Two sides of redevelopment

Re “Redevelopment follies,” Opinion, April 25

Redevelopment in California is highly unfair, and private investors seem to take advantage of a system that is supposed to improve less-privileged areas. It is certainly a travesty that instead of building to help poorer areas, these wealthy investors just keep on trying to make more money for themselves. Many of these investors do not need this money in order to build new shopping centers, but who would turn down free money?

We need to come up with some way to control the spending of the redevelopment agencies or simply not allow private investors to become involved if they risk the integrity of the redevelopment programs. Taxpayers are losing money, and this needs to be remedied as soon as possible.

ADAM KAYNE

Northridge

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The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles created SRO Housing Corp. in 1984 to address homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in the Central City East (skid row) community of downtown. This community had the largest concentration of homeless people in the nation. With the CRA’s support, SRO Housing rehabilitated 24 dilapidated hotels and created more than 1,700 private units of emergency, transitional and permanent housing. In 2007, the CRA provided more than $1.5 million of emergency funding to ensure the continued provision of essential services, including the operation of two community parks, the maintenance of facilities and the operation of a much-needed community center.

Since 1984, living conditions have dramatically improved in skid row, and thousands of lives have been transformed.

ANITA U. NELSON

Chief executive

SRO Housing Corp.

Los Angeles

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The best interests of California residents are not being met. Schools are heavily overcrowded and, instead of building new ones, cities are building new strip malls and repaving roads as a sort of mirage that implies that the tax money is being put to a good use. Individual taxpayers should have a proper say in where their tax dollars are spent. The redevelopers are able to build whatever they want because of the failure of Proposition 90 [which would have limited eminent domain and required government agencies to compensate property owners for zoning limits on development]. I believe that this proposition needs to be rewritten and proposed again so that, when passed, it could bring an end to this uncontrolled spending of tax money.

LANE SCHECHTER

Calabasas

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Doug Kaplan misses the point when he talks about redevelopment, through which communities have tools to realize their vision. Living and working in an area affected by crime, lack of investment and physical deterioration, our community’s vision was to maintain the area’s village character, rehabilitate the housing stock, build new affordable housing, increase green space and create a town center.

Working with the city, we built affordable housing and a community center, rehabilitated commercial buildings, revitalized neighborhood-serving businesses and created the Gateway Center and a new streetscape for Santa Monica Boulevard. This could not have happened without the tools and money from redevelopment.

ROB BERGSTEIN

West Hollywood

The writer chairs the West Hollywood Redevelopment Project Advisory Committee.