Staples Center plans debated

Downtown: If approved, project would create 27-acre entertainment complex for residents and tourists

By FRANÇOISE BARAMDYKA
Contributing Writer

More than 100 people met Wednesday afternoon to voice their concerns about the proposed development of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District around the Staples Center. The developer, community groups, downtown residents and workers as well as about a dozen USC students turned out to comment on the project.

If built as planned, the project known as the Sports and Entertainment District will stretch from Olympic to Pico boulevards, and take up 27 acres around the Staples Center.

Billed as "a place where all of Los Angeles could come together to celebrate," the center should be a destination for visitors, residents and the downtown work force, said Ted Tanner, senior vice president of L.A. Arena Company, which owns Staples Center.

Drawings of the proposed project showed what the entertainment district might look like. If the pictures are accurate, USC students can expect to see a major entertainment complexmuch like Universal City Walkto be built within the next decade. Shops, restaurants, bars, an entertainment complex, a 7,000-seat theater and apartment complexes with 800 units, would line 11th and Figueroa streets, across from the Staples Center. Animated billboards would cover the stores and landscaped sidewalks should make the area appealing to pedestrians.

While USC students may flock there once the project is complete, about a dozen students showed up to the meeting to support the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice and residents of the area.

Shirli Brautbar, a graduate student in history, said she came because she is concerned about the residents in the area, and wants to make sure there is dialogue.

Brautbar is concerned with safety, affordable housing and economic issues. Issues such as ensuring that there are grocery stores in the area and that rents aren't raised need to be discussed, she said.

Pete La Chapelle, a graduate student in history, is concerned about gentrification and displacement of residents. He gave the example of the west side of campus, where property is bought up and then re-rented to students at higher prices.

"We think that there can be amelioration by the people working on the project," he said.

Dozens of residents were present to voice their concerns, based on their experience with the Staples Center. Ana Valenzuela, 35, lives two blocks from the center on 11th Street. There have been a lot of problems since it got built that didn't exist before, she said.

There are always problems with parking, something that really affects her neighbors when they come home from work, she said. Whenever there is a game, people drive by until late, honking, making noise and drunk she said. Valenzuela remembered the night after the Lakers won the championship when cars were burned.

"Estabamos hecho miedo (we were so scared)," she said. They were frightened that someone was going to break their windows.

"We're not opposed to it," said Father John Bakas of Saint Sophia Cathedral, located in Pico-Union.

He compares the situation with having a neighbor who throws a party. They're not opposed to the party, but someone has to clean up the garbage, the bottles in the street, and make sure no one urinates in the bushes, he said.

Since the Staples Center was built, they've seen a 22 percent increase in crime, increases in drug trafficking and prostitution and a general deterioration of the neighborhood, he said. He attributed this to having more affluent people driving into the neighborhood, who can afford such things.

Within the community there is also a lot of support for this entertainment district.

"If this type of development is going to bring the type of support or more than the Staples Center, we applaud," said Orlando Ward of the Midnight Mission.

The next step for the project is to get approval from the City Planning Commission and then from City Council.If it goes through, the impact for USC could be significant.

The current proposal calls for two residential apartments buildings with a total of 800 units. While this many apartments may not be available for students, since 20 percent have been earmarked as affordable units for which students might not quality, that still leaves a large amount of apartments to help with any future housing crunch.

It would also offer students living on campus an entertainment alternative. Students would only be a DASH ride away from the entertainment district to have dinner, a drink, go to a club, watch a show or shop.

The benefits to the city would also be significant. The L.A. Arena Company estimates that the project would bring $1 billion in private investments to the city, 5,500 permanent quality jobs, 7,500 construction jobs and $18 million in taxes.

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 142, No. 67 (Thursday, April 26, 2001), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 28.