Residents Call B of A Branch Closure Plans ‘Slap in the Face’

Residents of a South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood on Monday urged the Bank of America to keep open a branch office that has been there for nearly 40 years, saying the closure will be “another slap in the face” to inner-city businesses and residents.

Representing the Vernon Central Merchants Assn. and other neighborhood groups, about six people gathered Monday in front of the Central-Jefferson branch office at 3420 S. Central Avenue to urge patrons to lobby bank officials to keep the facility open past Wednesday’s scheduled closing date.

Residents argued that closure will prove inconvenient for many patrons--especially senior citizens.

“This is the only bank in the area for miles,” said Huntley Bluestein, an area businessman for more than 20 years. “Many people don’t have the means to travel someplace else. What will happen now is that senior citizens and others in the community will get their checks cashed at check-cashing establishments and they will become targets of crime, even more so than they are now. I think it’s a slap in the face and the bank is saying they don’t give a damn.”

Bank of America, beset by financial problems in recent years, has already closed, or consolidated, five Los Angeles-area offices this year, two of them in minority communities. But officials insist that they are not abandoning the South-Central community and argue that it will be better served by consolidating the Central Avenue facility with a larger office 2 miles away at 6400 S. Avalon Blvd.

“We will be able to broaden the expertise and services we are able to offer by having a larger office, and we’ll be able to provide much more parking space for banking,” said area manager John Destouet.

Destouet said the Central Avenue branch serves an area with a population of about 50,000 and has about 6,000 accounts. He said the consolidated branch will still aggressively solicit business from the community and will try to retain current accounts.

The manager rejected arguments that transportation to another bank office will prove a hardship for seniors. Bank officials, however, have met with Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay and community groups to discuss such concerns, Destouet said.

One option being considered is a localized mini-bus service that would pick up bank patrons at a central location and take them to the new office, Destouet said.

Bank of America spokesman Curtiss Olsen, noting that the bank has been forced to close hundreds of branches statewide since 1984 to reduce overhead costs, said the South-Central community has not been singled out.

Other Los Angeles-area branches closed this year are the office at 7th and Spring streets downtown, the Highland-Hollywood branch, the Boyle Heights branch and offices in the San Gabriel Valley and Bell Gardens, Olsen said.

“We think we can serve this community just as well, or better, from the branch we’re moving into. We’re not abandoning this market in any way,” he said.

But many residents point to the closure as another instance of corporate neglect of inner-city communities.

“Thirty years ago, this community was thriving and they were eager to come in then,” said Robert Gill, who has owned a dry cleaning business on South Central Avenue since 1930. “They made a lot of money here and this branch is still busy. People have supported it. But now they’re ready to get out. It’s really a shame.”