By Stephen Witt, Los Angeles County Politics (LACP)
The Avalon Gardens Community Association delivered decades-overdue good news to residents Wednesday night, announcing that a long-fought street repair project is finally moving forward — while also opening the floor to residents on how the unincorporated Willowbrook community should spend a potential $27 million state grant.
Association President John Davis convened the community update meeting at Avalon Gardens Elementary School, where Sharon Evans, Dr. Cynthia Gonzalez and Bobby Jones walked residents through tiered funding levels — up to $27 million, $5 million and roughly $300,000 — available through a state grant program and asked residents to weigh in directly on priorities like solar bus stops and other energy projects before the application is drafted.
“When a state grant comes into a community, and folks apply for it, one of the key things is you want the residents who live in the area to be involved, to have their input, to have their say so,” said Davis.
The biggest update of the night, according to Davis, was confirmation that Los Angeles County Public Works will move forward on repairing residential streets throughout Avalon Gardens, along with major surrounding corridors including Avalon Boulevard, San Pedro Street and Rosecrans Avenue.
“The community has been fighting to get their streets done for over 30 years, so we were able to bring the good news that the project is moving forward, not just on their residential streets, but some of the major streets that surround their residents,” said Davis.
Avalon Gardens sits within the unincorporated Willowbrook area of LA County and takes its name from the elementary school anchoring the neighborhood. Davis said the site traces back to 1942, when it served as tract housing for Black soldiers serving in World War II; the school itself opened July 1, 1950, and many longtime residents, including Davis, attended it themselves.
Davis also touted the arrival of Spectrum service at the neighborhood’s small shopping plaza at El Segundo Boulevard and Avalon Boulevard, which already houses a grocery store and a CVS.
“One of the key things was I wanted to give praise to the owner who owns the shopping center — we brought Spectrum in. Now a lot of folks in the area have Spectrum, so they don’t have to go outside their community; they can go right down the street from where they live into the shopping plaza to go pay their Spectrum bill,” said Davis.
On homelessness, Davis credited Vermont Galaxy Community Outreach and Shelter, the Westmont-based nonprofit LACP has previously covered, with taking referrals from the community.
“Thanks to Vermont Galaxy, we were able to turn people over to them for resources — they have doctors on-site, free. In our community, we don’t have a hub like that that can help folks, not just folks that’s in need, but just regular folks,” said Davis.
The meeting drew two notable guests: Dr. Ayanna Davis, a Compton Unified School District board member running for the 65th Assembly District seat being vacated by termed-out Assemblymember Mike Gipson, and a team from LA County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell’s office, which Davis credited for joining a community walk earlier in the week focused on curbing street takeovers in the area.
“I want to give a special thanks to Holly Mitchell’s team — we did a community walk on how to resolve street takeovers, and I want to thank her team for coming out and trying to come together with the community with a plan on how we can stop the takeovers,” said Davis.
Evans, Gonzalez, Jones, and members of the Willowbrook-West Athens-Wesmont Coalition will continue to gather community input and document residents’ priorities, which will be included in the grant application.
The next Community Listening Session is set for 6 p.m. on Aug. 26 at Charles Drew University Keck Lecture Hall, 1731 E. 120th St., in Los Angeles.
