NoHo Hopes Station Proves Revitalizing

Merchants and residents of North Hollywood are hoping the rainbow-like entrance to the new Red Line subway station will be symbolic, leading their community to an economic pot of gold.

After decades of having their hopes dashed by ineffective city efforts to stem the tide of blight that has swept over North Hollywood, many area civic leaders believe the subway will be the thing to finally rescue their community from its economic malaise.

“It will be a catalyst for economic development and reinvestment in the city around the subway stations,” predicted Mayor Richard Riordan.

Added Councilman Joel Wachs: “It should be a spark to once and for all redevelop the area. I see it as an important step to revitalize the East Valley.”

Locals see every passenger as a potential customer. They see the subway stations themselves as magnets to draw businesses and jobs to an area that has seen better days since it was a commercial center for the Valley in the 1940s.

“We hope we will be able to snag some of the folks who ride this, so they buy their coffee in our coffee shops, go to the theater after work in one of our theaters, have their cars worked on here while they take the metro downtown,” said Loretta Dash, president of the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Already, one developer has proposed building 2 million square feet of offices, stores, restaurants and movie theaters to the south and east of the subway station.

J. Allen Radford said he has several potential tenants interested in the idea of being at the end of the line of a $4.6-billion transit system.

“It is an incredible opportunity,” Radford said. “You can advertise to customers that you are a subway ride away.”

But others are more cautious in their optimism.

On the average weekday, the MTA expects 1,600 people to disembark from the trains in North Hollywood, not counting tourists, for which the agency has not made estimates.

At the Universal City station, about 3,000 people will get off the train each day.

The numbers are not huge, some locals point out, and although Universal Studios may be a big draw for the Universal City station, the city and MTA have so far failed to create the kind of atmosphere around the North Hollywood station to keep the train riders in the surrounding area.

The transit agency has still not released a proposal for development of 19 acres it has around the station. Currently, the MTA property in North Hollywood is dedicated to parking for more than 847 cars and a staging area for equipment.

The only concrete proposal floated so far for the vast MTA holdings is a housing project for retired musicians.

In addition, land owned by Radford and the Community Redevelopment Agency south of the station consists of weed-infested lots and boarded-up buildings.

That does not portend good things for efforts to capitalize on the subway station, said Glen Hoiby, a North Hollywood attorney who chairs a citizens panel created by the city to oversee redevelopment.

“The subway definitely has the potential to be a good thing that will bring people into the community, but if there is nothing here, there will be no reason for people to come and return,” Hoiby said.

Others say North Hollywood will have to overcome its downtrodden reputation to get people to ride the subway to the end of the line.

The MTA and city have already launched a marketing campaign to convince residents in other parts of Los Angeles that it would be worthwhile to take the train to North Hollywood.

The effort highlights the station’s proximity to the North Hollywood Arts District, where more than 20 small theaters have opened in the past decade.

One element of the marketing campaign is centered on the subway station’s opening weekend.

The chamber and the local theaters have scheduled the North Hollywood International Arts Festival that weekend so people exiting the portal in North Hollywood will find the streets full of entertainment and fun.

What will happen after that first weekend is less certain.

“We are taking sort of a hope-and-pray attitude,” said David Cox, artistic director of the American Renegade Theater Co. in North Hollywood.

Cox said people throughout Southern California have to be sold on coming to North Hollywood.

“It’s going to take a little time to catch on, I think,” Cox said. “But I think it will help.’

County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who chairs the MTA’s board, is among those who believe the east San Fernando Valley will see an economic boost from the subway.

“The completion of this leg of the Red Line makes the Universal and North Hollywood areas a transportation destination,” Burke said, “which means the system can be utilized for recreational and tourist purposes as well as for business.

“This would tend to act as a catalyst for more economic development,” she added, pointing to Hollywood as an example of where major development has begun cropping up near subway stations.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky also has high hopes for the area near the stations.

“Economically it’s going to be a very significant boon to the Valley,” he said, predicting a “renaissance in North Hollywood.”