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CNN Live Today

Interview of Bernard Kinsey, Former Head of Rebuild LA Program

Aired April 29, 2002 - 10:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go from the East Coast to the West Coast. That's where Leon Harris is standing by there to give us extensive coverage on the week that marks the 10 year anniversary of the riots that hit LA. Leon, it's almost impossible to believe it has been 10 years.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: I know. You know, well, as they say, times flies, Daryn. I was thinking the same exact thing on the flight out here. But you know what? All that happened 10 years ago started because of a handful of words, the words of a jury. Those words ignited the outrage and fueled an explosion that engulfed the city and by many accounts engulfed that city's soul.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez takes a look back at a day that remains vivid and frightening a decade later.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The jury has reached a verdict...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty of the crime of assault by force.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): April 29, 1992...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know I am innocent, and that was the verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John Anpittamy (ph) is a racist pig.

GUTIERREZ: An hour and fifteen minutes after the verdicts were read, all hell breaks loose in Los Angeles. The next 24 hours is chaos, and South Central turns into a war zone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You will see roaming gangs on the rampage. Stan (ph), that's right, we (ph) didn't even have a chance.

GUTIERREZ: By 6:45 p.m...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is where some of the worst violence is taking place near the corner of Florence and Normandy.

GUTIERREZ: ... the nation watches as Reginald Denny is beaten on live television.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there you see the man driving that truck being robbed, not a sign of LA. police officer or a highway patrol officer or a sheriff's deputy or any kind of law enforcement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is unjustifiable to take advantage of someone, first who is down, secondly, who is innocent.

GUTIERREZ: By 8:00 that night, the violence and destruction reach a feverish pitch. Los Angeles is on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is MC-1, we are cornered by fires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those fires got started in south central, spread to mid-central, and then north of Wilshire, then on the verge of Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

GUTIERREZ: While buildings burn around the city, as looters empty stores, the faithful gather at the First AME Church in south central that night to pray for peace and calm.

(on camera): It must have been a surreal experience. Inside, people are singing and praying, and outside they are rioting.

REV. CECIL MURRAY, FIRST AME CHURCH: Indeed. It was surreal. But it was real as we find out flames are real. We were planning what to do in case there was an eruption.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The eruption was enormous and still haunts the Reverend Cecil Murray (ph) 10 years later.

(on camera): Reverend, what was your most vivid memory, the most disturbing memory of April 29?

MURRAY: It is the memory that comes even as we walk right now, here on this bend. That house in the middle was burning. Families were in there. And the mother of the child was weeping and weeping, and the father of the child was just shaking his head asking, how could this be, how could this be?

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Many thought the night would never end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we are looking at now is wide shot from the helicopter of smoke plume after smoke plume after smoke plume. It is just a horror story to look at.

GUTIERREZ: Daybreak over Los Angeles after a night of insanity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were people throwing things at us. Now, what you do is stand there and take it.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): Have the wounds healed, and do you think that things are any better?

MURRAY: The wounds are in process of healing. They have not healed. And there are isolated moments where you can note progress here on this hill.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The rioting in Los Angeles continued for three more days; 55 people were killed, 1,100 buildings destroyed, 10 years ago today.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, now, let's talk to a man who orchestrated a Phoenix-like rise from the ashes for this city, and after the rioting, then Mayor Tom Bradley appointed our guest this morning, Bernard Kinsey, to help head up a group called, Rebuild LA. It's a transformation that Kinsey considers a success, and many others who have been watching the city undergo this transformation also consider it a success.

Mr. Kinsey, thank you very much for coming up to the roof and talking with us this morning. First of all, I have to ask you to begin with, because I heard a little bit of your story about what happened that night. What were you doing that night when it all broke out?

BERNARD KINSEY, FMR. CO-CHAIR, REBUILD LA.: Well, when I heard about it, I was on the way actually to the First A.M.E. Church. That's my church. And my wife called, Shirley called and said the whole city is burning. And I couldn't get a parking space, because there were so many people in the church with Mayor Bradley. And actually I went home to watch what everybody saw that afternoon and for the next two-and-a-half days. This was the city really, you know, burning.

HARRIS: Yes. And what was the total damage figure for the city? As I understand it, it was around $1 billion dollars?

KINSEY: Well, here is the math. We had 1,178 buildings burned. We had about $453 million dollars in actual insurance loss, $1 billion dollars in property loss and about $20 to $30 billion in economic activity. And most people don't realize that any disturbance like affects not just the 163 square mile area and 2. 5 million people that were impacted, but it affects the whole region. Five counties were impacted by the riots.

If you owned a retail store, a restaurant, if you owned a home, your home went down 15-20 percent, and in an economy with a $1 trillion worth of real estate, we had huge dislocations And another thing our audience should remember that during this '92 period, we had a complete turnover in government. We had a new police chief.

HARRIS: That's right.

KINSEY: We had two new senators. We had a new governor. We had five new council people. We had two new county supervisors. So we had essentially a void at this period that couldn't have been worse.

HARRIS: All right. Well, at this point, because we have to move on, let me ask you to give us an update on where things are right now. I have heard varying reports. There are some who say that things aren't moving fast enough in terms of recovery. Some are saying that things are further ahead than people thought they would be 10 years ago.

KINSEY: Well, let's say it this way. There is clearly a half- full, a half-empty glass. And not only do I prefer looking at a half- full glass, I think there are some things that the whole country could feel good about.

HARRIS: OK.

KINSEY: What we have done in Los Angeles is really change the paradigm back to having businesses come back to the inner city. That's the message I want to get across to the American public. Twenty-five years ago, American business walked away from the inner cities and walked away from Los Angeles. And when they walked away, they took all of the jobs, they took all of the services, they took price, they took competition away.

The only reason we had 643 liquor stores in south Los Angeles selling liquor and food is because we didn't have any large grocery stores. Rebuild LA. was responsible for 32 large, 50,000 square-foot food stores. Let me tell what you happens when you put a Ralph's or a Food for Less or a Vons in an area, the price goes down, the quality goes up and service go up. That's what we want to bring more to our community, because otherwise that's why the average poor person pays so much for food, milk and basic necessities.

HARRIS: So how much money or development has actually been introduced into these different -- seven different communities that were impacted?

KINSEY: Well, as I said, this is a huge area, 2.5 million people, the size of the state of Arkansas in terms of population. What we had was from San Pedro to Port Coyma (ph), from East LA and what we tried to do is rebuild LA, and many other organizations. This is like the LA Urban League and the churches, West Angeles, Faithful Central, First A.M.E., all of these economic engines of institutions began to look economically at improving things.

It's one thing to heal spiritually; it's another thing to heal economically. And in one district, we just did a study in Mark Ridley-Thomas' district, which is really the epicenter for much of the damage. There was $100 million of actual loss.

HARRIS: Yes.

KINSEY: There was $483 million that had been built back, and another $894 million in the pipeline. So you've got almost $1.5 billion in one council district.

HARRIS: All right. Let me ask you this. That's obviously, definitely a positive picture. Let me ask you this. I don't know if you think that you may not be qualified to answer this one, but has the economic redevelopment or the economic revival here brought about any kind of a spiritual revival amongst the community, the people who are actually in these stores who are shopping, the people who are actually in these communities living?

KINSEY: Well, you know, that's a big question, Leon. We have had a 20 percent reduction of liquor store in the south Los Angeles area, some of that from legislation and some of that because of more competition. There was a recent survey, which I am quite proud of, that race relations in Los Angeles is the best it has been in 20 or 30 years. Latinos, blacks, hate crimes are down. I mean, on almost any level you can think about, people are seeing this revival better.

Let me give you a reason why.

HARRIS: Quickly, if you can.

KINSEY: If people -- it's hard to love your neighbor when you are not doing well. When you are doing well, you can open yourself up to someone else. And that's what is happening in Los Angeles right now. People are seeing that things are improving. And when we spread this, and that's what we have got to do is spread it, so everybody in this community gets a piece, we are going to do well as a community.

HARRIS: Bernard Kinsey of Rebuild LA, we thank you very much, and congratulations on what you have been able to accomplish here. From what we have been able to see in the short time we have been here, this town has been quite remarkable, and we do know you still have work to do. And you're going to be meeting with President Bush I understand too later on this afternoon.

KINSEY: We have a big meeting this afternoon. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say.

HARRIS: All right. I'd like to hear what he has to say too. I'd like to be a fly on the wall in that meeting. We'll let you go. Thank you very much for your time this morning.

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