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News / Perspective Grassroots View With Pix: How Henderson Blight Bit The Dust
(Sept. 1, 2007) -- On Aug. 30, various levels of city officialdom held a press event surrounding the demolition of two blighted apartment buildings in the 1900 block of Henderson Ave.
The public was invited to attend...but much of the press coverage we saw elsewhere omitted what the public actually said.
Below is an account provided to us by representatives of the Neighborhood Advisory Group ("NAG"), a grassroots organization founded in 2002 to improve the standard of living in South Wrigley, alongside its long-time neighboring neighborhood group, the Wrigley Association. The text below is from NAG president Gavin McKiernan.
[begin McKiernan text]
Henderson Ave has been well known for decades as a street where drugs were available and where gangs and criminals operated with impunity. That was before The Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG) made it one of its goals to clean up Henderson Ave.
This two block stretch had long been dangerous territory and had long been ignored by the city and avoided by those in historic homes only a block away. Over the course of several years, neighborhood leaders have pushed the city to action.
| NAG enlisted the help of the City Prosecutors office, code enforcement, LBPD, Parks & Recd and many other resources. NAG has pushed to get building owners to do background checks of tenants, PD to increase their presence and frequency of patrols, cameras were put up to monitor trouble spots. | 
In photo (with apologies to those unknown): Jane Kelleher, unknown, Ron Perkins, P.G. Herman, unknown, Rita Hooker, Karl Weigelman, unknown, Meggan from LB Housing Development Co.; 2nd row: Warren Wisner, Annie Greenfeld-Wisner, Pat West, Gavin McKiernan, unknown, Lei Ronca, Dennis Thys; Back row: LBFD, LBPD, Councilman Dee Andrews, Jack Smith, unknown, Pat Brown, unk. Photo credit: Steve Gerhardt |
The Mobile Recreation Van made it a weekly stop often closing the street so kids could play. Parking was taken away on one side of the street to limit the ability of drug dealers to duck and hide. Many neighborhood clean ups and meetings were held.
Through all of this, there has been some slow progress and some set backs along the way.
Photo credit: Gavin McKiernan |
On August 30th we saw a huge sign of progress when Councilmember Dee Andrews, along with various city department representatives met to demolish 1950 and 1960 Henderson, two “cracker-box” blighted buildings that the RDA bought to help clean up this troubled street. |
| NAG founder Annie Greenfeld-Wisner and frequent critic of the lack of attention given to cleaning these two blocks got to take part in the demolition and said, "I cant stop smiling." | 
Photo credit: P.G. Herman |
The work isn’t done on Henderson but things are looking better than ever. Annie and James Young, City Prosecutor received special recognition from NAG for their role in improving Henderson, as well as the many people who have attended meetings, showed up at clean ups, made phone calls, wrote letters, harassed city officials and drew attention to the problems there until some things got fixed, our neighborhood and city are and will continue to be a better place due to these efforts.
Photo credit: P.G. Herman | Councilman Dee Andrews, Jack Smith, Jane Kelleher, CSULB student. |
| Flashing a big "thumbs-up," Councilman Andrews (who won a May 1 special election to succeed former Council incumbent, now Congresswoman-elect/Assemblywoman Laura Richardson) acknowledged the work of neighborhood activists in the collective efforts. Councilman Andrews invited the grassroots workers to come forward and receive recognition. | 
Photo credit: P.G. Herman |
Among officials attending were representatives of the LB Housing Development Company, the LB Housing Services Bureau, LBPD and the City Prosecutor's office.
"The buildings, containing nine total units, are located in a neighborhood where nuisance and criminal activities have persisted for many years," said the City Hall release, and continued:
The Long Beach Housing Development Company acquired the two properties in February 2007, and all the tenants have been relocated to comparable or, in most cases, significantly improved housing. The new affordable housing units will be available to low and moderate-income first-time homebuyers with incomes ranging from $37,000 to $67,800 annually for a family of four. Plans are being developed, but it is anticipated that between two to four new housing units will replace the current buildings."
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