Ruts in the Crossroads : Except for Pawnshops, Tough Times in a Microcosm of County

His first name is Steve and he’d rather not say what his last name is. He’s a real estate broker in the South Bay and figures to make it through the recession OK. “Sometimes,” he says, “I’ve got $10,000 in the bank.”

But this is not one of those times and Steve seems embarrassed to be where he is--standing with his guitar inside South Bay Jewelry & Loan in Lawndale. It’s a good guitar and he was hoping to hock it for $300. The offer is $150--and Steve accepts.

Around the corner a few blocks away, Aaron Martinez wishes he had such troubles. The unemployed mechanic is at another pawnshop, Lawndale Jewelry & Loan, collecting $25 for some old tools. This is a sale, not a loan. Martinez, a 37-year-old father of four, says he needs the money to gas up his old car for a drive to Newhall. His brother-in-law has a $200 check waiting for him--payment for some odd jobs.

Hard luck stories have always been a dime a dozen in pawnshops, but lately the inventory is up. Pawnbrokers Marsha Steckbauer and Linda Hoffman, friendly rivals in Lawndale, say that hard times are squeezing the middle class--be it lower-middle, middle-middle or upper-middle. More and more overextended people are converting their jewelry, TVs, whatever into quick cash.

And as it happens, little Lawndale, conveniently located on a major crossroads of South Bay communities, may be the most middle-class town in Los Angeles County, a 1.9-square-mile microcosm of the region.

Consider: The 1990 census measured the county’s median household income to be $34,965; in Lawndale it’s $34,552. The county’s median housing value was $226,400; in Lawndale, it’s $230,800. And no small community so closely reflects the county’s ethnic diversity. Home to 27,331 of the county’s 8.8 million residents, Lawndale is 46.1% Anglo, 34.2% Latino, 7.6% African-American and 11.2% Asian-American. (The county is 40.8% Anglo, 37.8% Latino, 10.5% African-American and 10.2% Asian-American.)

Centered at the San Diego Freeway and busy Hawthorne Boulevard, Lawndale is smack dab in the middle of the South Bay’s economic woes. Developed in the 1940s and ‘50s as a home to riveters and others working in defense plants, Lawndale was touted only a few years ago as an up-and-coming address for young professionals priced out of nearby beach communities. But today, like the rest of the region, the city is woozy with the side effects of layoffs at such nearby aerospace giants as TRW, Hughes and Northrop.

Business is down along Hawthorne Boulevard, and housing values have declined. The most unfortunate have lost their jobs; others are worried. Lorri Lewis, an accountant with Hunter Business Services and president of the Lawndale Chamber of Commerce, says some Lawndale residents who have been laid off are trying to operate businesses at home.

“Crossroads” is not just a geographical description of Lawndale. City Councilman Norm Lagerquist and Gary Chicots, the city’s economic development director, use the term in trying to decipher what lies ahead.

“It’s not the same world we lived in a couple years ago, both in the work environment and in the community,” Lagerquist said. The 37-year-old Hughes engineer bought a condominium here in 1986 in a time of gentrification; other prosperous homeowners remodeled and expanded in the city’s more upscale enclaves.

But today, Lagerquist said, “there’s less optimism about the future. A lot of residents are experiencing uncertainty in their employment situations. . . . As we see the economic hardships in the community it creates a greater demand for social services. At the same time there’s less funding for those service. It’s going to be a very difficult situation for governments and individuals.”

It already is extremely difficult for Martinez. Six months ago, he said, his family could get by on his $13-an-hour maintenance job. Martinez says he quit after a spat with a supervisor--”he called me a dumb Mexican”--and assumed that his skills would quickly land him another job.

But so far, the only full-time offers pay about $5 an hour. So while searching for something better, Martinez said, “I pick up side jobs, making a living for the family.”

Inside the pawnshop, Martinez said his family had lived in Lawndale for years, “over behind the Jack-in-the-Box on Hawthorne.” But later he would swallow his pride and say that his family, no longer able to pay rent, was forced to stay in motels or sleep in his 1979 Olds Delta 88. It’s hard to scrape up a first and last months’ rent when you’re struggling to find work, he says.

Like so much of Southern California, Lawndale has its forlorn-looking sentries who stand at street corners with “Will Work for Food” signs. But Lawndale still has some advantages, including Hawthorne Boulevard, economic development director Gary Chicots said. The wide thoroughfare funnels about 55,000 cars a day past a chaotic clutter of discount stores, fast-food joints, dental offices and car lots. South of the San Diego Freeway, the boulevard is also California 107.

Over the years, Lawndalians have resisted efforts to spruce up the strip and it shows, right down to the worn synthetic turf on the traffic median. The phony turf has long been a source of wry remarks in a place named for its lush green fields of yesteryear.

But whatever its appearance, Hawthorne Boulevard “is one of the best streets in L.A. for retail. The traffic count is phenomenal,” said Bill Henderson, who opened the discount furniture house that bears his name 37 years ago. Now he owns 13 buildings in Lawndale and keeps a can of paint in the back of his truck to blot out occasional graffiti.

Other retailers come and go. Henderson and other veteran merchants, such as Chuck Cook of Cook’s Lumber and Philip Raouf of Bikecology bicycle shop, agree that their cash business is slow but express faith in their location.

“It’s a roller coaster,” said restaurateur Moji Fakourfar, who relies heavily on lunch trade from aerospace workers. Last year, Fakourfar looked at all the Pizza Huts and Domino’s in the area and decided to transform his eatery, Hank’s Pizza, into Hank’s Bistro. He even went to Italy to hire a chef.

“Great timing, huh?” Fakourfar said with a short laugh. “I’m crossing all my fingers and all my toes.”

A different story is told in Lawndale’s three pawnshops, which draw customers from throughout the South Bay. Some people believe that pawnbrokers profit from the misfortune of others; pawnbrokers say they are a bank of last resort that helps people trade yesterday’s luxury into the necessity of today.

“We’re a necessary part of society,” said Marsha Steckbauer of South Bay Jewelry & Loan. The operation has doubled its loan base in the past two years, she said. “I have businessmen who come in with their wives’ jewelry so they can make payroll. . . . The yuppies come in here with their skis and stereos. . . . I’m getting Rolex watches.”

It shows in the display cases. Jewelry, hunting rifles, musical instruments, cameras, stereos, TVs, skis, golf clubs, tools, what have you are all for sale at secondhand prices. This is why Linda Hoffman wears a button that asks: “Have You Done Your Christmas Shopping?”

Say, for example, you know someone who needs a digital voltage meter or an 18-inch pipe wrench. You can find them at Lawndale Jewelry & Loan.

They’re a little worn, sure, but they’re quality tools. Or so says Aaron Martinez, the former owner.