PERSPECTIVE ON REBUILDING L.A. : Why Punish the Victims? : City Hall threatens to take away the one thing left to burned-out Korean businesses--the ability to start anew.

Just over a week ago, a group of leaders from the Los Angeles Korean community sat down for a talk with Mayor Tom Bradley. We discussed the damage suffered by Korean-owned businesses during the riots 2 1/2 months ago, and we offered some suggestions for city action that could ease the problems faced by small merchants in our community who are struggling to rebuild their livelihood from scratch.

Mayor Bradley was polite and noncommittal--no big surprise. What was surprising was learning that he and the City Council had never considered or consulted with the merchant-victims before ordering a moratorium on permits to reopen markets that sold liquor in the riot-torn neighborhoods.

Despite the mayor’s assurance that the Korean community in Los Angeles would not be neglected, there has been no response to our questions about where we will stand in rebuilt L.A.

In the meantime, the cityscape near my Wilshire Boulevard office remains dotted with the twisted steel and blackened cinder hulks that mark the graves of once-thriving Korean business enterprises. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear a new story of some Korean merchant or family facing financial disaster. And every day I ask myself, what is happening to my community? Are we being punished?

There are many victims of the Los Angeles riots. None, I will submit, have suffered more than the Korean merchants with small businesses who found themselves the focus of bitter hatred from members of a fellow minority and then the helpless pawns of power-hungry political figures.

Much worse, while the news media has struggled to sift through the cultural confusion of inner-city Los Angeles, it has made its own contributions to the suffering of the Korean community. In particular, media misrepresentation of Korean merchants working in South Los Angeles has done more than its share of fanning the flames of resentment and hatred. It’s easy to hate a stereotype, more difficult than hating a human being. For example, a popular myth is that rich Koreans have poured into poor neighborhoods for no better purpose than to flood the streets with alcohol and suck huge profits from the poor. This is very much a lie.

While it’s true that many Korean immigrants have chosen to earn their living by owning a small business, less than 30% of the city’s Korean businesses exist in what can properly be described as “black” neighborhoods.

The merchants most under attack right now, those who operate small groceries and liquor stores in the poorer neighborhoods, are themselves the poorest of those Koreans who were fortunate enough to emigrate to the United States. The typical Korean grocer in South Los Angeles starts up with an insufficient credit history; this, plus his location in a risky area, makes achieving a bank loan impossible. So he borrows heavily from family and friends at sky-high interest rates, “dollar byun, “ of 24% to 60% per year.

The liquor-store owner does not come to South Los Angeles because he wishes to exploit the community. He is there because small businesses in that community are the most affordable. For a relatively modest investment, a family with few resources that is willing to work from dawn until long after dark can eke out a modest living. Those store owners who are successful will generally sell their businesses and move to safer neighborhoods when they can afford to, just as successful black and Latino residents often seek to move their families away from the dismal domain of drug pushers and gangbangers.

It is these very same small-business owners who are being bled to death, even as the politicians spout rhetoric about hope and rebuilding. An example is the ordinance recently introduced by the City Council that will effectively prevent burned-out merchants from selling alcohol if they rebuild. The motive behind the ordinance is admirable--to reduce the amount of alcohol available in South-Central. Even so, how can the city attempt to take away the constitutional right to conduct a legitimate business without even attempting to compensate for the loss?

In California, liquor licenses are generally transferable. In South-Central, a license will trade for approximately $30,000 to $40,000. In many of the grocery and liquor businesses destroyed during the riots, the liquor license constituted a key basis of the business’ value. The politicians may well bow and congratulate themselves for reducing the number of liquor outlets in South-Central. But what of the hapless store owners who are facing ruin?

We have tried to communicate to Mayor Bradley that city policy for rebuilding South-Central is punishing a group of unfortunate Korean merchants whose only crime was to do the very thing that civic leaders now urge: Invest in a community where few businesses care to risk their capital.

Such a policy is not merely unjust. The approach sets a dangerous precedent which, unless changed, will haunt Los Angeles long after the fresh memory of the 1992 rioting has faded.

Plant the seeds of injustice and you will grow bitter fruit. Why should businesses invest in South-Central if they must add to their risk running afoul of the whims of politicians? And what sort of message does this impulsive, confiscatory new ordinance send to businesses assessing a move to Los Angeles from afar?

True, the burned-out merchants did sell liquor. What they did not do, however, was create the conditions that rendered liquor a further scourge to the community. Korean grocers and liquor-store owners did not create the terrible unemployment that plagues the residents of South Los Angeles. They did not bring crack cocaine into the community. Nor have they conjured up the drive-by shooters or the thugs that stalk the streets and terrify the citizens.

During our meeting with Mayor Bradley, we urged that if any merchant is to be deprived of property by order of the City Council, then some sort of compensation should be granted. There are many possibilities in this regard, including an organized effort by the city to lobby the state liquor-licensing agency to allow South-Central merchants to relocate their licenses out of the area on preferential terms.

It saddens me to see the troubles of people in my community lumped into a basket, labeled as mere “Korean problems,” and on that basis ignored. Like African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and every other racial group that ever found itself the unlucky whipping boy of popular public sentiment, Korean-Americans feel the pain that comes with being the victims of injustice, racial stereotyping and discrimination. We came seeking the American Dream. We work hard. We contribute. Are we not worth some small consideration?

On April 29, Los Angeles burned with the fires of civil unrest. That was tragic. But if Los Angeles cannot stop feeding the flames of all racial hatred and distrust, all Angelenos, regardless of race or occupation, risk being consumed.