Extensive Survey of Riot Area Finds Some Surprises : Recovery: Stereotypes on ethnic makeup and liquor store proliferation are not substantiated.

The swath of Los Angeles County where the spring riots occurred is poorer, less educated and more crime-prone than the county overall, and substantially less likely to vote. But, contrary to popular belief, it is not predominantly African-American and is only slightly more riddled with liquor stores than the county in general, according to a sweeping demographic study scheduled to be released today.

The study by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College was drawn up as a reference guide for those interested in rebuilding the affected areas, and marks the most thorough statistical portrait ever drawn of South-Central Los Angeles and the surrounding communities where civil unrest broke out April 29.

Ranging in area roughly from West Hollywood to Compton and from Inglewood to Huntington Park, the study offers an unprecedented look not only at the flash points of the unrest, but at the areas to which it quickly spread.

“There has been an awful lot of verbiage and rhetoric (since the riots), but facts have been in short supply, and this is an admittedly modest effort to supply some,” said Alan Heslop, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and senior researcher on the project.

“We hope this will shed light and not add heat in this very controversial matter,” Heslop said, noting that “the picture we have of this community is a good deal more complex than it is generally represented to be.”

The report paints the riot area as a much more ethnically diverse sector than some have thought, but it also confirms much that has been reported about the zone, including the high unemployment and crime rates and the pervasive lack of education that many saw as the tinder for the civil disturbance.

Among the findings:

* The riot zone is not predominantly African-American, and has changed substantially during the past 12 years. In 1980, the study area was divided roughly into thirds among Anglos, Latinos and African-Americans. But by 1990, Latinos were by far the largest ethnic group, making up 46% of the population.

* Although the African-American working class dominates the neighborhoods where the initial rioting occurred--Hyde Park and the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues--those flash points also have substantial Latino minorities of 26% and 28%, respectively. Eight of the first 23 acts of violence reported during the rioting occurred in mostly Latino neighborhoods, and all but one of the 23 occurred in a neighborhood that had undergone significant demographic change during the past decade.

* Nearly 35% of the people older than 16 in the overall riot area had not worked--even for a few days--in 1989, compared to about 31% for the county overall. In some neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles--particularly those surrounding Watts--the number of those who had not worked ranged as high as 100%.

* The riot zone was also an area of generally low educational attainment. About 41% of adults in the area had failed to finish high school, compared to about 31% for the county.

* Amid the calls for an end to the proliferation of liquor stores in South-Central, a survey showed the concentration there to be heavier than in the city of Los Angeles overall, but somewhat lighter than in downtown, Koreatown and Chinatown. The concentration of liquor stores in the study area was only slightly higher than the county average, at 7.9 per 10,000 population compared to 7.5 per 10,000 for the county, but substantially higher than the city average of 5.2 per 10,000 population.

* Voter registration in the study area was substantially lower than in the county. In the 1990 general election, only about 46% of the voting age population had registered to vote in the riot area, compared to more than 53% for the county.

* People living in the riot zones were about twice as likely to be victimized by crime as those living elsewhere in the county and about three times as likely to be assaulted.

The study cost $75,000 and was funded by the Ford Foundation and Capital Research and Management, Heslop said.

The study’s authors said their intent was not to draw broad conclusions about the riots’ causes or the means by which to rebuild the affected areas, but rather to provide policy makers with a reliable picture of the riot zone.

“If there is to be healing in the aftermath of all this tragedy, it must begin with an understanding of the conditions that led to the violence in the first place,” Heslop said in the foreword to the study.

The report, he said, is intended to help map “the city’s fault lines of class and economic circumstances, the political preferences and representation of the Los Angeles electorate, and the social conditions that made parts of the city ripe for civil upheaval.”

New Portrait of Riot Area

“An Atlas of South-Central Los Angeles” offers the most thorough statistical portrait ever drawn of that area and surrounding communities torn by the spring riots. The study area--ranging roughly from West Hollywood to Compton and from Inglewood to Huntington Park--was found to be poorer, less educated and with higher unemployment than the county overall, but with only a slightly greater density of liquor stores.

STUDY AREA L.A. CITY L.A. COUNTY Total Population 2,784,125 3,485,398 8,863,164

SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS

STUDY AREA L.A. CITY L.A. COUNTY Education less than high school 40.9% 34.4% 31.2% Single mothers with children 17.6% 13.7% 12.3% Total not working in 1989, age 16 and up 34.7% 31.3% 30.9%

LIQUOR STORES

STUDY AREA L.A. CITY L.A. COUNTY Total 2,212 1,814 6,622 Population 2,784,125 3,485,398 8,863,164 Per 10,000 persons 7.9 5.2 7.5

Source: Rose Institute of State and Local Government, Claremont McKenna College