ELACC QOLP - Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Transcription

QUALITY-OF–LIFE PLAN SEPT. 2009
BOYLE HEIGHTS: OUR PLACE TO THRIVE
In 1987, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s leading community
development support organization, opened an office in Los Angeles and brought to Southern
California a key element in the success of community-led transformations of distressed urban
communities – ready access to national sources of funding and technical know-how.
For almost 30 years, and 20 in Los Angeles, LISC has invested in the ideas of the residents of
some of the country’s most hard-pressed communities, convinced that resident-led renewal
initiatives offered the best hope for true community transformation. And it worked. Communities
once synonymous with neglect and despair are now vibrant and alive with hope and opportunity. Resident-led organizations know as community
development corporations, or CDCs, have built new homes and apartments to replace garbage-strewn lots and burned-out buildings, and have
reinvigorated formerly moribund commercial corridors.
Los Angeles LISC and Sustainable Communities:
Now, in order to sustain and expand the enormous strides Los Angeles communities have made since 1987, Los Angeles LISC – much like other
LISC programs across the country – has launched Sustainable Communities. Sustainable Communities does not represent a radical new
direction for LISC in Los Angeles. In fact, it represents the natural evolution of community-based development and builds upon a series of
successful focused investment and community transformation initiatives. From the Affordable Housing Operating Support Collaborative through
Bridges to Wellness to the Neighborhood Turnaround Initiative, Los Angeles LISC has consistently sought to expand its investment and support
programming for Los Angeles-area CDCs in order that they could build truly whole and healthy communities.
What is new about Sustainable Communities is its
integration of the elements of community renewal –
Sustainable Communities Program Objectives
planning, comprehensive and integrated program
◊ Stimulating local economic activity, including connecting
development and service delivery, and broad-based
targeted neighborhoods and their residents to the regional
community impact – and the forging of new
partnerships to achieve sector-specific goals – in
economy and beyond;
workforce development, for instance, or education –
◊ Building family income and wealth, including improving
that will now become the standard against which all
residents’ skills and access to living wage jobs;
development initiatives are evaluated and will create a
whole greater than the sum of its parts.
◊ Expanding capital investment in housing and other real
estate;
Sustainable Communities’ immediate precursor, the
Neighborhood Turnaround Initiative (NTI), was
◊ Improving residents’ access to quality education; and
launched in 1998 as a multi-phase effort to focus
◊ Developing healthy environments and lifestyles, including
support and technical assistance through designated
safe streets and recreational amenities, community health
CDCs in several geographically defined
neighborhoods across the city. The discrete elements
clinics, and environmentally sound design.
that NTI sought to facilitate in the defined
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Boyle Heights: Our Place to Thrive
communities included: housing; commercial facilities; childcare, charter schools; jobs; and business development. These, albeit in a more focused
and collaborative process, are the same elements that make up Sustainable Communities.
Investments and accompanying technical assistance will be made through both people and place-based strategies that provide a balanced agenda
for community development. This agenda includes venues and
institutions where residents and business owners live, learn, work
and recreate. Another important feature of our approach will be to
enable our partners to explore, pilot and bring to scale innovative
programs and projects that are the realization of the Quality of
Life Plans. In short, Los Angeles LISC seeks to nourish
communities wherein People in Place can thrive within selective
Sustainable Communities.
Seeking to produce outcomes of a transformative scale, Los
Angeles LISC has designated three Sustainable Communities
neighborhoods and will provide focused support and investment
as required to realize visible and demonstrable results. Believing
that success breeds success, Los Angeles LISC has adopted a
strategy for Sustainable Communities that will use successes in
certain neighborhoods to build momentum for the initiative
across all sites. This strategy will validate the approach, attract
additional supporters and partners and inform subsequent
efforts.
Los Angeles LISC’s
Neighborhoods are:
three
Sustainable
Communities
Crenshaw Corridor
Lead Agency — Community Build, Inc.
Boyle Heights
Lead Agency — East Los Angeles Community Corporation
Central Avenue Corridor
Lead Agency — Coalition for Responsible Community Development
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BOYLE HEIGHTS QUALITY-OF-LIFE PLAN
OUR PLACE TO THRIVE
I.
Vision
II.
Summary: Delinking the
Gentrification Equation
III.
Lead Agency
IV.
The Community of Boyle Heights: History and
Boyle Heights Today
V.
The Process
VI.
Strategies and Community Priorities
Re-Development
=
a. Increase the Amount of Affordable and
Healthy Housing
b. Create Jobs and Economic Opportunity,
and Pursue Other Wealth-Building Strategies
c. Promote a Healthy Environment Through
Open Space Development, Reducing Pollution
and Other Strategies
d. Preserve the Culture of Boyle Heights,
Including Existing Residents’ Social Networks
VII.
4
Implementation and Timeline
VISION
We envision Boyle Heights as a vibrant community that
remains a haven where low-income community members can
thrive. In Boyle Heights, low-income residents are actively
engaged in decision-making about the future of the
community: a future offering quality affordable housing, good
schools, access to
services, opportunities for economic
advancement, a rich cultural life, and a healthy, green and
attractive environment.
5
SUMMARY
Delinking the Redevelopment = Gentrification Equation
Lidia Hernandez, a member of East LA Community Corporation’s
(ELACC’s) Neighbors Building Neighborhoods Action Committees, remembers
when she arrived in Boyle Heights 30 years ago. The neighborhood seemed
nice to her: “a little piece of our Mexico,” as she puts it. She raised her three
children in Boyle Heights, supporting them with the wages she earned cutting
the hair of Boyle Heights residents in her living room, a job she does to this
day. She loves her job because it both gives her a creative outlet and provides
access to all the neighborhood news, allowing her to help her neighbors. If somebody needs a mechanic, she will
recommend a trustworthy one. If Lidia finds out about a job opening, she shares this information with her friends and
neighbors.
A few years ago she noticed that her neighbors were moving away, pushed out by rapidly escalating rents. She was
saddened by the loss of old friends and customers, but was devastated the day her daughter told her she was moving to
Texas, where she could afford to rent her own apartment. Now, once a year, Lidia gets to see the grandchildren she used
to babysit every day.
Lidia’s story repeated itself in a variety of ways among fellow members of the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods
Action Committees (NBN). With renters making up 75 percent of the residents of Boyle Heights, the population is
especially vulnerable to displacement brought about by severe rent hikes. The effects reverberate across the community,
with among other impacts local elementary schools seeing drastic declines in enrollment (See Chart on page 6). Three
years ago, the Action Committees all got together to decide how they could have the biggest impact on this issue of
gentrification and on the neighborhood for years to come. After taking a vote they decided to focus their efforts on
influencing the City of Los Angeles Planning Department’s revision of the Boyle Heights Community Plan. They
reasoned that by making sure the Plan included their priorities they would have a community improvement tool that
they could use over and over as they continued their work to make Boyle Heights a vibrant and healthy haven for its
low-income residents.
6
SUMMARY
The Planning Department planned to begin work on the revision the
following year, and Boyle Heights residents realized they had to move quickly
if they were going to have an impact on the final plan. With the help of
ELACC’s Community Organizing Department, the NBN members started by
gathering all of the information available on the current state of Boyle Heights.
They discovered $40 million in planned development for the neighborhood,
none of it geared toward serving the existing low-income residents. They
discovered development projects that bulldozed their homes, and large rent
hikes on the apartments that remained, forcing out friends and neighbors.
They discovered a community in the throes of gentrification.
Boyle Heights was poised to become the latest victim of the development +
speculation + displacement = gentrification equation that had swept through
working-class neighborhoods across the country and in fact around the world. Instead of current residents enjoying the
benefits of a new Metro Station and police station, the expansion of a community hospital, and improved housing
opportunities, they were being forced out in favor of more affluent residents. In a community where the average stay is
10 years, notwithstanding its large number of renters, and where many residents have lived for decades, informing the
unique culture and identity of Boyle Heights that makes it so attractive to
others, it seems only fair that these current residents be allowed to enjoy the
benefits of their sweat and toil.
Even in the midst of working on the City’s Boyle Heights Community Plan
Revision, concern over the encroaching gentrification led NBN members to
reach out to other community-based organizations in Boyle Heights to form a
coalition to confront pending development projects.
They created
Comunidades Unidas de Boyle Heights/United Communities of Boyle
Heights (CUBH) to track proposed developments and mobilize a community
7
SUMMARY
E n ro llm e
response when required. When a private developer proposed turning the iconic Sears Tower complex into luxury lofts
and upscale department stores using huge CRA subsidies, CUBH filled a room with over 400 community residents to
demand that affordable housing and jobs for local community members be included in the development plan.
Currently, CUBH is researching and drafting a response to the proposed redevelopment of the largest multi-family
housing complex west of the Mississippi: the Wyvernwood apartments, an historic, 1940s era, garden apartment
complex comprising more than 1,000 units of rent-controlled housing. Their redevelopment could cause all the units to
convert to marketrate rents out of
E astsid e S ch oo l E nrollm en t
reach for the low9 00
income residents
of Boyle Heights
8 50
(For a complete
8 00
picture of proposed
redevelopment in
7 50
Boyle Heights see p.
Bre ed St.
Firs t St.
10). In the face of
7 00
Utah St.
this
proposed
Se co nd St.
6 50
development,
a
Community Plan
6 00
that reflects the
needs
and
5 50
perspective of the
5 00
low-income
95 -9 6
96 -97
9 7-9 8
98 -9 9
99 -0 0
00 -01
0 1-0 2
0 2-0 3
03 -04
0 4 -05
0 5-0 6
residents of Boyle
S ch o ol Year
Heights is more
urgent than ever.
8
LEAD AGENCY
East LA Community Corporation
“Trabajando Juntos — Working Together”
East LA Community Corporation (ELACC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community development corporation based in East Los
Angeles. Since 1996, ELACC has harnessed $58 million in housing and other community development resources for the benefit of
low-income residents of Boyle Heights and Unincorporated East Los Angeles. ELACC’s mission is to produce and preserve quality
affordable housing and to nurture community economic development opportunities for low-income and disenfranchised residents
of these neighborhoods. ELACC’s client base is 94 percent Latino. Its programs serve approximately1,200 people each year.
Almost 100 percent of ELACC’s clients are low-income or very low-income.
WHAT ELACC DOES: Community Development through collaboration, community organizing and capacity building
ELACC focuses on three major components of community development:
◊
Housing: ELACC develops affordable single– and multi-family housing and neighborhood facilities. ELACC makes housing
affordable to low– and very low-income families. To date, ELACC has developed more than 360 units of housing, including 12
multi-family complexes providing quality affordable housing for 800 residents. ELACC was recognized by the Southern
California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) as 2005 Developer of the Year, and was awarded SCANPH’s Housing
Development of the Year in 1998, 1999 and 2004.
◊
Economic Development: ELACC’s Homebuyer and Financial Literacy, Counseling, and Matching Fund Savings Account
programs allow residents of the Eastside to gain access to the knowledge, skills and resources to move close to homeownership.
Its Foreclosure Prevention Program and other post-purchase services help homeowners learn the warning signs of foreclosure
and how to respond effectively. Through the Los Angeles Works for Better Health (LAWBH) initiative, ELACC promotes and
improves the health and well-being of residents living on the Eastside by increasing their access to more and better jobs.
◊
Community Organizing: Through the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods program (NBN), ELACC focuses on the issues of
housing and accountable development as a means of engaging, training and supporting community residents to build power,
promote social equity and strengthen our communities. ELACC has a membership base of more than 700 residents.
ELACC’s work has been recognized by the Governor of California, the State Legislature and the Mayor and City Council of Los
Angeles, as well as numerous community groups, among others.
9
COMMUNITY OF BOYLE HEIGHTS
The Community of Boyle Heights: Yesterday and Today
Covering seven square miles with a current population
of 100,000, Boyle Heights was Los Angeles’ first suburb. The
mid-1800s brought statehood to California and an influx of
Anglo immigrants who began to urbanize the Pueblo de Los
Angeles. The Paredon Blanco, or White Bluff, as Boyle Heights
was known then, sat just on the other side of the Los Angeles
River from the Pueblo. (Another translation for Paredon Blanco
is White Fence, as a local gang refers to itself). Settled mostly by
Spanish, Mexican and Native-American farmers, the area was
peppered with vineyards and adobe houses.
However, Anglo settlers soon discovered its beauty and
began buying up land or marrying into local Mexican families
and inheriting the farms. Eventually, they began subdividing
the farmland, and by the 1920’s had completely subdivided and
developed all of Boyle Heights into a suburb. This early
development means two things for today’s residents: the
housing stock is very old and dilapidated, often creating
unhealthy living situations, and there is very little open space.
With the coming of the railroad, Eastern European and
Japanese immigrants began settling in Boyle Heights. Buildings
that once housed a Shul and a Buddhist Temple still exist today.
But, as the area around the railroad industrialized during and
after World War II, local companies began recruiting more
10
THE COMMUNJITY
Mexican labor and soon the community was 75 percent Latino. As the remaining European and Japanese residents
moved out, the rents continued to stay low and the jobs plentiful, making it an attractive area for working-class Latinos,
resulting in a community that today is 95 percent Latino.
For the last 50 years, the Latino community has made an indelible mark on Boyle Heights. The Latino Mural
movement of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in world-famous murals of Latino life adorning the walls of shoe stores and
public housing projects. Residents can hire Mariachi musicians off the street to perform at their parties and to mark
anniversaries. The mariachi industry is so vibrant that an asphalt traffic island with a donut shop sitting on it became
known as Mariachi Plaza, after the musicians who solicited work from its accessible curbs. A few years ago, the City
bulldozed the island and built a real plaza with a bandstand. Unfortunately, the musicians seem to have preferred the
traffic island with the donut shop where they would sit and play chess while they waited for work. Still, entire
businesses in the area depend on the mariachis for their livelihoods. A costume tailor and a musical instrument sales
and repair shop sit in close proximity to the Plaza.
In addition to vibrant business corridors, street vendors play a catand-mouse game with police officers and health department personnel,
working to make a living through what in many cases may be the only
employment option for the area’s undocumented immigrants.
Boyle Heights and the local Latino community and culture thrived
in spite of a series of regional planning decisions that could have
destroyed it. In the 1940s and again in the 1960s, the State of California
built four major freeways through the community, costing Boyle Heights
one-quarter of its housing stock and major swaths of open space. Freeway
projects gobbled up more than half of the community’s only major park,
and part of what remains has a freeway flying over it. Recent
developments, including a hospital expansion, a new police station, and
the extension of the Metro Gold Line, resulted in the loss of almost 600 more units of affordable housing. Moreover,
11
THE COMMUNJITY
none of this development activity has worked much to the benefit of Boyle Heights residents. Although the Los Angeles
region will benefit from the new Metro line, the line has displaced several bus routes through the neighborhood that
many residents depended upon.
Today the population of Boyle Heights is almost 95 percent low-income. While the U.S. Census puts the Boyle
Heights Area Median Income at $24,821 for a family of four, ELACC surveys show an average income of only $17,232.
Education levels are also low, with only 15 percent of the population having earned a high school diploma. While,
therefore, it comes as no surprise that only 25 percent of residents own their own home, the sense of belonging is very
high, with many having lived in the community for 20 years or more.
The challenge is to preserve Boyle Heights’ rich cultural heritage and affordable
housing opportunities in the face of encroaching gentrification. Business owners
white-wash historic murals in an attempt to make their buildings more attractive to
land speculators, and even the U.S. Government illegally demolished an old Jewish
community center to build a new Social Security Administration office. Moreover,
while after decades of neglect more than $4 billion in development projects are
bringing a Metro line, new police station, new high school, and a modernized hospital
to the area., these developments have served only to exacerbate community problems
rather than solve them. The projects cost the community almost 600 units of
affordable housing in a neighborhood where people rent out garages for the lack of
affordable alternatives. The development put money signs in the eyes of absentee
landlords, who have drastically raised rents and pressured low-income renters to
move in favor of more affluent tenants. The development attracted speculators and
caused land prices to double. The effects continue to spiral throughout Boyle Heights,
as displaced families move out and enrollment declines at local schools. Soto Street
Elementary alone has lost 26 percent of its student body. Boyle Heights and
community organizations are now engaged in finding ways to improve the local quality of life while not displacing
residents who have lived here for decades.
12
BOYLE HEIGHTS: OUR PLACE TO THRIVE 10
13
PROCESS
Community/Quality-of-Life Plan Meetings, Forums, Policy Discussions, and Actions
East LA Community Corporation’s Neighbors Building Neighborhoods Organizing Program began in January
2006 to engage community members and stakeholders on community issues and solutions through neighborhood
planning. A series of community forums, trainings and related events took place following the 2006 kick-off designed
to develop a community-based and community-driven plan for a thriving community. Through these sessions diverse
issues were raised, with community development being the issue that crossed all sectors. Issues raised included:
affordable housing; employment and economic opportunity; the environment; cultural spaces; education; safety; and
many others identified as contributing to the creation of a quality environment for families. The community forums
drew more than 300 community residents who participated in identifying solutions for these issues, focusing
specifically on affordable housing, employment and economic opportunity, the environment, and cultural spaces. These
strategies are described later on in this Quality-of-Life Plan and comprise a set of collaborations among residents,
community-based organizations, institutions and agencies designed to achieve meaningful progress in these sectors for
all Boyle Heights families. Below is a timeline of the activities community members and stakeholders took part in to lay
a strong foundation for the development of this Quality of Life Plan.
Policy Con Pan Dulce - Policy Discussions and Urban Planning Education
Before members of the NBN Action committees began work on their own vision for the Community, they invited
experts and community agency staff to speak to residents and answer various policy- and community planning-related
questions. The goal was to become more knowledgeable about the issues and to familiarize themselves with tools they
might have at their disposal to confront those issues.
May 3, 2006: Community At Risk: Housing and Gentrification — Residents and Stakeholders received an overview
of housing conditions and demographics in Boyle Heights, juxtaposed with a report on current and proposed local
development projects.
July 22, 2006: Housing Forum —Councilman Jose Huizar, Attorneys from Legal Aid, and ELACC staff answered
questions about housing rights and the future of affordable housing in Boyle Heights. Councilman Huizar
14
THE PROCESS
disappointed attendees when he said he thought there was enough affordable housing in Boyle Heights. The Forum
concludes with a bus tour of Boyle Heights.
March 15, 2007: What is a Community Plan? — Smart growth planner Beth Steckler explained exactly what a
Community Plan is and how it is used to restrict or promote development.
August 14, 2007: Making the Community Vision Pencil Out — Speakers from the Los Angeles Housing Department
and Community Reinvestment Agency talked about how to fund the community’s vision.
Community Forums, Education, and Data Collection
Armed with an overview of the current development situation and passionate about the issues they saw facing the
community, NBN members embarked on an educational and analytical process to develop their own community plan.
March 24, 2007: How to Make a Community Plan — Community residents and members of ELACC’s Neighbors
Building Neighborhoods Action Committees (NBN) learned urban planning methods and split into groups to walk
and map their neighborhoods, recording exactly what they find onto a map.
Summer 2007: Community Survey — ELACC staff and NBN community members go door-to-door to obtain
demographic and anecdotal information about the Boyle Heights Community. 220 surveys collected. The results of
the survey are compiled and form the basis for the next community urban planning effort.
June 12, 2007: Mapping the Community Plan
— Over 150 NBN Community residents develop maps of their
neighborhoods with the services and built environments they want to see. These maps are informed by the
Community Survey Results and the residents own experiences of living in Boyle Heights. Based on these maps they
develop a list of Community Plan priorities. Roosevelt High School students build and exhibit examples of
community services and facilities they want to see.
August 4, 2007: Community Meets with City of Los Angeles Planning Department Head Gail Goldberg
Community Residents Present Community Priorities
—
15
THE PROCESS
Actions
To raise awareness about the future of development in Boyle Heights, members of the NBN Action Committees planned
and executed many high profile actions. Their goal was to reach out to a broader group of Boyle Heights residents and
to let the City of Los Angeles know that residents were engaged and expected a real community input process.
July 29, 2007: Community Priorities March — 80 ELACC members and community residents marched through the
streets of Boyle Heights to call attention to the lack of community input into current development projects. As they
marched they created a map of their ideal community by posting huge posters with graphics of the desired services
and facilities at the locations where they wanted to see them. For example, marchers posted a poster of a house on
the wall of a liquor store with the caption, “Affordable Housing Here.” On the fence surrounding an MTA staging
site they posted a poster of a tree with the caption, “Sports Park Here.”
January - February 2008: Postcard Campaign — ELACC members distributed postcards to their friends and
neighbors asking them to voice their support for identified community priorities. Over 270 postcards were collected.
February 21, 2008: Delegation to City Hall/Planning Department — 15 ELACC members hand-delivered the
postcards to City Planning Department staff.
Neighbors Building Neighborhoods Community Plan Development
The above activities resulted in a vast amount of raw material. NBN members used this raw data finalize their own
NBN Community Plan, complete with zoning, overlay zones, and FAR recommendations. They will use their plan as a
tool, by way of comparison, to assess the revision of the Boyle Heights Community Plan that the City of Los Angeles
Planning Department has authored. The goal is to make the revision coming out of the Planning Department look as
much like the NBN plan as possible.
August 2009 to present: Map Development Based on Community Priorities
August 2008: ELACC forms a Resident Advisory Committee (RAC) to advise the Planning Department.
October 2009: Ground Truthing and Asset Mapping
16
THE PROCESS
August 2008 – January 2009: RAC Meets with Planning Department Personnel to help design the Community Plan
input process.
February 2009: Community Plan Focus Groups
Action and Implementation Plan and Timeline Development
Once community residents established their vision and priorities. ELACC staff spearheaded the creation of an action
and implementation plan.
February – April 2009: Stakeholder Feedback and Commitments — ELACC staff presented the community residentdeveloped priorities and proposed strategies to over 30 different stakeholders including other community-based
organizations and governmental agencies for their feedback and to obtain their commitment to participate in
implementing the quality-of-life plan.
May 2009: Drafting Plan — ELACC staff incorporated
stakeholder feedback and commitments into an Action
and Implementation Plan and Timeline and revised
entire plan based on stakeholder feedback.
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STRATEGIES
Strategy #1: Preserve and Increase Affordable Family Housing Options in Boyle Heights.
1.1 Establish the strongest penalties for the illegal destruction of affordable housing.
1.2 Establish a “No Net Loss” of affordable housing policy that applies to all development projects in Boyle Heights.
1.3 Create a Specific Plan that requires affordable housing to be a part of any new development in Boyle Heights.
1.4 Create zoning that automatically provides a density bonus for affordable housing developments.
1.5 Build enough affordable housing to replace the 600 units lost to make way for recent civic development projects.
1.6 Lobby for affordable housing financing structures to encourage the development of the deeply affordable housing
required by extremely low-income residents of the community.
1.7 Work with tenants to access Housing Department Enforcement Resources to improve housing conditions and the
habitability of old housing stock in Boyle Heights.
1.8 Insure family access to government benefits that will make housing affordable.
1.9 Work with tenants to insure that landlords are not illegally evicting them or increasing their rents.
Strategy #2: Create new jobs and economic development opportunities, and implement other wealth
building strategies.
2.1 Preserve sufficient industrial-use zoning to create the spaces to develop jobs for local residents.
2.2 Establish a green industry incubator in the vacant industrial buildings on the western and southern borders of
Boyle Heights to create new economy alternatives to the declining construction industry.
2.3 Create street vending districts in the community to provide healthy and safe places for all local street vendors to
operate without official harassment or hostility.
2.4 Provide support to those working in the informal economy to maximize profits and grow businesses to support
families comfortably, by providing business development training, micro-loans, and Individual Development
18
STRATEGIES
Accounts (IDAs), and by developing business cooperatives.
2.5 Increase financial literacy through education and by moving residents from unbanked to banked.
2.6 Promote homeownership through education, counseling, and facilitating access to homeownership subsidies.
2.7 Provide and connect youth to job training and hiring programs through intensive case management to address
underlying barriers like gang membership and drug addiction.
2.8 Provide tutoring, mentoring and leadership development to high-school age students to increase their chances of
succeeding in college.
2.9 Organize students to advocate for improvements in their education.
2.10 Train youth for professions at two of Boyle Heights largest employers, White Memorial Hospital and LA
County/USC Medical Center.
2.11 Establish an Artisans and Farmers Market where local residents can sell wares outside of the formal economy
and learn how to run a small business.
2.12 Establish a peer-to-peer job-training program where residents with skills can work with their neighbors to
increase their chances for employment.
2.13 Provide early childhood education programs to enable parents to work outside the home.
2.14 Increase resources and access to adult education programs that prepare low-skill residents to get career path jobs
or go on to higher education.
Strategy # 3: Create a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
3.1 Increase the amount of open space available to residents for exercise through the development of mini-parks and
the inclusion of playing fields in leisure parks.
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STRATEGIES
3.2 Increase resident’s healthy food access by establishing Cooperative Community Gardens and facilitating the
sharing of agricultural expertise among residents.
3.3 Make the community more walkable by installing safety features on high traffic boulevards, widening sidewalks,
and re-routing alternative freeway routes.
3.4 Preserve the pedestrian character of the commercial corridors in Boyle Heights.
3.5 Create pedestrian neighborhoods by allowing for mixed use development while preserving the character of the
commercial and residential zones.
3.6 Create a buffer between industrial and freeway zones and residential housing, perhaps with parks, recreation
areas or cultural spaces.
3.7 Reduce violence in the neighborhood and in the schools through comprehensive community-wide social services
and community engagement.
Strategy #4 Preserve the Character and Culture of Boyle Heights and Increase Cultural
Opportunities for Residents.
4.1 Punish the destruction of murals — both registered and non-registered.
4.2 Increase economic opportunities for the musicians who work on the streets of the community by providing
programming on Mariachi Plaza, creating a rehearsal and recording facility, and establishing a performance salon.
4.3 Establish local cultural centers providing arts education, performance, and exhibition programs in every
neighborhood in Boyle Heights.
4.4 Limit building height to preserve the character of the commercial corridors.
4.5 Create a historic preservation district or program as a mechanism for creation of local jobs within Boyle Heights,
modeled on the successful pilot program in Pico Union.
4.6 Identify landmarks and historic resources that reflect an inclusive history of Boyle Heights.
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STRATEGIES
4.7 Raise community awareness about the historic value of Victorian and Craftsmen homes in Boyle Heights.
4.8 Document a fabric of Social Networks that are supporting the survival of low-income neighbors
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TIMELINE & IMPLEMENTATION
STRATEGY
1: Preserve and Increase Affordable
Family Housing
TIME FRAME
1st Year
2-3 Years
1.1 Establish the strongest penalties for the
illegal destruction of affordable housing
4-5 Years
Lead/Convener
Partners
X
Residentes Unidos de
Wyvernwood
Los Angeles
Conservancy
1.2 Establish a “No Net Loss” of
affordable housing policy that applies to
all development projects in Boyle Heights
X
Comunidades Unidos
de Boyle Heights
1.3 Create a Specific Plan that requires
affordable housing to be part of any new
development in Boyle Heights
X
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods
Los Angeles Planning
Department
LA Voice
Housing LA
1.4 Create mixed income ordinance that
automatically provides a density bonus for
affordable housing developments
X
1.5 Build enough affordable housing to
replace the 600 units lost to make way for
recent civic development projects
1.6 Lobby for affordable housing financing
structures that encourage the development
of deeply affordable housing for the
extremely low-income residents of Boyle
Heights
22
ORGANIZATIONS
X
X
X
East LA Community
Corporation
A Community of
Friends; CRA LA
X
X
Local Initiatives
Support Corporation
ELACC; Coalition of
Neighborhood-Based
CDCs
IMPLEMENTATION
1: Preserve and Increase Affordable
Family Housing (cont’d)
1.7 Work with tenants to access Housing
Department Enforcement resources to
improve housing conditions and the
habitability of old Boyle Heights housing
stock
1st Year
2-3 Years
4-5 Years
Lead/Convener
Partners
X
X
X
Los Angeles Center
for Law and Justice
Union de Vecinos
Legal Aid
Foundation of
Los Angeles —
ELA
1.8 Ensure family access to government
benefits that will make housing affordable
X
X
X
Los Angeles Center
for Law and Justice
1.9 Work with tenants to ensure that
landlords are not illegally evicting them of
increasing their rents
X
X
X
Los Angeles Center
for Law and Justice
1st Year
2-3 Years
4-5 Years
Lead/Convener
2: Create Jobs and Economic
Development Opportunities, and
Implement Other Wealth-Building
Strategies
2.1 Preserve sufficient industrial use
zoning to create the spaces to develop jobs
for local residents
2.2 Establish green industry incubator in
vacant industrial buildings on western and
southern borders of Boyle Heights to
create new economy alternatives to the
declining construction industry
Partners
Neighbors Building
City of Los Angeles
Neighborhoods Action
Planning Department
Committees
X
X
Apollo Alliance
ELACC; CRA LA
23
IMPLEMENTATION
Strategies (cont’d)
24
1st Year
2-3 Years
2.3 Create Street Vending districts in the
community to provide healthy and safe
areas for street vendors to operate free
from official harassment or hostility
X
X
2.4 Provide support to those working in the
informal economy to maximize profits and
grow businesses to comfortably support
families, by providing business
development training, micro-loans and
Individual Development Accounts (IDAs),
and by developing business cooperatives
Lead/Convener
Partners
ELACC— Street
Vendor Action
Committee
City Councilman Jose
Huizar
X
ELACC —
Community Wealth
Department
PACE
2.5 Increase financial literacy through
education and by moving residents from
unbanked to banked
X
ELACC —
Community Wealth
Department
Bank On LA;
Emerging Markets
2.6 Promote homeownership through
education, counseling, and facilitating
access to homeownership subsidies
X
ELACC —
Communityh Wealth
Department
2.7 Provide and connect youth to job
training and hiring programs through
intensive case management to address
underlying barriers like gang membership
and drug addiction
X
X
4-5 Years
X
Girls Today/Women
Tomorrow; Homeboy
Industries
Dolores Mission
School & Church;
Legacy L.A.
IMPLEMENTATION
Strategies (cont’d)
1st Year
2-3 Years
4-5 Years
Lead/Convener
Partners
2.8 Provide tutoring, mentoring and
leadership development to high-school age
students to increase their chances of
succeeding in college
X
X
X
Inner City Struggle
Girls Today/Women
Tomorrow; Salesian
Boys & Girls Club
2.9 Organize students to advocate for
improvements in their education
X
Inner City Struggle
Legacy L.A.
2.10 Train youth for professions at two of
Boyle Heights’ largest employers —
White Memorial Hospital and LA County/
USC Medical Center
X
LAC + USC Health
Network
Neighborhood Legal
Services Health
Consumer Center
2.11 Establish an Artisans and Farmers
Market where local residents can sell
wares outside of the formal economy and
learn how to run a small business
X
Proyecto Jardin
Union de Vecinos
2.12 Establish a peer-to-peer job-training
program where residents with skills can
work with their neighbors to increase their
chances for employment.
X
Proyecto Pastoral
X
Proyecto Pastoral
2.13 Provide early childhood education
programs to enable parents to work outside
the home.
X
International Institute
25
IMPLEMENTATION
2.14 Increase resources and access to adult
education programs that prepare low-skill
residents to get career path jobs or go on to
higher education.
3: Create a Health and Sustainable
Environment
Puente Learning
Center
X
1st Year
3.1 Increase the amount of open space
available to residents for exercise through
developing mini-parks and including
playing fields in larger leisure parks
2-3 Years
4-5 Years
X
3.2 Increase residents’ healthy food access
by establishing Cooperative Community
Gardens and facilitating the sharing of
agricultural expertise among residents, as
well as providing training in organic
gardening
X
3.3 Make the community more walkable
by installing safety features on high traffic
boulevards and around Metro stations,
widening sidewalks, and re-routing
alternative freeway routes.
X
X
X
3.4 Preserve the pedestrian character of the
commercial corridors in Boyle Heights.
3.5 Create pedestrian neighborhoods by
allowing for mixed-use development while
preserving the character of the commercial
and residential zones.
26
X
Lead/Convener
Partners
City of Los Angeles
Planning Department
ELACC — Neighbors
Building
Committees
Proyecto Jardin
ELACC — Lorena
Terrace Tenants; Farm
Lab/Metabolic
Studios; Clinica Oscar
Romero; LA Voice
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods
Action Committees
LA Metro; LA County
Supervisor Gloria
Molina
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods
Action Committees
City of Los Angeles
Planning Department
City of Los Angeles
Planning Department
Neighbors Building
Committees
IMPLEMENTATION
3: Create a Health and Sustainable
Environment (cont’d)
1st Year
2-3 Years
3.6 Create a buffer between industrial and
freeway zones and residential housing,
perhaps with parks, recreation areas or
cultural spaces.
3.7 Reduce Violence in the neighborhood
and in the schools through comprehensive
community-wide social services and
community engagement, including Safe
Passage and Reclaim the Streets programs,
Youth Development, Schools Safety Plans,
Domestic Violence Prevention and mental
health services.
4: Preserve the Character and Culture
of Boyle Heights and Increase Cultural
Opportunities for its Residents
4.1 Prevent the destruction of murals —
both registered and non-registered —
through the Visual Artists Rights Act,
establishment of a mural-graffiti removal
program, and documenting surviving
murals
4-5 Years
Lead/Convener
Partners
X
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods
Action Committees
City of Los Angeles
Planning Department
X
X
X
1st Year
2-3 Years
4-5 Years
X
Union de Vecinos;
Proyecto Pastoral
Centro de Ayuda;
Violence Intervention Legacy L.A.; Salesian
Boys & Girls Club;
Program
Dolores Mission;
Partnership for Los
Angeles Schools
Lead/Convener
Partners
Social and Public Art Survey L.A. (City of
Resource Center
Los Angeles Office of
(SPA|RC)
Historic Resources)
27
IMPLEMENTATION
Opportunities for its Residents (cont’d)
1st Year
2-3 Years
4.2 Increase economic opportunities for
the musicians who work on the streets of
the community by providing programming
on Mariachi Plaza, creating a rehearsal and
recording facility, and establishing a
performance salon.
Elements of this
strategic initiative include:
• Public awareness campaign
• Market feasibility study
• Renovation of Boyle Hall
• Formation of a mariachi union
• Office space for mariachi
businesses
4.3 Establish local cultural centers —
starting with a pilot program at the
Wabash Rec Center — providing arts
education, performance, and exhibition
programs in every neighborhood in Boyle
Heights.
4.4 Limit building height to preserve the
character of the commercial corridors.
X
4-5 Years
Lead/Convener
Partners
X
ELACC
City of Los Angeles
Department of
Cultural Affairs;
Sindicato de
Mariachis
X
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods NBN
IV
City of Los Angeles
Department of Parks
and Recreation
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods
Action Committees
City of Los Angeles
Planning Department
X
4.5 Create a historic preservation district
or program as a mechanism for creation of
local jobs within Boyle Heights, modeled
on the successful pilot program in Pico
Union.
28
X
Los Angeles
Conservancy
IMPLEMENTATION
Opportunities for its Residents (cont’d)
1st Year
2-3 Years
4-5 Years
4.6 Identify landmarks and historic
resources that reflect an inclusive history
of Boyle Heights.
4.7 Raise community awareness about the
historic value of Victorian and Craftsmen
homes in Boyle Heights.
4.8 Document a fabric of Social Networks
that are supporting the survival of lowincome neighbors.
Lead/Convener
Partners
Survey L.A. (City of
Los Angeles Office of
Historic Resources
X
X
X
Los Angeles
Conservancy
Neighbors Building
Neighborhoods
Action Committees
Salesian Boys & Girls
Club; Union de
Vecinos; Inner City
Struggle; Dolores
Mission; Proyecto
Pastoral
29

ELACC QOLP - Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Transcription

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