AFTER THE VERDICTS : One Year Later, Calm Reigns on the Boulevard : Aftermath: Regulars along the Valley’s main street try to put the King civil rights trial into perspective.

The bearded character in the jogging outfit sipped his second cup of java at the trendy Ventura Boulevard coffeehouse and made a solemn observation about Saturday’s court verdict and its calm aftermath.

“It’s just like this year’s Super Bowl,” he said, leaning on the bar at Insomnia Cafe, a Sherman Oaks coffee bistro decorated with huge frescoes of violent overthrows. “The Big Buildup. Followed by the Big Letdown.”

Like would-be storm victims fearing a big one that never came, Ventura Boulevard regulars on Saturday tested the emotional winds on the day of the verdicts in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial and were surprised at what they found.

Los Angeles wasn’t burning.

Unlike the destruction that followed the first verdicts about a year ago, the hazy springtime Saturday brought no torched buildings, looted stores or scenes of wild-eyed urban chaos in a divided city described last year by one Italian newspaper as “La citta’ degli angeli caduti”-- the city of fallen angels.

This time, there was just calm. Unadulterated, level-headed calm.

While last year’s disturbances were mostly confined to South-Central Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley residents know that the March, 1991, beating of motorist King took place, as it were, right in their own back yards--in a desolate patch of roadside in nearby Lake View Terrace.

And so, as they breathed a collective sigh of relief that there was no repeat of last year’s vio

lence, shoppers, walkers, browsers and buyers along Ventura Boulevard--the Valley’s commercial heart and soul--paused to put the verdict in perspective.

They talked about justice and injustice, about Los Angeles police officers just doing their jobs to subdue an unruly felon, or about cops as racist henchmen carrying clubs.

All along the boulevard, in coffeehouses, fast-food restaurants, supermarket checkout lines, at bus stops and crosswalks, in liquor stores and bookshops, pool halls and pawnshops, they talked about the verdicts.

Some were satisfied. Others stamped their feet and said the officers never should have faced federal prosecution in the first place after being acquitted about a year ago in the Simi Valley trial that led to the first public rioting.

While they were all glad the jury had finally reached a verdict, many warned that Saturday’s court decision was merely the eye of the storm in the city’s season of discontent. The aftermath of this summer’s upcoming trial of three black men accused of attempted murder of a white truck driver during last year’s riots, they said, would be the true test of whether Los Angeles was ready to heal its racial wounds.

“It ain’t over till the jurors in the Reginald Denny trial sing,” said a Sherman Oaks grocery store worker who identified herself only as Debbie. “If white cops get acquitted for beating a black man and then blacks go to jail for beating a white, all hell is going to break loose. And I hope I’m not around to see it.”

Some people said they were not as angered by the verdicts as they were by the fact that King has acquired celebrity status for “merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“He’s a common felon who foolishly tried to get up after being stung twice by a Taser gun,” said one Sherman Oaks supermarket shopper. “And so he shouldn’t be given millions of dollars, free tickets to Dodger games and a new house, like I heard he’s been given.

“I mean, the guy is a criminal. And for that, he lives in a nicer house than I do. That’s L.A. for you.”

Up and down Ventura Boulevard, strangers stopped each other in the street to discuss the verdicts.

“I was so afraid because last year, it was so ugly,” said Sukhwinder Sidhu, manager of a 7-Eleven store. “Like last year, I was afraid that today I couldn’t look people straight in the eye or else they would try to hit me. But, do you know what? I can. It’s OK.”

As he toured the boulevard on foot, German tourist and travel writer Hans Kaethner said that while racial violence is not unique to Los Angeles, the city seems to be in the grips of a perverse emotional force.

“The angels of this city are confused,” he said. “They don’t know which way to turn, who to try to embrace. They don’t know who their friends are.”

On Friday night, Kaethner said, he was aboard a bus in downtown Los Angeles while returning from Disneyland when a group of black youths suddenly boarded the bus.

“I’m old enough to admit this,” he said. “But I was scared to death. They were just doing their thing, yelling and having fun. But I was afraid. I thought the riots were starting. I’m embarrassed now.”

In the days and hours leading to the most recent verdict, many Valley residents admitted they acted as though they were preparing for some terrible storm. They stocked up on canned goods and water.

“Last night, the lines in here were 15 people deep, as though people were afraid that the city would be hit by another racial storm,” said Debbie, the Ventura Boulevard supermarket clerk. “At 7 a.m., the store was completely empty. People still didn’t know what to expect. Then, suddenly, at 8 a.m., they emerged, as though they felt it was safe to come out. It was like a spring day.”

As he waited Saturday to have a key copied at a Ventura Boulevard keymaking booth, Neil Mondlock said the peaceful aftermath to the verdicts wouldn’t make him sleep any better.

“I’ve told my wife all along, you read about this thing, I don’t give a damn. Riots or no riots, I still don’t feel safe in this city. I’m 74 years old and people see me as a victim. Last year, some guy tried to carjack my car right out from under me. I tell you, it’s not safe.”

Samantha Newark, a waitress at Insomnia, said the tension in recent days spread to the police as well.

“Two nights ago, I was driving home from work wearing a baseball cap with the Insomnia logo when I was stopped by this officer who wanted to know what the insignia on my cap meant,” she said. “He let me go. But he told me to be careful.”

Perhaps nobody was happier with the way things turned out Saturday than Henry Harooni, owner of Liquor World in Tarzana on Ventura Boulevard. Each of his three dozen customers Saturday morning commented about the verdict, he said.

All of them were pleased that, like some bad weather system, the riots had avoided Los Angeles this time around. And happy people, Harooni said, buy more liquor.

“It’s a day of relief,” he said. “Hey, maybe I should have a sale, a ‘Thank God there wasn’t a riot’ sale!”