PEACE, HARMONY URGED ON ANNIVERSARY OF RIOTS.

Byline: Lee Condon and Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writers

Hope of peace and racial harmony were the central themes Monday night at a candlelight vigil marking the anniversary of the Los Angeles riots.

The vigil at Florence and Normandie avenues, the flash point of the 1992 civil unrest, drew about 200 community activists, civic leaders and elected officials.

Robert Wilkins, assistant minister of Trinity Baptist Church, paid tribute to the victims of the riots.

``Violence touched all of us and the walls of our city burned,'' Wilkins said. ``We've come tonight to remember the people who lost their lives, who lost their property, and all of us who lost a bit of our spirit.''

Pastor Mark Garcia of Victory Outreach Ministries said the riots brought about great changes in Los Angeles and began a new dialogue on race relations.

``The riot motivated people to move out, to get out of their comfort zone and taught them that everything was not OK,'' Garcia said. ``It doesn't matter if you are black, brown, white or Hispanic, we're all one people.''

On today's fifth anniversary of the L.A. riots, a new center dedicated to easing tensions between Korean-American merchants and African-American residents in Central Los Angeles will open its doors.

Korean-owned businesses were among the hardest hit in the civil unrest that erupted following the not guilty verdicts of four white police officers in the Rodney King beating trial.

``If real change in relationships between Korean- and African-Americans is to occur, the work must be sustained over a long period of time and it must get at the root causes of conflict,'' said Genethia Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is sponsoring the new center along with the Korean Society and the Korean American Coalition.

The KAC will open the ``4.29 Merchant Community Relations Center,'' named in commemoration of the date of the civil unrest, in its current offices at 3421 8th St.

Charles Kim, executive director of the KAC, said the center will help people bridge their cultural and language barriers when they are having a dispute.

``We'll help them to communicate,'' Kim said.

Brian Lee, president of the Korean American Grocer's Association, said relations have improved since 1992, partly as the result of training sessions for merchants.

African-American groups also were using the anniversary in an effort to heal community feelings.

``We want to use this as an occasion to commit ourselves to rebuilding this community,'' said City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district suffered some of the worst damage.

Ridley-Thomas planned today to emphasize the development that has occurred in the community since the unrest at the construction site for a Superior Warehouse, a new supermarket, on Western Avenue. It is the fifth supermarket to open in the district since the unrest, he said.

Today the African American Unity Center is scheduled to hold its annual block party, this year dubbed ``A Celebration for Peace.''

The center has held the party each year since the riots at its headquarters at 5300 S. Vermont Ave. The group's ``Soldier of Service,'' award will be presented to Donald Sykes, director of Community Services for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Operation Hope, a nonprofit banking organization created after the riots, plans to hold ``Youth Banking on the Future Day, L.A.''

It will start with a breakfast hosted by Home Savings of America at an Operation Hope field office at 3721 S. La Brea Ave. Operation Hope was started by local banking organizations to help South Central Los Angeles residents gain access to loans for homes and businesses.

At the breakfast, 250 local students with high grade point averages will receive $25 starter savings accounts. The 15 top students at schools that participate in Operation Hope's outreach program will receive personal computers.

Bryant said Operation Hope has invested well over $13 million in South Central, mostly in the form of home loans.

He said the group is concentrating on helping residents establish good credit through home loans so they can qualify eventually for small-business loans. The other challenge is getting banks to invest in South Central.

``The mainstream banking industry is still naive in terms of serving under-served communities,'' Bryant said.

The anniversary also marks the end of Rebuild LA, a nonprofit organization formed following the 1992 riots. It was charged with creating new jobs, improving the skills of the work force, improving access to loans and creating a sense of pride in the inner city.

Rebuild LA released a report on the status of South Central five years after the unrest.

``There is a positive change in Los Angeles,'' read the executive summary of ``Rebuilding LA's Urban Communities: A Final Report From RLA.''

``Neighborhoods that for decades had been neglected are reinventing themselves. The residents of these neighborhoods - some long-timers, other newly arrived - are resilient and determined to push ahead. For many, hope has replaced despair,'' according to the report. ``Much needs to be done. For example, many Korean merchants never reopened their stores, and joblessness among black and Latino teen-age males remains unacceptably high,'' the report states.

RLA has been transformed into a new public benefit corporation called LA PROSPER Partners, operated by the Los Angeles Community College District.

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PHOTO Mark Ridley-Thomas

Community rebuilding needed