Black-Latino Job Team Called Symbolic

From inside her gated yard, Pearl Taylor watched Wednesday as a painful past crumbled to the ground, and she spoke--with unabashed hope--about new beginnings.

“I’m glad to see it come down, and I’m glad to see people get jobs,” she said as a bulldozer tore apart the burned and gutted building next door. “We’re hoping that our city will be rebuilt in a much better way.”

The building at 68th Street and Western Avenue, which once housed Warehouse Furniture, was one of the first to be torn down under a city plan to demolish and clean up more than 550 structures burned in the recent civil unrest.

Mayor Tom Bradley used the demolition as an opportunity to respond to critics--both black and Latino--who have complained that their ethnic communities have not gotten a fair share of the work of rebuilding riot-torn parts of the city.

Standing before the building, Bradley said the team of contractors working at the site--an African-American-owned demolition company and a Latino-owned recycling firm--was symbolic of the diversity that the city is encouraging in the rebuilding process.

The contractors were selected by the Los Angeles Community Partnership, a consortium of five construction and engineering companies brought together by the city last month to distribute $10 million in state and federal money appropriated for demolition.

“We have asked them to make sure that there is complete parity in connection with the contracts that are issued and that there be solicitation of jobs from the community,” Bradley said of the consortium. “They have delivered on that commitment.”

The issue of who is hired to work at such sites has been a source of increasing contention.

Danny Bakewell of the Brotherhood Crusade has led demonstrations at construction sites where there were no African-American workers, shut down sites where Latinos were working and pressed the insurance industry to guarantee that African-American laborers and contractors are included in the rebuilding effort.

Some in the Latino community view Bakewell’s actions as an affront and have vowed to respond more aggressively in the future.

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the building, emphasized the positive Wednesday, announcing that the Hyde Park site would become the home of a senior citizens’ housing complex.

“We’re not talking about just simply demolition,” Ridley-Thomas said. “We’re talking about building in a way that is consistent with the hopes and aspirations of those who live in this community.”

Since its creation, the construction consortium has received 182 bids from contractors and awarded 10 demolition contracts at sites in South Los Angeles; nearly all have gone to minority-owned firms.

“I’m just glad to be working,” said Jimmy Monroe, owner of Quality Wrecking and Demolitions Co., whose firm was tearing down the furniture store Wednesday. “All I want is a chance to put in a competitive bid just like everybody else. . . . All I want is a chance to work and put some other guys to work.”

At the site Wednesday, Monroe met Samuel Perdomo, president of Perdomo & Sons Inc., the company responsible for recycling the debris.

“I just want to let you know that we’re going to be a team,” Perdomo said, introducing himself before the start of Bradley’s news conference. “I think it’s good that we talk and understand each other’s needs.”

Perdomo already has performed work at two other sites and been awarded contracts for several more.

From a field office on Western, the Los Angeles Community Partnership has implemented an outreach program to inform property owners about the city’s effort and to meet with contractors interesting in bidding.

Each Wednesday at 1 p.m., the group holds pre-bid conferences where contractors learn about available contracts and the procedure for submitting a bid. Later in the day, the partnership accepts bids on contracts discussed the previous week, spokesman Stanley Wilson said. The program is expected to last three to four months, with 15 contracts awarded each week.

The group also has formed a pool of unemployed community residents from which it encourages contractors to hire workers. A Latino worker in the pool was hired by Monroe’s firm to work at the 68th and Western site.

As television news crews and city officials gathered at the building, Taylor and her neighbors remembered one night nearly three months ago, when--as the city erupted in violence--fire consumed Warehouse Furniture, nearly taking her home with it.

That night, the neighborhood rallied together, hosing down Taylor’s home and others to prevent the flames from spreading. “We stayed out here for hours fighting that fire,” neighbor Lyndon White said. “Sparks were flying everywhere.

Before the fire and even after, the building was a gathering place for drug dealers and transients. For now, though, it is a symbol of hope.

“I’m just glad to see something positive coming out of such a horrible evening,” said resident Yvette Polar, walking down the street with her neighbor and her daughters.