Riots’ Causes Same as in ‘60s, State Panel Says

A state committee investigating the Los Angeles riots has concluded that the conditions that fueled the spring unrest were virtually the same as those that led to widespread urban disturbances in the 1960s.

In a report scheduled for release today, the Assembly Special Committee on the Los Angeles Crisis recommends sweeping changes in state and local laws to encourage economic development and self-determination in riot-affected areas.

The panel concludes that the level of poverty and despair in South Los Angeles matches that of the 1960s. But the problems now are aggravated by an “increasing concentration of wealth at the top of the income scale and a decreasing federal and state commitment to urban programs,” its report says.

The 17-member bipartisan committee, chaired by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker (D-Inglewood) and including the entire Los Angeles County delegation in the Assembly, was established in May to collect information and recommend actions needed at the state level to improve conditions in Los Angeles’ inner city and other disadvantaged areas.

It is the only official body so far to hold public hearings that explored the underlying causes of the riots.

Often sounding like haunting echoes of another era, witnesses at the eight hearings cited virtually all of the grievances that a previous generation presented to the McCone and Kerner commissions--panels appointed more than a quarter of a century ago to investigate the causes of the explosive unrest that devastated Los Angeles and other cities in the 1960s.

“The Kerner and McCone commissions identified poverty, segregation, lack of education and employment opportunities, widespread perceptions of police abuse and unequal consumer services as the principal grievances which led to civil disturbances of the 1960s,” the report states. “Little has changed in 1992 Los Angeles.”

The committee report notes that the reforms and recommendations offered by those earlier panels have gone largely unfulfilled. Instead of similar large-scale solutions, the panel offers what it calls “the targeting of areas of opportunity.”

Its recommendations cover a broad spectrum of issues and include implementation of a consumer insurance protection package and creation of a state scholarship program that would award grants to five Los Angeles high school seniors who demonstrate leadership in promoting ethnic relations. The scholarships would be for full tuition and room and board at any University of California or Cal State campus.

Tucker, who crafted much of the report, said Thursday that most of the recommendations depend not on massive government spending but on the redistribution of existing funds and changes in how the private sector does business in urban areas.

But the committee’s report does not attach a cost to the ambitious agenda or make clear how it would be implemented.

The panel also calls for legislation that would encourage investment of state employee pension funds in the inner city. The Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System, the report says, “have shown a willingness to place their money at work all over the world.”

But in testimony before the committee, it says, “neither fund could detail a single investment--either currently held or contemplated--in companies located . . . in communities impacted by the unrest.” The panel wants the pension funds to invest in a special Recovery Capital Fund on a semiannual basis, provided such investments are determined to be prudent.

De Witt Bowman, chief investment officer for the state employees fund, said his board is already looking for such investment opportunities. But he acknowledged that a resolution such as that proposed by the committee would “lend encouragement” to those pursuits.

Noting a resurgence of racial and ethnic polarization in Los Angeles, the report urges creation of state offices that would oversee community relations and immigrant affairs and proposes a “World Los Angeles Festival” that would promote Los Angeles as a “world city.”

Perhaps the most controversial recommendation calls for creation of a state-chartered, quasi-public financing authority with powers to raise capital and finance redevelopment in Los Angeles riot areas.

This Los Angeles Revitalization Zone Development Authority would essentially replace the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which has been condemned by many neighborhood leaders for displacing affordable housing and neglecting development in the inner city.

The report supports such criticism, concluding: “As the committee has learned, the very communities that could gain the greatest benefit from the deployment of the CRA’s package of tools are the communities which fear the agency the most.”

A spokesman for the CRA said Administrator Ed Avila had not seen the report and declined to comment on its conclusions.

The committee acknowledges that the current economic climate may hinder accomplishing its objectives.

“We recognize that Sacramento’s current fiscal crisis may limit the state’s ability to support some of our recommendations,” the reports states. “However, we also recognize that fiscal conditions and societal priorities can change. Nothing proposed by this committee will cost Californians as much as another crisis in Los Angeles.”

Tucker said his staff is already working on legislation that would embrace many of the proposals and plans to introduce it next January. He said he believes the recommendations will be supported by both Democrats and Republicans.

“I don’t see any of the issues that we touched on as being partisan; we didn’t call anyone names or point any fingers,” he said.

City officials had not seen the report and declined to comment in detail on the merits of the proposals or their likely impact if implemented.

Deputy Mayor Linda Griego said that, in general, most of the ideas seemed well thought out, adding that all efforts to stimulate economic development in the city were welcome. But she objected that most of the proposals were geared to long-term solutions at a time when many businesses affected by the riots need immediate assistance.

Griego also expressed misgivings about the overall conclusion that the Los Angeles unrest was a replay of the Watts riots. Extraordinary demographic changes in the last 30 years, she argued, mark the spring civil disturbances as unique.

“I think we need to look at who rioted,” she said, noting that a majority of those arrested for looting and other crimes in the spring unrest were Latinos. “Does the report give the demographics of who went to the hearings? Did the immigrant population really have input? I think the (ethnic mix) is a new wrinkle and poses new questions.”

State Corporations Commissioner Thomas Sayles, who is Gov. Pete Wilson’s point man on the riot aftermath, said much of the Assembly panel’s plan seemed sketchy.

But many community leaders expressed hope that the report and its recommendations will be given serious consideration.

“I hope this not going to become just another report to put on a desk,” said Carlos Vaquerano, a representative of the Central American Refugee Center and a member of the board of directors of Rebuild L.A.

Blueprint for Reconstruction

Here are some of the recommendations of the Assembly Special Committee on the Los Angeles Crisis: ECONOMICS

Adopt a California Community Reinvestment Act to meet the credit and capital needs of low- and moderate-income communities.

Establish a Crisis Claims Resolution Panel for one year to ensure timely and fair resolution of insurance claims in Los Angeles.

Establish a Los Angeles Revitalization Zone Promotion Board to tout business opportunities in the riot areas.

Create a financing authority, the Los Angeles Revitalization Zone Development Authority, that would be vested with a wide range of powers to raise capital and finance redevelopment in the affected areas.

Encourage the state employees’ pension fund to invest in riot areas.

Create a Strategic Economic Plan to identify the state’s economic strengths and weaknesses and plot a course for future economic growth.

Require the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to adopt policy of giving preferences to local business. CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Increase the number of minority judges on the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Require local governments to create a detailed contingency plan to be activated during a state of emergency. CIVIC LIFE

Create a state Urban Community Relations Agency to fund research, conduct statewide symposiums on community conflict and develop models for community organizing in ethnically diverse areas.

Establish a scholarship fund for high school seniors in Los Angeles County who demonstrate leadership in promoting intergroup relations.

Create a statewide Office of Immigrant Affairs to collect data on immigration in California and assist communities with large immigrant populations.