Belvedere Citizen / Eastside Journal, Number 14, 2 April 1980 — OK grant package with local funds [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OK grant package with local funds

Minus the last minute round of successful amendments which usually accompany its action, the City Council Thursday voted 11-1 to approve the $56.85 million federal grant spending program for next year. What the council voted on was the application to the federal government for the funding, with a detailed list .of projects on which the money will be spent. Generally in the first five years of the housing and urban development block grant, the federal authorities have approved local spending programs in LA with little or no change; but the supervising department of housing and urban development is taking an increasingly more critical look at the program in the city. $7.5 MILLION The grant package includes, in all, some $7.5 million in funding for projects in the East/Northeast area. The figure is an estimate, since public service funding for the area is in the process of being recalculated, since the council action Thursday boosted the total public service funding across the city to 15 percent of the grant total, or some $8.5 million. Included in the grant are funding for several local capital improvement projects, including: —sl.2 million to build a new recreation center building at Highland Park Playground. —5241,000 for conversion of half the bowling greens at Arroyo Seco Park into lighted tennis courts. -$lOO,OOO for improvements at Costello Recreation Center. —595,000 for lighting at San Pascual Park. —537,000 to the Northeast Community Free Clinic for

its project to relocate In a new building. —562,500 lor the El Sereno Senior Cltiien Center project HOUSING Much of the funding, however, goes to housing projects and commercial redevelopment efforts being staged in several local communities, including Highland Park, Lincoln Heights, Cypress Park, Euclid, Fresno and Mt. Pleasant. Lincoln Heights, Mt. Pleasant and Fresno projects are being run by the Community Redevelopment Agency, while the others are being offered under the HOME program, which is run by an agency with a very similar name, the city Community Development Department In addition, the CDD is directing the revitalization efforts underway in Highland Park, where $200,000 has been allocated for public improvements in connection with the CARE program, a commerical rehabilitation plan. Of unspecified local impact are several citywide housing progams, the most important being a housing production effort which next year will put $2.1 million in federal money to work to encourage the private development of some 780 housing units.

The council Thursday turned down several efforts v by individual members to add areas for development funding, following the lead of grants committee chairman David Cunningham. Cunningham said the federal government is concerned LA has too many neighborhood strategy areab already. He explained that under the HUD program, the neighborhood areas are Intended to receive intensive developemcnt and then be dropped after 5 to seven years, and other areas added. Councilman Art Snyder, who was absent from council Thursday for health reasons, had two areas to add himself, a third in Boyle Heights and a second in Lincoln Heights, but his motions were not offered by other council members. And given the mood of the council Thursday, would not have been approved had they been. The approval of the draft application sets the wheels in motion for HUD review, which is likely to be stringent this year in light of an unfavorable audit report prepared by federal officials. CRITICAL The audit criticized the city for, among other items, appropriating money to projects which have yet and for" increasing' appropriations when money has yet to be spent from earlier years. The city was also criticized for falling to get imput from community groups, and for not concentrating its funding sufficiently in the area of housing production. Council members will now be asked to submit by May 1 lists of community agency to receive public service funding, which is tied to the 30 neighborhood strategy areas. Since the agencies which once received some $l5 million under model Cities will now be competing for some $8.5 million, the final decisions on who is and is not funded will likely produce some heat.

LIFE-SIZE EQUESTRIAN statue of Emiliano Zapata, famous Mexican general, will join other statues at the Parque de Mexico, in Lincoln Heights. Expected completion date is Apr. 21 for the statue's base. Total cost for the project of $235,000 is being donated by Mexico City.