Bridges to and From Koreatown

The Korean American community in Southern California is vast, the largest concentration of Koreans living outside that Asian nation. It is also one of the region’s newest immigrant communities, and its special needs too often have been overlooked. That oversight came into sharp focus with last year’s riots, during which Korean American merchants were hard-hit.

Since then, Korean Americans have been pressing for services and programs that better address their specific needs and might help them form connections to other communities.

Two such efforts deserve special notice. The offices of the L.A. city attorney and L.A. County district attorney have set up a special program for Korean-speaking crime victims. And a Korean American bank is taking its unusual lending practices to other communities.

Noting that Korean Americans disproportionately have been victims of crime in Los Angeles and that many victims are not receiving needed services, City Atty. James K. Hahn said a Korean-speaking aide is being hired under a program made possible by a grant from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

The program leader, who will work out of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Koreatown substation, is to assemble a team of Korean American volunteers to help route cases referred by law enforcement officers, prosecutors, hospitals and other agencies. The team will contact victims to assess what help they need, refer them to appropriate agencies and help to explain court procedures. Think what this sort of help will mean to people such as the relatives of the more than two dozen Korean Americans killed or wounded during robberies in Southern California this year. Like other immigrants to the United States, first-generation Korean Americans often do not trust government or are simply not familiar with government services. Similarly, L.A. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said he hopes to have a Korean American on his staff by early next year to help the D.A.’s office “bridge the gap with the Korean American community.”

Meanwhile, Hanmi Bank, the largest and oldest Korean American bank here, has just opened a branch in the mid-Wilshire area to reach beyond its traditional customer base, which is 90% Korean American. The bank specializes in loans to applicants who have been rejected by conventional banks because they do not qualify under traditional credit and income requirements. Hanmi’s new branch, with a diverse staff that speaks Spanish, Korean, Tagalog, Arabic, French and German, will extend its “character lending” practices to African Americans, Latinos and others.

Congratulations to those building bridges into and out of a key Southern California ethnic community.