To Succeed Big, Think Small : Rebuilding means helping small businesses

The task of rebuilding Los Angeles after the riots has riveted attention on the economic and political paralysis gripping the United States. Fears that the violence that exploded in Los Angeles could ignite in urban centers across the country has set the nation’s best thinkers and policy-makers to working anew on solutions for inner-city problems.

Los Angeles could be a test case for many new ideas, such as those outlined in The Times’ special report “The Path to Recovery,” in Friday’s editions. Solutions for rescuing the city are not applicable only to Los Angeles. Indeed, the themes have regional, national and even global implications. They address tough challenges. The pay-back will be long-term, and there are no guarantees that the programs will ever produce desired results. But we cannot afford not to try.

The ideas provide a crucial beginning that could be especially useful to the fledgling Rebuild L.A., now being organized by Peter V. Ueberroth. A key to the L.A. recovery will be the private sector working in partnership with government.

Residents of South Los Angeles, the area that suffered the worst damage, have long felt abandoned by city leaders and voters. Crucial to rebuilding will be embracing South Los Angeles and its people as an essential part of the city--rather than seeing the area as a hellhole “down there.”

Thus South Los Angeles rehabilitation efforts should not be done in a vacuum or confined to only a small area. They should be part of a regional revitalization of Southern California’s industrial/manufacturing base, the nation’s largest. Area business is dominated by small firms. Locally owned firms, with resident operators having a deep stake in their communities, are crucial.

In order to more effectively compete, small business will have to network and create cooperatives to help each other with quality control, production and technical expertise. Government works project like Metrorail and electric trolley/bus projects should provide incentives to contractors to parcel out parts manufacturing to small local producers.

Additional public works spending would funnel more money into cities. Financier Felix G. Rohatyn argues for a new New Deal--to the tune of $1 trillion nationwide over a 10-year period. How feasible? The money would be used to reverse the physical decay of cities by providing decent housing and schools and safe streets and public transportation.

Putting some of the new ideas to work will cost money--plenty of it. The need to search for new revenue sources cannot be ruled out, because the costs of abandoning America’s cities grow by the minute. One way or the other, we all pay.