A group that opposes the demolition of a Boyle Heights housing project called a news conference Thursday to try to bolster its position but, by the end of the day, the organization came under heavy attack from some tenants, a prominent community leader and city officials.
City Housing Authority officials are bent on demolishing the 56-year-old Aliso Village project, calling the units in a gang-plagued neighborhood structurally unsafe. Twenty-three families who live in what officials call the most precarious structures have already received a fall deadline to move.
But a group representing some residents is determined to make sure the demolition doesn't occur. Union Vecinos Pico Aliso wants the units repaired, not torn down. The group called a news conference Thursday to unveil an interim engineering report to support its view.
The study by Parlee Engineering, a structural engineering firm in Pasadena, was based on a "visual survey" of the units' exteriors. It suggested that some structures in the 685-unit project be retrofitted.
"It would be a lot cheaper to retrofit than to demolish the project and start all over," said Heythem Aboud, a manager at Parlee.
But housing officials said fixing up Aliso Village would cost $66 million--only $17 million less than the cost of an entirely new and improved development. In addition to lack of structural integrity, officials said, major problems include dangerous lead paint, outdated plumbing and a faulty sewage system.
David Ochoa, president of a tenant committee, favors demolition of the aging structures to make way for new facilities. He called critics of the demolition plan "lease violators" who want to stay in Aliso Village because they know an understaffed Housing Authority can't be as strict as a new landlord might.
"Here they get away with everything," said Ochoa, a 12-year Aliso resident.
Ochoa singled out Leonardo Vilchis and other Vecinos leaders for instigating residents' opposition to the city's plan. "Vecinos has done all kinds of dirty tricks to get residents roused up," he said.
Housing Authority spokesman George McQuade also took aim at Vecinos. "There are vultures taking advantage of the situation to get notoriety," he said.
But spokesmen for Vecinos said the Housing Authority is using demolition as a smoke screen to hide its continuing neglect of structures that house some of the city's poorest residents.
