LITTLE TOKYO : Deaths Add Urgency to Police Outpost Bid

In the aftermath of the carjacking slayings of two Japanese college students in San Pedro, Little Tokyo community leaders are stepping up their efforts to open a ko-ban, or police outpost, on 1st Street.

For nearly two years, community leaders have sought to open a police outpost in Little Tokyo that would provide assistance in Japanese and English to crime victims. But the project became entangled in red tape at City Hall.

Now, with the March 25 killings of the two Japanese students and the resulting concern about crime among visitors, Little Tokyo community leaders are drafting letters to Mayor Richard Riordan and other city leaders about making the ko-ban a high priority.

Community leaders have also added tourist information--such as public transit schedules and sightseeing tips--to the list of services they hope to offer at the ko-ban.

“It’s very fitting right now. We can provide tourists assistance at the ko-ban, “ said Brian Kito, a Little Tokyo merchant and member of the Greater Little Tokyo Anti-Crime Assn., a community group spearheading the project. “The city should jump on board.”

Community leaders envision an outpost-information center staffed by bilingual volunteers. Police officers would stop in to take reports and provide information and assistance, similar to an arrangement used in Chinatown for the past nine years.

Such small police booths are found on many street corners in Japan, providing victims with a convenient and unintimidating place to report crimes. Little Tokyo community leaders hope a similar setup here will encourage crime victims, particularly tourists, to report even small incidents such as burglaries in cars. They say many crimes go unreported primarily because of the language barrier.

The anti-crime association has already gathered a corps of volunteers and has long eyed a store space in a city-owned building at 303-307 1/2 1st St. as a ko-ban site.

Councilwoman Rita Walters has backed the proposal. But the early-1900s building has needed to be repaired and seismically improved. City construction crews had expected to have their work done by December, 1992, but a series of construction and bureaucratic glitches created delays and threatened the police outpost project.

One key problem that arose was a city plan for only two store spaces in the renovated building, rather than a restoration of the original four spaces. General Services Department officials believed two larger spaces would be easier to lease and utilize, particularly because there is a rather narrow street frontage, said Frank Mercier, a senior real estate officer for the department.

But that would have left no room for the police outpost since two of the prior tenants, a restaurant and a water purification company, wanted to return to the building, community leaders said.

So ko-ban supporters enlisted the help of Walters and Gloria Uchida, the area’s Community Redevelopment Agency project manager, who persuaded city general services officials to provide a third space in the building.

“We have this thick bureaucracy . . . and it went around in circles,” said Carolyn Cooper, a senior analyst in the City Administrative Officer’s department who also supported the three-space concept.

Cooper said she expects repairs of the building to proceed quickly now that the number of spaces has been clarified. The city has budgeted about $600,000 for the improvements. The money will come from seismic retrofit bonds approved by voters in 1990, Cooper said.

Doc Nghiem, a city structural engineer, said the building has been gutted and architects should have interior plans, which will include upgraded restrooms and improved access for the disabled, drafted by early May.

The project should go out to bid by June and construction, which is expected to last about four months, should begin by September, Nghiem said.

“We’ll do the best we can to speed it up,” Nghiem said, although he noted that city construction and engineering employees have been occupied with Northridge earthquake repairs.

Meanwhile, community leaders hope to get mayoral and City Council support for a low-rent agreement for the police outpost. The anti-crime association would like a nominal lease, such as the $1 per year that some other nonprofit groups and agencies pay for renting city properties.

Another alternative that community leaders want to discuss with city leaders is the idea of the anti-crime association becoming the building landlord and thus benefiting from the rents provided by the other two tenants. The association would sublease the spaces and use rent proceeds to help pay the police outpost’s insurance and maintenance costs.