A CLOSER LOOK

Andrew Glazer

WEST SIDE -- They have a plan.

But be assured, the strategy for bringing new commercial, economic and

social vitality here is just a draft.

Los Angeles-based EIP Associates created a 54-page document after 20

months of work, $148,003 in city funds and dozens of public meetings.

“It will give us something to look at during discussions,” said Mayor

Gary Monahan soon after the plan was unveiled last month.

In fact, at the bottom of each page is the note: “Preliminary Draft, For

Discussion Purposes Only.”

It may be years before 19th Street resembles anything close to the

charming tree-lined, cafe-dotted, red tile-roofed boulevard sketched

abstractly in the draft. It may take even longer for the city to convince

the machinists, tow-truck companies and auto-body repairmen on a

residential block of 18th Street to move their shops elsewhere.

Woody Tescher, EIP’s head consultant, acknowledged this.

And he said the city needs to act as a leader to significantly improve

the neighborhood.

“Rather than waiting for someone to come to the planning desk, the city

needs to stimulate the neighborhood to make these improvements work,”

Tescher said. “They can’t sit back and wait.”

But for the city to effectively move forward with any of the outlined

improvements -- and nearly everyone living and working here agrees

there’s room for plenty -- property owners, merchants, city officials and

residents must work together, Tescher said.

THE SCENE

After speaking with hundreds of residents, digesting research from a UC

Irvine graduate class, grilling the City Council for suggestions and

independently surveying the West Side, EIP Associates found several

characteristics, which have prevented the neighborhood from thriving:

* Crumbling sidewalks, neglected landscaping and potholed streets

* Dilapidated buildings owned by absentee landlords

* The West Side’s absence of a commercial center

* The neighborhood’s unusual cocktail of industrial buildings, homes and

small, family-run businesses.

MAIN STREET

Planners say the key to revitalizing the West Side is to develop a

bustling, pedestrian-friendly shopping area on 19th Street.

The ideal 19th Street would be alive with flower stands, park benches,

sidewalk cafes, street lights and lush Chinese flame trees.

The city would help catalyze the commercial area by repairing and

widening cracked sidewalks and encouraging merchants to improve the

facades of their shops.

The draft suggests that West Side businesses could form an association,

which would help promote the neighborhood as a lively and culturally rich

shopping area. The association would sponsor fiestas and street fairs,

which would boost neighborhood pride and draw outside shoppers, with

revenue collected from its membership fees. And the association, with

city subsidies, could buy and raze homes on Center Street to develop a

plaza.

The plan suggests that the city should widen 19th Street near the plaza

to allow space for bicycle lanes and parking.

THE MODEL BOULEVARD

The Latino Business Council -- a coalition of Costa Mesa Latino business

owners -- recommended the planners use Huntington Park’s bustling Pacific

Boulevard as a model for a pedestrian-friendly 19th Street.

Huntington Park, which is southeast of downtown Los Angeles, has a

predominant Latino population, similar to Costa Mesa’s West Side, which

is 55% Latino, according to the draft plan.

The 10 blocks of Pacific Boulevard, which are lined with banners

identifying it as “El Boulevard Tradicional,” reflect the neighborhood’s

Latino orientation.

Ranchero music spills from its many record stores onto the wide

sidewalks. Restaurants, some with outside tables, offer pupusas and

tacos. Open-front shops offer books in Spanish, alligator-skin cowboy

boots, white taffeta prom dresses and acupuncture services. Street

vendors from chrome carts peddle sliced mango, spicy peanuts and popcorn

in plastic bags.

The Art-Deco Warner Theater, built in the 1920s by Jack Warner of Warner

Bros., remains there, helping create a sense of history. James Dean, Sal

Mineo and Natalie Wood watched the premiere of “Rebel Without A Cause”

there, said Dante D’Eramo, executive manager of the Huntington Park

Chamber of Commerce.

Huntington Park’s Chamber of Commerce, along with the City Council, hold

regular festivals in the neighborhood, which draws more than 350,000

people, D’Eramo said.

ROAD BLOCKS

A thriving commercial heart would pump new energy into the entire West

Side. Without it, revitalization efforts here would be much more

difficult, Tescher said.

But he admitted it will be a formidable challenge coordinating so many

different entities -- city, residents, business-owners -- to work

together.

“Any time you talk about changes in land use, there will be concern from

some individuals,” he said.

He also pointed out that 19th Street in Costa Mesa never had the same

scale and historical identity as a walking retail boulevard, which was

the case in Huntington Park.

While Pacific Boulevard did fade in popularity in the 1970s with the

region’s shopping center boom, shoppers always knew it was there, D’Eramo

said.

“Once the changes were made in the 1990s, curious shoppers started to

come back,” he said.

Another obstacle to a downtown Main Street is that many auto-loving Costa

Mesan’s simply aren’t interested in walking while shopping. At a meeting

held by the Wallace Area Improvement Group -- a grass-roots neighborhood

group in the West Side -- residents said the city should focus instead on

cleaning trash, removing discarded shopping carts and wiping clean

graffiti.

“And why do we need Fiestas?” asked Susanne Gagnon, a member of the

Wallace Area Improvement Group.

“And park benches,” added Janice G. Davidson, who describes herself as a

neighborhood activist. “Won’t they just attract people who don’t have

jobs? I’m asking the city to delete those from the plan.”

UNIFORMITY, NOT INDUSTRY

The West Side’s capricious zoning is embodied between Whittier and

Monrovia Avenues on 18th Street. Whittier Elementary School and several

homes are on the block’s south side while the north side is lined with

small industrial buildings.

In the plan, EIP Associates said the city should try to “encourage” the

small industries to move away.

But using eminent domain -- the city’s right to purchase properties in a

defined redevelopment area at market value -- would probably be too

costly for the city, Tescher said. Instead, he said it should provide

financial incentives to these businesses to move away from the block.

The city could encourage home developers to build there by allowing them

high-density developments.

“They would need some way to make their money back,” Tescher said.

SOME OPPOSITION

The plan’s suggestion to clear industries from 18th Street seems to meet

the strongest opposition. Tescher admitted that this part of the plan may

never happen.

The owners of most of the businesses said last week they didn’t want to

move. They said they have been left out of the entire planning process.

Many felt the planners only listened to suggestions from the Latino

Advisory Committee -- a group of Costa Mesa residents, activists and

property owners.

“I didn’t even know they were thinking about moving us,” said Maurice

Lavoie, the soft-spoken owner of Maurice’s Mercedes Benz Autos, a repair

shop. “You get on the treadmill and work for the American dream, and then

they stab you in the back.”

Lavoie, who has owned the shop for 18 years, said he hoped to eventually

pass the business down to his two sons.

Other business owners on 18th Street also felt threatened by the plan.

Except Bob Chapman, who moved his toolmaking shop there in 1990.

“If they pay me for what the property is worth, I’d give it up,” he said.

“I’m not going to stand against it, but I don’t want to lose money.”

THE FUTURE

Council members said it may be years before the city moves forward with

major improvements on the West Side.

Mayor Monahan said the city would not make major changes before holding

countless other neighborhood meetings.

“The people who live there should have a major input in how it looks,” he

said earlier this month.

In fact, the consultants are holding their first neighborhood meeting

about the West Side plan April 11.