Rebuild L A

Shell Oil Co. on Thursday proposed building three huge, $2-million "super stations" and job training facilities in South-Central Los Angeles as part of a $10-million, four-year effort to help the city rebuild from the spring riots. The proposal, which follows other multimillion-dollar post-riot financial commitments by companies such as Southern California Edison and the Hughes Electronics unit of General Motors Corp.

One week after the Los Angeles riots broke out, Southern California Edison reached into its corporate pockets and came up with a handful: $35 million for job training and other help for troubled neighborhoods in its sprawling service area. "There isn't a business in the country that doesn't depend on a healthy society," explained John E. Bryson, chairman of the utility that provides electricity to much of Southern California outside the Los Angeles city limits.

In the White House, with his talk of sacrifice, his beatific grin and those Southern Baptist Sunday School classes, Jimmy Carter may have seemed to some a little too much the good Christian soldier, not enough the pragmatic, hard-headed politician. But in the almost 12 years since he left the presidency, Carter's missionary instincts have had free rein. He has helped build houses for the poor. He has helped struggling farmers in Ghana.

Bernard Kinsey drives like a man with no time to waste: fast, anticipating and then skirting even the slightest slow-up. Anyone who wants to follow had better stick close. But, he says, "when I go into 'the neighborhood,' I am more conscious of not breaking any speed laws because I don't want to be stopped and humiliated. Anybody in the black community feels that way because for so many years it has been that way."

In one of the largest proposals since last year's riots to bring new industrial jobs and investment into the inner city, a group of private investors announced plans Thursday to spend $28 million to revive a defunct bottling plant in South-Central Los Angeles and employ up to 250 people from nearby public housing projects. The group, operating as the Neighborhood Beverage Co.

Peter V. Ueberroth, the well-connected businessman chosen by Mayor Tom Bradley to shepherd recovery efforts after last spring's devastating riots, is resigning as co-chairman of the embattled private relief organization Rebuild L.A. In a letter sent Friday to RLA's 80-member board of directors, Ueberroth said he is stepping aside immediately as one of five co-chairs to, among other things, "devote more time to my family and other commitments."

Eleven-year-old Anthony Smith looked bewildered as he stood elbow to kneecap with Mayor Tom Bradley, surrounded by Crips gang members with walkie-talkies and hundreds of choir members singing at the top of their lungs. Not to mention former teen idol David Cassidy standing right behind him, and several ponytailed Hollywood producers in front, bellowing to camera crews to get a close-up of Anthony's face as he joined in the singing.

A North Hills youth program won't have to scrounge for transportation anymore, administrators say, now that Rebuild L.A. has given it use of an eight-passenger van for a year. The van is one of 100 donated to Rebuild L.A. by General Motors Corp. and Hughes Aircraft Co. to distribute throughout the Los Angeles area.

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, speaking on the six-month anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, conceded Thursday that city leaders have so far failed to articulate a clear vision of the city's future.