UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS--SIX MONTHS LATER : Money and Power/Making It in the Inner City : REBUILDING: VIEWS ON THE CITY’S RESPONSE : ‘The challenges are greater than anyone thought they would be.’

Just three nights after rioting began in Los Angeles, Mayor Tom Bradley picked former Olympics czar Peter V. Ueberroth to head a reconstruction effort called Rebuild L.A.

Ueberroth said that the goals of Re build L.A. would be distinctly different from those pursued by government after the 1965 Watts riots. The organization’s efforts would focus on “long-term sustainable change,” he said, with an emphasis on job development and attracting private enterprise to invest in inner-city businesses that could turn a profit.

In some quarters, there is still confusion about what Rebuild L.A. is doing and planning to do; its best reviews are mixed.

Here, in edited form, is a sampling of opinions:

Laura Balverde Sanchez, president, New El Rey Sausage Co. in Vernon

I think the intent of Rebuild L.A. is a positive one.

The big criticism of Peter Ueberroth is that no one was involved in Ueberroth’s selection to head Rebuild L.A., other than Mayor Bradley. It was an anointment without the 12 disciples.

Ueberroth is an excellent organizer, a very good strategist, practical. He invites people to help; that’s the way a business should be run. If people had an opportunity to ask questions about his selection, they would have been more receptive.

I think there should be a progress report. No one knows where they’re headed, except for the logo. There was too much splash done about the greatness of the logo. That doesn’t put food on the table for anyone.

They should publish an organizational chart with names, phone numbers and salaries. What’s there to hide? They should publish a list of their task forces with contact numbers. There’s such disarray.

I get a first hand of reality in Vernon. It’s different than when you cross town.

I was invited to serve on the board when it was 20 people and I declined. I didn’t see any working class people on board. Even a small business person, a street vendor would have had more knowledge and sensitivity than the people on the board.

Bernard W. Kinsey, co-chairman, Rebuild L.A.

It’s really not what we do in RLA, it’s what we do in Los Angeles together. No matter how hard we work, it’s not possible for 48 people to solve 40 years of problems.

It’s extraordinary the amount of pain and suffering people are going through. And it’s not like what happened with Hurricane Andrew. See, Andrew was pretty total. And you could point to the wind and God. But you cannot point to that with this riot. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. So what we have to do is try to make sense of something that really has shattered our sense of place.

We need to restore confidence in our city and in our economy. We business leaders, religious leaders, educational leaders, we’ve put our heads in the sand and thought this problem would solve itself or somebody will solve it for us. I don’t think it will happen that way.

I find myself spending a lot of time being a cheerleader for the city.

We want to be a catalyst for change. We cannot spend the kind of money we spent in this city on redevelopment and have the kind of homelessness we do and think we’ve done well.

What’s most discouraging is the business leadership hasn’t stepped forward. It’s almost like they feel they don’t have a stake. The whole city has a stake in what we’re doing. If you don’t think so, try to sell your house.

A lot of it is racism. No one wants to talk about race, but this country operates on race. All you have to do is look at who comes to our office from companies wanting our help in making deals in the inner city. The executives are almost all white and their lieutenants are almost all white. Look at who’s on the corporate boards and the bank loan committees. I see it so much it’s sickening.

Bong Hwan Kim, executive director, Korean Youth Center; Rebuild L.A. board member

I’ve accepted a position on the board with some ambivalence. What I had expected Rebuild L.A. to do was to address the Korean community’s concerns in a much more substantive way than I’ve seen it move. I thought they would help the victims get re-established. I remember Peter Ueberroth coming into Koreatown a month or month and a half after the riot and telling us point blank that Rebuild L.A. was not about helping the victims short-term. His mandate was to bring in large scale corporate sector participation to help with jobs. I understand that to mean dealing with black and Latino unemployment.

What’s to say you can’t expand the scope? The victims of the riots--a disproportionate number are Korean and other Asian small businesses--are not on the political landscape from what I’ve seen. We’re politically powerless.

My main interest as a board member is to see that RLA provides some substantive remedies for the victims of the riots and, furthermore, to develop a small business development agenda.

That’s where immigrant groups get the first rung on the ladder, the American Dream. It’s often without much assistance or business planning. If such a structured program had been in place to address small business concerns, with immigrants and neglected minorities, we wouldn’t have the level of volatility that caused the riots in the first place and is continuing to brew.

The disenfranchised communities are continuing to fight for scarce resources. It’s a matter of survival for a lot of people. Those are the people that Rebuild L.A. has to put more focus on.

Getting corporations to come in, getting a manufacturing base for Los Angeles, getting jobs, is certainly needed. But there is this growing feeling of alienation in too many communities that government institutions and large corporations continue to do business in the same way that they have been. There have to be some alternatives that are institutionalized.

Eric Mann, director, Labor/Community Strategy Center.

Rebuild L.A. is fundamentally anti-democratic. In actuality it is the creature of government, appointed by the Bradley Administration with the support of Gov. (Pete) Wilson, and yet claims to be a private institution immune to public scrutiny and accountability.

For decades, African-Americans and Latinos have fought, first, for the vote and then, for equitable election districts, with the hope that government could be turned to serve their communities. And yet, after the urban rebellions, RLA is set up as a new shadow government that preempts the power and authority of those already fragile and at least allegedly democratic institutions.

Economically, Ueberroth’s plan is based on the power of the market, which focuses on profit-driven solutions for communities that cannot “attract” capital even if they offer low wages, tax breaks, environmental deregulation and community abdication.

So far RLA’s actual track record in attracting business has been so dismal that it has needed to take credit for inner city plans by Vons and Smart and Final that were initiated before the rebellions. Meanwhile, Ueberroth stood silent while GM closed down the Van Nuys plant with a predominantly Latino and African-American work force, including many workers from South L.A.

An alternative must begin with reconstructing Los Angeles from the bottom up: expanding the democratic arenas of policy contestation by establishing elected community planning boards, neighborhood councils to monitor elected officials and more requirements for public hearings and environmental impact reports. Real reconstruction must involve . . . an environmentally driven job-generating strategy, such as turning South and East L.A. into centers of industrial production for electric cars, public transit vehicles and environmentally sound products.

Manuel Pastor, chairman, Department of Economics, Occidental College.

I think it’s been a constructive thing that Rebuild L.A. was formed. What’s constructive is that it quite immediately focused attention on the issue of economic development and economic justice.

What’s been problematic about the response is that it has been moving so slowly and that--as a result of trying to jump to action--there hasn’t been enough analysis of what are the real economic problems confronting people in the so-called affected neighborhoods.

One of the really crucial issues--and they have set up a task force to deal with it--is credit. One of the most significant barriers to minority entrepreneurship is the lack of access to capital. This is in part because of bank abandonment of these neighborhoods.

Improving access to capital will require the development of community banks and the reform of banking practices. That will require a big challenge to corporate financial interests. You’ll have to go at the Bank of America and other big banks. Whether or not Rebuild L.A., with its heavy corporate base, will challenge itself is still up in the air.

One of the main things that’s affecting Latino poverty--low wages--can be addressed by making it easier for unions to organize. There are ways to do that. It’s again a challenge to the corporations. Can they recognize the need for workers to improve their income? Again, this would involve Rebuild L.A. challenging itself in a way.

Because of the recession, many of us are afraid to suggest progressive strategies. We fear that this will scare away the business we need. But if we don’t do it now, the neighborhoods, the poor, ethnic minorities, will not benefit once the economy gets going again. One of the worst things we did in the 1980s was to essentially waste L.A.’s economic boom. The boom happened downtown. The neighborhoods didn’t benefit because there was no policy framework at the beginning. We need to put that kind of policy framework in now to make sure redistribution is part of economic growth.

Mark Fabiani, Los Angeles deputy mayor

The real challenge facing the city after six months is whether dedicated, talented people with good hearts are going to stay in Los Angeles and fight for the future of the city or leave the city altogether or retreat to their guarded neighborhoods. I think it’s an open question so far as to which way people will go.

Rebuild L.A. has had its share of successes, but the commitment of the business community has not been as steadfast as it seemed to be several months ago.

The challenges of bringing the diverse community together are much greater than anyone ever thought they would be. The riot brought to the surface tensions and rifts that had always existed but had never affected political alliances in a dramatic way. Now, all the tensions and rifts are out there for anyone to see.

In terms of successes, Rebuild L.A. has developed an organization that contains a lot of committed, talented people. They have established a network for connecting volunteers to community organizations. They have established a process whereby the business community can target investments and buying decisions to low-income communities, a structure that didn’t exist before.

The question is whether the community and the business Establishment use the structure, go their own way or withdraw completely from the problems of the inner city. People are trying very hard, but it’s an open question how successful our efforts will be.

Stewart Kwoh, director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California; Rebuild L.A. board member

I don’t think there has been a debate in the city about a new economic vision.

Rebuild L.A.’s focus is on large business. That’s very important. However, we need to be able to debate what are the components of an overall vision. I don’t think that’s happening in the city. That’s not just the responsibility of RLA. Hopefully, the mayoralty campaign will be focused on this.

There needs to be a major small business development strategy and reform of our education system. Where does that debate take place? Where does the cooperation and coordination take place?

I think there is an overestimation of the charge and a unrealistic expectation of what RLA can do as a whole. RLA has tried to focus on economic development, job development and pride. It can’t do everything. There needs to be more leadership from government and more community-based leadership.

We’re trying to reverse a trend. That’s not easy. For people who are frustrated, they shouldn’t get discouraged in the first six months. It’s not too late to change things.