Time, Effort Have Erased Riots’ Scars

For delicatessen owner Giovanni Roberto, the news that his life’s work had been reduced to rubble came in the form of a phone call from a distraught customer.

Earlier in the day, taking heed of reports that trouble was imminent, Roberto had gathered his wife and son, flipped the sign in the window of his Panorama City shop to read “Closed” and gone home to Granada Hills.

“They’re looting your deli!” said the frantic voice on the other end of the line. “They’re destroying it.”

That evening Roberto watched on television as firefighters doused the smoldering remains of the mini-mall at Parthenia Street and Cedros Avenue that, until that afternoon, had housed his San Carlo Italian Deli and four other businesses.

“I was hoping they would take what they wanted and leave the store, but that didn’t happen,” Roberto said.

“I’ll be honest with you. I went there once to meet with the insurance people and I haven’t been back since. It breaks my heart.”

But should he return, Roberto might be pleasantly surprised. Five years after the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney King beating case sparked rioting throughout the city, the mini-mall that housed Roberto’s deli has been rebuilt. Across the street, Smiley’s Market, which also burned, has reopened.

The area is relatively free of graffiti, and neighbors say children have even begun to play again in a nearby park that had been virtually abandoned by families.

The comeback--particularly significant here, in an area struck by riot and earthquake and struggling with poverty--is the result of careful planning and methodical work on the part of community members, businesses and local politicians.

Today, Panorama City is the site of several new businesses, including ice- and roller-skating rinks currently under construction, a planned Wal-Mart and a Food 4 Less supermarket.

On the Parthenia Street lot where five years ago stood an empty Robinson’s department store, a bright, new Pan American Bank branch offers business and personal lines of credit, and across the street a new travel agency promises to set up dream vacations. There also is a new library and a renovated recreation center.

“At the time of the riots, we had an abandoned Robinson’s building, the closure of the General Motors plant, the Panorama Mall was shaky at best . . . and the crime rate was very high,” said Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents part of Panorama City.

The severity of the economic downturn in Panorama City helped make it a flash point for the San Fernando Valley’s unrest. But the riots and subsequent damage from the Northridge earthquake focused attention on the area’s needs and led to the current redevelopment efforts.

“We recognized that the conditions in Panorama City had deteriorated to such a state that we had to give it special focus,” Alarcon said.

The first project in the area, the revitalization of the old Robinson’s site, was aided by $2 million in riot recovery funds. Similarly, the skating rink was partly funded with earthquake recovery loans.

Shops and a 16-screen theater complex are planned for the former General Motors plant, and the first Wal-Mart in Los Angeles will be located at the site of the old Broadway department store in the Panorama Mall.

The neighborhood has also witnessed an increase in community cooperation, with apartment owners banding together to back revitalization efforts and residents forming graffiti buster and neighborhood watch groups, along with other community-policing programs aimed at reducing tension between officers and residents.

“It’s not perfect but it’s a far cry from what it was,” said Ester Hannon, director of the San Fernando Valley Partnership, a group that fights substance abuse among youths. “There’s more trust and a willingness on the part of police to listen to input from residents.”

“As far as people rioting again, I doubt that would ever happen,” said Clarence “Lefty” Blasco, an anti-graffiti activist who has lived on Blythe Street in Panorama City since 1964. “People smartened up.”

Five years ago, the first reports of arson and looting in the Valley began to light up police phone lines during the late afternoon of April 30, more than 24 hours after rioting began at Florence and Normandie in South-Central.

When the disturbances finally ended the next day, two people had died in the Valley, dozens more were injured and at least 63 buildings were destroyed. More than 100 people were arrested, half of them for felonies.

Much of the destruction was blamed on a 200-person mob that blazed a trail along Van Nuys Boulevard in Panorama City. There was also arson and looting in Van Nuys, Reseda and Pacoima.

The day before, an unruly group had protested at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division in Pacoima, home base for the officers who had beaten King.

Certainly, the scale of destruction in the Valley paled in comparison to what occurred elsewhere. But for business owners like Roberto, whose lives and livelihoods were directly affected by the violence, the experience left an indelible mark.

It also prompted change, although residents and politicians agree that it’s going to take more than business development to really turn the area around.

“We’re still high-density, and we still have our problems,” said Leslie Yamashita, executive director of the Panorama City Revitalization Assn. “But we are much better organized, and we really have a strong sense of teamwork as a community.”

Some of the demographic trends that plague the area, such as lower family income and higher density, are expected to continue over the next several years. In 1970, 65% of Panorama City’s housing stock consisted of single-family homes. By 1990, just 45% were single-family residences.

There have also been sweeping cultural changes, with 49% of the residents foreign-born as of 1990, and a switch from a predominantly white, non-Latino population in 1970 to a predominantly Latino one today.

“A huge amount remains to be done,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, who along with Alarcon represents Panorama City and other parts of the northeast Valley. “But I think [Panorama City] has turned around the decline.

“I see the next five years certainly being better than the last five years, and I see it continuing to improve,” Wachs said.

As for Roberto, who has reopened his deli in Chatsworth, business is finally back on track. Tears well in his eyes when he is reminded of the day he lost his store and the struggles to rebuild his business that followed.

“Here we don’t care about race or religion or anything like that,” Roberto said. “It don’t mean nothing to us.”