Wilson Says Restaurant Is Example of Rebuilding : Riots: Fast-food outlet is one of first businesses to benefit from state law encouraging investment in ravaged neighborhoods.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday toured the bustling construction site of a fast-food chicken outlet that is one of the city’s first businesses to benefit from a new state law designed to speed rebuilding in riot-torn neighborhoods.

The newly created Los Angeles Revitalization Zone, which became effective Jan. 1, provides tax breaks, hiring credits and other incentives to businesses in riot-damaged communities and is one of the few pieces of state legislation to win approval in response to last spring’s civil disturbance.

The revitalization zone includes all areas of Los Angeles that sustained riot damage and covers Compton, Inglewood, Lynwood, Huntington Park, Signal Hill and Lawndale. Portions of Long Beach, Pomona and Hawthorne are included.

Standing in a light rain outside the site of the former Golden Bird restaurant, Wilson said the revitalization zone confirms the state’s commitment to rebuild Los Angeles and improve conditions in California’s other urban centers.

“It allows people to have their courage and faith vindicated,” he told reporters gathered at the South-Central Los Angeles mini-mall, located at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

Also attending the news conference was state corporations Commissioner Thomas Sayles, 41, a Los Angeles native who has headed Wilson’s revitalization task force. On Wednesday, Wilson named Sayles to be his secretary of business, transportation and housing.

The governor’s appearance at the site provided the backdrop for a recurring theme: that the rebuilding of Los Angeles mirrors the revitalization the state must undergo if it is to turn around its faltering economy.

To that end, said Wilson, both Los Angeles and the state must rebound “business-by-business, job-by-job.”

The Golden Bird chain and its president, Michael Stennis, have emerged as key examples of Wilson’s tenet. Two of the chain’s South-Central and Compton outlets were destroyed during the upheaval; seven others were looted and trashed. However, Stennis was able to reopen seven of the restaurants within 10 days.

His enterprising nature and oft-stated commitment to remain in the area caught the attention of the governor’s staff, and Stennis was among a group of black business owners invited shortly after the riots to brief Wilson about their needs and those of the community.

Stennis made another appearance with Wilson at a San Fernando manufacturing plant in October, where the governor outlined his plan to overhaul the state’s workers’ compensation system.

During Wilson’s State of the State address last week, Stennis--who was a guest at the ceremony in Sacramento--was lauded for his heroism and work.

As a result, Stennis said, he has been besieged by calls from radio and television stations.

“I’m a small businessman and this is an opportunity to utilize the publicity it has given me,” he conceded. Business is up at Golden Bird’s 10 outlets, which Stennis attributes in part to his increased visibility after the riots.

Stennis said he hopes that others will benefit from his notoriety. It is important, he said, for Los Angeles residents to see that many black-owned businesses were hit by violence and that most of these owners intend to remain in their communities.

Stennis said he also believes that he and other inner-city business owners can become role models for the mostly black and Latino youths they employ, proof that one need not be a superstar athlete or celebrity to be successful.

“When I was growing up, black people were doing jobs that you just don’t see them doing now,” he said. “Things like construction, painting, owning small businesses; these are all good, honorable jobs that if we are to succeed in our community . . . have to become fashionable again.”