The Los Angeles City Council signed off Wednesday on a plan for spending $86.4 million from bonds issued by the city’s former redevelopment agency, with Los Angeles Unified officials saying they hope some of the money will go to projects to help students walk to school safely.
The funds are aimed at reducing blight, and can in some cases be used to fix sidewalks and make other improvements to neighborhoods, which can also benefit the types of safe-routes-to-school programs championed by school officials, Councilman Bob Blumenfield said.
The bonds were issued prior to July 2011, before city redevelopment agencies around the state were dissolved. As an assemblyman, Blumenfield authored legislation that allowed cities to continue with bonds that were issued prior to the abolishment of the CRAs.
Blumenfield said redevelopment projects aimed at improving neighborhoods, including $20 million from a bond issued for projects in the Reseda area, “were stopped dead in their tracks and promises made to our communities were on the verge of being broken.”
The plan approved by the council today will now go to a bond oversight committee, and if endorsed there, it will go to Gov. Jerry Brown for approval.
Part of the plan includes setting up an agreement between the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles Unified School District so that the two agencies can work out a way to potentially use funds for Safe Routes for Schools programs in places with the most urgent need.
“This victory will be a victory of great partnerships,” Blumenfield said.
LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines issued a statement saying “safe streets and pedestrian-friendly routes to schools are not only a benefit to our youth, but to the community as a whole.” He said he hopes the council “will recognize this fact and provide a guarantee that some redevelopment funds will be used for creating safer routes to school campuses.”
He noted that many LAUSD students “live in congested and unsafe traffic areas” and urged the City Council to maintain the original “intent of improving redevelopment project areas” while also helping students get to school safely.
— City News Service