Communities Struggle to Rebuild After Riots : Assessment: Despite new projects and reconstruction in some areas, residents worry that it could happen again.

Six months after the riots that tore through Long Beach and surrounding communities, life in those communities often seems like a glass half full, and a glass half empty.

Rebuilding is beginning in Long Beach. In Compton, a job training center has opened. Huntington Park and Lynwood have received federal grants. But in all the cities, only a fraction of damaged businesses plan to reopen. And concern that the riots could happen again runs like an earthquake fault through the area.

In Long Beach, rubble from the more than two dozen buildings destroyed or severely damaged in the riots has been cleared away, and rebuilding has begun on about a third of them. The hundreds of windows broken have been replaced. More than $6 million in government loans and grants has been distributed to help many of the 387 businesses affected by the riots.

Across the city, grass-roots groups born in the wake of the riots have been organizing community cleanups and other improvement projects. All but a handful of the almost 300 riot-related felony cases and more than 400 misdemeanor cases filed by the Long Beach branch of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office and the Long Beach city prosecutor’s office have been disposed of. Police officials say they have fine-tuned their riot-response plan, based on lessons learned from the riots and are well prepared for any similar trouble in the future.

Among some people, at least, a feeling of hope is growing, a feeling that the scars of the riots are fading.

But that is the half-full side. On the half-empty side, an estimated 150 Long Beach businesses have closed their doors since the riots, victims of the disturbances or hard economic times, or both. Despite numerous outreach programs, more than 100 riot-damaged businesses failed to even request loans or other assistance to rebuild or reopen. The city is dotted with empty concrete slabs where businesses once stood, constant reminders of what happened six months ago. The legal system is still wrestling with some vestiges of the riots; trials are pending for three men accused of killing a motorcyclist on a Long Beach street on the second night of the riots. And among many people in Long Beach there seems to be an undercurrent of fear--fear that it’s not over, that the riots aren’t fading history, that it could happen again.

Courtney Minors, owner of the Culture Beat record store on East 7th Street, for example, compares living in post-riot Long Beach to living next to any other danger.

“If you live 10 miles from a nuclear power plant, you can’t go around all day worrying that it’s going to blow up,” said the 32-year-old ex-Marine, who armed himself to defend his store against looters during the riots. “But it’s always there in the back of my head.”

Minors paused for a moment, and then, as if saying it aloud might help make it true, he quietly added, “It’ll be all right. Yeah, it’s gonna be OK.”

For Hilda Kelly, 37, who owns Kelly’s Place, a small antique and collectibles store near the corner of Cherry Avenue and 4th Street, the six months since the riots have been a roller coaster ride of hope and fear. Her store was looted of 90% of its merchandise.

“I’ve got to have hope. That’s what keeps me going, the feeling that people have learned something,” Kelly said. “When hope ceases, we’re all beaten.”

Kelly sees hope in the support she has received from her neighbors in the 4th and Cherry area, a strip of small businesses that Kelly compares to Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue district. She sees hope in the fact that finally, after six months, she has caught up on her rent and utility bills. (Her application for a Small Business Administration loan is pending.)

But she sees fear in the new wrought-iron burglar bars that cover her front windows, in the double-locked gate that guards her front door. Several neighboring businesses also have installed burglar bars since the riots, she says.

“It’s a bad feeling to come in (to the store) through gates,” Kelly said. “When the guy came to install them, I felt really bad. But I’m trying not to focus on the negative things. I try to keep things on a positive note, in spite of all the struggles.

“At first (after the riots) I had bad dreams, but it’s a lot better now,” Kelly said. “Sometimes, though, I still have to get up and walk around for a while.”

Despite the destruction and pain the riots caused, some people in Long Beach now see them as a catalyst for good.

“There’ve been some tremendous changes in Long Beach” since the riots, said Kim Hudson, a 32-year-old loan officer who is director of Vision for Long Beach, a community volunteer group created during the riots. “People saw their lives going down the tubes and decided they’d better do something. Now people in neighborhoods are getting organized like they never did before.”

At first, Hudson said, Vision for Long Beach concentrated on post-riot cleanup, with hundreds of volunteers wielding brooms. Since then, the group has branched out into various neighborhood empowerment programs, such as helping residents to organize community watch programs and fight drug dealing by threatening legal action against landlords who refuse to evict dealers from their property. Recently, Hudson said, Vision for Long Beach sponsored neighborhood cleanup activities at 20 sites around the city.

“It just goes to show that we don’t need millions of dollars to make a difference,” said Hudson, whose group has operated for six months on $15,000 in funding, two thirds of it from a grant by Southern California Edison, the rest from smaller grants and contributions. “We can make a big difference just with the assets we have.”

Among members of the Cambodian community in Long Beach, who suffered disproportionate damage in the riots, some community leaders say there is a desire to put the past behind them.

“We’re staying in Long Beach,” declared Sandra Arun Blankenship, executive director of the Long Beach-based Cambodian Business Assn. “I think everyone here just wants to get back to normal.”

Blankenship said that many Cambodian business people in Long Beach did not apply for riot-related assistance from the city or other government agencies because the Cambodian community often relies on business financing from friends and relatives rather than from official channels.

Susan F. Shick, director of Community Development in Long Beach, said the post-riot rebuilding in the city is going well.

“I’m pleased so far,” Shick said. “But you’re never in a position where you can feel like you’ve done enough.”

As for plans in the event of future riots, Long Beach police officials say they are prepared.

“We were pretty pleased with how we reacted to the riots, especially compared to L.A.,” said Long Beach Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ty Hatfield. He added that the local department has incorporated lessons learned during the riots into its longstanding emergency contingency plans, but he declined to discuss the plans in detail.

Asked if the police department believes that more riots could happen, Hatfield responded, “That’s hard to say. Maybe people got it out of their system, maybe not. But you have to prepare for the worst.”

Compton

In Compton, the riots are often compared to a forest fire--a burning away of the old to make room for new growth. With attention focusing again on inner-city problems, Compton was able to get funding for a new job training program, federal grants to aid rebuilding and promises of more to come.

The Regional Job Training Placement Center, made possible by a $1-million commitment from Southern California Edison, has already opened on Bullis Road, although renovations are still under way. The first six-week class, in automotive repairs and maintenance, graduated 19 students in October. City and Edison officials hope for a grand opening, with brand new classrooms, workshops and a job placement center, next spring.

The training center’s first graduating class included Virginia Bostick, 39, of Long Beach. A former medical secretary, Bostick had been unemployed two years and feared she would never find another job in her field.

“There just aren’t that many jobs I could find for a secretary in a blood lab, but everybody’s got a car, and they all need to be fixed now and then,” Bostick said. “It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m working with a syringe or a wrench, as long as I’ve got a job.”

The day after graduation, Bostick was hired by a Firestone dealer in Redondo Beach where she works full time, changing oil and rotating tires.

But for others, especially for small businesses, the improvements since the riots have been painfully slow, city officials say.

Of the 63 buildings destroyed by vandals and arsonists last spring, only 14 are being rebuilt, said William L. Edwards, the city’s chief building inspector. Only one is back in business: a Taco Bell restaurant that was built in just 48 hours as a marketing stunt.

City Manager Howard Caldwell estimates damage throughout the city at $70 million to $100 million.

While a stagnant economy is often blamed for the slow rebuilding, confusion about the city’s direction also stalled some businesses. After the fires cooled in May, some city leaders said they would not allow new building permits for the 19 liquor stores that were destroyed, calling them a blight on the city and a constant temptation. For nearly five months, liquor store owners were discouraged from returning to Compton.

After City Council members discovered they couldn’t legally keep the stores from returning, however, they decided last month to allow the small markets to rebuild, as long as they provided building plans with modern parking facilities and landscaping within the next 12 months, said Barbara Kilroy, city planner.

“Basically, the council said, ‘If you give us a modern, up-to-date building, you can continue to sell liquor here,’ ” Kilroy said. “It was a big decision.”

Of the 19 liquor stores destroyed, seven have submitted blueprints to the city and plan to rebuild soon, Kilroy said.

Although city planners will be dealing with post-riot business for months, maybe even years, the judicial process is just about complete, said Steven A. Sowders, head deputy of the district attorney’s Compton branch.

“We had about 300 felony cases and a lot more misdemeanors, but we’re basically done with all of those cases,” Sowders said.

Compton’s Police Department didn’t come under the same criticism as the one in Los Angeles for its handling of the civil unrest, but the department has done some soul searching and additional training, said Acting Police Chief Hourie Taylor. Like other local departments, Compton has become reacquainted with law enforcement networks that could bring outside help to the city in case of future riots. The force also intends to move toward community-based policing, Taylor said, in which officers will be responsible to one neighborhood.

Lynwood

In Lynwood, riot-related damage totaled $18 million, including $8 million in fire loss to 239 structures, officials say.

The rampaging along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard destroyed the Clark Drugs store in the Lynwood Plaza shopping center.

Designated as a redevelopment area before the civil unrest, the shopping center will be rebuilt, and the city will invest $250,000 to $500,000 in federal funds it received several years ago.

Clark Drugs has agreed to return to the site, but the city is still searching for a supermarket to take the place of Alpha Beta, Mayor Louis Heine said. Although the supermarket is still doing business, the company is not willing to continue operating in the redeveloped plaza, Heine says.

Bill’s Ranch Market on Atlantic Boulevard also suffered about $1 million in damage, Lynwood Fire Chief Gerald Wallace said.

Lynwood received a $280,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in August for economic development in riot-damaged areas, said Sol Blumenfeld, city community development director. The city manager has appointed an empowerment advisory group composed of business and community representatives to determine how the funds will be used.

“Rebuild Lynwood is our theme,” said Heine. “We’ve heard so cotton-picking much about Rebuild L.A. It’s been all about Los Angeles. I feel like like we’re being left out here.”

Huntington Park

In Huntington Park, which suffered an estimated $7 million in damage to 94 businesses during the riots, officials say the rebuilding effort is proceeding well.

“Confidence in the city is still high,” city business development specialist Tim Anusiem said, noting that of four buildings that were destroyed in the riots--three in the busy shopping district along Pacific Boulevard--all are being rebuilt.

The city recently appealed to the state’s Department of Commerce, asking to be declared a revitalization zone, Anusiem said.

Huntington Park also recently received a $280,000 federal grant to help businesses hurt by the riots.

Times staff writer Somini Sengupta contributed to this report.