Voices of Business Tell How to Rebuild L.A. : Aftermath: Six leaders of civic and business groups share their views on where to start.

In the wake of verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case, Los Angeles suffered huge economic losses. The damage from buildings burned and looted during the rioting was put at $785 million, and an estimated 10,000 jobs may be lost forever in the already hard-pressed southern Los Angeles area. On top of that, Los Angeles’ image--which has been crucial in attracting tourists and business investment--was devastated.

What can be done to rebuild Los Angeles and its economy? Many have opinions; few have concrete blueprints. Most plans involve not just the business community but fundamental changes in government and public and private spending. Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein and correspondent Michele Lingre posed the question of how to rebuild to a variety of business and civic leaders. Excerpts of their comments follow:

MUHAMMAD NASSARDEEN, president of the Inglewood-based advocacy group Recycling Black Dollars Foundation:

Several steps need to be taken. . . . There must be cultural exchange workshops set up so that Korean businessmen can have a better understanding of our community and our community can have a better understanding of them. Many of the misunderstandings and bad feelings that have taken place and that led up to this revolt are the result of a lack of communication and a lack of understanding and cultural awareness.

Participants in the rebellion were predominantly the disenfranchised--people who had nothing to lose. The solution must involve getting work for many of these young people. We suggest that licensed demolition contractors from the community be contracted to train and hire these young people during what we feel will be a long, hot summer to clean up the devastated areas. . . . We can get the youngsters involved in that process which will, one, accomplish giving them work and something positive to do and, two, it will make them an integral part in the rebuilding of Los Angeles, which will give them something that they can tell their grandchildren about.

In 1965, (after the Watts violence) we essentially gave people fish by throwing money at the community. This time we must teach people to fish, implementing a building trades apprenticeship program that will train hundreds of unemployed members of the community in skills such as carpentry, plumbing, brick laying and electrical work. They can actually get on-the-job training and work with contractors to rebuild the community while developing a permanent trade to take them out of the poverty cycle forever. . . . We think that it is critical to put that in place while the cleanup is taking place, because again you’re endearing the members of the community to the rebuilding process.

We also feel that there should be a community reinvestment fund established where members of the community can invest money into a pool of funds that will assist black contractors in acquiring the bonds, the material and the equipment necessary for them to work on the major contracts that are going (out) during this rebuilding process. A lot of contractors are not able to participate in the larger jobs because they don’t have working capital to allow them to do that. This way the community can assist in that.

There needs to be a task force put together to start to look at new technologies and to get manufacturing plants located in the community and to begin training people for high-paying jobs.

You know people are not going to give up selling drugs for flipping hamburgers, so we have to find some more exciting, well-paying positions that offer people some real alternatives that are going to take them out of the cycle of poverty.

DANIEL VILLANUEVA SR., former president of Channel 34, president of Villanueva Capital. The Villanueva family operates KPLS, a Latino all-news station based in the city of Orange.

This is a terrible wake-up call to Washington, to Sacramento, City Hall, the County building and to our corporate people.

Almost 50% of the businesses affected were Latino and it seems that this part has been overlooked. I am greatly concerned about the profound ripple effect this will have on tourism and the support service industries where we have a lot of Latino people employed.

Now we are trying to help Latino businessmen get through the process of applying for help from agencies and banks.

We Latinos are entrepreneurial by nature; sometimes we work two jobs to keep our little businesses alive till we get them going. We have to encourage that, but we also have to show them (these small business owners) how you gain access to capital and how the system works.

Los Angeles is at a real big crossroads and we have to determine if it is easier as a business to leave the city, or see if we can heal and build an infrastructure that will carry us forward.

On a larger scale, I think we have to re-evaluate the roles of our institutions including the church and schools. We are producing a generation that is going to be doomed to certain levels and certain industries because of lack of education. Schools have to assume a greater role, and the parents have to get involved in the education of our kids.

Also, now is a terrible time to cut in police, fire, parks and recreation programs. We are cutting in the wrong places. Maybe we should look at the perks that supervisors have, we should look at our spending in non-human areas, like transportation.

We have to address the things done in the inner city by some very heroic people, against all odds, without a lot of help. We have to lock arms with them and say “What happens in the inner city impacts the rest of the city, it impacts the whole Southern California area.”

ANNIE E. CHO, executive director of the Korean-American Grocers Assn. The association is based in Los Angeles and was created in 1982.

People talk about rebuilding financially and structurally, but we need to rebuild emotionally. The events that took place in Los Angeles last week do not stem from racial problems, but from economic injustice.

Simply put, the government has to stop giving lip service and come up with programs that actually will meet the needs of people in that area, that will address unemployment, education, better housing, the problems that all of us in American inner cities face.

Unless those deeply rooted problems are addressed, everything else would be a facade.

The willingness to accept and the determination to forge ahead has to come from the community, but government has to provide programs for people to get hooked into. Self-esteem is almost nonexistent in our inner cities; our children are better skilled in how to use a gun than a pencil.

I don’t know how our taxes are being used. We are still using over $100 billion in this post Cold-War era to defend Europe and Asia, so obviously there is money. My taxes and your taxes have been going up all along without our social problems being addressed. We have to set our priorities straight.

RICHARD J. RIORDAN, Los Angeles lawyer and businessman:

The L.A. economy is being significantly hurt by the perception of lack of safety in Los Angeles. We’ve lost convention business, tourist business, business that creates significant jobs because of this. Now, with these riots, we’re going to see a dramatic acceleration of that. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that I have never seen the city more galvanized for action than this. It’s just incredible. People now recognize all the things that have been said the last years by myself and others about the permanent underclass, that kids are being raised without the tools to compete in a complex society and they’re doomed to careers as drug addicts, criminals, homeless people and welfare recipients. And I’ve never seen such an outpouring of people who want to help--with their money, with their time, with everything.

To finance the rebuilding, there is a need for venture capital in the inner city so that the occupants there can take control of their communities and their environment and with it be empowered to improve their environment and be held accountable.

It cannot be done ultimately by outsiders. The whole trick is to have people--through capital, through leadership, through training--take control of their own environment, their own businesses, their own lifestyle.

I’ve been involved in minority venture capital for about 25 years, representing major companies, and it’s been a disaster, total disaster. People have to be smart enough to go in and seek out the type of businessmen and businesses that can be helped. And, these will generally be small- to medium-sized businesses. The day of large-scale manufacturing in the inner-city is over.

I think the money is there. . . . But the genius is going to be how to use that money. . . . All of a sudden every politician is going to want to get a hand in the jar, get credit for giving this, that, or the other person money, and you’re going to be back where you started--putting money into the wrong places, in these businesses that are doomed to failure.

The solutions are, in effect, getting down into the inner bowels of the inner city, getting to know who the true leaders are--not just the politicians and the phonies, but the true leaders--and work with them. And a good start are the churches. Churches in South-Central tend to be key power centers.

WILLIE D. DAVIS, president of Inglewood-based All-Pro Broadcasting, a director of Kmart Corp. and former professional football player:

One thing we learn to appreciate in particular as minorities is if you are to be successful, you’ve got to overcome obstacles. And sometimes, you really have to be prepared to accept obstacles as part of your life and rise above them. In this particular case, I would enlarge that to the total community. We need now to look to the future with this great sense that we can make L.A. the great place that we all would like it to be.

One of the problems today in the black community, and somewhat mirrored by the Hispanic community, is that all these years have passed and we still have not built meaningful ownership or meaningful economic development.

I’d like to see the Small Business Administration be much more active and much more sensitive to funding things that can make a difference. One of the toughest things still for minorities is to get financing in business.

If major corporations, government agencies and nonprofit foundations teamed up to provide financing, you could have a nice capital base to do something very real and very meaningful. Ten years from now, you could really look to businesses and opportunities that grew out of this nightmare and that would enable us all to step back and say, “Gee, we made some real progress this time.”

ROSA MARIN, executive director of the Latin Business Assn. based in Los Angeles. The association has been in existence since 1976.

Over 40% of the property and businesses destroyed were Latino-owned, the loss is estimated at $1.8 billion, and the real tragedy is that there is still no political voice for (Latinos who make up) approximately 50% of the population of South-Central Los Angeles.

Peter Ueberroth must include in the L.A. task force to rebuild a minimum of 50% Latino representation at the decision-making levels; 50% of the funds and resources must be earmarked and directed to Latino concerns and firms within the affected areas.

We have to look at loan distribution, cut the red tape, increase the line of credit (to businesses) without restrictions. In particular we must eliminate redlining, that conscious discrimination made by lending institutions.

The Latino population has always been perceived as high-risk and that has to change because they are in fact the most viable business group in L.A., as they have displayed significant increases in revenues and employment. So it makes sense to support the most leading progressive entrepreneurs, help them contribute to the development of our economy and tax base.

Then the Latino community must demand political participation. We must also make a concerted effort to position Latino leaders in committees making decisions as to allocation of funds. With that we can articulate the needs for improvement.

Support the Latino business community and involve it in making the decisions as to where the dollars for social services should go. Once you empower a community, the problems of social services will basically take care of themselves.