Baldwin Hills Estates Weighs Plan for Gated Community

A while back, Baldwin Hills Estates was one of those neighborhoods people liked to refer to as a well-kept secret.

But that anonymity ended nearly five years ago when a devastating arson fire swept through the community, catapulting it into the national spotlight.

“The news went all over the country,” said Joseph Gardner, the president of the Baldwin Hills Estates Homeowners Assn. “And that’s when America saw that all those expensive homes were owned by black people.”

Curiosity seekers flooded into the area to view the devastation, and later to see the elegant homes being rebuilt. Residents say the neighborhood continues to attract such unwanted traffic.

Also, the residents have become concerned that they face a growing threat of crime. Although the community traditionally has had few such problems, police categorize an adjacent apartment community as a high-crime area, sparking worries in Baldwin Hills Estates.

As a result, the residents of Baldwin Hills Estates, a wealthy black community where many of the streets take their names from Spanish noblemen, are considering a proposal to make their neighborhood a gated community.

“At first people came to see what the fire had done, then they came to see the homes being rebuilt,” said Geraldine White, whose home was one of 53 destroyed in the fire on June 2, 1985. Another 13 homes were damaged and three people were killed.

“Now it seems whenever someone comes to town, people bring them up here to look at our homes,” White said.

One-thousand households in the hills have been asked to vote on the proposal at a community meeting April 28. The balloting will be held at the site where the fire was the most destructive, at the intersection of Don Diego and Don Carlos drives.

Under the plan, seven electronic gates would be used to cut off pedestrian and auto access to the isolated hillside community. Homeowners would be able to operate the automated gates with a device similar to a garage-door opener and from their homes by phone to let in visitors. Police and fire departments and other city agencies would be given access codes to operate the gates.

The installation of the gates would cost $225,000, or about $225 per household. If 51% of the residents approve the plan, Gardner said, the next step would be to collect funds. A $25 payment would be needed from 85% of the residents for the plan to go forward, and the group would have to obtain approval from the city.

Thus far, the idea has picked up considerable support.

“I think putting up gates is a great idea,” said Mary Bryant, who also lost her home to fire. “The neighborhood is changing around us. There are problems with robberies, vandalism. I think a gate would give us a more secure feeling.”

Proponents of the plan also cite the positive effect the gates would have on property values. “The system will more than pay for itself, plus the value of individual ‘peace of mind’ cannot be calculated,” read a leaflet publicizing the plan.

But not everyone agrees. “There are still a lot of questions left unanswered,” said Patrick Brown, a resident. “It seems ridiculous to have a gate without having someone manning it. And where are the traffic studies? What they have come up with is a gate that is going to monitor itself. I don’t see it.”

City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district includes Baldwin Hills, said she, too, has reservations. Galanter’s support is needed for city approval.

“Basically, I believe public streets should be public,” Galanter said. “We are concerned about security, but this is an open city. It shouldn’t be a city of locked gates and walls.”

If a community is going to consider taking public streets out of use, Galanter said, “it should also assume the responsibility for maintenance and other services.”

Jesse Brewer, assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who lives in Baldwin Hills Estates, also questioned the plan. “I support their efforts, but something like that will not be done over night,” he said. “It going to take a lot of working out to do. There are big problems: It involves closing streets off; deliveries have to be made, and the cost would require continued funding.”

Gardner, a real estate agent who is running for county assessor in the June 5 election, said he became convinced that the community needed gates two years ago when he was startled out of his sleep one morning by vandals who threw a rock through his picture window.

The neighborhood had enjoyed relative obscurity prior to the fire, but in 1963, it captured the spotlight when the Baldwin Hills Reservoir broke, sending 292 million gallons of water into the neighborhood west of where the fire later occurred.

Few outsiders ventured into the hilly community east of La Brea Avenue, south of the Santa Monica Freeway where the homes have striking panoramic views of the Los Angeles basin, stretching from the high-rises of Century City to the Los Angeles Coliseum.

It was a favored spot for photographers who would stream into the Baldwin Hills on especially clear days to capture that spectacular picture of the downtown Los Angeles skyline with snowcapped mountains in the background.

Since the fire, Baldwin Hills has changed. The rebuilt homes now sell for well over $600,000. Spanish tile roofs have replaced the wood shingles that proved so dangerous in the fire. Baldwin Hills Estates and nearby Baldwin Vista, View Park and Leimert Park are part of a expansive upper-middle-class black enclave, which in recent years has been the scene of numerous receptions for politicians seeking campaign contributions from wealthy black donors: Jesse Jackson, New York Mayor David Dinkins and others have held receptions there.

“My impression is more and more politicians are taking the community seriously,” Galanter said. “The fact that it is becoming a fairly routine stopover for politicians is a healthy sign that the political community recognizes the importance of the people and the money that is in the area.”

But then there are those like Geraldine White who moved into the Baldwin Hills in 1968 when few outsiders ventured into the community, and all of the neighbors looked out for each other.

“Those were the good days, but those days are gone now,” she said.

White, a supporter of the gates, says she hopes they will bring back a little of the security and privacy Baldwin Hills enjoyed in the past.