Neighborly Approach to Defusing Tensions : Activism: Much-touted Neighbor to Neighbor program kicks off to ease apprehensions over King and Denny trials.

Iris Sanders was nailed while wheeling a shopping cart out of a supermarket.

“Hi. I’m Isaac Zambrano with Mayor (Tom) Bradley’s Neighbor to Neighbor program,” Zambrano told the shopper. “What we are trying to do is keep the neighborhood together. We need to take care of ourselves because nobody is going to come in and help our community.”

Sanders nodded politely as Zambrano wrapped up his spiel about Bradley’s Neighbor to Neighbor program, which kicked off Saturday at a South-Central Los Angeles shopping center surrounded by burned and riot-damaged buildings.

Then, with Zambrano and another organizer out of earshot, Sanders vented her real opinion.

“I think it would be real helpful for the young people if blacks, Latinos and (Asians) pulled together and worked as a team,” she said of Bradley’s program. “But the city needs to cut out the red tape and come in here and work. They need to stop talking on TV and come here and help businesses.”

Organizers and volunteers hope that the Neighbor to Neighbor program will defuse tension in the city as the federal trial of the police officers accused of violating Rodney G. King’s rights gets under way and during the upcoming state trial involving the beating of trucker Reginald O. Denny.

The program’s debut follows a Los Angeles Times poll last week that suggested that most Angelenos believe that the Los Angeles Police Department will be able to put down violence as a result of reaction to verdicts in either case.

Nevertheless, the Neighbor to Neighbor program seeks to ensure that the police are not tested.

To do that, hundreds of volunteers will be sent out to quell rumors about the trials and to keep the peace by discussing the issues underlying the trials and referring people to job and recreation opportunities.

Saturday’s kickoff at the Vermont-Slauson Shopping Center, organizers said, was just a way to introduce the program to the community. This week, organizers will get to the nitty-gritty by walking streets in South-Central and setting up community meetings. Other areas will follow as recruits for the program wrap up training, said Marcela Howell, the Bradley aide in charge of the program.

“I thought it went excellent. I collected 15 phone numbers from interested citizens,” Craig Henry, an assistant organizer, said Saturday.

Henry and the other 10 organizers and volunteers competed for attention with parking lot vendors, a trio of gospel singers and a minor altercation outside the shopping center.

Shadowed by reporters from almost every major media outlet in the city, the organizers swept through the parking lot, buttonholing shoppers and passing out leaflets describing the program.

Most people politely listened, with some giving encouraging nods and others promising to get involved in the program or at least spread its message.

Many people agreed that there was still tension in the community, but they were divided about whether another riot would erupt over verdicts returned in the trials.

Skepticism about the program never seemed far away.

“Smoke and mirrors,” whispered Lance Peyton as he listened to senior organizer Michael Wynn brief reporters about the program.

“I have my reservations about how much of this is going to translate into something useful for the community versus how much of this is just more politics,” said Peyton, a graphic artist who has lived in the neighborhood for 17 years. “It seems like a lot of big words and media events, and what we need is jobs.”

Others expressed hope and optimism that the program will provide an outlet for people to express their feelings constructively.

“I’m going to take it to the church,” said Ada Smith, 71, clutching a flyer. “I am concerned because people look at what happened in the riot and they only see the negative side of life. I want to tell people about the program and let them know what might happen and what will happen if they take an interest in it.”

Heredia Rodriguez, 63, listened intently to an organizer’s pitch. But she said promises from City Hall to clean the neighborhood of gangs and graffiti have not been fulfilled.

“If they did what they promised, it would be a triumph for this community,” Rodriguez said.