development, which may come with a price tag of more than $80 million.

Under the mayor’s plan, eight additional acres are earmarked for parkland and other community uses. The remaining portion is set aside for the right of way of the proposed light-rail Blue Line between downtown and Pasadena.

Majestic Realty Co., the city’s largest development company, owned by Ed Roski Jr., is in the midst of buying the property from the railroad. Escrow is expected to close by the end of the year. Roski is perhaps best known for his role in the development of Staples Center and teaming up with billionaire Eli Broad in an effort to bring pro football back to the Memorial Coliseum. Both projects have been backed by Riordan.

Because of its size and proximity to downtown, the Cornfield has long been considered for a variety of uses. One was a sports arena. But like other ideas proposed for that part of town, it fell through. Instead, Staples Center, built next to the Convention Center at the other end of downtown, is set to open soon as the new home for Los Angeles’ two pro basketball teams and the Kings hockey club.

Since the Cornfield is part of federal, state and city zones to encourage the creation of commerce, the federal government in August offered nearly $12 million to Majestic’s development subsidiary to help get the industrial park project off the ground. The funds from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development are intended to help turn blighted real estate into viable sites for businesses.

The top executive in the mayor’s office of economic development, Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, said the project is among those aimed at benefiting the city economically, including conversion of the General Motors assembly plant in Panorama City into a shopping and entertainment center and building a UPS distribution center in Lincoln Heights. The Cornfield proposal--formally called the River Station project--would be a shot in the arm for Chinatown and surrounding communities, he contended.

“I think it is important to note that when you bring in 1,000 paychecks that will be [partly] spent in Chinatown, that will deliver a great revitalization for Chinatown,” Delgadillo said.

But much of the criticism comes from Chinatown.

Opponents there contend the plan is flawed because it ignores at least three studies in the late 1980s and early ‘90s that recommended green space, bike paths, a school, affordable housing and mixed uses--things that Chinatown residents say they need.

Chinatown activist Chi Mui said the mayor’s proposal makes no effort to get a middle school for the area. The closest middle school to Chinatown, Nightingale in Cypress Park, is about two miles away, separated from Chinatown by the Los Angeles River and freeways.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials have looked at the Cornfield as a possible school site, but that has not gotten past the talking stage in recent years.

“We don’t need more warehouses in that area,” Mui said. “That project will be the death knell for Chinatown.”

He sides with planners who say that Chinatown is chronically plagued by old housing stock and overpopulation and a retail district that has little room to grow.

Collin Lai, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, wrote a letter to Roski opposing the plan. “Chinatown should not become 32 acres of industrial wasteland,” Lai wrote.

In a telephone interview, Lai reiterated his opposition, but said the Cornfield was a poor choice for a school.

Ada Wong, the president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said her group is eager to hear out both sides on the Cornfield’s future. But she added:

“Knowing right now that the Majestic project has gone this far, unofficially, I think we are leaning toward the Majestic project. It’s more of a reality for us.”

Some critics have an even more ambitious plan. It would feature acres of parkland, open space, a terraced complex of affordable housing and a school. The area would be dominated by a large lake--rivaling the size of the lake at MacArthur Park--that would be fed by a canal, reminiscent of the one that irrigated the Cornfield back in the 1840s.

There’s no price tag on what the plan might cost, but Los Angeles architect Arthur Golding, who helped devise it, said, “It’s a viable vision. It just lacks the political will to make it happen.”

One of the most articulate opponents of the Majestic project is MacAdams, a poet and freelance writer who has been involved with Los Angeles River issues for 15 years.

MacAdams said mayoral aide Delgadillo is no friend of environmentalists.

“Our experience has been that he has not done a single thing to support restoration [of historic sites] or create any parkland,” MacAdams said. “He has fought us in any way he could.”

Jobs Aren’t Guaranteed

Moreover, he said Delgadillo has no way to measure whether 1,000 jobs would be created by the River Station plan. “It’s the holy water of 1,000 jobs,” MacAdams said. “He can’t prove it.”

And he said Delgadillo is seeking to help Riordan’s political friends and his own future, which may include a run for city attorney.

Delgadillo rejected MacAdams’ speculation about politics, and said the project will boost economic development.

“It worked elsewhere. We think it can work in the Cornfield,” he said.

He pointed out that Majestic is not getting the federal money to do with it as it pleases. Part of the money is earmarked to pay for the toxic cleanup of the parcel. The remaining funds, which are loans, are to be paid back by Majestic and city tax revenues generated by the industrial park.

John Semcken, a Majestic vice president who is one of Roski’s principals in the Cornfield project, was just as strong in his advocacy of the project.

He said that Majestic is taking a risk in involving itself in the Cornfield, noting that the price tag for the property is “in excess of $10 million,” and that the total project could cost $80 million.

“We’re trying to work together with [Councilman Mike] Hernandez, the mayor’s office and the railroad to get this project off the ground,” Semcken said. “We’re trying to be friends with everybody.”

In the wake of the criticism from MacAdams, Mui and others, Majestic officials have been meeting with Hernandez, whose 1st Council District includes the Cornfield and Chinatown, to gain his support.

Hernandez objects to the project because it lacks community-related components, which he says must be added. Already, a laundry list of items, a day-care center, a community center and housing, are being considered by all sides.

Even if concessions satisfy concerns raised in Chinatown, the project must still navigate City Hall before construction could begin.