Commentary: Civic Improvement Has Come From Within
Mixed Messages 10 Years After The Riots
Comment by Mark Lacter
Yes, I suppose things are better than they were in 1992.
Attitudes, opportunities, sensitivities the city has been on its best collective behavior over the past decade, as we all just try to get along.
And in certain ways, we have. Our streets and offices are strikingly multi-ethnic. We eat everybody else’s food. We listen to everybody else’s music.
Yet look beneath the surface and reality intrudes. It’s not that we actually hate each other it’s just that 10 years after those dreadful, frightening days, we tend to look at Los Angeles in vastly different ways.
To some, Rodney King will forever be the international symbol of police brutality. To others, he will forever be a drug-using small timer who found himself in the wrong place with the wrong cops.
To some, the prospect of Bernie Parks not getting re-upped as L.A.’s police chief is about ongoing prejudices among the city’s mostly white leadership. To others, including the mayor, it’s all about Parks’ inability to do the job.
To some, the big banks still show their prejudices by turning down loan applications for small businesses owned by African-Americans. To others, the loans being turned down reflect long-standing policies and procedures that have nothing to do with race.
To some, South L.A.’s economic climate has been eroding over the past 10 years borne out by the loss of 3,000 jobs between 1992 and 2001. To others, South L.A.’s economic climate has been improving over the past 10 years borne out by a $7,000 increase in the average annual pay.
In some ways, they’re all right. But they’re also all wrong.
Viewing life from your own limited prism distorts the way things really are and makes the $64 question that everyone will be asking as April 29 draws closer Is L.A. better or worse off since the riots? more complicated than a 15-second sound bite will allow.
Take the matter of salary. It’s true that the South Los Angeles area has seen average annual pay increase from $20,200 in 1992 to $27,000 last year. But that $27,000 is only two-thirds the average pay for all of Los Angeles County (and down a few percentage points from 1992). Throw inflation into the mix and it’s arguable whether that increased wage has kept up with the times.
And yet, the lower pay and loss of jobs is just part of a larger problem being felt throughout L.A. Considering that 100,000 factory jobs were lost countywide between 1992 and 2001, it’s a mistake to suggest that South L.A. is faring worse than anyone else.
But it is faring worse in other ways. After manufacturing, the second and third biggest employment sectors are services and retail trade typically lower-paying jobs with limited benefits. Economic growth that’s predicated on a new Taco Bell or Rite Aid is not likely to get very far.
And unlike more prosperous communities that have the resources to bounce back after a bad stretch (Santa Monica, despite the dot-com collapse and the after-effects of Sept. 11, is still on the beach), South Los Angeles has a limited economic infrastructure from which to build. Aside from the stray factory or warehouse owner looking for cheap space, they’re not exactly knocking down the doors.
So folks are building from within: small business owners scraping up enough money to set up shop, community groups lobbying to get more supermarkets into the area, neighborhood watch groups more alert to the resurgence of gang-related crime.
Small stuff really but through these and other incremental steps comes the acknowledgement, in some cases grudging, that nobody else really gives a damn and that in the final analysis, waiting for public or corporate assistance is just a big waste of time.
Call it progress, laced with a big dose of cynicism a cure-all that looks a little bit better than it feels.
Mark Lacter is editor of the Business Journal.
