The plan to redevelop West ave. still has some hurdles to clear, one of them being the properties that have still not sold out. The Advocate reports that Nancy Esposito, owner of Casey’s Sheet Metal has hung a banner across her building, reading “hell no we won’t go”.
West ave. is by no means a blighted neighborhood. The small businesses that line the streets are one of the few areas in Norwalk that resemble the naturally occurring mix of residences, light industry and retail. It’s a throwback to the time when much of Norwalk looked like this, at least in the urban corridors. The residential houses that line the streets behind West ave, are the types of houses that have fenced backyards, and front porches that overlook the sidewalks that complete the quintessential neighborhood.
From the Advocate:
“Hell No, We Won’t Go!” reads a banner slung from the side of her business at West Avenue and Merwin Street. That shop, Casey’s Sheet Metal, sits in the path of Seligson’s redevelopment plan.
Esposito is worried that talks with Seligson - who has purchased much of the property in his plan but still has several deals to make - will fail, and the city will pursue eminent domain to seize remaining land.
Eminent domain allows governments to appropriate private property for public use.
Ideally, Esposito said, Seligson would integrate her business into the redevelopment plan, or find her a new property in the neighborhood.
City officials have pledged to use eminent domain as a last resort, as Mayor Richard Moccia did earlier this year when he and Seligson unveiled the West Avenue master plan at City Hall.
But Christina Walsh of the Castle Coalition, a Virginia nonprofit group working to stem eminent domain abuse, said such promises are not always kept.
“What we see all over the country are these redevelopment areas where they say they’ll use eminent domain as a ‘last resort,’ ” she said. “That’s a trigger word. It never matters.”
In March, the city approved Seligson’s plan, which stretches several blocks along West Avenue and would resemble a traditional mixed-use Main Street.
Kind of ironic that the plan is to recreate what is already there. Of course nothing is stopping any developer from redeveloping slowly, organically, one property at a time. But for some reason, in Norwalk at least, it seems that the preference is all or nothing.
Officials hope to finalize the land disposition agreement by next year. In the meantime, Seligson will continue negotiating with property owners such as Esposito.
So far, one business is being integrated into the redevelopment plan - the showroom of Devan Acura at 625 West Ave.
That leaves Esposito nervous.
“We’re not going to go quietly,” she said. “We’re ready to go to battle.”
She put up the banner during negotiations because “it sends a strong message. It gets people’s attention,” Esposito said. “The developers have to work harder to not disrupt the lives of the people in this neighborhood.”
Douglas Adams, Seligson’s vice president of development, declined to comment on the banner. But he said negotiations will continue, and three deals have been struck with property owners in the West Avenue area this year.
“We’re working hard with property owners to try and reach private agreements with each of them,” Adams said.
Other property owners who have not sold to Seligson said they support Esposito’s strong words.
“I think it’s great. We have to stand up for our rights as American citizens,” said Tim Currie, who owns Currie’s Tires at 599 West Ave.
His words were echoed by Anthony Savas, who owns a three-story apartment building at 16 Chapel St., and Keal Evans, who owns European Auto Center at 539 West Ave.
“We’re not being treated fairly,” Evans said. “I hope this goes away. I hope I’ll wake up and this will have been a nightmare.”
But even the famous nail house in China got sucked up into redevelopment. The future does look bleak.
Over in Los Angeles, redevelopment is not immune to LA style redevelopment. From the LA TIMES:
Angelyne can barely squeeze into the 8-foot-wide storage room. And not just because she’s the buxom, bigger-than-life billboard queen of Los Angeles.
Boxes of printed posters and placards depicting her in glamorous poses fill the Hollywood self-storage space she is renting while she feuds with city redevelopment leaders and developers of a planned $500-million luxury project near the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
The curvaceous blond teeters on her spike heels as she reaches into a box and pulls out a handbill.
Its full-color photograph shows her reclining voluptuously across the top of her pink Corvette wearing form-fitting pink pants, a tight, low-cut white blouse, sunglasses and a seductive pout.
But it’s the back of the handbill that Angelyne wants to show. It’s an invitation to join the Angelyne Fan Club by sending $20 to a Selma Avenue address.
Angelyne operated her promotional company from a Selma Avenue office building for 18 years until she was forced out last fall to make way for a W Hotel, upscale retail shops, condominiums and apartments.
Developers paid relocation expenses for her and about 35 other tenants who were occupying shops and offices in the path of the Hollywood and Vine project.
But they are balking at her demand that they also pay for the reprinting of perhaps 100,000 promotional and souvenir items that list her old address.
“One of the developers said that is too much. He said, ‘Honey, take me to court.’ He talked to me like I was his ex-wife,” she said, adjusting her dark glasses as sunlight streamed through the open storage room door. “I was stunned.”
The standoff underscores the changing face of Hollywood Boulevard, which is in the midst of a dramatic gentrification after decades of decline. The W Hotel is rising at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, the famed intersection that has seen better days.
While many in Hollywood support the new bars, upscale eateries and other developments in the district, there are some who fear revitalization is pushing out some old-Hollywood characters.
And Angelyne is definitely a character — though she’d dispute the “old Hollywood” characterization. She became famous (locally, at least) in the early 1980s when a series of billboards popped up around the city featuring her in various sexy poses. Although she has appeared in several movies, she said her billboards have been shown in “hundreds” of films and TV shows.
source: The Advocate, Property owner fights for a fair deal By Tim Stelloh, June 20, 2007
source: LA TIMES, Angelyne seeks enhanced deal: The Hollywood icon wants developers to shell out more for forcing her to relocate an office. They say her figures are inflated. By Bob Pool, June 20, 2007
