Council OKs 2 Areas for ‘Weed and Seed’ Program

In the first step toward implementing what is being described as a key ingredient of post-riot recovery efforts, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved two areas as test sites for Operation Weed and Seed, the widely promoted federal urban program.

One of the sites is a nine-square-mile section of South Los Angeles--bordered by Vernon, Manchester, Western and Central avenues. The other is a 4.5-square mile area consisting of the Pico-Union and Koreatown neighborhoods--bordered by 6th Street, Washington Boulevard, Western Avenue and the Harbor Freeway.

Services that may be funded in the areas include after-school programs, drug treatment and prevention, job training, new public service jobs and expanded Head Start programs, according to Wendy Greuel, an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley. Greuel is coordinating the federal program for the city.

Funding from the “weed” portion of the program probably would be used by the Los Angeles Police Department to establish community-based policing in the target areas, Greuel said.

Population in the target areas is more than 288,000; a little more than a third of the residents have incomes below federal poverty guidelines. The sites must be approved by the U. S. Justice Department, which is directing Operation Weed and Seed in Los Angeles.

As described by federal officials, Weed and Seed is a two-pronged effort to “weed” out gangs and drug dealers from crime-plagued communities and “seed” the areas with jobs and social programs, all under the coordination of a task force of federal and local officials and community-based groups.

The program has been tested on a limited basis in a few cities--including Kansas City, Mo., Newark, N. J., and Santa Ana--but it has emerged as a key piece of President Bush’s urban agenda in the wake of the Los Angeles riots.

Although the city initially was passed over for Weed and Seed funding, Bush--after touring riot-ravaged neighborhoods--announced that Los Angeles would receive a $19-million grant to test the project in hard-hit communities.

Criteria for the project include a community’s proportion of low-income households, crime rates, the level of physical damage sustained during the civil unrest, existing social services and narcotics arrest rates.

After the sites have been approved by the Justice Department, public hearings will be held in the target areas to determine the most urgent social service needs.