A Formula for Fairness in Rebuilding L.A.

The job of physically rebuilding Los Angeles is a job for all of us.

In the construction trades, spreading the rebuilding work equitably throughout the community is often easier said than done. Yet we must make sure that happens, for the sake of the workers, our businesses and our community.

If we are to turn the destruction of 1992 into something positive, let’s start with a solid foundation--with the construction work going on to rebuild or replace the damaged or destroyed buildings.

We’re encouraged to see that the pace of rebuilding, at least in the city of Los Angeles, is moving faster than most people realize. In the city alone, 1,198 building sites sustained damage last April. Of those sites, 656--or 46%--have been rebuilt or have construction work under way. Only 89 of the damaged sites have seen no work of any kind.

We would be even more encouraged if we could report that all of these construction projects included workers from the neighborhoods where the destruction occurred. Unfortunately, we cannot. Yet there is some good news to report.

More and more, we see contractors willing to commit to a simple but powerful concept to make sure that their work forces represent the communities they are serving. Thrifty, Mobil Oil and Southland Corp. (the parent company of 7-11 stores) are just three companies with important rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles that are exemplifying this concept. It reflects a formula that was worked out carefully by the RLA (Rebuild L.A.) construction task force over a period of six months. That task force, which is made up of contractors, minority construction organizations, labor unions and developers, represents the total spectrum of people who make up the construction business.

We ask that at every neglected-area construction site, 25% of the workers be from within a three-mile radius of the site, 25% from other neglected areas and 25% from Los Angeles County.

Using this 25-25-25 formula, we can be sure that the workers rebuilding our inner city will be workers who have a strong stake in the work on the site, as well as in the immediate neighborhood. In this way, the people benefiting directly from the work will be the people who were damaged most by the circumstances requiring the construction work.

At the same time, participating contractors are providing on-the-job training for their workers, teaching basic construction work skills. While this can be expensive, their investment is paying dividends by improving the skills of the local work force and raising the quality of work and life in our neglected areas.

The 25-25-25 concept prevents destructive dialogues over racial-content quotas, too. When the workers come from the immediate neighborhood of the construction site, local population demographics will tend to create an appropriate racial mix for each site.

There’s much work to be done to complete the rebuilding process, and even more work to come as additional businesses return to the neglected areas to take advantage of the growing marketing opportunities there.

As contractors and developers adopt the 25-25-25 formula as their own, they create a situation where they win, we win, the community wins. And that’s the spirit of rebuilding that we want to see for all of Los Angeles.