Reaching Out to Rebuild L.A. : Ueberroth should not look only in the obvious places for board choices

People of goodwill in the Los Angeles area--and that means most of us--are eager, even anxious, to speed the process of rebuilding the community after the recent rioting. That’s why the announcement of a board of directors for Rebuild L.A., the nonprofit group headed by Peter V. Ueberroth, has been anticipated eagerly ever since Mayor Tom Bradley announced that the 1984 Olympics czar would head the rebuilding effort.

Rebuild L.A. is eventually supposed to have a 63-member board reflecting many of the groups in this incredibly diverse community. But so far Ueberroth has mentioned only two dozen people who have agreed to serve. They include Gov. Pete Wilson, incoming Los Angeles Police Chief Willie Williams, state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, Cardinal Roger Mahony, actor Edward James Olmos and Korean-American architect Ki Suh Park.

It appears that the man who helped make the 1984 Summer Games a rousing success by never pushing further than Angelenos would support him again is testing the waters of public opinion, dropping names here and there, then gauging the reaction.

That is understandable, given the criticism that has been leveled at Ueberroth by some observers who wonder how well a resident of the prosperous suburbs of Orange County can understand the problems of the inner city. It is also wise given the political jockeying over the board’s makeup that has begun among ethnic groups and even factions of the same community. Few Latinos have been named, for example, because Ueberroth says that it is hard to find many acceptable to the rival political camps headed by Councilman Richard Alatorre and Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Finding such people can be hard, but it is not impossible. And our initial reaction to the names announced so far is that they’re a sound and safe group of people--but maybe a little too safe.

Rebuild L.A. needs a wider array of leaders, especially from organized labor and community groups like the United Neighborhoods Organization of East Los Angeles, the most effective grass-roots group in the city’s barrios. Such leaders sometimes can use an in-your-face style, but they are well-organized and constructive. They would provide the grass-roots support that Rebuild L.A.’s board so far seems to lack.

In the end, however, we all must remember that Rebuild L.A.’s board is largely symbolic. A 63-person body can be pretty unwieldy, after all, so the real hands-on work of Rebuild L.A. is likely to be done by its staff. And even then, Rebuild L.A. must not become the be-all and end-all of the effort to improve this community. The real work of rebuilding L.A. will be done by all of us, in thousands of large and small ways that must proceed apace, regardless of what Rebuild L.A. does.