Government Coordination . . .

Nonprofit and charitable groups such as MEND (Meeting Each Need with Dignity) play a key role in helping the San Fernando Valley’s poor. But aside from giving grants to nonprofit organizations, is there a role for government as well?

Several government programs already exist in the northeast Valley, including a city-funded Targeted Neighborhood Initiative, which is working to improve conditions along Van Nuys Boulevard, and a federal empowerment zone, which uses tax incentives, grants and low-interest loans to entice business investment to downtrodden neighborhoods.

In addition, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency is proposing a massive redevelopment project in the northeast Valley--a proposal that has generated at least as much opposition as support, given the CRA’s mixed track record in North Hollywood and elsewhere.

Members of a citizens advisory committee recently recommended reducing the area covered from 6,835 acres to about half that, to better focus on neighborhoods that are truly blighted and that can be helped by redevelopment. The recommendation is a step in the right direction, especially given that one of the CRA’s problems in North Hollywood was promising more than it could deliver. But the proposal, which, even if reduced, would remain the city’s most expansive and expensive redevelopment project yet, needs further scrutiny before the City Council decides it’s the best approach.

Another tool not yet in use in the northeast Valley is a City Council-approved Business Improvement District, in which merchants or property owners agree to assess themselves fees to finance improvements. Every Los Angeles City Council district has at least one BID approved or proposed except for the northeast Valley’s 7th City Council District.

City Councilman Alex Padilla fears that the area is just too poor for merchants to support a BID and has too many absentee landlords to approve an owner-based fee. But there are signs of interest from some areas, such as Arleta and Sun Valley. And having such programs in place could in turn help lure future government grants.

One of the most important roles Padilla can play in his district is to coordinate the efforts of these various programs and make sure each talks to the other. Again, one of the problems that has plagued redevelopment in North Hollywood has been a lack of communication and coordination among the very government agencies involved in the effort.

A native of Pacoima and a product of local schools, Padilla can also play a valuable role in linking government efforts to various community-based groups, including parents groups and the various nonprofit organizations.

Seldom has the gap between rich and poor, haves and have-nots, been so great as it is in California now. Those who lack education and language skills, who are not trained in the high-tech tools of the new economy, come out the losers.

Government can’t change the marketplace, but it can help left-out communities find a way in.