Residents Say Coliseum Area Is Blooming

Nobody ever talks about the roses.

Or the museums.

Or the people who could have left, but chose to stay.

By the time the news about the neighborhood surrounding the Los Angeles Coliseum travels to the world outside, all things beautiful have fallen away, like wilted petals. What remains is the thorny image of a gritty community wracked by social ills.

"People don't necessarily think of this community and think of the Rose Garden," Levi Kingston, a longtime community resident, said of the popular attraction in Exposition Park. "It's a strange thing."

Apparently neither do the National Football League owners.

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Since the Los Angeles Raiders packed up and headed back to Oakland in 1995, the Coliseum has been without an NFL team. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas has spearheaded efforts to attract an NFL franchise to a refurbished and reconfigured Coliseum.

The stadium would anchor one end of a "sports corridor," with a new downtown arena on the other. The City Council has agreed to a "memorandum of understanding" that would allow construction of the $200-million sports and entertainment complex at the Convention Center.

Though reluctant to say so publicly, NFL owners point to the community around the Coliseum as the reason for their lukewarm response to efforts to locate a football team there.

But residents say rehashed rumors and overplayed images do not begin to encompass their reality. There are problems, but there are also people and institutions working for change--sometimes together, sometimes alone.

They include African Americans, Latinos and whites, a former Raider turned developer and a Salvadoran exile with organizing skills honed back home.

The NFL's attitude has left 10-year resident Lillian Marenco indignant.

"Oh, please . . . excuses, excuses," she said. "These people should become more involved in the community. They shouldn't point fingers and accuse us. All these people in sports should be more involved with children."

Former Raider offensive tackle Shelby Jordan declares that the neighborhood has been given a bad rap.

"Any working family that is looking for a neighborhood to live in should consider this neighborhood," he said.

Michael and Claudia Noonan say they never experienced on the Westside the community spirit they have found near USC, the area they moved to in 1990. Noonan, who is white, was surprised to learn that his neighborhood is much more diverse than he imagined and not nearly as horrific as legend implies.