BOUNCING BACK HOME-GROWN ENTREPRENEURS HELP REBUILD SOUTH CENTRAL.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

When Gregory Dulan describes the financial struggles of trying to open his Crenshaw Boulevard restaurant in April 1992, he starts most sentences with ``In those days. ...''

Then he catches himself, realizing it only seems long ago because of just how much some things have changed since April 29, 1992, when riots broke out following the acquittals of four white police officers in the Rodney King beating.

Small-business loans and capital were hard to come by in those days for an African-American who aspired to open a restaurant in South Central Los Angeles.

``I was in the middle of it - I saw the change,'' Dulan said. ``I saw the shift in the whole dynamic of lending to minority communities. The riots changed all that. That is probably one of the positive things that came out of the whole situation.''

Today, on the riots' 10th anniversary, across South Central and the Crenshaw District, streets that flickered across TV screens showing vandals looting local businesses during the nation's worst urban riots are now brightened with storefronts of hope.

At the heart of the economic development are the young entrepreneurs, landowners, churches and community groups who remain long after the broken promises of the city - and its failed flagship, Rebuild L.A. - left the area behind.

``The real success story here, 10 years later, is the state of mind of the community has changed: Being a victim is so yesterday,'' said John Bryant, chairman and CEO of Operation Hope, the nation's first nonprofit investment banking organization, born within days of the riots.

``Someone finally realized: economics,'' he said. ``When we see something we don't like, we used to picket it - now we buy it.''

By connecting borrowers with more than 50 financial institutions, Operation Hope has helped to secure $115 million in commitments for 600 home mortgages and small business loans.

Its three for-profit banking centers count 400,000 clients for its free seminars and fee-based financial services, and the organization has helped African-American and Latino residents in South Central and East Los Angeles earning $35,000 a year or less obtain more home loans than all the top banks combined.

At the city's oldest African-American congregation, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Cecil L. Murray tells his parishioners a new version of the parable about it being better to teach a man to fish than to just give a meal.

``It is better to teach them to own the pond,'' the minister advises.

Toward that end, First AME helped launch FAME Renaissance in 1992, an organization that helps finance the entrepreneurial dreams of those living in the inner city.

Its three loan programs now have $6 million available for working capital, equipment, technical assistance for minority small businesses - originally funded by Disney and government sources, but expected to continue revolving once loans are repaid. Its $2 million venture capital fund, financed by banks but also revolving, helps entrepreneurs.

FAME's new 54,000-square-foot business incubator provides office space and technical help for up to 30 small, minority-owned businesses - the first such agency operated by a church.

``There was this great earthquake of human resources in 1992,'' said the Rev. Mark Whitlock, founder and executive director of FAME Renaissance.

``This day of looking for a handout is over. The welfare mentality must stay in the 20th century. It's now the wealth-creation mentality for the year 2002,'' he said.

Beyond the civil rights a generation of African-American leaders fought for decades ago, Whitlock and other leaders today strive for what he calls the ``silver rights'' of economic opportunity.

``The day of the picket lines, the boycotts, that day's over,'' Whitlock said. ``Let's get on the Internet. Let's surf the Web. Let's cut some deals. Let's begin to serve, use our entrepreneurial spirit to really begin to prosper.''

Economic development was the promise made after the community was ravaged by the riots, with every level of government stepping forward with pledges to rebuild.

Rebuild Los Angeles was created with the mission of infusing the inner city with millions of dollars in public and private investment. But the organization that started with former baseball commissioner and 1984 Olympics mastermind Peter Ueberroth at its helm had a troubled four-year run. By the time it was disbanded in 1996, it had downsized and refocused its goals.

``There was no specific pot of money set aside for the unrest, like there was for the (Northridge) Earthquake in '94. That didn't happen for the unrest,'' said Marva Smith-Battlebey, president of the 21-year-old Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corp., which will break ground today for a new supermarket and retail plaza at Vermont and Slauson avenues.

University of California, Los Angeles, urban planning professor Edward Soja said it's no surprise that new, nongovernmental groups stepped in - and stayed - to rebuild riot-torn L.A.

``The problems themselves were so great that no local, state or federal policy could have appropriately dealt with them,'' he said. ``Government - not even the best-meaning government - was not going to have the resources, the power to deal with the very deep problems.''

Soja calls the rise of community groups and labor unions working for those government left behind a direct result of the unrest.

``Government's not going to do it. Putting up a supermarket on one corner is great, keep doing it, (but) this ain't going to help with the big problems. We're going to have to do it ourselves.''

Still, beyond the new fast-food restaurants, auto parts stores and minimalls beaming with new shops, block after block of the old days remain.

Abandoned storefronts stand shoulder-to-shoulder with hair salons and appliance shops - all seeming a world away from Magic Johnson's movie theaters just down the block.

It's still a region with nearly twice the unemployment rate - 13 percent - of the rest of Los Angeles County, according to reports by the United Way in 1999. And twice as many people - almost 40 percent - live in poverty there than elsewhere in Los Angeles.

One in five residents receives public assistance, and more than one-third of the households are headed by single women.

An area with 10 percent of the county's population saw more than that portion of its homicides in 1996, the reports showed.

Bryant calls these areas ``development opportunities,'' adding ``10 years ago, Crenshaw Boulevard was like this. It took a while to get people into the 'hood. You gotta go deep and broad.''

Still, changes have come - the Small Business Administration has funded more than $1 billion in loans to 3,000 enterprise zone businesses since 1992.

``It was almost nonexistent before that,'' said Alberto G. Alvarado, director of the SBA's Los Angeles district.

The sparkling new Chesterfield Square development, with a Home Depot and Starbucks, brings the kind of shopping experience that residents elsewhere in Los Angeles have daily without a second thought.

``Everything they have in West L.A. should also be in this community,'' said Frank R. Denkins, who once ran a dry cleaning business on the Chesterfield Square site and now owns Office Furniture Outlet on La Cienega Boulevard.

``It was like, why can't they put something in our community where you can get whatever you want?

``We're very much a part of our environment,'' he said. ``You're not wishing for much when you see a broke-down, run-down environment.''

The Crenshaw District's centerpiece, the movie theaters developed by Lakers' legend Magic Johnson, shine as an example of the good business that comes from serving the area.

``Once institutional capital comes to recognize that these projects will not only compete but surpass returns they are able to see in the suburbs, I think what you're going to see is much more,'' said Kenneth T. Lombard, president of the NBA star's Johnson Development Corp.

``They no longer have to base the decision on it's a good social thing to do.''

Prior to 1992, Dulan had studied finance at Howard University and worked on Wall Street, but he couldn't get a bank loan to start up his Crenshaw Boulevard eatery.

Without financing, Dulan - whose parents own the landmark Aunt Kizzy's restaurant in Marina del Rey - spent months putting together his Southern home-cooking venue that was slated to open the month the riots broke out.

Once up and running, Dulan took out one of the first loans offered through FAME Renaissance's program - $25,000 to help with cash flow.

Then he saw the economic door open, showing a world of bank loans and credit lines he couldn't have imagined in the year before.

``After I opened, after the riots, I had people banging on my door,'' he said.

After seven years of running the restaurant, he converted to a catering operation, closing up for all but Sundays and for special events, to spend more time with his family. This year, Dulan's Catering was named co-Small Business of the Year by the SBA's Los Angeles district.

``I'm doing great,'' he said, ``but we still need more.''

Lombard said the community still has a long way to go.

``I think there's tremendous progress among retailers. ... You take Wal- Mart, you take Home Depot, you take Starbucks. ... You're getting more (developer) interest, you're getting more institutional capital. ... We're on the right track. Hopefully in 10 years we'll get to feel like we're on the level playing field.''

Long after Rebuild LA disbanded, Bryant is still leading bus tours through South Central, as he did in the days after the riots, to show bankers and other potential investors how ``normal'' the inner city can be.

One client, Gilbert Mathieu, rebuilt his 25-year-old Western Avenue pharmacy after watching it burn on TV 10 years ago tonight.

``Fifty years from now, this is going to be totally different. Any metropolitan area with location from downtown, location from the beach, location where you have weather like this, land value has got to go up,'' he said.

Robert Collins, a nuclear medicine technician who recently bought a duplex with a $5,000 matching grant from Bryant's nonprofit banking center, also sees the potential.

``It's a little different now because of the stores and businesses,'' Collins said. ``They've got the vision of making it bigger than what it is. That's why I'm still here.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Gregory Dulan: Restaurant and catering owner

Dulan attended Howard University and worked on Wall Street before returning to his hometown to open his Crenshaw Boulevard restaurant. He received a $25,000 small-business loan from FAME Renaissance once he opened in May 1992 to help with cash flow.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(2) Robert and Lisa Collins: Property owners

The Young couple attended a home buying workshop through Operation Hope, and received a $5,000 matching grant for a down payment on a duplex they now rent to tenants.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(3) Gilbert Mathieu: Pharmacy owner

Mathieu watch on TV as his business burned down during the first night of the riots. He rebuilt with the help of a small-business loan from Operation Hope.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer