Land of Opportunity : Land of Opportunity

By DENISE HAMILTON

Dec. 22, 1996 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Joe Orr, stationed at March Air Force Base in Riverside County, looked around and liked what he saw: a quiet, peaceful region that was drawing large numbers of newcomers like him.

So when he retired from the military in 1990, Orr fulfilled his lifelong dream: He opened a dry-cleaning business in Moreno Valley, whose population of 133,000 is 13% African American.

Orr took out ads in local black newspapers and mailed out thousands of fliers. Clients referred friends and word of Orr’s business spread.

Today he has many customers who drive 20 miles or more to patronize A-1 Cleaners, the only black-owned dry cleaner in the area. Although Moreno Valley has been hit hard by recession after the building boom of the 1980s collapsed, Orr is holding on.

“My family has had dry cleaners before, so I know the business and I’m used to working hard,” he says.

Orr epitomizes a phenomenon that is quietly taking root in the Inland Empire, whose black population increased 119% to 169,128 between 1980 and 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, making it the suburban area with the fastest-growing black population in the country. During that time, the Inland Empire’s overall population rose to 2,588,793, a 66% increase.

Businesses owned by African Americans are multiplying and thriving in the region, tapping into a booming black population, taking advantage of reasonable commercial rents and exercising an entrepreneurial spirit in an area that has seen numerous new residential developments in the last 15 years.

Some businesses are transplants from Los Angeles, although there has been no large-scale migration from the traditional black business districts such as Crenshaw, black business people say.

In fact, many of the Inland Empire’s businesses are brand-new. The number of companies, which range from mom-and-pop outfits such as dry cleaners and Creole restaurants to financial planners, dentists, car dealerships and industrial manufacturing firms, has grown exponentially.

In 1990, the Inland Empire African American Chamber of Commerce was launched with six members. Today it has about 90, and it’s not unusual to find more than 100 business people from all walks of life showing up at meetings to network and share ideas.

Cheryl Brown, co-publisher of Black Voice News, a weekly newspaper based in Riverside, sees the growth reflected in her publication. Ads have nearly doubled in the last five years, she says. And each week, the News runs several legal notices on black-owned businesses that are about to open.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here,” Brown says. “People come and they see the need and they establish a business.”

Many of the new business people are involved in the information economy. With a computer and a modem, they could live anywhere and telecommute, but they are settling in cities such as Rialto, which is 20.4% black, according to the 1990 census.

Dennis Schatzman, a journalism professor at Cal State Fullerton and a syndicated newspaper columnist, moved to Ontario from Los Angeles three years ago because of cheaper real estate.

“You can get something real slick in Rialto and the Moreno Valley. My mortgage is $405 a month, and I have a pool,” he said.

All is not paradise in the Inland Empire, however. Moreno Valley, for example, has been hard-hit by recession after the building boom of the 1980s collapsed and the city’s largest revenue stream, developer fees, dried up. In recent years, the city, which lacks the stable, diversified business and industrial base other municipalities count on, has had problems meeting its budget. Many owners of small businesses have hung on through the downturn, struggling to survive.

African American business owners say they face other, more general obstacles to success. The biggest is gaining access to capital. Many say they have been turned down for loans by banks or city agencies for no good reason they can see other than the fact that they are black.

“Racism is alive and prevalent, and there’s a definite effort to make sure that minority-owned businesses only go so far,” says Harold L. Sumpter, an Ohio native who moved to the Inland Empire 10 years ago and started a manufacturing firm in Riverside.

Today, his H&H; Industries has $5 million in annual sales and employs 70 people that make material-handling equipment such as racks and containers. The company also makes aftermarket truck beds for Toyota trucks.

But Sumpter says he could expand further if he had better financing. “They say the playing field is level, but it isn’t,” he says.

Sumpter says he was lucky to enlist the support of a black city councilman who lobbied officials on his behalf, and he eventually received a loan from the city of Riverside to purchase his first facility to make the Toyota truck beds. Sumpter says he’s one of the few African Americans involved in manufacturing in the Inland Empire and that other black business people have trouble lining up similar assistance.

Sandy Sutton, acting district director for the Small Business Administration’s office for the Inland Empire and Orange County, says she is aware of the perception that African Americans have more difficulty obtaining loans. She points out, however, that many loan applications--and not just those of African American companies--are denied because the firms lack capitalization and are rated as poor credit risks.

“We have to go beyond calling policies racist just because someone doesn’t get a loan,” she says. “If someone is turned down for a loan, they need to inquire why their loan was denied and to get a response in writing.”

Some black business people argue that African American entrepreneurs must battle bias in other respects.

“We’re still facing a stigma at times that African Americans don’t have quality products and services,” says Veda Hunn, a former African American Chamber board member who is now the group’s publicity coordinator.

In some cities, black entrepreneurs say they have been welcome, even wooed. San Bernardino, which has a small but lively district of black-owned shops downtown, has encouraged some black business people to move from other cities, helping them navigate the permits process and negotiate leases through its Main Street program, run by the city’s Economic Development Agency.

One is Phenix Information Center, a bookstore that relocated from a 400-square-foot space in Rialto. It now sprawls over 1,500 square feet on San Bernardino’s E Street, a hub of black culture that has about 10 black-owned stores.

“I was surprised. I didn’t expect the city to be so helpful,” says Joann Roberts, who co-owns Phenix with her husband, Faron, and has drawn such luminaries for book signings as lawyers Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Christopher Darden and Terry McMillan, author of “Waiting to Exhale.”

It was also one of two U.S. bookstores owned by African Americans to host retired Gen. Colin Powell last year. That book signing drew 2,500 people, forcing Roberts and city officials to move the event to a civic auditorium.

Other African American-owned businesses on E Street include a clothing store that specializes in Afro-centric design, a hair salon and an art gallery.

“We started with one, Talk of the Town Hair Salon, and he was on his own for about two years,” says Colin Strange, project coordinator for the city’s Main Street program. “But now people go to one and then go to the others. They recommend each other. It forms almost a little district.”

African American businesses have a long history in Riverside and San Bernardino. Traditionally, blacks settled and opened businesses on San Bernardino’s west side and Riverside’s east side. As early as 1905 in Riverside, blacks had a mercantile building (or commercial center), where different businesses gathered under one roof. Today, black businesses are spread throughout the two counties, but there are notable concentrations in Riverside, Moreno Valley, Rialto and San Bernardino--all cities with significant African American populations.

Some of today’s successful business people draw on their deep roots in the community. Lennie Woods was born in the Inland Empire and his family is well-known in local business circles. Woods worked as a Ford Motor Co. executive for 13 years in the Los Angeles area before buying his own dealership just across the county line in Chino Hills.

Today his business is flourishing. Only about a fifth of his customers are African Americans, he says, although some of those customers will drive out from Los Angeles just to buy a car at Chino Hills Ford.

The area also supports three black newspapers. Brian Townsend, whose father founded the 55,000-circulation weekly Precinct Reporter 35 years ago, says advertising has grown 10% in the last few years because of the swelling number of black businesses.

They are owned by people like Charles Bibbs, a nationally known artist and businessman who is originally from Long Beach but who moved to the Inland Empire and started painting and distributing art from his garage in 1988.

Today he has a 10,000-square-foot gallery and distribution facility in Moreno Valley, with 14 employees that ship to 3,000 galleries nationwide. He’s also started a magazine focusing on African American art called Images. And he is looking into opening an art gallery on San Bernardino’s E Street.

The Inland Empire “is a great area, and it’s affordable,” Bibbs says. “At times it’s almost overwhelming how fast this business is growing.”

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Black-Owned Businesses

The Inland Empire’s black population has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and black-owned businesses are flourishing.

County: Los Angeles

Total Firms: 32,645

Receipts (in millions): $3,600

County: Orange

Total Firms: 2,237

Receipts (in millions): $220

County: San Bernardino

Total Firms: 3,366