A New Use for an Old Battlefield

When residents started a successful fight against a proposal to build a state prison near Los Angeles’ Eastside in 1985, they sparked a Latino community that had long felt powerless to stop outside intrusions forced upon it.

Now they are about to see the fruits of that effort fulfilled in another way.

The city has chosen a developer to build an $80-million project that would feature a produce market aimed at ethnic communities. The site is in the southeast corner of downtown where former Gov. George Deukmejian proposed in 1985 that a 1,450-bed, high-rise prison be built.

The developer, 35-year-old Richard Meruelo, owns some land next to the proposed prison site near Washington Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue. He hopes to turn the parcel into an extension of the nearby 7th Street Produce Market, which he also owns.

About 2,500 jobs would be created by the project, which would also include space for other businesses.

In stark contrast to the prison idea, which sparked a six-year fight that ended in 1992 when then-Gov. Pete Wilson abandoned it, community reaction to the proposal has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Our fight was right and we welcome the produce market to our neighborhood,” said Msgr. John Moretta, an early opponent of the prison and pastor of Resurrection Roman Catholic Church in nearby Boyle Heights.

East Los Angeles landscape architect Frank Villalobos, who paid for local residents to fly to Sacramento to voice their displeasure over the prison, added: “I’m gratified by it. It just proves that Deukmejian and Wilson were wrong about the prison. There is a future for development on the Eastside.”

The prison fight was a signal that the Latino neighborhoods on the Eastside had decided to start resisting unwanted public projects in their neighborhoods. In the 1950s, there had been little outrage when entire neighborhoods disappeared to make way for several freeways. Other public projects, such as the women’s jail built near City Terrace and named after philanthropist Sybil Brand, turned few heads.

Although some Mexican American residents loudly protested their removal from a low-income barrio in Chavez Ravine, baseball-hungry officials ignored their complaints and Dodger Stadium was built.

So when the prison was proposed, residents decided to fight.

About 150 placard-carrying protesters harangued state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), then a freshman state assemblyman, at his field office one day after he cast the deciding vote in committee to approve the project.

Deukmejian’s arguments, that resistance was irresponsible because Los Angeles County produced nearly 40% of the state’s prison population but had no state prison, fell on deaf ears.

Opponents marched, staged news conferences, filed lawsuits and organized themselves to fight other battles. One group of protesters--several hundred women who wore white scarves on their heads--gained fame as the Mothers of East Los Angeles. In all, 47 groups banded together, calling themselves the Coalition Against the Prison in East Los Angeles.

Such critics gained support from many on the Eastside by continually referring to the proposal as the “East L.A. prison.” But, in fact, the site was not in East Los Angeles. Although near the Eastside community of Boyle Heights, the site is in an industrial area west of the Los Angeles River, where no one has lived since the 1950s.

Eventually, Wilson gave up the fight in 1992 and a state prison in Lancaster opened the next year, satisfying the desire for a prison in the county.

The 20 1/2-acre parcel dropped out of the public’s consciousness. Developers showed little interest in the land, which had been bought by the state Department of Corrections in 1988. Ten years later, the state declared the land, once owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway and once leased to various industrial and commercial tenants, as surplus property.

The site gained importance recently because it is near the path of the Alameda Corridor, which is designed to provide direct rail access connecting downtown with the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.

In addition, the nearby produce district is thriving, say officials, who note that the sale of fresh fruit and vegetables in the produce district has jumped by more than 50% to more than $4 million in nine years. Jobs in the industry have grown by 20% since 1990.

Last year, Mayor Richard Riordan’s office of economic development sought bids to develop the property, with the proviso that the state clean up the site, which has contaminated topsoil. Ten bids were received and the City Council last Wednesday picked Meruelo’s plan.

Meruelo, the son of Cuban immigrants who came to Los Angeles in the 1960s, has proposed a four-story structure with the first floor housing the produce market and some warehouse space. The second and third floors would be allocated for manufacturing companies. The basement would be set aside for refrigeration to support the produce market, Meruelo said.

His ethnic markets have appealed especially to Latino and Vietnamese customers.

Some believe Meruelo might be overextending himself in a chancy part of downtown. Meruelo, who has persuaded venture capitalist and one-time pro football kicker Danny Villanueva to be his partner in the new project, doesn’t think so.

“These properties don’t get the exposure that others in other parts of town do,” he said. “But this is as good as it gets in any industrial area. We think downtown is a good place to invest in.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Nick Pacheco is particularly happy about the project, because he took part in the prison protests as a UC Berkeley undergraduate.

“It’s real easy to be against something,” Pacheco said, “because I opposed anything going in [at the site]. So I think this is a reaffirming experience because . . . you stay with it and you will be able to put something forward that’s positive for the community.”