`LIGHTS OUT' ON NORTHEAST VALLEY HOPES.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

Scattered pockets of the San Fernando Valley have streetlights now, but wide swaths of the Northeast Valley remain in the dark nearly a year after Mayor James Hahn vowed to find ways to bring light to low-income areas.

Pacoima activists have been canvassing dark neighborhoods with petitions to create special taxing districts - costing the average homeowner $55 a year - that would fund the maintenance and repair of city-provided lights. Redevelopment money paid for 35 streetlights earlier this year in an area near the junction of the Ronald Reagan and Foothill freeways.

Last August, a series of Daily News articles questioned why Los Angeles is the only major U.S. city that doesn't provide streetlights when residents of many poor areas in the Valley cannot afford the $1,600 cost per home, plus the $55 annual maintenance fee. Hahn then ordered a wide-ranging study on how Los Angeles could pay for new streetlights.

But as the activists work on piecemeal measures, municipal officials say Los Angeles can't afford to light up the nearly one-third of the city's 465 square miles where streetlights never were installed.

The Department of Public Works has completed its study and forwarded it to the mayor, said spokesman Robert Reed.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said the study would be released this week, but warned against expecting quick solutions to the problem. Hahn's 2003-04 municipal budget set aside no money for new streetlights.

``In difficult budget years, you have to make difficult choices,'' Middlebrook said. ``This year the mayor's priority has been putting police on the street.''

But some residents say police and streetlights should receive equal billing as components of public safety.

``Lighting is necessary for safety, for people and children,'' declared Renee King, who said the garage at her home in a dark Granada Hills neighborhood has been burglarized three times in three years. ``Police can't be everywhere at all times, but lighting is a deterrent.''

King said she hasn't complained to anyone other than police about the lack of lighting, but activists a few miles to the east are working with Councilman Alex Padilla on getting lights in Pacoima without the $1,600- per-home installation charge.

The 35 streetlights activated early this year were funded by the city's Community Redevelopment Agency.

The Department of Water and Power has agreed to pay about $1.5 million to install 140 streetlights in another Pacoima neighborhood, bounded by Paxton Street, Remick Avenue, Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road, said Padilla spokesman David Gershwin. Residents still have to approve the $55 annual maintenance fee.

The money accounts for more than half of a $2.5 million DWP fund set aside for new lighting not only in Pacoima, but also in four other areas of Los Angeles where residents have low and moderate incomes, according to the city's Bureau of Street Lighting.

``Recognizing how much of a challenge it would be for residents to pay the installation fee on their own, the councilman and his office felt it would be necessary to secure funding from the DWP in advance,'' Gershwin said.

Padilla has been aided by a band of signature-gathering activists led by Richard Gallegos, whose own neighborhood was the scene of the lighting ceremony early this year.

Gallegos, who heads the Pacoima Neighborhood Council, said nearly all residents want streetlights and most are willing to pay $55 a year even if they can't afford the installation charge.

``It's a quality-of-life issue,'' said Gallegos, adding, ``I think lighting should be put where it's needed.''

He said darkness on streets ``leads to prostitution, drugs, illegal dumping (and) accidents with people racing down the streets.''

Last year, many Valley residents complained that the city was spending $8 million to replace functioning streetlights along Ventura Boulevard with uniform-looking lights while swaths of the Valley had no lights at all.

The Ventura Boulevard project is on schedule, with some new light poles sprouting up on the section of the boulevard between the Ventura Freeway and Corbin Avenue in Woodland Hills, according to a statement from the Department of Public Works.

Osbaldo Valasquez of Pacoima, who led a protest last year against the lack of streetlights in the Northeast Valley, said he and other activists met with Padilla last month to ask for new lighting on the west side of Ritchie Valens Park but got a noncommittal response.

``There has been some progress,'' Valasquez said. ``I'd like to think it's because of our involvement. But there's still a lot more work to be done.''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Near a car burglarized in the night, Pacoima resident Dawn McCall signs Antonio Jara's petition for streetlights.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer