Tuesday, 4/29/97 L.A.’s wounds slowly healing Businesses face
hard times in five years following city’s unrest
By Vicky Geeroms Daily Bruin Contributor "Nothing left, nothing
left," said Nick Amari exactly five years ago after his 54-year-old
Valley store burned to the ground and all that was left were ruins.
In the past five years, Amari has had a hard time getting his
business back on track. He had to wait to get a loan and a license,
and once he got them, was forced to spend an enormous amount of
money on security and lawyers. "We had a hard time, big time,"
Amari said. "And last year, my partner died because he couldn’t
handle the stress anymore." Amari is only one of many people whose
lives were turned upside down by the Los Angeles riots which began
exactly five years ago today. Sparked by the "not guilty" verdict
of the LAPD officers charged with the beating of motorist Rodney
King in March 1991, the 1992 riots claimed at least 53 lives,
injured 2,300 people and damaged more than 1,100 buildings. For
three days, Los Angeles was the scene of rioting, looting and even
killing. Hundreds of businesses were destroyed, their owners left
scarred with nothing more than memories. The city looked like a war
zone. Unlike the 1965 Watts riots, the 1992 riots were dispersed
over different cities, left scars in areas as far as Long Beach and
Hollywood, leaving many to attempt to heal the scars and rebuild
the city. The rebuilding attempts were led by the private sector
which formed organizations such as Rebuild L.A. (now known as RLA),
giving itself five years to help L.A. recover from the riots. Five
years later, feelings on the rebuilding attempts for L.A. are
mixed. "People have been critical of organizations such as RLA,"
said sociologist Darnell Hunt, author of the new book "Screening
the Los Angeles ‘Riots.’" "There have been some successes, but the
infrastructure is still underdeveloped," he continued. A Los
Angeles Times survey published last week showed that one out of
three buildings was not rebuilt and that there are still 200 vacant
properties across the city. The survey also showed that economic
recovery occurred faster in wealthy neighborhoods such as
Hollywood, whereas riot-scarred properties in poorer areas are
taking longer to be rebuilt. "Geographically, everything (outside)
South-Central has returned to normal," said Eric Shockman,
professor of political science at USC, an area that was hit hard by
the riots. "But in South-Central things are more problematic."
Shockman believes a lot has to do with the budget RLA spent to
achieve its goals. "RLA was going to throw in $1 billion," he
said." But only $400 million were spent, far short from the money
it (RLA) had in mind." But some feel the original expectation of
RLA was too optimistic. "Following the riots, a lot of people had
very high hopes that were very unrealistic," said Jason Greenwald,
spokesman for Mayor Richard Riordan’s office. Instead of looking
for unrealistic short-term solutions, he said, the mayor focuses on
long-term solutions, such as advocating the creation of the
Community Development Bank. The bank started operation last summer,
and provides $1 billion in loans for economically disadvantaged
parts of the city. "The idea is to make businesses work in South
Los Angeles and on the Eastside," Greenwald said, adding that the
mayor believes it is very important that all parts of the city
benefit from the economic recovery. But sharing in the economic
recovery can be very hard, even if businesses do get a loan. "Our
business is hardly surviving," Amari said. "The riots have killed
us big time and the city is supposed to help us but they are
squeezing us." Shockman shares Amari’s view that the government and
city could have done a better job in helping L.A. recover from the
scars the riots left. "The assessment is that ultimately the
federal government walked away from L.A.," Shockman said. "And the
city and county did a lot of lip-service but there wasn’t any
action." Many people feel a lot of token actions were taken, but
that much remains to be done because the basic causes of the 1992
unrest are still present. "The 1992 riots were triggered by one
event, but the underlying causes were there for a long time and are
still here," Hunt said, referring to racial tensions in L.A. There
are still too many potential sources of conflict, such as the
Simpson case and the debate on affirmative action, Hunt said. "The
city’s social fabric will never heal unless we deal with those
tensions," Hunt continued. Yet Shockman disagrees, arguing that
racial tensions seem to be gradually diminishing. Religious
communities have done a lot to improve inter-racial relationships
in L.A, Shockman said. "Los Angeles County leads the nation in
inter-racial marriages so we’re moving closer," he continued.
Overall, the assessment of Los Angeles’ recovery after the 1992
riots is fairly positive. As Greenwald pointed out, crime in L.A.
has gone down by 25 percent in the last four years. "The mayor
believes we have to make the city safer," Greenwald said. "Because
residents will be safer and businesses will feel comfortable
locating in the city. Only if we concentrate on these long term
solutions will the city heal from the riots’ scars." Previous Daily
Bruin Story: Three years later: violence and absolution