It lies in the heart of the port. It sits atop a rich oil field. But it is a study in urban decay, and residents have begun to fight back. : Wilmington : Community of Contradictions

By DONNA ST. GEORGE

Oct. 6, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Three blocks and a world away from the bustling Port of Los Angeles, Maria Mendoza surveyed the street her family has called home for 23 years: a scattering of neat stucco houses and small apartments wedged among a trucking yard, an auto-wrecking operation, a lot stacked with rusty barrels and another bearing the sagging remains of a nightclub. Old tires littered an alley.

“Wilmington has been neglected for generations; our neighborhoods, our schools, everything,” said Mendoza, a 35-year-old cashier and mother of four.

Anger swelled in her voice as Mendoza recalled when she and other parents signed petitions and sat through endless meetings, trying to get a cafeteria for a Wilmington school so their children would no longer have to eat in a schoolyard polluted by sulfur and cement dust.

School district officials, as they have for the past 10 years, say they don’t have the money.

“The school district and the city should be doing more,” Mendoza insisted. “Wilmington needs so much, but it gets nothing.”

About a mile away, Teresa Huerta stood in the shadow of the oil refinery next to her home on M Street, watching her children play. The stench of rubbish emanated from the lot behind her house where tons of garbage are unloaded each day for compacting.

“The trash got so high at the garbage company that it was knocking down our fence,” she recalled. “We get big roaches and rats from that garbage; the smell is terrible.”

Huerta shook her head. “We have the refineries and the garbage companies--all these industries--but we don’t see any of the money they make. It never comes back to Wilmington.”

Wilmington is a community of contradictions.

It is planted atop one of the nation’s most productive oil fields, and dozens of petroleum-related companies have interests here, but residents see few signs of the millions of dollars that those firms and other industries make. Instead, residents say, they see only industry’s noxious fumes, noise and truck traffic.

Wilmington also lies in the heart of one of the country’s most profitable and fastest-growing ports, but that prosperity has not rubbed off on the community. Instead, much of Wilmington is a landscape of urban decay.

With the millions in tax revenue the area generates, some say Wilmington’s streets should be paved with gold. Instead, they are lined with rubbish.

To many, Wilmington’s location is symbolic. Situated near the geographical bottom of Los Angeles, Wilmington also appears to be at the bottom of government priorities, many residents claim. Though officials deny it, many residents charge that the city of Los Angeles, its port authority and other government agencies neglect the nine-square-mile community of 40,000.

Evidence of Neglect

These residents see neglect in the absence of government planning for the community, a situation that has positioned dust-spewing industries next to homes and schools. They see neglect in Wilmington’s debris-cluttered vacant lots and side streets, in its growing number of homeless people, in its withering business district. They see neglect in the junked automobiles--a police estimate puts the number at more than 400 on any given day--that lie rusting along Wilmington’s back streets.

They see neglect in Wilmington’s schools--each of its six public grammar schools is overcrowded--and in the absence of port-funded commercial or recreational development.

Moreover, residents say, Wilmington has become a regional dumping ground with 13 closed waste dumps--one of the largest concentrations in the city of Los Angeles--and six toxic-waste storage or treatment plants. It also is the proposed site of one of the largest hazardous-waste treatment facilities in the state.

“Wilmington is supposed to be one of the most functional and important parts of Los Angeles,” said the Rev. Luis Valbuena, pastor at Holy Family Catholic Church and a highly regarded community leader. “Why is it that you never even see the basic services that a community is entitled to? . . . Elected officials and the machinery behind them have taken advantage of these people and their passiveness.”

“I think Wilmington has been neglected by government,” said Assemblyman Dave Elder (D-Long Beach), whose district for the last three years has included Wilmington. “The central business district has declined; the roadways have not been maintained to any acceptable standard, the area is, quite frankly, very dirty.”

Not Ignored

But some other government officials argue that Wilmington has not been ignored. Budget considerations limit what government can do for the area and Wilmington is treated no differently than any other part of Los Angeles, officials say. They say some of the problems simply stem from the area’s industrial nature.

Many industry officials, though, agree with residents that government is partly responsible for the community’s condition. And a few corporate leaders go a step further: They say both the public and private sectors have been remiss in their responsibilities.

After years of passive acceptance, residents are fighting back.

An area of mostly low- and middle-income Latinos, Wilmington has long had a rich cultural identity and a strong sense of community, but only recently have those strengths been channeled into political activism. At least 10 activist efforts have emerged in Wilmington in the past three years, gaining notice in local government offices and beyond.

The U.S. Department of Justice, for example, has been suggesting ways that parents can obtain improved school facilities. Spokeswoman Ada Santiago Montare said the federal agency wants to help avert race-related tension that often results when “people feel they are experiencing an unequal allocation of resources because they are a minority.”

Although some say Wilmington has been overlooked simply for lack of power and affluence, most of the 120 residents, business representatives and government officials interviewed for this series say the new activism may begin to reverse the community’s fortunes. In fact, several local battles have been won. But some say Wilmington’s problems may take as long to resolve as they did to evolve.

Indeed, Wilmington has seen better days.

Always a harbor town, Wilmington once was a prosperous, middle-class seaport village. During the 1930s, it had two local newspapers, two chain grocery stores, its own government building and a large group of resident business owners.

In that era--as near as the community ever came to a heyday--Wilmington attracted tourists who traveled on cruise lines from the port to Santa Catalina Island, Hawaii and the South Pacific. What is now a pawn shop was a J. C. Penney store. The Don Hotel, where rooms now rent for $15 a night, catered to affluent steamship passengers.

Change came after World War II, old-timers say. Tourists disappeared with the advent of jet transportation and the development of passenger terminals in nearby San Pedro and Long Beach. Like many downtowns, Wilmington was hurt by the advent of shopping malls.

Partly because of the port community’s dearth of professional jobs and lack of housing for young families, many whites moved out and the already established Latino population quickly increased. Latinos now make up at least 67% of Wilmington’s population.

Perhaps the most significant factors that shaped the community were the growth of the Port of Los Angeles, the construction of major railroad lines and the realization in 1936 of the size of Wilmington’s giant oil field. Oil- and shipping-related plants went up, along with homes for workers--all at a time when planning and zoning, as they are known today, were new concepts. Factories were built next to schools, chemical plants next to homes, trucking companies in the heart of residential neighborhoods.

Profitable Area

But many residents maintain that lack of planning is just one of numerous community problems--a situation that is especially poignant because Wilmington is, by geography and natural resources, a highly profitable area.

The Port of Los Angeles--which sprawls over Wilmington’s entire oceanfront as well as part of San Pedro and about half of Terminal Island--has reaped the largest net revenue of any port in the country for the last six years, port officials say. Its profit, which comes mostly from shipping fees, cargo tariffs and land leases, was $48.7 million last year, a figure that is expected to grow with a projected tripling in cargo trade in the next 35 years.

The Wilmington oil field, beneath all of Wilmington and some of the surrounding harbor area, is the most productive in the United States outside Alaska, based on cumulative past and potential production, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Last year, more than $50 million in oil was drawn just from the wells in Wilmington, according to Exxon Co. U.S.A.

The numerous industries located in Wilmington because of the port and the oil field contribute millions of dollars in tax revenue to local governments through property tax, utility users tax, possessory interest taxes, business license tax and oil extraction taxes.

Separate tax records are not kept for various districts of Los Angeles and some tax information cannot be released by law. But figures provided by five large industries--Wilmington has an estimated 800 to 900 businesses--show that the five alone paid more than $6 million last year to the city, Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The companies are Exxon, IT Corp., Korody-Colyer Corp., Texaco Inc. and United States Borax & Chemical Corp.

Self-Sustaining

That figure does not include money paid for utility users tax, which city finance officials say represents a large share of corporate tax revenue.

“This is the best area of the city in terms of being self-sustaining,” resident Carlos Villalobos asserted, “and yet we’re lucky to get services like street sweeping and police cars.”

Residents charge that Wilmington has long lacked even the basics.

Downtown merchants, for example, asked the city last year to repaint center traffic lines, redo faded curbs and provide additional litter baskets. The traffic lines, last repainted eight years ago, were done within a month; the curbs, last painted five years ago, were done 14 months later, and the city provided additional litter baskets on the condition that the merchants empty them.

“People don’t even expect city services anymore,” said Ken Melendez, who owns an auto parts store in Wilmington.

Responded Neil Clark, city transportation engineer, “We’re not neglecting Wilmington any more than we are the other parts of the city.”

But, he conceded, “five years is probably a little too long for the curbs. . . . For streets, our goal is to get around to it every two years. Eight years is much too long.”

Many residents and merchants say city services often take too long to trickle down to Wilmington, 25 miles south of Los Angeles City Hall.

“There is some validity to the complaint that Wilmington does not get enough attention from the city of Los Angeles,” said Thomas B. Williams, superintendent of operations for Wilmington’s Union Oil refinery. “If Wilmington were an independent city right now, the streets would be paved with gold with all the money the area generates.”

Independent City

Wilmington was, in fact, an independent city for several decades. Founded by Phineas Banning--an entrepreneur who started the port and Southern California’s first railroad--the community was named after Banning’s birthplace, Wilmington, Del. It was incorporated in 1872.

But Wilmington and neighboring San Pedro voted in 1909 to become part of the city of Los Angeles. If they had not, Los Angeles might not have a port today.

In exchange for annexation, Wilmington was promised improved schools, a police station, a fire station and a public library, according to historical records. Ironically, inadequate library and school facilities and lack of police protection are now among the major complaints of current residents.

Wilmington’s tiny library, built in 1926, was intended to serve a population of 20,000; at one of its elementary schools, reading is taught in a renovated restroom--the stalls are still standing--and the math laboratory is housed in a cramped former storage room. Two Los Angeles Police Department cars are assigned to patrol the community of 40,000, although a Police Department commander said additional cruisers are often in the area.

“Wilmington’s association with the city of Los Angeles is gaining it zilch. It could be in Iowa for as much as it matters,” said Edward J. Kaveney, a resident for 25 years and chief financial officer of Wilmington’s 62-year-old Metropolitan Stevedore Co.

“It’s unfortunate that there is no question that Wilmington has been a neglected community over the years,” said U.S. Rep. Glenn Anderson (D-Harbor City) whose district includes Wilmington. “Los Angeles is, by the way, the only large city that I’m aware of in the entire nation today whose founding fathers deliberately chose not to build on the water. Look at New York, for example, or San Francisco or Chicago. . . . When the deal was cut to center downtown Los Angeles where it is today, Wilmington’s fate was sealed.”

But Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who has represented Wilmington for the last four years, argues that Wilmington receives the same services as other areas of the city. Such services are not based on the amount of tax revenue an area produces, she said. Moreover, Flores added, many areas of Los Angeles complain of neglect.

Despite repeated requests, Mayor Tom Bradley declined for more than two months to schedule an interview on Wilmington’s relationship with the city of Los Angeles. A press aide for the mayor first responded to a reporter’s request for an interview by asking whether Wilmington was part of the city of Los Angeles. The aide said she thought it was an unincorporated county area.

Makes Appointments

Among his many mayoral powers that affect Wilmington, Bradley makes appointments to the Board of Harbor Commissioners, which governs the port. In Bradley’s 12-year tenure as mayor, no Wilmington resident has served on the board.

In fact, it has been 32 years and 50 appointments since a Wilmington resident has been selected as a harbor commissioner, city records show. Since 1953, nine San Pedro residents have been chosen as commissioners, one of whom later apparently moved to Wilmington.

“Wilmington has people qualified to be on that commission,” said lifelong resident Alfredo Pacheco, a retired Los Angeles police officer. “It’s a slap in the face to have people from the Westside and the valley and downtown representing the harbor. Four of those five commissioners should be from the harbor area . . . and some should be from Wilmington.”

Pacheco and others say that if Wilmington were represented, it might get some attention from the port. Although state law says harbor income can be used only for improvement of the port itself, such improvements may include oceanfront recreational and commercial developments. Residents say that with the industrial clutter the port generates in Wilmington, it could at least provide such desirable development, too. It has not.

In San Pedro, however, the port has paid for $3.2 million in improvements to the Ports o’ Call Village restaurant and shopping complex, and it plans a $60-million World Cruise Center and a $100-million West Channel/Cabrillo Beach recreational complex.

“I think the port has definitely put more amenities in San Pedro,” said Flores, the councilwoman, who lives there. “There’s no question about it. But I do believe we’re beginning to make inroads into convincing the Harbor Department that the same attention to amenities . . . must begin to happen in Wilmington.”

The port’s executive director disagreed.

“I don’t know where you’d put a marina or some other type of commercial development in Wilmington, and I don’t see it happening in the near future,” said Ezunial Burts. “It’s not in our master plan for the area. The port does not have a responsibility to develop a community. Our responsibility, by law, does not go beyond the port.”

Envious Neighbors

Many Wilmington residents look enviously at San Pedro, not only because of its port-funded developments but also because of its city-financed improvements. San Pedro’s business district, for example, is undergoing a revitalization effort for which the city of Los Angeles has provided $760,000 through grant money and a citywide reconstruction program.

“Flores pays more attention to San Pedro than she does to Wilmington,” said 30-year resident Trinidad Godinez. “It’s not hard to tell San Pedro is doing much better than Wilmington.”

But Flores argues that the city is not to blame for the disparity.

“The port has done more for San Pedro, but the city doesn’t do more for one area than another area,” she said. “There is a perception that in San Pedro the streets are swept more often, that the street lights are put up more often and that the roads are paved more. That is not true.”

Flores said that in San Pedro the city is requiring private developers to provide such improvements as road widening and street lights. When Wilmington experiences a development boom, such provisions also will be made, she said.

But some residents contend that Flores simply has not offered enough leadership. They say it will take the unrelenting efforts of a strong leader to turn Wilmington around. “Flores seems to make an honest effort,” said Pacheco, the retired police officer, “but she tries to be all things to all people . . . and everything is always pending with Joan. How much pressure is ever exerted on city agencies to handle Wilmington’s problems?’

Flores argues that she has provided leadership for Wilmington, more than it has ever had.

Other Projects

She said she hopes to begin another redevelopment project in Wilmington (an industrial park was initiated by the city 11 years ago but is only 20% completed), bring its planned $2.2-million library to completion and assign representatives from all city maintenance departments to an an intensive cleanup campaign. No funding has been committed to the redevelopment project or the cleanup.

“The question is not what the city has done or not done,” she said. “The city doesn’t do anything. The citizens are the city. . . . As they become more aware of their surroundings, things change. When problems have been brought to the attention of this office, they’ve been dealt with.”

Some residents agree that Flores has done as much as she can.

“We have our problems, but we’re not without representation,” said the Rev. Herb Ezell, pastor for 39 years of Wilmington’s Harbor Christian Center. “Before (former Councilman) John Gibson and Joan Flores, Wilmington was a stepchild to Los Angeles. It looked much worse then. There were more unimproved streets and more junkyards. . . . Things will get better if people just hang in there and wait; all things come to him who waits.”

But others say they have waited long enough. Some of the community’s largest problems, they contend, are the oldest. Perhaps most significant is inadequate planning.

Although in many communities zoning regulations are used to guide development--for example, by separating homes from industries--they have not been used effectively in Wilmington, residents and several officials say.

Indeed, land-use conflicts cause much of Wilmington’s traffic, noise and pollution. To a lesser extent, some blame poor planning--and the general atmosphere of disorder and neglect it fosters--for Wilmington’s lack of quality development and for the illegal dumping of litter, toxic waste and automobiles.

“Lack of planning has caused a lot of Wilmington’s problems,” said Peter Mendoza, a member of a city-appointed planning committee who became involved after the city permitted the construction of a warehouse behind his home.

“The consequences have been warehouses in residential neighborhoods, the heavy truck traffic. . . . The effects include the noise, the dust, the dirt, the junkyards. . . . There’s also the effect of having a two- or three-story apartment building next to a single-family home that’s been there for 40 years.”

Poor planning has permitted a major residential neighborhood to be across the street from a trash dump that has a community prominence one official compared to Disneyland’s towering Matterhorn ride. Although the dump was closed 10 months ago, residents continue to complain of unsightliness, roaches, rodents and persistent stench.

Land-Use Problems

“Other areas of the city have land-use problems, but many of them are not as blatant,” said Larry Friedman, the city planner for Wilmington. “The longstanding land-use problems in Wilmington have been between residential and industrial areas. . . . Most of the problems are very classic land-use problems: Zoning was originally designed to separate manufacturing areas from residential areas.”

Many say that the city has ignored Wilmington’s planning problems. In fact, when Wilmington was studied for zoning changes in the late 1960s, the proposals endorsed by the City Council in a “community plan” were never enacted.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Friedman said, most community plans in Los Angeles were treated just like Wilmington’s: basically as maps of good intentions for which zoning changes were never approved. But many residents say that Wilmington’s planning problems had more severe consequences because of its longstanding mishmash of industrial and residential properties.

Some blame the lack of attention to these problems on the area’s former councilman, John S. Gibson Jr., who represented the area for 30 years, until 1981. Gibson often said he considered Houston the ideal city because it has no zoning.

“I thought a good many people would not be able to afford to purchase the property if it was rezoned, and I felt the industries were already there and they were providing employment for the people,” said Gibson, who acknowledged in an interview that it was his decision not to push for the zoning changes.

“In other words,” he continued, “I didn’t think the city should be dictatorial over private property when the city already let them establish there. The city of Los Angeles is way too strong in telling private people what they can do.”

Although efforts are under way to correct some of Wilmington’s land-use problems--Councilwoman Flores last year again initiated the community planning process--it could be years before they are realized. In fact, even though a city ordinance passed in 1961 prohibited the construction of homes in manufacturing zones, Wilmington still has at least 60 residential dwellings that predated the ordinance in such areas.

Apartment Projects

And in addition to the planning problems of the past, many say that Wilmington recently has been besieged by another: the location of new apartment developments. About 40 complexes, most of them high density, have been planned or built in the last year, according to a Wilmington homeowners’ group.

“The apartment projects are increasing the population without adding services,” said Jo Ann Wysocki, a 42-year resident and member of the group. “The overcrowded schools, the lack of police protection, the lack of street sweeping--these problems will not change; they will only get worse with these new developments. . . . And many of the new developments are coming in before that (new) community plan is even finished.”

The general state of disarray in Wilmington has contributed to a “dumping ground” atmosphere, many residents charge.

They say projects that other communities would never tolerate regularly turn up in Wilmington: two heroin-addict treatment clinics, toxic-waste plants, the housing of transients in the main business district hotel and a proposed halfway house for prison parolees.

Flores has a policy against taking stands on zoning-related issues until they reach the City Council, and she said she was not aware of several of the projects, including the business district housing program and the community’s toxic-waste plants. She has since supported several city measures to tighten toxic-waste-related zoning regulations.

And although some residents have criticized Flores for failing to take stands on or inform the community about some of these projects, they also blame other elected officials.

For example, the locating of a county-funded heroin-addict clinic next to a newly constructed major apartment complex led to public irritation with Deane Dana, the county supervisor for Wilmington, as did the housing of transients in the business district hotel, another county program.

“These facilities are not characteristic of the Wilmington area--many communities have these things,” Dana responded in an interview. “We’re putting these facilities where the need is. . . . We study the aspects of where the people who use these things are coming from. There isn’t an environmental impact report for each one.”

Toxic waste in the community--an issue of great concern in Wilmington, where a major hazardous-waste treatment facility has been proposed by the BKK Corp. and six smaller facilities already exist--should be more closely monitored by Wilmington’s state representatives, residents maintain.

State Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena), whose district includes Wilmington, could not be reached for comment.