The Recession Blues : From Bradbury to El Monte, Belt-Tightening Has Become a Way of Life

Dave and Barbara Darvis consider themselves fortunate. They bought their home in Walnut in 1976, so their monthly mortgage is far below that paid by many of their neighbors in their upscale, planned community where the average home costs more than $300,000.

Darvis is a flood control engineer for Los Angeles County; his wife is a homemaker. They have two teen-age children, Chad, 15, and Dawn, 13.

Since the recession struck, the family goes out for fewer dinners and rents more home movies for entertainment.

And “we aren’t too proud to accept hand-me-downs from family members as the kids grow,” Barbara Darvis said.

But with two teen-agers to put through college in coming years, Barbara Darvis fears she may have to go back to work. Her husband volunteers for overtime whenever possible, even if it means nights and weekends away from home.

“The cost of living keeps going up, but you can’t count on raises and promotions anymore,” Dave Darvis said, assessing his finances one recent day in the parking lot of a local supermarket.

“At least he still has a job,” Barbara Darvis said.

Her husband slowly nods in agreement.

The 1990 U.S. Census found that median household incomes rose throughout the San Gabriel Valley during the past decade.

In Walnut, where the growth was the sixth highest in the valley, household incomes rose 27% from 1980 to 1990, jumping from $50,640 to $64,333.

But during the same period, the Consumer Price Index rose 58.6%, indicating that many families actually lost ground or are treading water.

For the Darvis family and many others, the rising costs have meant a host of lifestyle changes--such as shopping more at K mart than in more upscale department stores. But the toll is also psychological, evinced in worries over the rising price of milk and anxiety over jobs that civil servants, like Darvis, once thought were guaranteed for life.

Although Walnut ranked near the top in affluence in the San Gabriel Valley, the 1990 Census found that Bradbury was the wealthiest city, with a median household income of $105,178, up 63% from 1980. Second came San Marino, where the median household income was $100,077, up 31.5% from 1980.

At the other end of the spectrum was South El Monte, where the average family earned $27,074 in 1990, an 11.4% increase from 1980. The second poorest city was neighboring El Monte, with a median household income of $28,034, up 21% from 1980.

Incomes in Bradbury rose the most, while South El Monte logged among the San Gabriel’s Valley four lowest income growth rates. Nationwide, the inflation-adjusted incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew 75.5% between 1980 and 1990, while the poorest 20% suffered a 3.7% decline.

Many experts say the statistics illustrate the failure of spending for federal poverty programs to keep up with inflation.

At the same time, tax breaks for the wealthy, surging defense spending for a few corporations in the 1980s and regulatory relief that benefited businesses and their affluent investors may all have played a role in the growing disparity.

“There’s no question that the rich got very much richer under Reagan and Bush’s politics,” said Patricia Dillon, an associate professor of economics at Scripps College in Claremont.

“People at the upper end of the income spectrum have stayed well ahead of the cost of living,” Dillon added. “At the lower income levels, real earnings, corrected for inflation, have fallen on average.”

Wedged between the San Gabriel Valley’s most affluent and its most impoverished are tens of thousands of citizens like George Siouris. He and his wife own a modest home in Baldwin Park. They run a small, family pharmacy in Walnut and employ only three part-time college students, which make long vacations impossible.

Their fixed expenses, such as insurance and utilities, have risen in the past six years, while their income has stayed flat. Rent alone for the business has gone up 25 cents a square foot, Siouris said.

In attempts to attract new business, Siouris now sells and rents medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, at his store. He has also started mixing special ointments and prescriptions on contract for larger chain pharmacies.

“We make a living, but it could be better,” Siouris said. “All these companies laying off hundreds and thousands of people, it’s got to affect things.”

The pinch is felt even in places like Bradbury, the exclusive city of 832 that is mostly hidden behind gates in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains above Duarte.

Bradbury consistently ranks among the nation’s 10 most expensive suburbs. Many of its homes are on parcels of at least five acres. The city has no apartments or condominiums. Gas stations, traffic lights and sidewalks are also taboo.

It is home to flamboyant television evangelist Gene Scott as well as low-key Caltech molecular biologist and former Bradbury Mayor John Richards.

In the past year, however, three homes worth $1 million plus have gone into foreclosure, a phenomenon formerly unheard of in Bradbury, said Lance Johnson, a real estate broker who lives in the city and works for Bliss Keeler Inc., which specializes in properties in Bradbury and San Marino.

“I’ve lived here 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Johnson said. “There is a tremendous amount of wealth, but what we have seen in Bradbury, as well as San Marino and Arcadia, is that many people have really suffered severely during this recessionary time.”

Stan Foulger, a Bradbury resident who owns car dealerships in Monrovia and Duarte, said hard times have meant fewer vacations and restaurant dinners. His business is down about 35%, Foulger said, which has forced him to lay off six of his 86 employees.

The turndown began in 1989 and car sales pretty much came to a standstill two months ago, Foulger said, as people put off buying cars until after the presidential election.

“Everybody’s changed their lifestyle,” Foulger said. “If you’re not making it, you can’t spend it.”

Median Family IncomeA comparison of how income levels--as measured in the median family income--have changed in the San Gabriel Valley from 1980 to 1990. The color codes show income levels in cities and unincorporated areas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Compiled by Richard O’Reilly, director of computer analysis, and Maureen Lyons, statistical analyst, of The Times.