Four L.A. neighborhoods get $300,000 grant in city bid to boost business areas.

Randi Chernov says her business was booming when she first bought Max's Bar on Fairfax Avenue five years ago.

But harsh economic times, as well as such unexpected problems as the 1994 Northridge earthquake, have taken a toll on her nightspot and other businesses in the area.

Now, Chernov and other merchants are hoping that a neighborhood facelift will bring back the paying customers.

The Fairfax District was one of four Los Angeles neighborhoods last week to be awarded a $300,000 grant through the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI) project.

The money will pay for new sidewalks, trees, sheltered bus stops and improved street lighting along a stretch of Fairfax between Third Street and Willoughby Avenue.

Chernov was among those who lobbied for the funds in the hopes that a once-thriving business area can be given new life.

"I personally feel that as a business owner, I had a responsibility to the city; I had a responsibility to the community," Chernov said, "It was to my interest as a business owner to make people want to come back to the street."

The other areas given LANI grants last week were the Byzantine-Latino Quarter near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Normandie Avenue, the intersection of Sherman Way and Reseda Boulevard in Reseda, and Central Avenue between Jefferson Boulevard and Vernon Avenue in South Central.

"Unlike most government programs, LANI does not try to dictate from the top down," Mayor Richard Riordan said at a press conference last week in the Fairfax District. "It is a program that empowers neighborhoods to come up with their own solutions. And that's the secret of LANI's success."

LANI grants are administered by the city, and funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and local, private contributors. They are intended for areas that are both community "Main Street" areas and public transportation corridors.

A community board of local business owners and residents - dubbed a Recognized Community Organization - then decides what should be done with the grant, including the selection of an architect and a construction contractor.

Eight other areas - including sites in Sun Valley, North Hollywood, Boyle Heights and Vermont Square - were given LANI grants as part of a previous $2.3 million federal grant. The newest federal grant was for $1.5 million, but both grants were augmented with local contributions.

Program coordinators say that the primary beneficiary of LANI improvements are often local businesses.

"We have seen that transit improvements and community improvements can have spill-over on an adjacent business and commercial corridor," said Joyce Perkins, LANI's executive director.

City Councilman Mike Hernandez is counting on the LANI grant to spruce up the Byzantine-Latino Quarter east of Downtown.

"When you travel down that Pico Corridor, what you see is businesses from all over the world - people from all over the world," he said. "And I know that actions they want to take are going to be positive for the City of Los Angeles."