Latino Leaders See Little Rebuilding of Riot-Torn Areas

Six months after the devastating riots, woefully little rebuilding has taken place in riot-torn areas of Los Angeles, Latino grass-roots leaders say.

“Nothing is happening here,” said Arturo Ybarra, president of the Watts/Century Latino Organization, a self-help group that seeks to improve the quality of life for Watts-area residents.

“Many of our residents lost their employment and small businesses largely because they lacked the necessary documentation to avail themselves of help through government programs. As a result, things are changing from bad to worse in our community,” Ybarra said.

He said unemployment and crime were worsened by the riot-related destruction.

“Unemployment (caused by the closure of many businesses) motivates criminal activity,” Ybarra said. “Many of our Latino residents are easy targets because they carry money instead of a checkbook and because they don’t file police complaints due to the language barrier.”

Carlos Vaquerano, community relations director for CARECEN (Central American Refugee Center), which serves the Pico-Union area, echoed those comments. “Helping Latino victims is a painfully slow process,” he said. “Applicants for financial help from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and SBA (Small Business Administration) face many problems.”

Although all victims of the urban unrest complain that the government and private response has been weak, Ybarra and Vaquerano contend that Latino victims of the riots--both business owners and residents--face a tougher battle to obtain help. They attribute this to language difficulties, suspicion of government agencies and a lack of records to document losses to their businesses or residences.

According to Vaquerano, many of the small Latino businesses in the damaged area did not have insurance and they suffered unrecoverable losses. He acknowledges that some were operating without business permits.

Meanwhile, Peter V. Ueberroth, the businessman tapped by Mayor Tom Bradley to head the Rebuild Los Angeles effort, has admitted that he, too, is often frustrated by the slow pace in repairing the physical and psychological scars of the rioting.

Though pleased with Rebuild L.A.’s early work, the former baseball commissioner and 1984 Olympics czar acknowledged in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last month that the private organization could claim no major accomplishments to date.

“The obstacles are much more formidable than I thought,” Ueberroth said. “There’s no home run yet.”

His dismay reflects the problems that have beset Los Angeles. Among the complications have been a faltering national economy, government gridlock and what has been termed the “Balkanization of L.A.,” a tendency for various ethnic, racial and community groups to focus single-mindedly on their own.

Since the riots, “government has not done anything meaningful to help rebuild Los Angeles,” Ueberroth said, adding that promises made by Democrats and Republicans alike have not been honored.

“I don’t expect to get everything,” said Ueberroth, expressing shock at the lack of help from the federal government beyond short-term emergency aid. “But this is an arrogant, non-caring reaction.”

Denise Fairchild, Los Angeles director of the Local Initiative Support Corp., a nonprofit organization that specializes in affordable-housing issues, said it was distressing to compare the billions of federal dollars pouring into Florida after Hurricane Andrew with the meager resources provided to Los Angeles.

“They got $9 billion in a week,” Fairchild said. “By comparison, we got a repackaging of dollars in different ways.”

Ueberroth also expressed surprise and disgust at “the number of local religious, political and community leaders” who, he contended, “are resistant to change because they get their power through distress in the inner city.” He declined to identify anyone, but said his criticism applied across racial lines.

Ueberroth maintains that he still believes that RLA, as the organization calls itself, can help revitalize the city’s neglected areas. Among its key goals, he said, are providing greater opportunities for minorities to own businesses, obtain good jobs, shop in markets with fair prices and live in safe neighborhoods.

Ueberroth made no apologies for the pace of the group’s work, even though he wishes it were going faster. “It took 40 years to wreck the inner city,” he said. “It’s important to take the proper time to cure it. There will be no second chances.”

Some positive strides have been taken: Vons announced plans to build urban supermarkets and Hughes Aircraft pledged to open a small facility in the inner city. But few others have stepped forward.

“What’s most discouraging is the business leadership hasn’t stepped forward,” says Rebuild L.A. co-chairman Bernard Kinsey. “It’s almost like they feel they don’t have a stake. The whole city has a stake in what we’re doing. . . . If you don’t think so, try to sell your house.”

Asked why he felt that more businesses have not stepped up, Kinsey responded: “A lot of it is racism.”

Although Ueberroth has said that Rebuild L.A.’s focus primarily will be economic, a racial harmony task force has been set up.

Among the many problems confronting Rebuild L.A. are persistent complaints that it has not been sensitive to the concerns of some of the city’s myriad of ethnic groups--especially Latinos. In particular, Ueberroth and other RLA officials have been under pressure to appoint a Latino co-chairman.

“There is still a lot of concern among Latinos that they are not being paid enough attention by RLA,” said Warner Bros. executive Dan Garcia, one of 16 Latinos on Rebuild L.A.’s 67-member board.

“I view this as unfortunate,” Garcia said. “I don’t think you approach life by quotas and formulas. But there are a lot of Latinos in the city. . . . Rebuild has to identify someone as the co-chair--the sooner, the better. Once that happens, I think a lot of the bickering will cease.”

Ybarra said he is “fighting hard to include a representative of WCLO on the RLA Board.” He noted that Latinos constitute more than half of the population of Watts.

“We want to make RLA aware of the specific needs of our community and to ask them to fulfill their commitment to help the Latino victims,” Ybarra said.

Ana Barbosa, president of the 1,000-member Latin Business Assn., says that RLA, of which she is a board member, is seeking to address those problems faced by riot victims through the organization’s Finance Task Force.

Rena Wheaton, an RLA employee who is manager of the Finance Task Force, said three programs are being developed for implementation early next year. They are an equity fund to finance rebuilding of riot-torn businesses, a community development bank to make loans available for riot victims and a business assistance center to offer management, accounting and legal advice.

WCLO and CARECEN are not the only organizations attempting to call attention to the plight of Latino riot victims. Other organizations with similar goals have surfaced recently. Notable among these is the Coalition for a New Los Angeles, an organization made up of Latino business leaders, such as Fernando Oaxaca and Joe Sanchez, and various Latino political leaders.

In a news conference in front of City Hall on Sept. 14, the coalition charged that Latino riot victims have been shortchanged in aid and media coverage. According to Oaxaca, the new organization seeks to team with other Latino groups to achieve mutual goals.