A Day-Brightener : New Paint Store Is Seen as a Symbol of Riot Recovery

More than dozen local officials and business leaders gathered Wednesday at an Inglewood paint store that they say offers a ray of hope that areas hit hard by last year’s unrest are on the way to recovery.

“There can be no better symbol for a recovery than a paint store,” said Billy J. Sutton, a vice president of Benjamin Moore & Co., a New Jersey-based paint manufacturer.

Sutton and officials from Rebuild L.A. and the city of Inglewood helped launch the opening of the Paint Station, a store owned and operated by two African-American brothers who received financing help from the paint firm.

“This is a great opportunity,” Derek Burris said proudly as he stood with his brother, Sam, at the grand opening. “But this is only the beginning.”

Derek and Sam Burris received funding for the store through the “Temporary Co-Ownership” program established years ago by the Benjamin Moore & Co. to help entrepreneurs obtain the capital to open stores that will sell the company’s paint and home-decorating products.

Company officials said they had long planned to help minority entrepreneurs open stores in inner-city communities, and the plans were accelerated after last year’s riots.

“We don’t fool ourselves, one or two paint stores is not going to turn everything around,” Sutton said. “But it’s a start, and when the revitalization gets going, it benefits everyone.”

Strong neighborhood ties made the Burris brothers prime candidates to operate the first inner-city store to open under the contract.

The family has operated a hardware store in South Los Angeles for 23 years. The store was untouched during the riots.

“We were protected from looting because we were black-owned,” said Sam Burris, a former wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys.

After the riots, he said, the family pitched in on the cleanup effort, handing out free plastic bags and brooms in the neighborhood.

In addition to the Paint Station in Inglewood, Benjamin Moore & Co. is planning to establish two other stores in minority communities, one in East Los Angeles and another in the Crenshaw area.

Tony M. Salazar, Rebuild L.A.’s co-chairman, said the store is an example of “promise and not destruction” in the city.

“People call me all the time and say they hear that Los Angeles is under siege or ready for battle,” he said. But the opening of the paint store proves that “people are looking beyond the riots.”

Inglewood City Councilman Danny Tabor asked many customers Tuesday to buy merchandise. “We need the tax revenue,” he said with a smile.

Terry Birdsong, one of the first customers, said it was nice to have a paint store nearby. “We usually have to travel pretty far to get good-quality paint,” he said. “This is right in the community, and we can shop here and help out our own.”