‘Be Patient’ : It’s a Familiar Refrain From the Politicians, Says a Resident Activist at the Imperial Courts Housing Projects. But When Will the Promises to the People Be Fulfilled?

Cynthia Mendenhall, 32, is in her third term as president of the residents’ advisory committee at the Imperial Courts housing project in South-Central.

As she puts it, she “came back from a long ways” as a former gang member to become a civic leader, and that checkered past is one of the things that has driven her to turn her volunteer position into a full-time, non-paying job. “I don’t want the girls to turn out like we did,” she says.

But Mendenhall says government apathy and a lack of funds have prevented her from putting an ambitious community-oriented program to work. And although she has witnessed many successes--such as the South-Central gang truce--the fact that much of her agenda remains unfulfilled leaves her frustrated. She was interviewed by Kevin Baxter .

What we need to do in the projects is empower the residents. Make everybody a part of it. I feel like I’m a voice for the community and I’m fighting for what’s right, but I feel like I’ve let the people down because we should have more than this. We aren’t trying to overthrow the government; all we’re trying to do is get what we got coming to us. All I want is what I was promised.

It’s gotten so bad that the residents never believe in the leaders anymore. It’s that way in every project. We’ve been lied to for so many years, the people just don’t believe us. The residents have been hanging on, waiting for the money we were promised, but it never comes.

The programs we have in Imperial Courts we created ourselves. The Housing Authority really hasn’t done that much for us. We should have a gang-prevention program, so we’re doing that on our own. We should have our own resident security program, so we’re doing that. The community is running these programs and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. But we need some help.

Look at the gang truce. Since the Watts gang truce, we haven’t had any problems with gangs. Crime has gone down. We haven’t had any drive-by shootings. The truce is holding. And who did that? The people of Watts did. The politicians couldn’t do it, though they tried. The Muslims couldn’t do it, though they tried. The police couldn’t do it, though they tried. Everybody tried, but we did it .

And what did we get for that? Not a damn thing! What we’d really like are some jobs. But everyone keeps telling us, “Be patient, be patient.” As it is now, you can make more sitting at home than you can going to work. But nobody wants to sit at home. They want to work. I’m with those who are saying no more welfare, but only if you’re going to give us decent jobs.

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Everything is related to jobs. Child care, training, gang prevention. When somebody gets out of the pen, out of jail, you tell them, “Be patient, I’m going to get you a job. Be patient.” But there aren’t any jobs coming to our community. At our unemployment center, they send you to Target, K mart, Taco Bell. Nobody wants that. We want good jobs with the telephone company, IBM, DWP, the probation department.

Why not pay these companies so much to get us off welfare? Like paying me $10 an hour to train me for a good job. There are too many people walking around here not doing anything. To keep the community quiet, we need more jobs.

We just don’t have the services either. It’s not like it used to be. We used to have the teen clubs, we had the Community Youth Organization, we had Parks and Recreation Department programs. So that’s three different centers you could have gone to after school. We just have the gym now. We need more services than that.

We need a child care center, so mothers who want to get off of federal aid won’t have to worry about their kids after school. We need a transportation support center. We’re trying to fund a 4-H club so we can have something for the girls.

We want to create some small-business ventures, small employee training programs, that will allow us, as we expand, to create more jobs and programs for the people. Since the riots, the Rodney King thing, the residents have been hanging on waiting for the money we were promised. If they’re giving the Housing Authority money to give us, we haven’t received it. If we got it, we could do a lot.

We could get the teen-age girls that are hanging on the walls and walking the projects and get them to help the kids with their homework. And with the money they make, they could put it into buying clothes for school, they could get ready for the prom or put in for college. They could learn how to open a bank account.

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We want to start an employee training program for the men and women who have just been released from prison so they can be the kind of parents they’re supposed to be. The men who used to drive school buses, they have all these skills but they’ve been laid off. They can drive the vans for the transportation that we want for senior citizens.

I have a lot of ideas, a lot of dreams. But it seems like if you try to do too much, if you try to help your people too much, that’s when you get hurt. That’s when doors start shutting in your face. They want you to stay quiet and do what they want you to do. When you try to be a leader, you don’t have any friends.

But I’m not afraid to speak up. We should have more than this. You have to listen to the people, the residents, and the politicians will have to listen to us so we can tell them what will work for our people.

The pride in the community is there. We just don’t have the services.