Poor Neighborhoods Targeted for Grants

In a new bid to rescue poor communities, Mayor Richard Riordan is expected to announce today plans to spend $12 million to revitalize distressed neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley and the Harbor area.

Five months after a divided community scrapped plans for the city’s largest redevelopment project in the northeast Valley, Riordan will designate sections of Pacoima and Lake View Terrace as one of three areas in the Valley to be added to the city’s Targeted Neighborhood Initiative program.

The other two areas will probably include parts of Van Nuys and Valley Glen, sources said. Riordan is expected to designate a fourth site in the Harbor area in addition to the eight sites he announced Monday. Each area selected would receive $3 million over four years to spend on such public improvements as streets and lighting, as well as beautifying homes and businesses.

The city is wrapping up work in 12 neighborhoods selected in 1996, the first areas targeted under the program.

“We’ve had tremendous success with our original Targeted Neighborhood Initiative, improving the quality of life for Angelenos throughout our city,” Riordan said in a statement Tuesday. “By expanding the TNI, we will provide even more communities with the resources necessary to make our neighborhoods healthier, brighter places to live and work.”

The Pacoima/Lake View Terrace project was selected in a competition with other community proposals submitted by City Council members and judged, in part, on whether at least 51% of residents have low or moderate incomes, said Claire Bartels, the city’s TNI administrator.

The new Pacoima/Lake View Terrace project is near one designated three years ago. That project has produced paved streets and sidewalks, and will soon add new trees and bus shelters on Van Nuys Boulevard, said Marlene Grossman of the group Pacoima Partners.

“It’s a big boost for the community,” Grossman said. “It is finally showing the community that when they ask for something they can get it.”

The new revitalization area is centered on a stretch of Osborne Street between the Golden State Freeway and Foothill Boulevard--now a mix of small commercial strips and older homes.

“This is great news,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla.

Padilla cited a recent series in The Times, which found that the lack of affordable housing, health care and basic city services in the northeast Valley has reached crisis levels.

“I hope at the end of the day that everyone living and working in the area can look out their windows and doors and have pride in the area where they live,” he said.

Efforts to revitalize the northeast Valley suffered a setback in August, when Padilla decided to delay creation of a large redevelopment program after it deeply divided the community.