After CRA Fiasco, Area Eyes Revitalization Options

Marlene Grossman was counting on Northeast Valley redevelopment to push forward efforts by her group, Pacoima Beautiful, to fix storm drains in the area that often back up, flooding school grounds and streets. But with redevelopment now on hold, Grossman and her group have decided the improvements must still go forward they’ll just have to find another way to pay for them. “We’ve said if redevelopment isn’t the way we get to function, then we’ll find another way,” Grossman said. “We have a lot of other avenues we can pursue.” Grossman is just one example of leaders and agencies in the Northeast Valley searching for new ways to revive the blighted area now that the L.A. City Council has put the kibosh on a Community Redevelopment Agency proposal to create a huge new redevelopment area in their communities. They’re tossing around ideas on everything from business improvement districts in Pacoima and Sun Valley, to strengthening the Community Development Bank, to reaching out to developers. “Even though the CRA project is on hold, by no means does that bring an end to businesses and job creation efforts in the district,” said Councilman Alex Padilla, a strong backer of redevelopment. Using existing programs Padilla said he would like to pump more money into the targeted neighborhood initiative, through which the city has pumped $3.5 million into the community in the past two years for infrastructure improvements. Through that initiative, sidewalks have been added along Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Pacoima. The money also pays for landscaping and building facade improvements, and makes small loans to successful businesses looking to expand. “It’s the first big step and a positive gesture that the city will invest in making the area more business-friendly,” Padilla said. Padilla is also making several other proposals aimed at business, including: – Beefing up existing programs such as the federal empowerment zone and enterprise zone (which give tax credits for certain business expenditures within the area) and the Community Development Bank (a federally backed lending institution giving favorable treatment to businesses in low-income areas). – Forming business improvement districts in Pacoima and Sun Valley. – Doing more outreach with developers looking to build new projects, and businesses trying to relocate, as well as helping businesses in the area expand and grow. The CRA’s proposal was aimed at reviving more than 6,000 acres of decrepit neighborhoods in parts of Pacoima, Sun Valley, Arleta and Panorama City. Padilla and the L.A. City Council voted to put the controversial project on hold last month after the citizen’s project area committee voted to disband because it was hopelessly deadlocked. A number of businesses and residents have spoken out against the proposal because they fear losing their property to the CRA’s power of eminent domain. The area, though, is still in desperate need of help. At the Pacoima-based group, Meeting Each Need with Dignity, or MEND, director Marianne Haver Hill and volunteers help about 20,000 people a month to fulfill basic needs like food and clothing. Many of the people they serve don’t speak English, and even getting them to the free language classes offered by MEND and other groups is a challenge. “Their lives are so overwhelming, and just trying to get by is very stressful,” Hill said. “Once you hit bottom, it takes a lot of time to move up.” Attracting more jobs Hill said many of the biggest problems faced by people she serves can be solved in other ways than just redevelopment. She said they need basics like affordable housing, jobs and child care. Martha Diaz Aszkenazy, chairwoman of the Greater Northeast Valley Chamber of Commerce and owner of San Fernando-based Pueblo Construction, said the chamber is looking for ways to help attract manufacturers and higher-paying jobs to the area, the most important ingredient, they believe, to revitalization. Business leaders say they hope to start reviving the area piece by piece and are looking at some simple solutions like adding sign ordinances to clean up business districts. “We need to take a couple blocks at a time,” Aszkenazy said. “We need to take it bite-size. We know we can’t do all of the Northeast Valley at once.” Aszkenazy said the chamber will pursue more public-private partnerships to work through the problems. The chamber is working with Cal State Northridge to form focus groups that would determine how businesses and the university could better work together. “What really needs to happen is, business and government need to come together and come up with solutions,” Aszkenazy said. Padilla said he is hoping for the same thing. “We need a closer collaboration with the Economic Alliance (of the San Fernando Valley, a local business organization), with the Chamber of Commerce,” Padilla said. “We need the sharing of experiences of what works and what doesn’t work.” Almost everyone agrees the area needs to be better promoted to lure in businesses and developers. “For the most part, people are not familiar with the Northeast Valley,” Padilla said. “They have an impression of L.A. as a market and they’re familiar with downtown and the coastal areas. They’re somewhat familiar with the Valley.”