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Bridal Shop Owners Denounce Crime Rumors as Racist : Temple City: Talk that businesses are fronts for money laundering and prostitution angers the community’s growing Asian population.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

No one knows how the rumor got started.

Been around a few years now, Temple City residents say.

We asked the authorities to investigate, the city manager confirms.

There’s nothing to it, the cops conclude.

And yet it persists, casting suspicion on a group of hard-working people who have gone from bewilderment to anger as the topic refuses to die.

The rumor that hangs over Temple City goes like this: The city’s nine bridal shops are fronts for illegal activity, including prostitution and money laundering. Why else would there be so many within a square mile of each other? How else could they stay in business? What else could bring all that traffic of young men and women some evenings, when bridal shops are traditionally closed?

Oh, and another thing: All the shops are owned by Asian Americans.

The rumors swirl within a background of changing demographics: The historically white community has seen its Asian population swell in the last decade to more than 20% of its 31,000 residents.

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Bridal shops even took on political overtones earlier this month when City Council candidate Joe Walker, 33, a crime analyst with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, distributed flyers that proclaimed: “Stop Bridal Shops. Investigate these businesses that are plaguing our city.”

Asian Americans accused Walker of racism; he said he merely worried that the bridal shops--which do a large business in rentals and services--generate little sales tax. He later apologized for the “discomfort and grief” caused by the word plague. He lost the April 12 election.

Nonetheless, civic leaders said his platform struck a chord, giving public voice to a private concern that has long gnawed at the innards of some residents.

“There is a minority who resent the Asians moving into our city, and perhaps for them bridal shops have become the symbol . . . of those demographic changes,” said Thomas Breazeal, a Temple City councilman.

Breazeal said he finds the rumors about the bridal shops “abhorrent, repugnant, unconscionable. I don’t know if I can adequately find words to describe my emotional feelings for someone who introduces racism into an election.”

But step inside Pie ‘n Burger, a 1950s-style coffee shop on Las Tunas Drive that is a remnant of Americana amid a thicket of signs advertising Asian businesses, and you meet the type of folks who took Walker’s slogans to heart.

“I think there’s dope going out the back door and prostitution in the front,” asserted Norman B. Stachler, a former Temple City businessman, when asked about the bridal shops.

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Stachler, who raised his family in Temple City and later moved to Arcadia, said of Asian immigrants:

“They’re buying us out of our community, our city, our own golf courses. This goddamned town is ruined. It’s another Monterey Park. All the homeowners are moving out.”

Patrons at several other tables echoed Stachler’s remarks. A man who identified himself only as Bob said the United States should prohibit immigrants from buying property until they become citizens. The man, whose parents emigrated from Yugoslavia, accused Temple City of being too lenient with Asian immigrants.

“Those people are pretty shrewd,” he said. “The way they work, you don’t even know what they’re doing in (the bridal shops).”

The rumors are so pervasive that at least one bridal shop owner found herself fending off would-be johns.

Vivian Viado, a Filipino Amerycan who owns Veekee’s Bridal Shop on Las Tunas Drive, said three or four men have called wanting to hire prostitutes. A car full of young men once pulled up to her store in the middle of the day.

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“Where are the whores?” they asked as customers gaped in astonishment. “We’re looking for whores.”

“You’ve got the wrong place,” Viado told them. Her store of six years is exactly what it appears, she said.

“I hope they will investigate; we’re not hiding anything,” Viado said, waving her arm to encompass the floor-length wedding dresses, prom gowns, jewelry, slippers and veils that adorn the boutique.

Bridal-shop owners said the suspicions about them illustrate an ignorance of Asia and its customs, where entire city shopping districts are often devoted to one type of business. In Taipei, Taiwan, they said, there is one street lined with 30 or more bridal shops where customers can compare prices and styles.

“People want a one-stop shopping street; that’s one of our biggest selling points,” said Peter Zhang of Top Bo Bridal shop, which opened in a shopping mall on Las Tunas Drive six months ago.

Far from fearing that other shops would pose too much competition, Top Bo was drawn to Las Tunas specifically because of the plethora of shops, Zhang said.

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Lucy Wang, 40, and her husband Daniel, 46, own Lucy’s Bridal, an elegant Las Tunas shop that features elaborate Marie Antoinette-like dresses trimmed with black lace. The Wangs studied photography in Japan, then ran a bridal shop in Taiwan for 15 years before moving to Southern California.

“The only thing we know is the bridal business and the photography business, so that’s what we did to make a life,” Wang said.

Law enforcement officials said they are bewildered as to where the rumors started. The only link they can muster is that Temple City residents might be confusing bridal shops with a beauty shop that was closed down last year for prostitution. The Jai Alai Salon’s business license was revoked by the city attorney after the city and police received numerous calls alleging illegal activity there.

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