The sluggish economy and slow post-riot recovery means that no grand opening in the Crenshaw business district goes unnoticed these days.

The newest storefront enterprise is drawing unusual attention, however.

It is a Bush-Quayle reelection campaign headquarters in the middle of a black community that has long been considered one of the surest Democratic strongholds in Los Angeles.

"I skidded on my brakes the first time I saw the place. I couldn't believe it," said Dolores Spears, a union representative who lives nearby.

"The audacity to put that up in this neighborhood," said Phillip Barnett, a pest control company supervisor who works across the street from the new headquarters.

The campaign office is being run by 88-year-old Richard Jones. He opened it Sept. 26 after spending $4,000 of his retirement savings on rent and supplies for the office.

GOP leaders say the presidential campaign headquarters is a first for Southwest Los Angeles.

"He's courageous," said Bill Fahey, chairman of the Los Angeles County Bush-Quayle campaign.

Lorelei Kinder, executive director of the state Republican Party, said: "I hope when I'm 88 I have the same courage of my convictions that he does."

Jones acknowledged that the President is unlikely to collect many votes in his neighborhood. Voter registration rolls for the county's 2nd Supervisorial District--which includes the Crenshaw district--list 474,435 Democrats and 88,811 Republicans.

"Most black people \o7 are\f7 Democrats," Jones said. "But I feel that in a country with two political parties, we should be part of both."

He said he was too young to vote when he first sampled politics as a precinct captain in Chicago 70 years ago. As an adult, he was a campaign volunteer in Detroit, where he worked as an insurance company manager.

Jones moved to Los Angeles in 1956 after a blizzard blew him out of Michigan.

"It had snowed so hard that all the cars were covered," he said. "I went out to get my car and shoveled and shoveled. Then I found out I'd dug out the wrong car. I said: 'I'm getting out of here.' "

In Los Angeles, he worked 12 years as an executive assistant to Mayor Sam Yorty. During that period, Jones helped open City Hall to minorities--including African-Americans who were appointed to city commissions, he said.

"I had charge from City Hall to San Pedro. Those were my best years," Jones said. "My office was three doors up from Sam Yorty. I liked that. Those years were a lot of fun."