Community Center--and Good News--Are Unveiled

Officials used a new technique Monday to jump-start community pride in a troubled Lincoln Heights neighborhood: They tried hot-wiring it.

Los Angeles leaders dedicated a fire-damaged neighborhood center being built a few steps from where a 14-year-old was killed in a confrontation with police.

And they disclosed that the mysterious blaze that just 13 days ago partially gutted the place was caused by loose electrical wiring--not by gang members using arson to avenge their friend’s death.

Carpenters raced to remove debris and make emergency repairs in time for Monday’s ceremony. But it will take another six weeks to finish renovations that will turn the 70-year-old Eastlake Avenue dwelling into a combination children’s center, housing assistance office and police drop-in substation.

The cause of the May 7 blaze had been worrisome to Los Angeles officials. Neighbors had speculated that gang members were to blame. But city Housing Department administrators in charge of the conversion project held out hope that faulty wiring was the cause.

With Mayor Richard Riordan and federal Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary Nic Retsinas among those looking on, City Councilman Mike Hernandez set the record straight.

“Everybody assumed it was arson,” Hernandez said. “But it was electrical.”

Hernandez said the idea for a multiuse community center sprang from last July 29’s shooting and the two nights of violence that followed.

“A gang riot,” is the way Hernandez characterized it. “Investigating the shooting wasn’t going to solve the problem.”

When occupants of the house moved away after the rampage, gang members moved in. Authorities chased them out after purchasing the house from a Chinatown bank that held its mortgage.

Neighborhood leaders have helped plan the new $250,000 center, nicknamed “Unity House.” Its primary tenant will be a children’s program run by Brother Modesto Leon, a neighborhood resident who heads a nonprofit community group called Soledad Enrichment Action. Leon said 48 children have already signed up.

“We’ll have a mural of animals over here,” resident Eva Castillo said as she escorted Riordan through the smoky-smelling structure. “I’ve got the baby critters pattern--the kids themselves are going to paint it.”

Residents were praised by Deputy Police Chief Robert Gil, who characterized the center as a tribute to “the people of this community whose efforts border on courageous.”

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After the ceremony, Gil said an investigation into last year’s incident indicated that Officer Michael A. Falvo acted within police policy when he shot 14-year-old Jose Antonio Gutierrez. That finding, recommended by a departmental use-of-force review board, has not yet been acted upon by the Police Commission.

Initial police reports indicated that Falvo shot Gutierrez four times in the upper torso after the boy pointed a semiautomatic pistol at him. Investigators said the weapon was found in the grass on the other side of a small fence from the boy.

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Witnesses gave conflicting descriptions of the incident, however. And tensions between police and some residents were heightened when it was disclosed that Falvo was one of 44 “problem officers” cited in the Christopher Commission report on Police Department operations commissioned after the beating of Rodney G. King.

City officials said they plan to erect a fence around the Craftsman-style house before it is reopened as the neighborhood center. In the meantime, said Housing Department administrator Matt Callahan, carpenters will be in the place during daylight hours and a guard will be posted at night.

“This is not about fixing up a building. It’s about helping a community,” said HUD’s Retsinas.

Added Riordan: “They set a goal and made it happen. Not even a fire could stop them.”