As Building Falls, So Do Tears

The long-awaited start of demolition on the Pico-Aliso public housing project in Boyle Heights began with a roar of bulldozers Thursday morning while public officials spoke before television news cameras of their visions of a new community.

But alongside the ceremonial leveling of a three-unit building near Pecan and 4th streets, resident Isabel Guillen posed for a different camera.

Her friend snapped a Polaroid of her standing in front of what had been her family’s four-bedroom home for the past 15 years--a home now being reduced to a pile of rubble.

“I was 4 when the eight of us moved here from a one-bedroom house,” Guillen, 20, said through tears. “It was like moving into a mansion for us.”

Pointing Thursday to what had been her bedroom, she said: “They let me go in and say goodbye to it this morning. My whole childhood is in there.”

Hugging her friend and fellow resident Gerson Garcia, Guillen said she was sad to watch the 50-year-old building go. But she is looking forward to moving into new units that will go up next year as part of a $50-million federal Housing and Urban Development revitalization project.

The Los Angeles Housing Authority is overseeing the renewal, which officials are hoping will create a safer neighborhood.

Though they were filled with wistful sentiments, most of the Pico-Aliso residents who came out for the demolition echoed the celebratory mood of the speakers--a group that included Councilman Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles Housing Authority Executive Director Don Smith and Deputy Mayor Lupita Sanchez.

The festive atmosphere was a marked change from residents’ attitudes in September when the demolition was originally scheduled to begin. That ceremony was canceled after more than 100 Pico-Aliso residents complained to federal officials that they had not been adequately consulted.

Residents were concerned then about the number of units being reduced from 577 to 421. The Housing Authority’s Xavier Mendoza, who is directing the renovation, said his agency has been listening to residents’ concerns, and he is confident that everyone who wants to return to Pico-Aliso will have a home waiting for them.

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In the meantime, dislocated residents have the option of moving to vacant Pico-Aliso units that will not be demolished for several months, or applying for federal housing subsidies that will allow them to move elsewhere temporarily for the same rent they now pay, Mendoza said.

“There are enough residents who have expressed a desire to move out of here and relocate that we are not worried about a shortage,” Mendoza said.

Current residents who want to return once new construction is completed will have first priority to rent one of the new units at the same subsidized rate--30% household income, he said.

“We’re not just knocking down and rebuilding houses,” Mendoza said. He said residents in the new complex will be able to rent with the option of buying their units.

The project will also include a child care center and senior citizen apartments, Mendoza said, and job training programs will be offered there. One new program--a Los Angeles Conservation Corps apprenticeship--will allow residents to get on-site construction jobs and join a union.

On Thursday, at least one resident was not sorry to see the old units go. Lupe Lorea remembered that during a rainstorm 15 years ago, the roof in the unit where she has lived 31 years began to leak, causing her ceiling to cave in. Over the years, she said, the paint in her bathroom has been eaten away.

“I’ve raised eight boys here, volunteered for the community, gone to Little League--it’s like a big family here,” Lorea said. “It was about time. We deserve something good. I’m willing to move around--as long as it’s here.”

Still, Thursday was a day for reflection and reminiscence. Lorea’s son Joe Diaz, 21, recalled “so many bullet holes” in the walls of the unit being demolished. “I’m glad they’re getting rid of that, so we can start over,” Diaz said.

Two hours after the bulldozers started dismantling the boxlike, faded purple building, it was nothing more than an empty shell. After city officials, residents and the news crews had left, a group of children and their families lingered in their yard across the street, still studying the site.

A colorful mural on a concrete wall nearby bore the inscription: “Dedicated to all the mothers of East L.A.” On either side of the figures of mothers and teachers, the artist rendered a looming downtown skyline, juxtaposed against the housing project’s unmistakable dusky-colored buildings--what in time may be the only remnant of the old Pico-Aliso.

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Demolition Site

Bulldozers started the long-awaited demolition of Pico-Aliso housing project Thursday in Boyle Heights.