RIOT AFTERMATH: GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS : Clinton Treated Coolly on Firebombed Avenue

The survivors of firebombed Vermont Avenue looked on with a little curiosity, some skepticism and a lot of indifference Monday as Bill Clinton inspected the devastation firsthand and talked about how a Clinton presidency might make life better for them.

Virgie Jenkins, for one, thought something more basic than new federal programs was the place to start rebuilding the burned-out hulks around the hole-in-the-wall restaurant she and Willie Leon Jenkins, 81, have operated for 18 years at 8417 S. Vermont Ave.

“The first thing they need to do is put prayer back in the schools,” said 75-year-old Virgie Jenkins, who poured 65-cent cups of coffee for visiting reporters and apologized for the way she talked because she didn’t have her false teeth in at the moment.

Will the burned-out ones rebuild?

“I think so,” she said. “It depends on how much faith they have. You’ve got to have faith.”

Never mind that Clinton, the Arkansas governor who is almost certain to become the Democratic presidential nominee, was due to appear at any moment right in front of her restaurant, with its Neighborhood Watch sticker in the front window. Virgie Jenkins was still angry with her husband for risking his life by spending most of Thursday evening spraying water on the south side of the restaurant to keep it from burning down.

“He’s more important to me than any old restaurant,” she said.

Attempts to steer the conversation back to Clinton’s visit were thwarted when a woman named Jean padded into the restaurant and plopped down onto a sofa with sigh.

“I’ve been waiting up at the post office for two hours,” she said. “I finally got my check, but I had to fight like hell to get it.”

A few blocks away, the Arkansas governor in the green golfing shirt was winding up a conversation with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and area activists at Waters’ home on 82nd Street. A neighbor who declined to be quoted by name said the problems began when the young people drifted away from their families, gave up on getting an education and the few jobs that were available in the area.

“I really think, in my heart, that this is the beginning of God’s judgment,” said the woman, who has lived in the same house for 35 years.

Did Clinton’s visit make any difference?

“I hope it will help,” said a Latino man who took a break from volunteer cleanup chores at the burned-out Super Swap store on the other side of Vermont Avenue, near 84th Place. But he added, “It’s too bad the only time they (the politicians) come is when there’s something like this.”

Even so, the man made a come-on-over gesture with his arm and caught the eye of Clinton, who was about 50 feet away and just concluding a sidewalk press conference with a gaggle of reporters and photographers. Clinton grinned, hesitated and hiked over. He shook hands and exchanged brief greetings with the volunteer and several other onlookers.

There was no time for conversation. Clinton was due at the next stop of a hastily arranged tour that took him from Koreatown to South Los Angeles to City Hall before flying on to Columbus, Ohio, for the night.

Escorted by City Councilman Michael Woo through a small slice of Koreatown, along Vermont between 8th and 9th streets, Clinton heard complaints that Korean-American businessmen seemed to be targeted for looting and firebombing by blacks.

At Vermont and 84th Place, he would have heard another side of the story if he had talked to Herve Gordon, 45, a county social worker who lives a block or so from the intersection.

He said of the black welfare recipients who live in nearby apartment buildings: “They spent all their money right here with these Koreans. And they got treated like crap.”

“These businesses used to be all black, and some Jewish,” he said. But suddenly--and mysteriously, he thought--they were taken over by Korean-American proprietors.

“You never knew it was for sale. You never knew there was an opportunity to invest in your neighborhood. They have some kind of invisible inside line on it,” Gordon said.

“These new people don’t know how to communicate,” Gordon complained. “The Jewish people at least knew enough to act like they respected you, whether they did or not.”

As for Clinton’s appearance, Gordon said, “It’s a farce. It’s ludicrous.”

Another skeptic was Henry Stewart, a UCLA maintenance man, who said he doubted Clinton’s visit would make much of a difference.

“If he wasn’t running for office, he wouldn’t be here, right? There’s just nothing he can do.”

Back on Vermont, Willie Leon Jenkins said he and Virgie will keep operating their restaurant right where it is.

He is one merchant, he said, who was treated with respect by local gang members.

“I treat them nice,” he said.