PANORAMA CITY : Crime Tops List of Concerns, Study Says

Crime and decaying buildings concern more property owners than any other issues in Panorama City’s densest commercial and urban area, according to a recent survey by Los Angeles planning officials.

“Their perception of the area was that there is a very high crime rate in the area,” said Kevin Jones, planning assistant in charge of the Panorama City Community Citizen Survey.

The survey was sent to owners of 400 businesses and homes between May 28 and June 8. One hundred people responded in the survey area, which included Parthenia Avenue on the north, the Southern Pacific rail line on the south, Lennox Avenue on the east and Willis Avenue on the west.

When asked to list what kind of problems the area has, 93% said crime, 78% percent listed deteriorated lots and buildings, and 62% cited poverty. Respondents were allowed to list more than one item.

To improve the community, 92% of the property owners said they would like to see more police. Eighty-one percent said more landscaping would help.

Although there is more data from the survey to be analyzed, Jones said the numbers have already indicated that the problems are more than city planning officials can handle alone.

The Planning Department conducted the survey to determine what issues could be tackled by planning solutions, which include rezoning, limiting liquor licenses and revoking the licenses of businesses deemed a nuisance to the community.

“Initially, we felt that perhaps there were a lot of land-use issues that we could tackle ourselves,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, most of the issues (concerning the respondents) were economical in nature.”

However, when the final analysis is done by the end of the year, Jones said the survey could help other city departments--such as police and building and safety--identify trouble spots where attention should be focused.

“(The survey) could lead to cooperation of a number of departments to address the issues in the area and bring about some improvement overall,” Jones said.