Racist Threat Disclosed in Fight Over Historic Redondo Home

A long-running dispute between a group of neighborhood preservationists and a Redondo Beach couple seeking to remodel their historic home reached a tearful crescendo on Wednesday, as the couple--the only black residents on the block--disclosed that they have received an anonymous racist threat.

In an emotional hearing before the city’s Preservation Commission, Jackie and Herman Bose, who for months have said that race played no part in the controversy, said they awoke Sunday to find a vicious note slipped under the door of their North Gertruda Avenue home.

Addressed simply to “neighbor,” the note, in a crude printed hand, opened with a racial epithet and warned, “This is only the start.”

The revelation came in the midst of proceedings to determine whether the Boses’ neighborhood, already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, should also be listed as a “local historic district”--a designation that would give the Preservation Commission authority to review any exterior changes to the homes within its boundaries.

The Boses’ neighbors want the designation to include about a dozen homes on North Gertruda Avenue, including the Bose house. The Boses, meanwhile, are asking that they be excluded from the district. And city planning staffers have recommended that the commission include only a handful of homes on one side of the street, excluding the Bose house and a number of others that are separated by more modern homes.

Despite four hours of testimony, however, the commission failed to come to a conclusion on the thorny issue, and continued the hearing until May 22.

The hearing Wednesday was the latest development in a dispute that for months has divided the Boses’ block. Preservationists in the neighborhood--a tidy parade of Craftsman-style and Colonial Revival bungalows at one end of the avenue’s 300 block--say the area and a handful of others like it around the city are all that’s left of old Redondo Beach. Over the years, they note, block after block has fallen to make way for condominium developments, and local history has been given short shrift in favor of property rights.

Several years ago, residents on the block applied for and received a listing on the National Register of Historic Places, hoping that would help ensure its preservation. But the designation does not prevent houses in the area from being demolished or remodeled, and when the city in 1988 passed a slightly tougher preservation ordinance allowing such neighborhoods to become local historic districts, Redondo Beach historians speculated that North Gertruda Avenue would be among the first applicants.

But residents there did not immediately apply, and when the Boses bought their historic home a year and a half ago, they said, they were told by city officials that they could fix it up any way they wanted as long as it conformed with the rest of the block.

The Boses say their plans to add a second story, install new windows, build a garage and restore the original clapboard facade is in keeping with the character of the neighborhood. But their neighbors--led by Don Schweikert and Sandra Dyan--disagreed, charging that the Boses’ plans could jeopardize their listing on the register.

The dispute over the Boses’ blueprints, both sides say, has escalated for more than a year. After months of meetings with neighbors and city officials, the Boses went last month to the City Council, which sided with them in a 3-2 vote.

Meanwhile, however, Schweikert and Dyan had collected signatures for a petition seeking designation as a local historic district for about a dozen houses on the Boses’ end of the block, including the Boses’ home. The action, in effect, takes the matter out of the council’s hands until the Preservation Commission--of which Dyan is a member--has a chance to review the petitions.

Schweikert said the move was coincidental, and Dyan made a point of excusing herself from the debate on Wednesday, citing the potential conflict of interest. But the Boses and their attorney, Randall Kimose, charged that the neighbors were simply trying to further delay the planned renovation and asked the commission to exclude the Bose home from any historic district they approve.

“The neighbors have appealed and fought this every step of the way. It has been a horrendous battle,” Kimose told the Preservation Commission Wednesday. “Every step has been calculated to slow down, delay or hinder the Boses. In fact, we have often suspected the intent is to stop them from building altogether.”

Pausing, Kimose then submitted the anonymous note as part of the public record, charging, “whoever left that note, I feel, is a racist.”

Several members of the commission announced that the note was irrelevant to the issue of whether the historic district ought to be approved. But when Commissioner Frank Bostrom questioned whether the note should be placed on record, Jackie Bose rushed to the podium, weeping.

“I’ve had people from as far away as Lawndale and Inglewood . . . ask me, do I think this is racism. I’ve always said no,” she said. But from her arrival in the neighborhood, she told the council, other homeowners made insensitive remarks to her, ranging from a suggestion that she place a black Santa Claus on her roof next year to an apparently well-intentioned comment from a neighbor who said she was glad black people had moved into the neighborhood because it helped show her family that Redondo Beach is not homogeneous.

“It is a racial issue, and I’m very upset about it,” Bose said, slamming her palm on the podium. Later, weeping on her husband’s shoulder, she sobbed, “They just don’t know. . . . They just don’t know. The things you overlook.”

Schweikert and other neighbors expressed dismay that the dispute had become so painful and personal.

“There is no racism here,” said a troubled Karen Burke. “We’re not picking on one person.”

Added Schweikert: “This is just an issue of preservation. It’s so sad that it’s turned into such an emotional thing.”

“The only reason we’ve fought so hard,” Burke said, “is that the city doesn’t support (preservation).” She said the Bose house had to be included in the proposed district because “every house that modernizes threatens our status as a historic block.”

But, she added, “if I’d known I’d end up being accused of being a racist, I would have done it differently.”