New Wave of Latino Electeds Shy Away from Tiendas

A recent article documenting the shift away from traditional tiendas in Latino heavy regions illustrates the changing priorities of elected offciails in the new century. The article’s catchy line, “It was as if the developers were talking about tacos, and the Latino politicians were talking about apple pie” sums up the cultural differences in this new age of corporate development. Some highlights from the article include:

Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano and other city officials listened as the developers said they had studied the demographics of the city and could bring in a retailer known for offering credit to undocumented immigrants and a shopping center with a “Latino feel.”

“We want what Middle America has as well,” said the second-generation Mexican American, recounting the meeting. “We like to go to nice places like Claim Jumpers, Chili’s and Applebee’s. . . . We don’t want the fly-by-night business, the ‘amigo store,’ which they use to attract Latinos like myself.”

 
Until relatively recently, cities like Baldwin Park, South Gate and Santa Ana had few options beyond “Latino” retailers. But this year, Baldwin Park — a city of 70,000 in the San Gabriel Valley — enacted a moratorium on new payday loan and check cashing stores. The city is now partners with Bisno Development Co. on an “urban village” of mixed-income housing, theaters and mainstream restaurants such as Claim Jumper, Applebee’s and Chili’s.

 
“I’m proud of my roots,” said Rosalva Alvarez, as she stood in her beauty store on Maine Avenue, which is in the redevelopment area. “I was born in Mexico and raised in this country. I agree we need some change. But what they want to bring here is totally unrealistic. Applebee is good, but a Kabuki? And also a Trader Joe’s? Come on, I don’t even go to Trader Joe’s.”

Urban Divestment

Courtesy of the LA Times: Even as Los Angeles officials search for surplus public property that can be sold to help balance this year’s budget, the City Council is weighing a plan to give a three-acre site in North Hollywood to a developer who has promised to build an office tower and a seven-screen Laemmle movie theater.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposed budget for fiscal 2008-09 calls for raising $14.2 million by selling excess real estate holdings, among them an old animal shelter in San Pedro, three vacant fire stations and the old Cypress Park library.

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  North Hollywood redevelopment

Yet Villaraigosa’s appointees at the Community Redevelopment Agency are also recommending that the council hand over a site that the agency has valued at $14.9 million to the J.H. Snyder Co., whose projects include the West Hollywood Gateway retail center and the Crescent apartments in Beverly Hills. The firm’s president has contributed $160,000 to the mayor’s political and philanthropic causes.

The plan is scheduled for a council vote today. Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes North Hollywood, said he supported the Laemmle project but relied on the redevelopment agency to craft the contract points.

Environmental Toxins

California’s peregrine falcons, once driven to the edge of extinction by the pesticide DDT, now are contaminated with record-high levels of other toxic chemicals that may threaten them again.

State scientists have found that peregrines in Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco contain the highest levels of flame retardants found in any living organism worldwide.

The findings parallel studies that have detected high concentrations of the chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, in human breast milk, particularly in California women.

The compounds, which mimic thyroid hormones and can damage developing nervous systems, have spread to wildlife and people worldwide, working their way up food webs.

The concentrations found in California’s urban peregrines are similar to those that cause neurological damage in lab mice and rats, resulting in reduced motor skills and altered behavior.

Scientists said the peregrines, the fastest and most agile birds, are being contaminated with the industrial chemicals from eating urban pigeons that scavenge on city streets.

Olympic and Pico

A Superior Court judge gave a big red light to the city of Los Angeles this morning when he ruled that a plan to make the Westside’s Olympic and Pico boulevards behave more like one-way streets can’t go forward until a study is done of its effects on businesses and residents.

The ruling is a blow to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his ally City Councilman Jack Weiss, both of whom have been pushing the proposal since November. Two Westside groups — one representing businesses and the other homeowners — sued the city to stop the plan.

The idea behind the proposal was to give commuters an easier way to get to and from jobs on the Westside, given that the Santa Monica Freeway is often clogged.

The first part of the plan involved removing street parking along parts of Olympic and Pico during rush hours — leading to complaints from merchants, who said they feared it would frustrate and drive away customers. The city also wants to time traffic signals to stay green longer so that westbound Olympic and eastbound Pico traffic moves faster.

City leaders had planned to start work on the project this week.

Grand Ave. Detour

For those of you still wondering about the Grand Ave. project, a new update from the LA Times has revealed that the $3-billion dollar effort has had difficulty obtaining construction financine. The new projected finish date for the first phase of the project is 2012. I guess we will all be seeing a light rail system on the Eastside before Bunker Hill gets a face lift.

The developer of the Grand Avenue project in downtown Los Angeles said Monday that completion of the $3-billion redevelopment effort will be delayed until 2012 because of difficulty in obtaining construction loans amid the real estate downturn.

The Frank Gehry-designed high-rise project is seen as a linchpin in downtown’s revitalization, and the delay is the latest sign that the loft and condo craze in the city center is cooling off.

Read the article here.