Harbor City Bypassed for Post-Riot Assistance : Revitalization: The area’s minimal damage was not enough to qualify it for tax breaks and other aid that businesses in neighboring Wilmington and San Pedro can get.

After escaping largely unscathed from last year’s riots, folks in Harbor City are wondering whether they were too good at guarding against arson and looting.

Only one building in Harbor City was burned in the disturbances--not enough to qualify the community as one of the “revitalization zones” where government officials are directing tax breaks and other post-riot assistance.

“The same problems that are the underlying causes of the riots in other areas are right here too,” said Joanne Valle, executive director of the Harbor City/Harbor Gateway Chamber of Commerce. “We will ask to have Harbor City re-evaluated . . . Let’s face it--there’s a lot of people out of work right now and they’re desperate.”

Elsewhere in the harbor area, all of Wilmington and part of San Pedro qualified as revitalization zones--by a narrow margin. Two businesses in each of those communities were burned in the riots.

At stake is post-riot assistance that the Legislature approved in January for communities that suffered in last year’s civil unrest. The aid, retroactive to May 1, 1992, features tax breaks of up to $19,875 for each local worker hired by revitalization zone businesses.

The assistance also includes a sales and use tax credit for building materials, fixtures, machinery and equipment, and a business expense deduction on tools, machinery and other equipment. Also, interest on loans to revitalization zone businesses will not be taxed by the state.

Businesses in all of Wilmington and the eastern half of San Pedro, including the Port of Los Angeles and Terminal Island, have about two months to take advantage of the benefits of their status as revitalization zones.

“We don’t anticipate anyone taking advantage of the credits right away, but we’re disbursing information so that they may plan their business activities accordingly,” said Gregory Dimmitt, the Los Angeles Community Development Department’s program area manager for Wilmington and San Pedro.

Joan Milke Flores, harbor area representative on the Los Angeles City Council, said that until the riots, economic stimulus efforts were thwarted by concerns about the city’s shaky finances.

“We’re in a big financial mess, and anything that says we’re taking some of the tax base away has been automatically unpopular,” Flores said. “It’s unfortunate that it took the events of last April to accomplish this, but that’s life sometimes.”

While Wilmington and San Pedro heave sighs of economic relief, Harbor City feels slighted.

“I really wish we would’ve been included in the zone,” said Valle.

Dimmitt said the state has broadened the criteria for revitalization zones to include communities not devastated by fires. But having social problems--and virtually no riot damage--is insufficient to qualify a community for state assistance, he said.

“I tried a lot to get Harbor City included, but they just did not qualify,” he said.

Harbor City will not miss out completely on special state assistance, however. Officials said that the community has qualified for state enterprise zone tax breaks, which are not part of the post-riot revitalization package but could help stimulate the local economy.

“This is some good news for us,” Valle said. “People are really happy and we’re just packed with people who want to know about the enterprise zone. It’s going to be a shot in the arm to the area.”

A seminar for business owners in revitalization zones will be held at 8 a.m. Wednesday at the Port of Los Angeles offices, 425 S. Palos Verdes St., San Pedro. There also will be an enterprise zone seminar at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Holiday Inn, 19800 S. Vermont Ave., Harbor City.