Jordan Downs Takes 1st Steps Toward Unity

Black and Latino residents of the Jordan Downs housing project took the first tentative steps toward unity Tuesday in the wake of a racially divisive arson blaze that claimed five members of a Mexican family.

Struggling with language barriers and continued animosity, residents announced the formation of a racially mixed committee to push for better security at the 691-unit development in Watts.

The Jordan Downs Residents Council Advisory Board, whose eight members are black, also drafted a bilingual statement urging neighbors to give generously to the victims’ family, which is struggling with burial expenses.

“If we are going to live here together as people, we will live side by side, not separated,” said the statement, which will be distributed at a news conference today. “We can be sad together, and angry together, but we must not let sadness and anger overcome the unity that we must have as neighbors.”

Although some Latinos said they remain fearful of living in the predominantly black complex, they abandoned their call for racially segregated buildings, conceding that it would only exacerbate tensions.

“Some individuals referred to this in their anger and frustration,” said Arturo Ybarra, president of the Watts Century Latino Organization, a community group that organized the neighborhood’s first Cinco de Mayo celebration in May. “Now we understand we should stay together, work together and find a solution together.”

The uneasy truce came after a two-hour meeting at the Jordan Downs management office, which was closed to the public but described by participants as an emotional exchange during which translators could barely keep pace with the heated comments. About 55 residents attended, as well as representatives of the residents council, the Los Angeles Housing Authority and Los Angeles Police Department.

Later in the day, Mayor Tom Bradley met with a small group of Jordan Downs residents and Housing Authority officials, after which he announced that additional police officers from the Metropolitan Division and mounted patrols would be sent to the project today. He also said the Housing Authority would provide crisis counseling for any resident needing assistance.

“The incident this weekend at Jordan Downs was tragic and disturbing, but no one should compound that tragedy by speculating that the incident was racially motivated,” Bradley said, echoing police speculation that the fire might have been set as retaliation for complaints against neighborhood drug dealers.

Indeed, the newfound unity was partly inspired by the fact that black residents expressed sympathy for the plight of the Latinos, saying they knew what it was like to be victims of drug- and gang-related violence.

“Even we get the same thing,” said Robert Taylor, 32, a black resident who has lived at Jordan Downs for five years. “If someone speaks up, someone gets hurt.”

It was clear, however, that the road to peace will be rocky.

“Everybody listened to us, but nothing got done,” said Gema Lamas, 26, a mother of two who has lived at Jordan Downs for four months. “The only thing they said was work together. They didn’t say how or with what.”

Ramon Morales, a self-appointed spokesman for the Latino residents--”I didn’t see anyone doing anything, so I’m trying to be a leader”--said he was urging cooperation. But Morales, who has lived at the project three months, charged that black residents have created a climate of fear that makes unity difficult.

“The life of everyone here in these apartments is really in danger,” he said. “It’s not that we’re racists. It’s just that we’re afraid.”

A few steps away, Daude Shaerrills, a black activist who has lived at Jordan Downs for 15 years, said he had given Morales his phone number should problems arise.

“This is just a symptom of the bigger problem--the conditions all of us face here,” said Shaerrills, who teaches life-management skills to Jordan Downs youths as part of a self-esteem course known as the Amer-I-Can Program. “There are people here who go out and take things from others because it’s the only way they feel they can survive. I was scared as hell when my family moved here from Phoenix.”

Tuesday’s meeting was the first communitywide response to the fire, which erupted Saturday morning and quickly spread through the gray and blue, two-story townhouse on 102nd Street.

The blaze--which police said was started by two or three blacks--claimed the family’s matriarch, 78-year-old Margarita Hernandez; her granddaughter, Martha Zuniga, 22; Zuniga’s son, Juan, 5, and daughter, Claudia, 4. On Monday, after clinging to life for nearly 48 hours, Zuniga’s third child, 1-year-old Veronica Lopez, died.

While trying to save the family, Zuniga’s father, 65-year-old Juan Zuniga, accidentally fired a shot from a handgun into the chest of 34-year-old Gregory Moore, a black man who was trying to help, police said.

Zuniga remained in critical condition Tuesday suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, and Moore, whose condition had been serious, also slipped to critical condition, according to officials at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

Four families, totaling 22 people, were moved from the apartment to an undisclosed hotel by Red Cross officials, who said they would provide food and shelter as long as necessary. According to Housing Authority officials, the three-bedroom apartment has a maximum occupancy of six.

Marshall J. Kandell, the Housing Authority’s public relations director, said none of the people who died were on the lease or authorized to live there. He also confirmed that the family had requested to be transferred to the Pueblo del Rio housing project because Juan Zuniga had been allegedly assaulted at Jordan Downs and the family’s car had been vandalized.

Kandell said that although the request was pending, the city’s 21 housing projects, home to nearly 30,000 people, have a vacancy rate of less than 2% and hundreds of similar requests are made every year.

“Their fear was justified--that’s been proven out by events,” he said. “But there’s fear throughout much of Los Angeles, and the answer isn’t just transferring everybody who lives in gang- and drug-infested areas.”

In another development, Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, whose district includes Jordan Downs, said she would introduce an emergency motion today, calling for a $25,000 reward for information leading to the identification or arrest of those responsible for the fire.

“This is a tragic human loss for our community,” Flores said. “I am asking everyone to cooperate and work together with law enforcement to apprehend and convict the perpetrators of this heinous crime.”