Financial service outlets plan to rebuild.

Most banks, check cashers giving South L.A. another go

Bank of America may not rebuild two Los Angeles branches which were burned out during the riots, while Home Savings of America and numerous check-cashing companies have begun planning to reconstruct damaged buildings.

There were no figures on how many check-cashing outlets -- which provide much of the banking services in the inner city -- were destroyed, but estimates are that 100 to 150 outlets had been demolished, according to officials of the California Check Cashers Association. Many mom-and-pop check-cashing outlets may not have insurance and may never rebuild, officials said.

Donald Mullane, executive vice president at Bank of America, said it was "premature" to say if the bank would rebuild a branch destroyed at Western Avenue and 87th Street and a newly acquired Security Pacific branch in Baldwin Hills Village. The bank may "look at other sites" for the branches, Mullane said.

A third branch that had been damaged, but not destroyed, by fire at Slauson and Vermont avenues would be repaired, he said.

In the wake of the riots, Bank of America announced it was committing $25 million for equity partnerships with area merchants who had suffered damage during the riots. Bank of America was the target of much criticism by local public officials for not providing enough branches in the South Central area during hearings of the Federal Reserve Board earlier this year about Bank of America's merger with Security Pacific.

Last week Home Savings of America had opened four of the five branches that had been damaged, said spokeswoman Mary Trigg. The S&L does plan to rebuild the one branch which destroyed by fire at the corner of Vermont and Slauson avenues, Trigg said.

"It was burned to the ground so I don't know how long it will take to rebuild," Trigg said.

In addition to rebuilding the burned branch, Home Savings is lending a temporary, pre-fabricated building for South Central-based Broadway Federal Savings and Loan Association, which had its outlet at 4501 S. Broadway completely destroyed by fire, Trigg said.

The cash crunch in South L.A. has been especially bad, since the riots started on April 29, two days before many residents received their government relief checks, said Robert Farrell, former Los Angeles city councilman who represented parts of South Central Los Angeles. "It's no secret that the volume of money that moves in South Central L.A. moves around the 1st and 15th of the month," Farrell said.

Check cashing outlets began springing up at the same time banks began withdrawing from the community -- sometime after the Watts riots of 1965, Farrell said. "If it had not been for check cashers, people would not have had money in their hands (for days)," Farrell said.

Steve Burningham, president of Any Kind Check Cashing Centers, which operates 25 stores in the affected areas, said four were burned down, including one store on Century Boulevard in which thieves used dynamite to blow open a safe. Several stores were damaged and thieves took tens of thousands of dollars in cash and checks during the riots, he said.

"There are one or two stores that we may not be put back again," Burningham said. "The stores weren't that good anyway and now that this has happened it's hardly worth putting them back . . . if this is the way the community is going to take care of us. It's hard to believe people would resort to these kinds of things."

Burningham is also the new president of the California Check Cashers Association, and he said he believes many of the estimated 100 to 150 check cashers whose offices were damaged or destroyed will not rebuild. "I would have to believe most of the check cashers, the majority are gone. The main targets of these individuals (who looted) were liquor stores and check cashers."

But some have begun rebuilding already.

Tom Nix, president of Nix Check Cashing, said last week he already had four construction crews out working on the 11 stores that were damaged and two that were burned during the riots.

Nix said that on the Friday of the riots, he received an urgent call from Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas' office, asking him to open his stores so that residents who had waited in long lines at post offices to receive government checks would have a place to cash them. On that Friday Ridley-Thomas aides promised Nix workers and armored truck drivers police protection.

But the next day Ridley-Thomas aides said they could not deliver the police protection. "Someone at LAPD would not back us up. Why they would not, I don't know," said Ray Parry, vice president of Nix Check Cashing.

Nix opened about a dozen outlets anyway, and distributed "several million dollars" in cash to customers the weekend of the riot.

Continental Currency Service, which operates 42 outlets in Los Angeles, plans to rebuild the three which were destroyed by fires during the rioting, said Fred Kunik, president of the Santa Ana-based company.

"We provide a critical service for these neighborhoods," Kunik said. As well as providing check cashing services, Continental operates federal food stamp programs out of some of the outlets, Kunik said.