Rebuild La

With the resignation of Peter Ueberroth as co-chairman, Rebuild LA is down to a fighting weight of four co-chairs and 80 board members. Thus streamlined, the organization that sprang up after the Los Angeles riots is now said to be mulling a restructuring. Given that it seems to be engaged in some reflection about how best to order itself, nothing could be more appropriate than for the board to call in an expert.

From rubble and wreckage, Ki Suh Park often saw possibility. It was so as he stood amid the destruction of the Korean War, when he resolved to study architecture and help rebuild his homeland. And it was so as he drove down Western Avenue after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when he vowed to help rebuild a community after the violence that wracked his adopted home. Park, an architect who rose to become a leader in the city's Korean American community, died Jan. 16 at Stanford University Medical Center after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer, his family said.

Does anyone even vaguely recall the "Rebuild LA" effort that was mounted after the Los Angeles riots a few years ago? All along, I've thought Rebuild LA was a hoax, a false promise on the part of the powerful that disappeared after things calmed down. Now it appears they are back in business with a new and different approach: They are rebuilding L.A. from the top up.

They had names like Rebuild L.A., Community Coalition, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. Their goals were nearly identical: provide new jobs and services to an underserved community. Improve neighborhoods. Build better relationships. The aftermath of the 1992 riots was a galvanizing moment for community activism, spawning groups formed out of City Hall, churches and local nonprofits. Some have endured over the last two decades, shifting their priorities as the city changed.

Few people understand Southern California's new economy of small companies, diverse neighborhoods and surprising skills as well as Linda Griego. When she became president of RLA--formerly Rebuild LA--in 1994, efforts to get big companies to create jobs in poor, riot-torn neighborhoods had already proved a major disappointment. It was a somber time full of doubts about the local economy's future and hand wringing about the fading of traditional business leadership that persists to this day.

For the past year, hundreds of South-Central Los Angeles youngsters have been transported to after-school tutoring programs, museums and pro basketball games in new Chevy vans supplied without charge to a pair of boys and girls clubs by RLA. "We've called it the 'safe streets' program," said Lou Dantzler, director of the Challengers Boys and Girls Club, located on a crime-infested stretch of Vermont Avenue. "You should see the kids' faces when someone picks them up after school."

There are already nearly 600 supermarkets in Los Angeles County, but the opening of a new Vons this morning in downtown Compton is being treated with the same degree of hoopla usually reserved for the first Wal-Mart in a lonely stretch of mid-America. High school bands. Live radio broadcasts. A VIP buffet.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said Thursday that he will recommend a prominent corporate chieftain as the next head of RLA in hopes of refocusing the riot recovery agency's efforts on small-business development, rather than on social programs or large-scale manufacturing. If Riordan's recommendations are followed, it is likely that the leadership of RLA will be turned over from a multiethnic panel of four chairs to a lone white, male executive.

A member of Rebuild L.A. thinks we should not emulate South Carolina's economic development strategy (Oct. 18) nor even compare ourselves with that state because it's a low-cost, low-wage "backwater." With such arrogance (and ignorance) on the part of someone appointed to offer leadership and help attract new jobs, is it any wonder why Rebuild L.A. is off to a slow start? FRANK J. GARZA Los Angeles

For some time, The Times has tried to denigrate the achievements of Rebuild L.A. As RLA continues its efforts to attract private investment to Los Angeles' low-income communities, The Times has taken every opportunity to feature naysayers who have not offered any constructive programs to help the rebuilding process. RLA's mission is straightforward: bringing business opportunities into economically depressed areas. RLA's efforts can be complemented by other programs with different objectives.

Southern California jurisdictions are assisting homeowners hit by the fires of late October in the rebuilding process by waiving or seeking reimbursement of building permit fees. The counties of Riverside, Ventura, San Diego and, most recently, San Bernardino have opted to waive the fees, which can amount to thousands of dollars and cover charges such as application and inspection costs. Los Angeles County is exploring a fee-reimbursement plan.

The Los Angeles Community Development Bank was a belated federal response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. This isn't just any federal assistance program. It's the largest-ever federal funding commitment to a bank with a high-risk clientele. The bank has a double duty: making loans and creating jobs. The bank's loans to struggling businesses are backed by the city's future federal community-development block grants, which might be lost should the bank be unable to repay the federal government.

Does anyone even vaguely recall the "Rebuild LA" effort that was mounted after the Los Angeles riots a few years ago? All along, I've thought Rebuild LA was a hoax, a false promise on the part of the powerful that disappeared after things calmed down. Now it appears they are back in business with a new and different approach: They are rebuilding L.A. from the top up.

Few people understand Southern California's new economy of small companies, diverse neighborhoods and surprising skills as well as Linda Griego. When she became president of RLA--formerly Rebuild LA--in 1994, efforts to get big companies to create jobs in poor, riot-torn neighborhoods had already proved a major disappointment. It was a somber time full of doubts about the local economy's future and hand wringing about the fading of traditional business leadership that persists to this day.

Seventeen agencies and schools have applied to be the heirs of Rebuild L.A., the economic development organization created after the 1992 riots that is supposed to cease operations next spring. RLA leaders this week began reviewing applications to inherit the group's estimated $200,000 in cash, databases and programs aimed at boosting retail and manufacturing businesses in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

The 1992 civil disturbance in Los Angeles was truly a response by various segments of the city to the deep disparities in power that divide us. The rebuilding of Los Angeles will succeed only if deep and sustaining links of cooperation are forged among the area's ethnic communities. But goodwill alone won't do the job.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, connections had been frayed and confidence lost. Conceived in the ashes of Watts, this was supposed to be a municipal administration built to absorb ethnic shocks. In a city of so many colors, of so much wealth and poverty, it was expected to keep the peace. But on a single evening in late April, the flames that lighted the Los Angeles sky revealed that despite its multiracial hues, Mayor Tom Bradley's model City Hall was powerless to keep the lid on.

How about former President Jimmy Carter and his wife to help in the planning and rebuilding of Los Angeles? Certainly, they are caring people and knowledgeable in helping humanity. E.J. LEE Westminster

The owners of as many as 25,000 earthquake-damaged buildings in Los Angeles County paid too much in property taxes last December, the result of a lag in post-earthquake real estate reassessments. Some homeowners were levied penalties for failing to pay the overbilled amount. While County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn said most problems have now been resolved, his office has yet to reassess about 2,000 structures, mostly condominiums and shopping centers.

Linda Griego, president and chief executive officer of Rebuild L.A., will speak today at the Calabasas Golf and Country Club. The talk is sponsored by the Calabasas Rotary Club as part of the organization's 3rd annual Community Awareness Day. The Rotary Club will also honor two public employees--Sheriff's Detective Edward Young, who investigates burglaries for the Lost Hills/Malibu Station, and Laura Marcinik a teacher at Meadow Oaks School in Calabasas.