Pain in South-Central’s Heart: Languishing in Riot Recovery : Little rebuilding has occurred in the most devastated areas

Los Angeles’ failure this month to win a federal empowerment zone represents an acute loss for poor residents, particularly those who live in South-Central Los Angeles. The need for jobs and services is urgent in the neighborhoods that straddle the Harbor Freeway south of Downtown. An empowerment zone offering tax breaks for employers and new social spending could have provided the catalyst for a broader recovery from the 1992 riots.

Most of the rebuilding has hopscotched over the hardest-hit areas of South-Central Los Angeles. The new construction has occurred primarily in somewhat more affluent neighborhoods north of the Santa Monica Freeway or west of Western Avenue.

The civil disorder damaged or destroyed 2,314 businesses, 64% of them retail operations, across Los Angeles County. In parts of South-Central--where the riot-related damage was the greatest--major supermarkets, clothing stores and some other businesses remain nearly nonexistent. The recent opening of a supermarket, a Food 4 Less at 54th and Main streets, was cheered by shoppers who had been forced to travel miles to shop. However, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters notes that three full-service grocery stores are far from adequate to serve the 260,000 constituents she represents. She is pleased that a Vons is planned in her district. She is also working with RLA and Concerned Citizens of South-Central to help manufacturing businesses stay in the area and grow. That task would have been made much easier by a federal empowerment zone designation.

LONGSTANDING BARRIERS: The obstacles to rebuilding in South-Central--obstacles present even before the 1992 upheaval--include the lingering recession, chronic insurance redlining and a pervasive fear of crime (often exaggerated by outsiders). Even when businesses are willing to come in, they must overcome physical disadvantages such as parking restrictions imposed by old, narrow streets and the unavailability of larger land parcels that investors need to turn a profit.

Since the riots, many absentee landlords haven’t gone back to visit the old neighborhood and aren’t inclined to rebuild. Some speculators wait for more lucrative deals, while property owners who bought at the top of a real estate market now gone bust can’t afford to rebuild on lots made vacant by the destruction.

More than 250 lots remain vacant in council districts represented by Walters and Mark Ridley-Thomas. In Ridley-Thomas’ district, which includes parts of South-Central Los Angeles, Leimert Park and the Crenshaw district, the councilman brokered a 12-screen theater deal at the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Mall. He worked to have three new grocery stores--a Smart & Final, an Alpha Beta and a Ranch Market--put into operation. He also encouraged the development of commercial and residential projects in the Manchester Avenue-Vermont Avenue area, including a senior citizens housing complex, which is scheduled to break ground today. Both Ridley-Thomas and Walters deserve credit for aggressively prodding government and businesses to rebuild in South Los Angeles. Eleven lots remain vacant in the Pico-Union area, which is represented by Mike Hernandez, who also is pressing to improve impoverished areas.

$125-MILLION FEDERAL PROMISE: To encourage rebuilding in neglected areas where the needs are greatest, RLA President Linda Griego is looking for new investment. In the hunt for capital, she is pitching four public pension funds to put together a $55-million deal to rejuvenate some of the vacant lots. This novel approach came closer to fruition last week when the Clinton Administration promised Los Angeles a consolation grant of $125 million in economic development initiative funds after the Los Angeles application for the coveted federal empowerment zone was rejected. The promised package from the Department of Housing and Urban Development will include federal loan guarantees that could be used to reduce the risk to pension funds that invest in the central city. Without any government impetus, poor neighborhoods stand to slide still further. If that happens, the detritus of the riots--the boarded-up stores, burned-out gas stations and weed-filled vacant lots--will become a permanent legacy of the worst urban strife in U.S. history.

If Los Angeles is to prosper, no part of the city can be written off. The heart of South-Central Los Angeles cannot be allowed to suffer the decline that Watts endured after the riots of 1965, a tragedy from which it has never fully recovered. Help from Washington, prodding from City Hall, a commitment from private investors, an aggressive RLA and other diligent rebuilding efforts are needed to broaden the recovery and turn promises into profits.

Friday: The Next Stage of the Recovery.