AUTHOR BLAMES CITY POLITICS FOR ART CENTER PLAN'S DEMISE.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - Civic leaders in this small Northeast Valley city all agree the area needs a bookstore and cultural arts space. But politics keeps getting in the way.

A plan to bring the first Latino cultural cafe to San Fernando was scuttled Monday night by a popular Chicano author who proposed it, the second project in the past year to die in the City Council chambers.

Luis Rodriguez, author of the best-selling ``Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.,'' said the City Council undermined his efforts to open a cafe after ties were revealed between some of his business partners and the political enemies of some council members.

``The process that we had to go through, no one should go through,'' Rodriguez said. ``Politics are holding up valuable projects in this town.''

Rodriguez on Monday advised the city he was pulling the proposal he had submitted in October seeking $140,000 in financial assistance to open Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural in San Fernando, saying politics killed the cafe.

The project, which was originally slated for a building owned by political consultant James Acevedo, would have included a bookstore, cafe, art performance space, workshops and computer lab.

Plans to open a similar venue called Espresso Mi Cultura with a large performance theater were scrapped last June when the city voted against a subsidy package of $170,000, with opposition coming mostly from then-Mayor Silverio Robledo.

In March, Councilwoman Cindy Montanez was voted mayor, and her sister, Maribel De La Torre, was elected to the council to replace Robledo, who lost his re-election bid.

Rodriguez said Montanez thwarted his project as payback for Robledo's opposition to the Espresso Mi Cultura project, which Montanez supported.

Rodriguez said he was ready to sign a lease agreement in late April on a vacant building next to City Hall at 101 First St. But the landlord told him he couldn't sign a lease, Rodriguez said, because the mayor and her sister had called to urge him to instead put a karate school there.

At Monday night's meeting, council members Richard Ramos and Beverly Di Tomaso accused the sisters and Councilman Jose Hernandez of conspiring to block the project.

``This will send out the message to other businesses that they are unwelcome in the community,'' Di Tomaso said.

While Montanez does not deny speaking with the landlord, she says it was not her intention to undermine the Tia Chucha project.

``I had no idea they were looking at that site,'' Montanez said. ``We're still open to their proposal. They've chosen to make this a political issue.''

A May 8 letter from the city to Rodriguez asked for additional financial information on the project based on the new proposed location, but Rodriguez said he is pulling out because he feels there is too much opposition.

Instead, he said, he will likely seek a site in nearby Pacoima in coming months.