How you can help Save Lincoln Place
By Jim
Smith
Lincoln Place is a beautiful
affordable housing complex of 696 garden apartments. It’s a historic site
that was built 55 years ago by Ralph Vaughn, an African-American architect and
set designer for MGM.
Vaughn was one of the successful Black
architects of his day. His architecture and site planning of Lincoln Place and
other recognized buildings are found throughout the city of Los Angeles. His
talents ranged from high end homes for movie moguls to 15 - 38 acre FHA garden
style apartments for WWII veterans, including Lincoln
Place.
It would cost a large fortune
today to recreate Lincoln Place. So why not save
it?
Here’s how you can
help?
1. Show that the community
supports Lincoln Place and wants the buildings preserved and rented and the
evicted tenants put back in their homes. Come to the Jan. 16 rally (see back
page) and visit the tent city on California, just east of
Lincoln.
2. Demand that AIMCO either
allow the tenants back in or sell Lincoln Place to another
landlord.
3. Ask your elected officials
to consider Eminent Domain for Lincoln Place. This means that the city (or
state) take over the property for the “public good” and pay fair
market value to the owner. Is it for the “public good” to preserve
696 affordable apartments in the face of a housing shortage? Isn’t it in
the “public good” to prevent approximately 200 tenants, including
seniors and disabled, from being put out in the street when there is a homeless
crisis?
4. Call L.A. Councilmember Bill
Rosendahl at 311 (the city’s main phone number) and thank him for his
support of the tenants and housing.
5.
Call Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (also at 311) and ask him to take action
immediately to restore the tenants and preserve the
buildings.
6. Call City Attorney Rocky
Delgadillo and tell him you will not consider voting for him for state Attorney
General unless he acts on behalf of the tenants, not the corporate
landlord.
7. Demand that all candidates
now running for state Assembly, Senate and Congress say what they will do for
Lincoln Place and for increasing the amount of affordable
housing.
8. Do the same for all
candidates now running for Governor and other statewide
offices.
9. Volunteer your help to the
Lincoln Place Tenant Association or Lincoln Place Support
Committee.
10. And, don’t forget
our own Venice Neighborhood Council. They passed a resolution supporting the
tenants back in November, but they can do more. Insist upon
it.
Our natural, and social,
environment will be improved if we save Lincoln Place and other sites like it.
They are being destroyed only because of the greed of corporate and individual
landlords. Don’t let them continue to wreck our environment!
Posted: Wed - January 4, 2006 at 04:06 PM