Century Boulevard Is a Crime, Merchants Say : Inglewood: City Council and police representatives hear complaints about robberies, drug dealing and prostitution.

Their wares are as varied as rental cars, motel lodging and hamburgers, but what brought the outraged Inglewood merchants together Thursday was a common problem: crime along Century Boulevard.

In a meeting with Councilman Garland Hardeman and Police Capt. James Seymour, 25 merchants complained of drug dealing and prostitution outside their businesses and frequent break-ins and robberies inside.

“The street is infested,” said one hotel operator who complained of drug transactions in front of his business. “We’re tired of it.”

Although Hardeman and Seymour did not offer an immediate antidote to the problem, they acknowledged the merchants’ complaints and agreed to meet with them again in a month after reviewing the deployment of police officers along Century Boulevard.

“I understand that the business community represents a great deal of the life of a community,” Seymour told the merchants. “I know that when the businesses go down, the city is the ultimate loser.”

One of the most outspoken businessmen was Roscoe Bond, who complained that the Burger King he manages has become a hangout for prostitutes who perform sex acts in the restrooms and for drug dealers who store their wares in the restroom ventilation grates.

Bond, who has managed the restaurant since 1986, said that the Burger King was held up by gunmen in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and that it took police between 40 minutes and an hour and a half to respond each time.

“We need more enforcement,” Bond said, visibly angry. “We’ve got a problem that affects the daily operation of our businesses.”

Merchants said the criminal activity has forced them to pour money into crime prevention. Bond installed a coin entry to his restrooms, but he said even that has not solved the problem. “A large part of my time is spent dealing with those idiots,” he said.

Another merchant took a novel anti-crime approach when he noticed that the pay telephones outside his liquor store were becoming a hangout for drug dealers and prostitutes. He first converted the privately owned pay phones to one-way calling to disrupt the business negotiations and then installed a special switch in the store that can be used to cut power to all the phones.

Rusty Dalton, general manager of the Days Inn on Century Boulevard, complained of burglaries in guest rooms, automobile break-ins in the parking lot and two armed robberies in the last six months.

Dalton said customers are tired of being approached by panhandlers in the parking lot. Hotel employees see the same panhandlers so often that they have given them nicknames, he said. One of the panhandlers, called the “Gas Can Man,” approaches customers day after day, saying he needs a few dollars for gas so he can get his stranded car full of family members to Riverside.

Dalton urged immediate action by city officials. “We represent a lot of votes . . . and we represent a lot of tax revenue to the city,” he said.

Century Boulevard, one of Inglewood’s major east-west thoroughfares, changes dramatically as it crosses the Los Angeles line. There, instead of bargain-rate motels and run-down liquor stores, the street is lined with major hotels and office complexes.

Hardeman said Inglewood has been struggling for years to spruce up its stretch of Century through redevelopment efforts. But he acknowledged that social problems linger on the street.

“The reality of the situation is that it’s gotten out of hand,” said Hardeman, a Los Angeles police officer who is facing reelection to the council in April. “But we’re here to take more aggressive action.”

He mentioned two anti-crime measures passed by the City Council last year: changing many pay telephones to one-way calling to discourage drug dealers and banning hourly rates at motels and construction of motels with fewer than 50 rooms.

Hardeman said increased law enforcement alone cannot solve the problems along Century. He urged the business owners to seek long-term solutions by becoming more involved in Inglewood as a community and helping to steer its young people away from crime.

When one business owner said he spends $1,500 a month on private security to protect his property, Hardeman said that for far less money, businesses could sponsor scholarships and have the satisfaction of seeing “a kid walking across the stage (at graduation).”

The more involved business people become in the community, Hardeman said, the less likely they will become frustrated with the problems they are facing.

“When you become involved in the community, you never give up,” he said.

Seymour said police have been aggressively fighting the prostitution problem along Century, citing a sting operation in September that netted 42 clients.

Nonetheless, Seymour said, the fight remains an uphill battle.

The strained judicial system lets prostitutes out soon after they are arrested, he said.

Even the closing of an out-of-state brothel affected Century Boulevard. When Nevada’s notorious Mustang Ranch was padlocked last year by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to pay back taxes, some of the prostitutes left that state for Los Angeles International Airport, Seymour said.

“Then it was just a short cab ride to Inglewood,” he said.