East L.A. Revitalization Going Strong Under Councilman Huizar

You've now been a City Council member for six months, and your council district, which includes Boyle Heights, is already ground zero for investment in LA-whether it's the Metro Gold Line, a new high school, or affordable housing. Give us an update on Boyle Heights' revitalization.

Boyle Heights is benefiting from a wealth of public investments. It is long overdue, and it's exciting. There's a perception that Boyle Heights doesn't have the spending power or the type of economic activity that other parts of the city do. It's a low-income community, but at the same time it's a very dense community, and with that comes a lot of buying power, a lot of activity, and a lot of need for public resources.

One of the most interesting projects is the Eastside light rail project, which will open in 2009. It's not only going to connect Boyle Heights with the rest of the city but it will also provide local jobs and economic activity down the First Street corridor. Light rail was also one of the reasons we chose a new high school site at First and Mission. And now we're looking at the revitalization of the commercial corridor.

If you also look at one of the first stops, at Mariachi Plaza, right now the MTA is undergoing an RFP process to select a developer to revitalize that whole corner. I'm excited about it, because I envision a time when people from throughout Los Angeles take the light rail and stop at First and Boyle to mariachis and pedestrian activity, gong to the local shops and restaurants.

Before you transitioned from LAUSD board president to council member, the school district planned East L.A. High School #1 in isolation, focusing only on its campus and not on also improving the surrounding neighborhood. Now that you're on the council, have you been able to integrate that school development into the renewal efforts in Boyle Heights?

When I was on the school board I represented the Boyle Heights area, and I found that the district was four years behind schedule in siting this school, which would relieve Roosevelt High School, which currently houses 5,000 students in a school built for 1,500. Now I'm looking for ways to continue to integrate the high school with the local activity around it. We have a newly developed housing project that used to house one of the most dangerous areas of the city, where we had an old, dilapidated federal housing project. That has now also spurred some new economic activity, and we're trying to find ways to integrate the high school with its unique location next to the rail line. We're looking to find some joint-use developments with the daycare center that used to exist on the site and find ways to integrate it with the local community.

Down the street, Utah Elementary School was once an isolated eyesore and we were able to put some funding into the auditorium to make it a local theater for the community. So there are many opportunities to make schools the centers of that community. It used to be a haven for drug users, and now it's now becoming a family-centered community.

With your and the mayor's leadership, a coalition-including New Schools Better Neighborhoods, Plaza Community Center, and Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative -is working to save that child care center and move it to the east of the new high school. With your help, This promising project has just been awarded a Prop O grant to build a cistern to collect stormwater runoff. But they've had some delays in collaborating with CalTrans and HACLA. How can these agencies come together to realize the potential of this neighborhood?

A lot of the time the political leadership needs to step in to bring these separate entities together to put down their jurisdictional boundaries and do what is in the best interest of the community and not necessarily look out for only their fiefdom.

I was happy to be part of the Prop O process by which we got the additional funding to make this possible. What we need to do here, as we did with siting the high school-where HACLA thankfully is leasing that property to us for $1 per year-is to bring all the interested parties to the table and hash out the common ground and then address problems.

The key also is the continuous communication. If we don't get the stakeholders involved on a consistent basis, people start treading their own paths. The Plaza de la Raza is providing a great service to this community, as is NSBN. In my view, it takes a third player like NSBN to bring these jurisdictions together, and that's what NSBN did here-it kept these separate public jurisdictions focused. This project could easily have fallen off the table if it wasn't for NSBN.

The CRA has designated Boyle Heights a CRA planning area. What is the significance of such a designation?

The CRA and the Adelante Eastside Project have been accruing the extra tax increment from projects, and a lot of the benefits from that planning and the designation of the project area are going to start emerging very soon. In 2006-07 we're going to see about $1.5 million, and that's going to go into the revitalization in the Adelante Eastside area.

The area has vacant lots that will need to be redeveloped. There's also an old industrial area on the south side of Olympic that provides jobs to local residents who have been waiting for the CRA the city to make good on decades-old promises to make that an industrial park so that the city could provide public amenities and resources to help those businesses maintain those jobs and be good neighbors.

LAECD's Jack Kyser told TPR in March that industrial land in LA. is becoming ever more scarce. Your district has some of the last industrial land in the city, and, as you've mentioned, it's valuable to many of your constituents. Is there a plan to use these resources wisely, or will industrial land continue to be taken by schools, developers, and other uses?

Industrial land throughout the city is a target of a number of forces. First is the school district, the largest real estate developer in the city. Because they do not want to take away homes, they usually end up looking at industrially zoned property. Secondly, there's a huge demand for housing, so we're re-zoning industrial properties to residential. I have a concern, however, with us putting a blanket policy across the city to stop the re-zoning of industrial to residential.

The CRA and the Planning Department sent out a memo a few months ago that said it will study the issue, and it asked all the departments to slow down the process of re-zoning. I was a bit concerned, however, because it put a chilling effect on parts of Downtown that I represent that really do need to be re-zoned.

Downtown is experiencing a renaissance. People are willing to invest and bring back to life areas that have been forgotten, so as I talk to department heads and other city officials I'm urging them to enact this policy on a site-by-site basis. What may work in some areas may not in others. For instance, in Boyle Heights I would protect the industrial area on Olympic between De Soto and Lorena. However, if you go down Olympic and cross the river into Downtown, industrially zoned property has been sitting vacant for decades. We want to use that property, and if it's residential, I fully support it. Today, many of L.A.'s industrial firms don't need the same amount of property as they used to. Therefore, we could lessen the amount of industrially zoned land and still build residential units around it and see the same benefits.

The redevelopment of a vacant Sears department store has also gained public attention. What might its redevelopment offer residents?

The Sears project is on 23 acres on Soto and Olympic. The current owner is looking to sell, but I see that as only a bump in the road of our promise to deliver commercial and residential uses to this area. What I like about this project is that it refutes the perception that Boyle Heights doesn't have the buying power to support commercial centers in this district. All these folks who live there spend their money outside of Los Angeles-Montebello, Alhambra, Pasadena. But if we build something locally they'll be able to shop closer to home. I think it will lift the spirits in Boyle Heights.

And then there's a proposed housing project nearby that we hope will have mixed income. Mixed income benefits not only the community but also the city as a whole when we have people of different incomes and races living closer together and understanding one another.

Quite a political dynasty is developing in Boyle Heights/East L.A. The former councilmember is now mayor; you've moved from School Board president to the Council; and Monica Garcia, whom you endorsed, is now a School Board member. When all these political leaders come together, what's possible?

A whole lot is possible. If you look at the relationships I have with the mayor and Monica Garcia and the areas in which we overlap there's going to be a lot of joint planning, and I think the community will benefit. For instance, the school district talked a lot about joint use, but they had a mission to build schools and-as they have said-didn't want anything to obstruct it. But now I think we're truly going to make joint use work. It takes a lot of planning and political leadership, and we're willing to make that happen. I see in the future a way in which the city invests more in our schools for more greenery, sharing of parks and schools, and blurring jurisdictional lines for the benefit of the community.

The hottest political issue in the city is reform of the governance of LAUSD. What is your view on proposed reforms?

I support what the mayor is doing to create more accountability and transparency at the school district. I served for over four years, and I felt that there wasn't enough accountability among the seven board members, who are ultimately responsible for the performance of the district. I would like to see an environment at the district in which true, meaningful reforms can take place.

We've had a lot of progress in building schools because everyone dedicated themselves to it. We set out a strategic plan on facilities, but the district does not have a strategic plan for instructional reform. We've seen some benefits at the elementary level with some tweaks in our curriculum. But if we put in some meaningful reforms students could really succeed. We're just not providing them with the opportunities or resources they need.