As the head of Mayor Tom Bradley’s Rebuild L.A. task force, Ueberroth last week began surveying the wreckage and feeling the heat. The city’s upheaval took a staggering toll: 54 people dead, 2,383 injured. Riot-related arrests–almost 17,000 by the weekend–overwhelmed the county legal system. Rampant looting and raging fires destroyed or seriously damaged an estimated 5,200 buildings, most of them businesses; losses will probably exceed $1 billion worth before the count is over. By some estimates, 36 furious hours cost 40,000 jobs, perhaps a quarter of them lost permanently-this in a city hard hit by recession-fueled unemployment, especially among minorities. The widely held view that the police department’s slow response had contributed to the devastation only exacerbated the city’s pain.
Ueberroth’s first job, according to the mayor’s office, is restoring basic services to a community that always seemed to come up short. Residents of South-Central have long complained about too few stores and too high prices; with seven supermarkets destroyed in the riots, many residents now have to travel at least two miles to buy staples. Rebuild L.A. will act as a clearinghouse for offers of assistance and muster an army of volunteers for still-to-be-decided projects. Once it puts together a staff, members can begin canvassing the community for their ideas and priorities. But ultimately, Ueberroth’s mandate could prove far broader: given the level of despair and decay that predated last week’s turmoil, the city must ask itself whether it will be content to rebuild South-Central as it was–or grab the chance to make fundamental changes in its economic and social structure. As usual, Ueberroth is thinking big. “I see one bright spot: the chance to dramatically impact a major inner city positively,” he says. “We’ll create a prototype that other people can use, if we’re as successful as I hope we are.”
Intractable problems like the ones afflicting South-Central don’t inspire a lot of hope, but many civic and business leaders in Los Angeles believe Ueberroth should at least inspire confidence. A self-made millionaire with a gift for self-promotion, he commands a long list of successes and only one highly visible failure-a 1989 bid for Eastern Air Lines that didn’t fly. Sometimes described as arrogant and autocratic, he showed an ability for coalition-building during the Olympics that will be critical to his efforts among the city’s distrustful ethnic groups. It will be up to him to raise funds from private, government and business sources–a task at which he excels. “Nobody in Los Angeles is better at shaking up and shaking down large corporations,” says David Israel, a TV producer and Ueberroth’s chief aide during the Olympic planning. Ueberroth says he is looking for long-term commitment to the area, not quick cash. Already, a number of companies have pledged their support. Disney has promised to put a factory in the community and to offer hundreds of local young people summer jobs at Disneyland.
As Mayor Bradley’s white knight, Ueberroth quickly drew criticism from members of the black community skeptical about his bona fides. “What does a white man from Orange County know about South-Central Los Angeles?” asked data-processor Dorothy Sessions. It didn’t help that Ueberroth devoted his first few days to meetings with financiers rather than with local black leaders. He still needs to show that he can understand the inner-city experience that lay behind the riots and that he will be responsive to the community’s own wishes. “This is a bigger job than fund raising,” says James H. Johnson Jr., an urban geographer at UCLA.
“This is not business as usual.”
As Los Angeles buried its dead and searched its soul last week, residents questioned whether a better police response to the riots could have limited the destruction. The department’s actions were a tragedy of errors. Departing Police Chief Daryl Gates was at a fund-raiser in Brentwood as reaction to the verdict spread. Because of animosity between Gates and the mayor, the two men wouldn’t even speak to each other, communicating only through intermediaries. Although police officials discussed the possibility of violence in advance, no contingency plan was put in place. When the verdict came in, 12 captains were just beginning a three-day training seminar at a seaside resort in Ventura. Damning audio- and videotapes show that Gates failed to deploy sufficient manpower to South-Central; within two hours officers were ordered out of the area no fewer than nine times. Gates contends that the department was inhibited by criticism of its use of force in the past.
Mutual recriminations could fast prove a luxury. Last week the city’s two main gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, said they’d declared a truce between themselves–and a war on cops. They have the firepower to carry it out. Law-enforcement officials believe looters got off with some 1,700 guns–many of which will make their bloody debut on the streets of South-Central. The prospect of renewed violence makes the task of Ueberroth and other civil leaders urgent. Says ex-Ueberroth aide Israel, “The fire next time is going to be America.”
