FACTOR 1. CAPACITY OF THE APPLICANT AND RELEVANT ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Occidental College is one of a very few selective liberal arts colleges to be located in the midst of a densely settled and demographically diverse metropolitan area. The College has been heralded as the most diverse liberal arts college in the country by U.S. News and World Report. This diversity is reflected in the College=s core curricular emphasis on multiculturalism and the fact that the student body, staff, faculty, administration and curriculum each mirror the racial and ethnic composition of Los Angeles. The College also has a distinct tradition of public service and community engagement. Many students, staff, faculty, and administrators participate in community-based research projects, voluntary work, service learning, community advocacy, environmental justice, and urban field studies in the surrounding communities. These activities are coordinated by a range of academic and institutional players, including the Sociology Department, the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI), and the Center for Volunteerism and Community Service (CVCS). This legacy of public service and community engagement complements the College=s distinct historical relationship with the Northeast Los Angeles region. Occidental College was initially founded in Boyle Heights in 1887. This site was gutted by fire, and the college relocated to the Figueroa Street corridor of Highland Park in 1898. Congestion in this area spurred a final move in 1914 to its present 95 acre site in Eagle Rock, where the college has had more room to expand. The College continues to maintain an active relationship with its originating districts through collaborative community-based research and policy projects, and student volunteerism in community service projects.

In 1995-96, Occidental College received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to organize 17 neighborhood discussions under a project entitled AConversations with the Past, Present, and Future in Los Angeles.@ Over 1800 citizens fully representative of neighborhood diversity in age, race, sex, and ethnic background took part in these conversations over a ten-month period. John Bak, currently Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement, directed this project which was part of NEH=s national initiative, AConversations on American Pluralism and Identity.@ This was an ambitious community-building project that engaged people as active and not passive participants.

Conversational venues ranged from the College=s classrooms and main theatrical stage, to bowling alleys, local buses, high school classrooms, public libraries, shopping malls, restaurants, and living rooms. Conversations centered around activities such as mapping neighborhood perceptions, oral histories from residents old and new, participatory athletic events, and Internet exchanges. The purpose of the project was to raise people=s awareness of their neighbors and build a community of greater understanding. Evaluation measures showed much success in this effort and a great willingness on the part of the College=s neighbors to join in College-sponsored community-building activities. Interim Vice President Bak has been a consultant to the COPC planning committee, and an important source of encouragement to the Principal Investigator, Professor Jan Lin. He stands ready to devote both his time and the energies of his staff in the Office of Institutional Advancement in contributing to the achieving of COPC goals, and the raising of further institutional funding to enhance continued COPC development.

The Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI)

In 1991, Occidental College established the International and Public Affairs Center (IPAC) to help foster a commitment to public service among students and faculty, while building bridges between the College and the larger world, including the greater Los Angeles community, thus perpetuating the service ethic exhibited in other forums on campus. IPAC, directed by Peter Dreier, Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, was formed to promote faculty research that addresses and seeks to improve the quality of public policy, the effectiveness of government, the participation of citizens in shaping public policy, and the linkages between business, civic leaders and government at all levels. It has served as a conduit for research and public policy action grants from a variety of governmental and foundation sources and houses the College=s interdisciplinary public policy program.

The key to the International and Public Affairs Center=s mission is creating a foundation and expanding student leadership skills so that they will become active, effective and participatory citizens in whatever career paths they may follow. The Center is an extension of Occidental College=s tradition of public service. The surrounding communities of Los Angeles constitute an extension of the classroom for analyzing and participating in policy solutions. In 1997, Robert Gottlieb, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban Environmental Policy, came to Occidental College, bringing with him the Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center (PPERC). This year, IPAC and PPERC have officially come together under the auspices of the new Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI).

The Urban and Environmental Policy Institute is a multi-disciplinary organization with a set of linked Centers engaged in urban and environmental policy research, policy development, community partnerships, and technical assistance, with an emphasis on the southern California region.  It is related directly to the Occidental College Urban and Environmental Policy Program, a multi-disciplinary academic program that awards a degree in Urban and Environmental Policy.  UEPI Centers include:

The Center for Volunteerism and Community Service, originally called the Volunteer Programs Center, was created in 1989 in order to serve the needs of the immediate Los Angeles community, to promote thoughtful community service to facilitate social change, and to give Occidental College students the opportunity for leadership and personal development. The goal of the Center is an institutional one, encouraging community service as Aone of the hallmarks of an Occidental education@ (President John B. Slaughter, Occidental, 11/6/91). The Center currently sponsors 18 ongoing community service projects along with numerous special events. The Afterschool Tutoring Program in Elementary and Middle Schools is an important part of its activities. This program is funded through the L.A. Bridges Program of the City of Los Angeles and the L.A. Unified School District, which was conceived as a framework for carrying out a multifaceted approach to reduce youthful gang and delinquent activity.

Project Staff

The Northeast Los Angeles Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) will have four principal investigators. Professor Jan Lin is the leading principal investigator and Ms. Andrea Brown, Professor Robert Gottlieb, and Professor Peter Dreier will be co-principal investigators. The Project Director will be hired once the grant is approved. The candidate will be expected to be experienced in both the community and the academic setting, bilingual, well organized, and preferably will have a background in the Northeast Los Angeles area. The candidate pool will include members of the network of 46 community-based organizations in the Northeast Community Resource Coordinating Council (NECRCC), staff at Occidental College, and members of organizational networks and universities in the broader Los Angeles region, including the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California.

1.  Principal Investigator, Professor Jan Lin

Jan Lin is Associate Professor of Sociology at Occidental College, and a faculty member of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute. He has a B.A. from Williams College, an M.S. from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research in New York. He is an expert in Urban Sociology and is the author of Reconstructing Chinatown (University of Minnesota Press, 1998) which has been awarded the 1999 Robert E. Park Award for best book in Community and Urban Sociology by the American Sociological Association. He has been a contributor to major referred journals such as the Urban Affairs Review, The Sociological Quarterly, and City and Society, and has published a total of ten articles/chapters and four book reviews. He has organized panels or presented papers at thirteen conferences. His writing is mainly on the subjects of urban and community sociology, race and ethnic relations, globalization and the sociology of development. He has made appearances or been quoted on these subjects in a variety of journalistic, radio, and television formats in Houston and New York. He came to the College after several years of teaching at Amherst College and the University of Houston where he was also engaged in research/outreach projects in communities of color. In Houston, his work included a survey of housing conditions at the Allen Parkway Village housing project in the African-American Fourth Ward, the results of which were submitted as written testimony at a December 1993 field hearing conducted by Senator Henry Gonzalez for the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs.

At Amherst College, Professor Lin involved his Urban Sociology students in statistical research and mapping, survey work, and ethnographic documentation in the declining mill city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, whose inner-city wards contain a majority Puerto Rican population exhibiting high underclass indicators. His work included the production of two Holyoke Community Data and Map Books of U.S. census data tables and maps generated with ArcView Geographic Information Systems mapping technology. He also supervised a survey of merchants, subsequently distributed as the Main Street Improvement Survey, which assisted in the formation of a business improvement district. He also supervised a tenants survey in private housing, and the production of an ethnographic video on Puerto Rican identity and youth involvement in urban beautification projects which is used in outreach and education by a community-based organization called Nueva Esperanza.

Since arriving in Los Angeles, Professor Lin has become a working member of the NECRCC, on two task forces. He worked closely with the Government Task Force in organizing a nonpartisan Candidates Forum for the 14^th L.A. City Council District (which represents a large portion of the Northeast Los Angeles COPC service area), held at the Keck Theater on Occidental College campus on March 18, 1999. Century Communications, which was a co-partner in organizing and staging the event, videotaped and broadcast the forum on local cable television. The event attracted all fourteen candidates and a full audience of 500 people from throughout the district. Professor Lin is also an active member of the Social Services Task Force, and has met with them regularly in the course of developing a survey instrument for a needs assessment of community households, which will be conducted by secondary school Youth Asset Mappers in the Summer of 1999. Professor Lin teaches Urban Sociology and Urban Field Studies classes at Occidental College, and will be incorporating student participation in Projects #1, #2, #3, #4, and #6.

2.  Co-Principal Investigator, Andrea Brown

Andrea Brown is Associate Director of the Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center (PPERC) at Occidental College. She is also the Director of AEco-Oxy/Eco-LA@ at Occidental, an academic and research program that focuses on promoting overall campus ecology and environmental initiatives within the surrounding community. As part of this program, she teaches an undergraduate course on urban greening called AEnvironmental Problem-Solving@. She also developed the first community partner project in the program AGlassell Park Elementary Schoolyard Greening: Linking Community and School@ which partners PPERC, the Center for Volunteerism and Community Service and North East Trees. This partnership is now used as a model for developing community based research collaborations across the country. Ms. Brown also manages the Corporation for National Service=s Learn and Serve America grant that promotes community based research on campus and provides research internships at Occidental College. Most recently, she has been involved in research for the LA River Program where Occidental College and other co-sponsors including Friends of the LA River, will host a series of gatherings designed to explore the past, present, and future of the LA River and the role of water and community in Los Angeles.

Her recent initiatives include planning the "Campus Greening and Environmental Justice Conference" with the National Wildlife Federation in February of 1999 and  the "Progressive LA Conference" on Social Movements in Los Angeles: Uncovering Our Past and Envisioning Our Future with over 600 participants in October 1998.  Andrea Brown has also been active in the community and is now serving on the Physical Environment task force of the Northeast Community Regional Coordinating Council, various Northeast LA community meetings, and as an advisor to North East Trees.  Other projects at PPERC include researching and co-writing the report, "Toxic Cleaning Products for Janitorial Service Work."  She has articles published in Pollution Prevention Review and Maintenance Supplies Magazine.  Ms. Brown has also been a radio guest of Mark Cooper on L.A. radio station KPFK.  Her conference presentations include  chairing the "Cutting-Edge P2 Research" panel at the Western Region Pollution Prevention Network Roundtable Conference and a paper at the American Public Health Association National Conference.   At the Sonora-Arizona and Arizona-Mexico Commissions Plenary Session by the invitation of Governor Beltrones of the State of Sonora and Governor Symington of Arizona, she presented on "NADBank as a Necessary Institution for NAFTA's Implementation."  And at the Urban Leadership for the 21st Century: Scaling Up and Reaching Out From the Neighborhood Level Conference, she moderated a panel and presented on "The Emergence of a Trans-national Grassroots Movement in North America".

  Previously to coming to PPERC, Ms. Brown was an associate researcher at the Center for North American Integration and Development at University of California Los Angeles where she played a key role in the development of a wastewater treatment facility project in Naco, Sonora which became the first project to be financed by the North American Development Bank. She also researched and wrote the report "Meeting the Sustainable Development Criteria of the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission/North American Development Bank."  As a research associate for the Inter-American Foundation, she worked on a contracted study of environmental non-government organizations activities along the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexico Border that resulted in the report entitled "Community and Improving Quality of Life in the Mexican Border Region".  Andrea Brown received her Master's Degree in Urban Planning with an emphasis on Environmental Analysis and Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles and is fluent in Spanish.

3.  Co-Principal Investigator, Professor Robert Gottlieb

 The Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College and a faculty member of the Urban and Environmental Institute, Robert Gottlieb is a leading analyst in the environmental policy arena and has written extensively on resource, environmental, and urban issues.  He is the author of nine books, including the forthcoming Environmentalism Unbound for MIT Press. As Director of the Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center, he has been engaged in extensive research and policy analysis on urban, environmental, food, and regional development issues. Since the publication of his first book in 1977 on the Los Angeles Times and the shaping of Southern California (Thinking Big), and the subsequent publication of three books on water and resource policy (Empires in the Sun, A Life of Its Own, and Thirst for Growth), he has also been a major figure involved in studies of the region.  He served on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for seven years. He is currently Editor of the MIT Press series, "Urban and Industrial Environments."

Co-Principal Investigator: Professor Peter Dreier

Peter Dreier is the Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, director of the Public Policy Program, at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and a faculty member of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute. He joined the Occidental faculty in January 1993, after serving for nine years as the Director of Housing at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn. He previously taught at Tufts University.

For more than two decades he has been one of the nation's leading analysts and practitioners of urban policy in the United States. Dreier has written widely on American politics, specializing in urban politics, housing policy, and community development. He received his B.A. in journalism from Syracuse University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in urban studies and sociology from the University of Chicago (1977). Dreier has written widely on American politics, specializing in urban politics, housing policy, and community development. He is a frequent contributor to American Prospect, the Nation, and the Los Angeles Times. His report on federal housing policy, Housing Policy and the Devolution Revolution, will be published later this year (1999) by the Century Foundation (formerly the Twentieth Century Fund). His book Growing Together: Linking Regional and Community Development in a Changing Economy will be published next year by the University of Minnesota Press. Coauthored with three colleagues (Manuel Pastor, Eugene Grigsby, and Marta Lopez-Garza), it examines the link between regional economic development, neighborhood development, and inequality and poverty.

Faculty Project Managers: Professor Monique Taylor, Professor Dolores Trevizo, and Professor Elizabeth Chin

The three Faculty Project Managers are involved with Project #4 (The Savoy Apartments: Targeted Services and Community Heritage). Monique Taylor is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and an expert in race and ethnic relations, stratification and inequality, and culture and identity. Dolores Trevizo is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and an expert in political sociology and social movements, sociological theory, and the sociology of immigration. Elizabeth Chin is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and an expert in urban anthropology, consumption, and ethnographic dance.

FACTOR 2. NEED/EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM

The Northeast Los Angeles region was in the early 20^th century a major gateway between Central Los Angeles and regions to the northwest (the San Fernando Valley) and the east (the San Gabriel Valley). A number of regional resources were established during this period, including Occidental College, the Southwest Museum (L.A.=s first museum), and a large inventory of distinct commercial and residential buildings associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement and numerous revival styles in arts and architecture associated with the period. Artists and residents were drawn to the natural setting of the Arroyo Seco (a tributary of the Los Angeles River lushly foliated with Sycamore trees and California native plants), breezy foothills (which afforded spectacular views of both downtown and the backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains), and remarkable geologic curiosa such as Eagle Rock, a granite spherical monolith (see map of Northeast Los Angeles on next page).

At the turn-of-the-century, when Occidental College was still located in Highland Park, downtown Los Angeles was a flourishing business center with the Union Pacific Railroad bringing immigrants from the East Coast to Southern California. The last stop before downtown was on York Avenue in Highland Park, where a working class and middle-class artistic community lived. Since World War II, however, the region has been bypassed with the development of the freeway system, which fostered commercial and industrial decentralization and the growth of peripheral suburbs. The middle class began to move to the suburbs while the working class moved to South Los Angeles for manufacturing jobs. Commercial life on Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevard declined with the emergence of the Eagle Rock Mall, which was superseded by other malls and commercial zones in Glendale and Pasadena. The Figueroa Street corridor of Highland Park, a focus of the Craftsman building inventory, has similarly suffered decline. A period of speculative, haphazard real estate development in this area in the 1970s led some historic preservationists to organize the Highland Park Heritage Trust, which was created in 1981. The major contribution of this group was the enactment of the Highland Park Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ), the largest of five historical districts recognized and regulated by the City of Los Angeles. The over 2500 contributing structures include 50 historic-cultural monuments, such as the former Occidental College Hall of Arts and Letters, and the Eagle Rock granite monolith.

While preservationists fight for the sustaining of historical buildings and community memory, the region has become a forgotten part of the city with districts such as Hollywood, downtown, and South Central Los Angeles commanding more administrative, political, and media attention. Topographically, Northeast Los Angeles is isolated and hidden within its hills and valleys, bordered and bypassed by four freeways and divided by the Los Angeles River and its tributary, the Arroyo Seco. A substantial new immigrant population (some of it undocumented) has moved into this isolated region, but is also relatively invisible to external observers. Both these historical buildings, and the new immigrant population that inhabits them, are in need of remedial attention. At the same time, the buildings and the people both constitute important regional resources and assets that can be deployed and mobilized in projects of community recovery and economic revitalization.

Statistical analysis confirms that Northeast Los Angeles has recently been confronted by rapid population growth, residential overcrowding, long-term deterioration in its housing quality, and absentee property ownership. These trends are indicated by the following data, which were enumerated in the Los Angeles Department of City Planning=s Northeast Los Angeles Community Plan, a Proposed Plan presented in March of 1999 (the data were derived from the 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indicator                                             Northeast Los Angeles                                 City of Los Angeles
                                                            1970             1990                                       1970                 1990

Total Population                                 183,852        237,293                                 2,811,801         3,485,398

Single family dwellings (%)                     70%              55%
Multiple family dwellings (%)                  30%              45%

Average persons per dwelling unit           2.92             3.43                                        2.68                  2.84
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The data indicate a population increase in Northeast Los Angeles between 1970 and 1990 of 29.1%, from 183,852 to 237,293, while the population increase citywide was 24.0%, from 2,811,801 to 3,485,398. Meanwhile, the proportion of single family dwellings in Northeast Los Angeles fell from 70% to 55%, while the multiple dwelling inventory rose from 30% to 45%. The residential overcrowding problem in Northeast L.A. is confirmed by data that indicate the number of persons per dwelling unit increased from an average of 2.92 persons in 1970 to 3.43 in 1990 as compared to a smaller increase of 2.68 to 2.84 citywide, during the same period. Residential overcrowding is a serious trend that creates situations of household stress that can contribute to the emergence of social problems and aberrant behavior such as ill health, domestic violence, child abuse, juvenile delinquency, gang activity, and other criminological behavior.

In addition, long-term deterioration in the Northeast Los Angeles building inventory can be surmised visually, and is also supported by data which report that in 1990, 59.5% of the dwellings in Northeast Los Angeles were 50 years or older. The absentee property ownership problem is indicated by data which report that home ownership status in Northeast Los Angeles declined from 47% in 1980 to 45% in 1990, while the proportion of renters increased from 53% to 55%. Absentee property ownership can contribute to continuing deterioration of the housing inventory. Continued deterioration in the housing inventory gives neighborhoods the appearance of blight, which may further contribute to a downward spiral of property neglect and abandonment. The promotion of home ownership in a community can help to foster community pride and respect for property, advance regular trends in property investment and rehabilitation, and sustain healthy property values over time.

Problems of residential overcrowding in the built environment are compounded by lack of open green space and degradation of the natural environment, which occurred with the channelization of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco beginning in the 1930s. Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez and Speaker of California Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa have both addressed the lack of access to green space with their own Agreen space@ proposals for this area, as a means of providing safe areas for children and as activity centers for at-risk youth. These proposals have been publicized as one tactic in addressing a community greatly concerned with gang activity. In addition, the Audobon society has also recognized the degradation of the natural landscape and has established an office in Highland Park to spearhead efforts in reclaiming Debs Park as a safe, accessible green and open space for the community.

The region has also grown more ethnically diverse, youthful, and more educationally and economically challenged:

It is also significant to look at sub-regional demographic differences in the Northeast Los Angeles region. The bulk of COPC activities take place in Highland Park and Eagle Rock, with a slightly greater emphasis on the less privileged community of Highland Park. Occidental College is located in Eagle Rock, but many of its faculty and student volunteers are involved in research, advocacy, public policy, and service learning projects in Highland Park where the need is greater. Though Eagle Rock is slightly more privileged from the standpoint of a variety of social indicators, the community is also clearly in need of targeted social services and commercial revitalization. A drive along Colorado Boulevard from Glendale to Pasadena through Eagle Rock the community is in need of commercial improvement. Social relations between the Eagle Rock and Highland Park have sometimes been uneasy and occasionally conflictual within the school system and in the realm of local politics. One of the key goals of the Northeast Los Angeles COPC is to help the residents of both communities build on their strengths and assets while finding Acommon ground@ to reduce competitive tensions and coordinate improvement activities to the mutual benefit of both areas.

The following data are drawn from the 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing, where Eagle Rock is defined by the census tracts comprising zip code area 90041 and Highland Park is defined by the census tracts comprising zip code area 90042:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                        Highland Park                                           Eagle Rock

Total Population                                                60,331                                                     26,872

Households                                                       18,257                                                       9,233

Persons of Hispanic Origin                                 37,741    62.5%                                        8,659     32.2%

Median Household Income                              $29,998                                                   $36,555

Occupied Housing Units                                     18,262                                                      9,287

Avg. # Persons per Unit                                          3.30                                                       2.89

Housing Tenure
  Owner occupied                                                 8,003     43.8%                                      4,979     53.6%
  Renter occupied                                                10,259     56.2%                                      4,308     46.4%
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The data indicate that Highland Park has a larger population, which is more residentially overcrowded, and more Hispanic in profile (62.5% of total population), than Eagle Rock (where Hispanics constitute 32.2% of total population. The residential overcrowding situation is greater in Highland Park, where there were an average of 3.30 persons in each occupied housing unit in 1990, as compared with an average of 2.89 in Eagle Rock. Median household income in Eagle Rock ($36,555) is higher than in Highland Park ($29,998), but still below the average citywide household income of $45,701. Highland Park has a lower rate of home ownership (43.8%) than Eagle Rock (53.6%), which is why Project #3 (Promoting Home ownership and Housing Rehabilitation) is aimed at Highland Park rather than Eagle Rock.

Household need is also indicated by data on family planning casework and use of public assistance income. The Los Angeles Unified School District Health and Human Services Planning Project reports of 1998 give comparative data on the two communities as defined by school district boundaries. Highland Park is thus defined by the Franklin High School Complex Planning Area and Eagle Rock by the Eagle Rock High School Complex Planning Area. These reports indicate that there were 407 cases of child abuse/neglect opened, and 216 children in foster care in Highland Park in 1996, as compared with 273 cases opened and 151 children in foster care in Eagle Rock. There were 2008 families receiving AFDC, 4,178 children receiving AFDC, and 2,889 families on food stamps in Highland Park in 1996, as compared with 1,385 families receiving AFDC, 2,828 children receiving AFDC, and 2,507 families on food stamps in Eagle Rock in 1996.

The impacts of commercial decline can also be enumerated in the Northeast Los Angeles region. An 1997 report filed by Economics Research Associates on the Highland Park area for the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, to study the impacts of a proposed Blue Line subway station, found a severe shortage of retail commercial activity in both Highland Park and the Northeast Los Angeles City Planning Area. The amount of 1996 retail square footage per capita in Highland Park was estimated at 19.5, as compared with a rate of 30.5 in Northeast Los Angeles, and a figure of 51.7 citywide. A lower rate of retail commercial activity, relative to citywide rates, indicates the incidence of income leakage, as disposable household income is often spent outside of the neighborhood economy. Defining income leakage as disposable household income minus area retail sales, this study estimated a total income leakage of $167,190,673 in Highland Park, and $369,991,013 in the Northeast Los Angeles region in 1996. Estimated per capita leakage was $7,834 in Highland Park, and $4,952 in the Northeast Los Angeles region in the same period.

The problem of income expenditure outside of the Northeast Los Angeles region has been a recurring concern of local merchants, planners, and officials. Strengthening consumption linkages are an important aspect of broader projects of building local economic development, community self-reliance, and neighborhood revitalization. These are the purposes of Project #3: Commercial Revitalization and Business Development, which are directed at both Highland Park and Eagle Rock.

During the course of this needs assessment, we consulted the Los Angeles Community Development Department=s Consolidated Plan as well as their Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI). The Housing and Community Development Consolidated Plan Fifth Year Action Plan - Final, April 1, 1999 - March 31, 2000, was very useful to our examination of Northeast Los Angeles, but the AI did not contain information specific to our region.

FACTOR 3. SOUNDNESS OF APPROACH

Occidental College is uniquely situated to be leader in regional revitalization. The College can be seen as one of the vital assets of the region in a number of ways: a) it is the largest institutional owner of historically-recognized built property in Northeast Los Angeles, b) it possesses a energetic pool of multiracial students who can be mobilized in outreach, mentoring, public education, and research activities, c) it offers a number of research and technical assets, including a publicly-engaged faculty, a Geographic Information Systems laboratory (a rarity for an undergraduate college), and a cutting-edge Computer Center which is training faculty and students in procedures of Internet website development, and d) the institution understands the importance of investing in the community for the benefit of its low-income neighbors.

3.1 The Northeast Los Angeles COPC seeks to provide a spectrum of services across a variety of areas in a coordinated, cost-effective manner. These services include: a) GIS mapping and social surveys, b) homeownership promotion and housing rehabilitation, c) commercial revitalization, d) historic preservation and education, e) training for after-school tutors, f) community website and network development, g) food access and nutrition, h) community greening, i) environmental preservation, and j) strategic planning. Cost effectiveness is boosted through the COPC=S institutional affiliation with the organizational network of the Northeast Community Resource Coordinating Council (NECRCC). The organizational apparatus of the NECRCC task forces facilitates communication, coordination, and the sharing of resources, so that community partners can work together in a complementary and synergistic fashion to achieve project end-goals rather than replicating each others= activities or competing for budgetary resources.

3.1.a Los Angeles is identified in the urban studies literature as a racially conflicted, politically fragmented, and geographically decentered metropolis. These qualities complicate agendas of urban research, planning, and service delivery. For better or worse, Los Angeles is often seen as an emblematic test-case of the metropolitan future. The Northeast Los Angeles COPC thus serves as an excellent case study of the challenges of urban and environmental planning and policy-making at the cusp of the 21^st century. The assumptions of the early-twentieth-century AChicago School@ of urban and community sociology may thus be tested against the decentralized, freeway-oriented Ahuman ecology@ of early-21^st century Los Angeles.

The planned launching of the community website and the Northeast Los Angeles Network (NELANET) also presents an opportune context for research, comparison, and information-sharing in the burgeoning public policy arena and urban studies literature on Aelectronic villages@ and on-line Acommunity networks.@ A seminal figure in the dissemination of the philosophy and practice of this movement is Doug Schuler, who has suggested that civic networks operate under six core values: culture and conviviality, education, strong democracy, health and social welfare, economic equity and opportunity, and information and communication.

3.1.b The creation of Northeast Los Angeles Community Data and Map Books and detailed maps on parcel property patterns along the commercial corridors will greatly assist the outreach effort in a number of project areas. Subtle differences between middle-income and low-income block group areas will be displayed through GIS mapping, greatly aiding in targeted outreach activities in support of home ownership promotion, delivery of family and youth services, and assessment of food and nutrition needs. Outreach efforts can thus be conducted in an efficient zone-by-zone manner. Detailed inventories and mapping of property patterns on commercial boulevards will help target outreach to merchants and property owners for commercial revitalization efforts.

3.1.c Outreach activities will be principally carried out by Occidental College students as a field studies component within their course curriculum. During the summers, outreach will be conducted through the joint efforts of College students on summer stipends, secondary school Youth Asset Mappers, and Promotoras Comunitarias employed by the Hathaway Family Resource Center. This offers a unique opportunity for Occidental College students to personally train and mentor the high school Youth Asset Mappers in projects of outreach, research, and website development. Outreach efforts in the various project areas will be executed by a variety of faculty associated with the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute and by the Center for Volunteerism and Community Service. The Occidental College Office of Communications and Community Relations will occasionally be drawn in to make public announcements and issue press releases surrounding special outreach events.

3.1.d Training projects for local community leaders are incorporated into our COPC project plan in a number of different ways. There will be annual AVision Day@ workshops that will focus on comprehensive community planning and the training of community leaders with the agenda of the Northeast Los Angeles as the main focus. Leadership training opportunity is also integrated into our Community Advisory Committee structure, which includes a secondary school representative from the regional Youth Councils, and an Occidental College student representative. We will also hold periodic special training workshops, such as one planned for July 1999, which will be held in cooperation with the office of U.S. Congressman Xavier Becerra, who represents the 30^th District of California, which encompasses the area served by the Northeast Los Angeles COPC. These workshops will train representatives of community-based organizations in the procedures and strategies of applying for federal funds to address the various human service and urban planning needs of the District.

3.1.e Our research and outreach activities do not duplicate any existing efforts in the community. The Los Angeles Department of City Planning does not have sufficient staff to produce detailed GIS maps on the Northeast Los Angeles region on its own; their staff will cooperate with our COPC to share resources, data-sets, and definitions of neighborhood boundaries. Our outreach activities complement rather than replicate efforts connected with the Highland Park Targeted Neighborhoods Initiative (Projects #2 and #3). The Department of City Planning and the Housing Department do not have adequate staff to mobilize mass outreach and have welcomed the intentions of the College to bring students and Promotoras into these activities. Finally, the successful efforts of Unite-L.A. (Project #6) to fund the purchase of computers and Internet servers for Professional Development Centers at three locations in Northeast Los Angeles was done with the understanding that curricular support would be provided by community partners such as Occidental College. Our COPC has elected to provide the technical expertise in launching a community website and providing instruction in Internet literacy and website development procedures.

3.1.f All project activities are consistent with Occidental College=s mission as an undergraduate liberal arts college committed to excellence, diversity, and public service. These are values advanced by the Sociology Department, the Center for Volunteerism and Community Service, the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, and the Office of Institutional Advancement. The College furthermore has a strong historical relationship with the Northeast Los Angeles region since it previously occupied sites in both Boyle Heights and Highland Park.

3.2.a We will form a Community Advisory Committee composed of representatives of the following organizations: a) the Occidental College Sociology Department, b) the Occidental College Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI), c) the Occidental College Center for Volunteerism and Community Service (CVCS), d) Hathaway Family Resources Center, e) the Highland Park Community Development Corporation, f) the Highland Park Heritage Trust, g) the Eagle Rock Revitalization Coalition, h) the Eagle Rock/Franklin Marshall Cluster of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), i) Eagle Rock High School, j) Unite-L.A., k) Glendale Adventist Hospital, l) the Audobon Society, m) the Trust for Public Land, n) the student body of Occidental College, o) the high school Youth Councils. We have secured the commitment of a representative from each of these fifteen organizations. The incidence of a College Student and high school Youth Council representative offers a real channel for leadership training. A quorom will be constituted by ten members.

3.2.b Members of community organizations were well represented on the planning committee for the Northeast Los Angeles COPC. Additionally, we involved a number of city and federal government entities, including: a) the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, b) the Los Angeles Housing Department, c) the Los Angeles Community Development Department, d) and the Los Angeles Offices of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The ACommunity Builders@ were particularly helpful in giving advice that helped us make connections in the public sector, without giving us specific assistance in developing our grant proposal. We also consulted with the Fair Housing Foundation of Los Angeles and the California Federal Bank. Environmental improvement programs involved a wide range of players including the Florence Crittenton Center, the L.A. Community Gardens Council, the Friends of the Los Angeles River, Northeast Trees, The Trust for Public Land, Arroyo Arts Collective, AZTLAN Cultural Arts Foundation, Councilman Mike Hernandez, Speaker of the California Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa, State Senator Tom Hayden, the Department of Water and Power, and the Metropolitan Water District.

3.3.a We have identified specific time phased and measurable objectives in each project category that are to be reached. Some of these objectives, as in Projects #2 and #3, and linked with the remaining two year timetable of the Targeted Neighborhoods Initiative, which is part of the Los Angeles Consolidated Plan. Other projects follow a timetable more specific to the goals and priorities of the three year COPC statement of work. Project #10, Consolidated Strategic Planning includes an evaluation component that seeks to keep all project categories on track within their specific project timetables. The Matrix and Timetable of Project Activities will assist in keeping the COPC on track with its timed phased objectives. Project #3 includes components that specifically address fair housing issues.

3.3.b Our grant funds will primarily pay for activities that COPC staff will conduct directly, rather than passing funds through to other entities. The only Subcontracts are a $7,500 line-item for community trainers, and a $2,175 line-item for Ropes course fees over the course of three years for Project #5, the Training Program for Afterschool Tutors in Elementary and Middle Schools.

3.4 COPC results will be disseminated regionally through Project #6, the Northeast Los Angeles Community Website. The Community Website will initially contain the results of Projects #1 and #4: a) the Northeast Los Angeles Community Assets and Resources (CARE) Guide, b) the Northeast Los Angeles Community Data and Map Bank, and c) oral histories, archival memoirs, and photography connected with the changing life history of the Savoy Apartments/Occidental College Hall of Arts and Letters, and surrounding neighborhood.

The COPC will also seek to disseminate information on COPC results, strategies, and lessons learned through cross-site workshops led by the Los Angeles Community Development Department on best practices related to regional consolidation activities in Los Angeles. Among the potential innovative Abest practices@ which may be yielded by the COPC are: a) the concept and creation of the Northeast Los Angeles Network (NELANET), b) the applicability of historical preservation strategies to community economic development, and c) the lessons learned regarding coordinated community planning in the fragmented planning environment of metropolitan sprawl, and d) practices for improving community and environmental health in overcrowded metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles.

Professor Lin will present papers at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, and the Urban Affairs Association Annual Meeting. A publication will be aimed at the Urban Affairs Review, for whom Prof. Lin has been a recurring contributor and editorial reviewer. Other possible publications are the Journal of Urban Affairs, as well as Environment and Planning. In the interests of interdisciplinary collaboration, Professor Lin will co-author these publications with Ms. Brown, Professor Gottlieb, and/or Professor Dreier.

3.5.a COPC activities will promote healthy homes by fostering homeownership and housing rehabilitation. Our mass outreach sessions are geared towards generating local interest in gaining access to publicly-subsidized and private mortgage lending sources. Local tenants and property owners interested in first time purchase of rehabilitation will be invited to qualifying workshops to examine their eligibility for Targeted Neighborhoods Initiative (TNI) monies specially earmarked for the Highland Park area.. Educational activities and job search activities will be fostered through the Northeast Los Angeles Network (NELANET). A Community Network presents an excellent opportunity to fostering computer literacy as a form of job training. The Community Network will eventually contain employment listings which can assist local residents in their search for jobs.

3.5.b We will work to overcome impediments to fair housing through two activities linked with Project #3. Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Loan Agents from regional banks will be invited to qualifying workshops to offer private and subsidized home loans to aspiring homeowners and property owners ineligible for Targeted Neighborhoods Initiative funding in Highland Park. Additionally, a representative of the Fair Housing Foundation of Los Angeles will be invited to inform residents of their rights regarding fair housing choice and fair practice related to the procurement of mortgage financing.

3.6.a COPC principles and priorities are integrally linked with Occidental College=s mission. Community service is regarded by the Occidental College Advisory Council as a desirable activity in tenure and promotion review. John Bak, Acting Vice President for Institutional Advancement, has been closely associated with discussions and planning group sessions connected with the COPC from its inception. Outgoing President John Slaughter and incoming President Ted Mitchell have both expressed their interest in maintaining a mission of community service and outreach at Occidental College. Examples of recent public events include the Progressive L.A. Conference of October 1998, which brought a number of speakers representing community organizations, labor unions, student groups, and environmental organizations to discuss pressing political and social issues affecting the region. Another recent event of this sort was the 14^th L.A. City Council District Forum, which brought 14 candidates and an audience of 500 to the Keck Theater in March 1999.

FACTOR 4. LEVERAGING RESOURCES

4.1 The Northeast Los Angeles COPC has leveraged a total of $1,143,290 in statutory matching commitments from Occidental College, local community organizations, and sectors of local government (see Verification of Match worksheet in Budget section). When indirect match from Occidental College in the amount of $38,858 is deducted, we obtain a figure of $1,104,432 in actual direct, or Factor 4, matching commitments. This amount comprises 248% of the required match amount of $444,552. Here is a breakdown of the matching commitments procured, which can be verified in accompanying signed commitment letters.
 
                    Occidental College                                                                      $190,029
                    Dr. Jan Lin=s personnel time                                                             39,000 in-kind
                    Ms. Andrea Brown=s personnel time                                                34,500 in-kind
                    CVCS personnel time                                                                      48,255 in-kind
                    GIS Laboratory                                                                               17,800 in-kind
                    Cash contribution on fringe benefits                                                  11,616 cash
                    Indirect Cash contribution on fringe                                                  38,858 cash

                    Urban and Environmental Policy Institute
                    (Pollution Prevention, Education, and Research Center)          $ 45,500 in-kind
                    Nathan Cummings Foundation                                                            7,500 in-kind
                    Haynes Foundation                                                                             8,000 in-kind
                    California Wellness Foundation                                                         27,000 in-kind
                    California Council for the Humanities                                                   3,000 in-kind

                    Hathaway Family Resources Center                                        $881,361 in-kind
                    Youth Asset Mapping                                                                     127,530 in-kind
                    Afterschool Program                                                                       545,331 in-kind
                    Professional Development Centers                                                     60,000 in-kind
                    Nutrition Program                                                                              60,000 in-kind
                    Strategic Planning (NECRCC)                                                           88,500 in-kind

                    Los Angeles Housing Department                                                    $ 16,400 in-kind
 
                    Highland Park Heritage Trust                                                           $ 10,000 in-kind

4.2 A great proportion of matching funds are committed by organizations other than Occidental College. Of the total Factor 4 match of $1,104,432, 82.2% or $907,761 is provided by local sources, including community-based organizations or a city agency.

The matching funds from Occidental College accounted for by Dr. Jan Lin=s personnel time during the academic year, Ms. Andrea Brown=s personnel time during the academic year, and the cash contribution on fringe benefits, are distributed equally to all ten project components. The Center for Volunteerism and Community Service (CVCS) match is devoted to Project #5 (Training Program for After-School Tutors in Elementary and Middle Schools) and Project #6 (Community Website and Network Development). The GIS Laboratory match is directed towards Project #1 (Community Mapping and Asset Inventory).

Matching Funds coming from the Pollution Prevention, Education, and Research Center of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute are comprised of the four sources. The grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation directed towards Project #7 (Reclaiming the Los Angeles River). The Haynes Foundation grant and the remaining monies from the California Wellness Foundation grant will be committed to Project #8 (Food and Nutrition Program). The Nathan Cummings Foundation award is committed to Project #9 (Northeast Community Garden).

The Hathaway Family Resource Center has committed extensive in-kind matching funds to our COPC. The Hathaway Family Resource Center is involved in an intensive way with many of the activities of the Occidental College Center for Volunteerism and Community Service and the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute. Hathaway representatives have also been involved with meetings and discussions surrounding grant proposal development for the Northeast Los Angeles COPC to help define how existing capacities can be enhanced and new directions taken to address regional problems, without duplicating existing programs. The Youth Asset Mapping portion of the Hathaway match is directed at Project #1 (Community Mapping and Asset Inventory) and Project #6 (Community Website and Network Development). The Afterschool Program match is directed at Project #5 (Training Program for Afterschool Tutoring for Elementary and Middle Schools). The Professional Development Centers match is directed at Project #6 (Community Website and Network Development). The Nutrition Program match is directed at Project #8 (Food and Nutrition Program). The Strategic Planning match is directed at Project #10 (Consolidated Strategic Planning).

The Los Angeles Housing Department match is directed at Project #3 (Promoting Homeownership and Housing Rehabilitation). The Highland Park Heritage Trust match is directed at Project #4 (The Savoy Apartments: Targeted Services and Community Heritage).

FACTOR 5. COMPREHENSIVENESS AND COORDINATION

5.1 The objectives of the Northeast Los Angeles COPC and the personnel involved are closely integrated with the needs, priorities, and goals of regional community-based organizations, local government entities, and citizens. The COPC will partner Occidental College with the Hathaway Family Resources Center and a network of 46 community organizations called the Northeast Community Resource Coordinating Council (NECRCC).

The NECRCC began in 1992 as an advisory board to the Hathaway Family Resource Center, but has evolved to become a more autonomous neighborhood council. The council has been reconfigured and expanded to serve as an inter-agency, school, business and community member clearinghouse for ideas and resources; sponsor of community-wide human services planning, and involvement of target group members in all planning and decision making. Planning, outreach, community participation and decision-making are conducted by a number of program sector committees, which include education, housing and urban development, physical environment, social services, and government. These sector committees present community symposia on a bi-monthly basis. These open community meetings function simultaneously as information, resource sharing, outreach, and community participation session. On alternate months, an executive committee meets to plan sector activities and schedules other task force meetings depending on evolving priorities.

The L.A. River Program coordinates with multiple community actors in trying to coordinate and analyze the restoration and role of the River within the community. These groups include environmental, community and art organizations, government offices and agencies. Some of the key players include, but are not limited to, Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR), Northeast Trees, The Trust for Public Land, Arroyo Arts Collective, AZTLAN Cultural Arts Foundation, Councilman Mike Hernandez, Speaker of the Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa, State Senator Tom Hayden, the Department of Water and Power, and the Metropolitan Water District. This effort is in effect striving to coordinate the multiple visions of the L.A. River Master Plan, including the possible outcomes of two bills in the State Assembly which may allocate substantial government funds to the Los Angeles River.

5.2 We have closely studied the Housing and Community Development Consolidated Plan, Fifth Year Action Plan - Final, produced by the Community Development Department of the City of Los Angeles, as well as the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing, also published by the Los Angeles Community Development Department. Our activities, particularly Project #2 (Commercial Revitalization and Business Development) and Project #3 (Promoting Homeownership and Housing Rehabilitation), are also closely linked with the Highland Park site of the Targeted Neighborhoods Inititative (TNI), which is an important part of the overall Los Angeles Consolidated Plan. To address fair housing issues, we have invited Community Reinvestment Act Loan Agents from regional banks to attend qualifying workshops for Project #3. Barbara Schull of the Los Angeles Fair Housing Foundation has also committed her intent to provide members of her outreach staff to address issues of discrimination in housing acquisition and access to mortgage lending.

5.3 The COPC provides a venue for the coordination and implementation of a greener, healthier, and safer environment for the Northeast L.A. region. The coordination with NECRCC and other local groups will be much more efficient than what currently exists, and will promote a more Aholistic@ vision, strategy and process for improving the environmental health, nutritional well-being, and recreational capacities of Northeast Los Angeles.

The COPC will partner with NECRCC to form an organizational Ahub@ through which Occidental College projects and community-based projects are filtered, linked, and coordinated. This is a critical effort as NECRCC is currently engaged in a process of seeking to expand its capacity for comprehensive community development. [See organizational chart on last page]. The personnel and executive staff of the Hathaway Family Resources Center have been increasingly strained by the demands of overseeing the NECRCC, and enthusiastically advocate a partnership with the Northeast Los Angeles COPC to share this coordinating and administrative task. We will hire a COPC Project Director, who together with the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator, will carry this difficult burden with administrative staff at Hathaway Family Resources. This is indeed a strategic partnership aimed at synergistically combining the resources of the academic and community sector, which enhances rather than replicating existing capacities, and provides new resources to make the difficult responsibility of regional coordination a more achievable prospect.