Coliseum brings more pride than money to South L.A. neighbors

When the black-owned Broadway Federal Bank was looking to replace its historic main branch that was torched during the 1992 riots, it settled on a prime location not far from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

At the time, the prospect of owning a business or living in the shadow of the Coliseum promised hope for the future of South Los Angeles.

“We figured we enhanced our position as a bank, and the Coliseum was a big reason for our move,” said Paul Hudson, Broadway Federal’s chief executive.

“It was a major disappointment,” Hudson said.

And it wasn’t the last.

For decades, the Coliseum -- and the rest of Exposition Park -- has been a point of pride for the long-neglected South Los Angeles community that surrounds it.

The stadium also has been a source of discouragement. The Rams abandoned the Coliseum for Anaheim in 1980. When the Raiders left for Oakland after the 1994 season, many residents were devastated. Their hopes have been raised and dashed over the years as a succession of political leaders, business icons and others repeatedly have said they were on the verge of bringing professional football back.

When Staples Center opened in 1999, it was envisioned as the northernmost end of a sports, entertainment and educational corridor that stretched from the Convention Center to Exposition Park. At the time, few doubted that that vision would come to pass.

But many residents today say that the southern part of that corridor has never lived up to its economic promise.

To be sure, on USC game days, the Coliseum area becomes a beehive of activity. Cars are parked on lawns and local school grounds for $20 to $80 a space, and there are part-time jobs for ushers and concessionaires. The underground economy is fueled by souvenirs and T-shirts.

But for the most part, the rewards are few. Trojan fans drive through the neighborhood with windows rolled up, bringing parking hassles and trash.

“If you ever come to the neighborhood during a USC game, the people don’t go to the shops. They don’t go south of Martin Luther King Boulevard,” said Carole White, chairwoman of The Voices of 90037, the neighborhood council area that begins south of the boulevard. “I don’t know who benefits.”

For all the angst when the Raiders left town, in truth, some locals were relieved. Michael Urena, president of Neighborhood Council 8, which includes the Coliseum, said homeowners often talked about the problems caused by fans who turned out for Raiders games.

“You would get stuck inside your home or stuck outside because someone would park across your driveway,” he said. “The Coliseum is like an airport. Everybody wants one, but nobody wants to live near one.”

The prospect of a new NFL team -- and the new facilities it might bring -- seemed like a possible answer to the parking shortage and the need for new business. Now, the dream of a professional football team again taking up residence seems dead, and USC is threatening to move its home football games to Pasadena.

“We support USC, and we would love to have a NFL team come back here to L.A.,” said Alma Carrillo, a mother of two who has lived near the Coliseum for 33 years. “This is a shame. Downtown is growing big and it would help our community here as well. It would benefit everyone.”

Meanwhile, over the years, as a string of South Los Angeles politicians -- including current and former councilmen Bernard C. Parks, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Nate Holden -- and Hollywood types and business moguls were nagging the NFL to return, the area was showing independent signs of revitalization.

The Museum of Science and Industry was reborn in 1997 as the California Science Center, a gleaming complex that drew visitors to a revitalized Exposition Park, as did the African-American Museum and the Museum of Natural History. The state-owned park built a ball field on the site of a former parking lot to make the area more appealing to families, and also has established a community center, public pool and day-care center. The Science Center is in the midst of a $134-million expansion that will add 170,000 square feet to its main building, and the Expo light rail line is expected to bring more people and development.

The neighborhood surrounding USC has mushroomed with upscale student renters. At the other end of the Figueroa corridor, the Staples Center complex now includes the Nokia Theatre, and condominium and apartment buildings are going up.

Patricia Diefenderfer, a city planner who is responsible for the area around USC, said that although an NFL team would have been desirable, the community’s real need is housing.

“The need to house students and provide housing for families . . . is really what is going to drive what happens in that area,” she said.

There is a need for local services as well. Faisal Roble, city planner for several South Los Angeles neighborhoods, including the area around the Coliseum, said that if the NFL was not coming to Exposition Park, the Coliseum should be used for a variety of purposes that would benefit the immediate neighborhood, including soccer and school activities.

Roble does not believe that the arrival of an NFL team would greatly affect residential or commercial development in the area, because the city already has put into place incentives to draw high-density housing to the Figueroa corridor. “We have already put policies on the books to attract future growth.”

But that future is of little interest to Yesenia Rodriguez, 35, a stay-at-home mother of a first-grader and a fifth-grader at Vermont Avenue Elementary School.

“The games . . . bring in money,” Rodriguez said. Local “businesses do count on [USC’s] presence when they have games; restaurants and eateries do see sales” spike on game days, she said. The Coliseum is “a very crucial landmark.”

On the other hand, Hudson of Broadway Federal said his bank had not really benefited from the Coliseum or from USC.

“I wish we did, but we don’t,” he said. “It’s not just about an NFL team, but about the economic development that should come down the Figueroa corridor.

“The community was here before, and it will be here afterward,” he said. “People need a place to shop, get their cars worked on, a place to bank. And that is why we’re here and not going to move our branch.”

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john. mitchell@latimes.com

sharon.bernstein@

latimes.com

Times Staff Writer Susannah Rosenblatt contributed to this report.