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Obama win stirs hope in tough South Los Angeles

Reuters | 11/15/2008 9:04 AM

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LOS ANGELES – Former gang member Herbert Brown had few positive choices as a young black man growing up in the tough streets of South Central Los Angeles.

"You could be a football player, a basketball player, a Crip or a Blood, though maybe that's changed," he said, holding up a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of President-elect Barack Obama at his store.

Brown, 43, is among many in the area -- renamed "South Los Angeles" by the city in 2003 to try to shake off its notoriety for street crime and urban decay -- who believe that Obama's historic victory as the first black U.S. president could bring about positive change.

Within sight of the glittering high-rises of downtown Los Angeles, the area of mostly black and Hispanic residents has high levels of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and gang crime -- from car theft and drug dealing to drive-by shootings.

The area was seared into the national consciousness in 1992 when it erupted into six days of rioting and looting after four city police officers were acquitted on charges of beating black motorist Rodney King.

"When Obama made it ... it made me feel good on the inside," said Brown, who left the Mafia Crips for Life street gang to open his store selling sodas, clothing, and now, Obama memorabilia.

"We never had a black president. It made me keep up the good work and try to do right."

Understanding urban issues

Obama swept to victory last week on a promise of bringing about change in the United States, pushing an upbeat slogan of "Yes, we can."

Obama began his political career as a community organizer in southern Chicago and set out policy aims in his presidential campaign for deprived areas like South Los Angeles.

While his priorities will be managing an economic crisis and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama pledged to create a White House Office of Urban Policy to help decayed areas by developing strategies to create jobs and tackle issues such as gun crime and racial profiling by police.

In some of the most distressed areas of South Los Angeles, where hospitals, supermarkets or even movie theaters are scarce and many youngsters wind up in jail, Obama's grasp of urban woes resonates with community workers.

In Watts, a run-down Los Angeles neighborhood infamous for deadly race riots in August 1965, community worker Gregory Thomas also saw promise in Obama's election.

"We have a president who understands urban communities and their challenges, from unemployment, a lack of opportunities (to) single parents bringing up a child by themselves," said Thomas, who runs Kush, a project to curb gang violence in Watts.

While community workers say urban policy will be key to improving the areas, Obama's win also gave an immediate lift to families trapped in a cycle of poverty, some for generations.

"Even young kids instinctively know that it's supposed to mean that something is going to be better or something else is possible," said Vickie Donaldson, director of homeless services for a community action project in Watts.

Positive effect on policing

There have been some improvements in recent years. Violent crime, while still high, has been decreasing since the riots in 1992, in which dozens of people died and hundreds of buildings were looted and torched.

Residents and the Los Angeles Police Department have been working to improve strained relations and build trust in the area which many local people complained was policed like a war zone for years.

Driving through the darkened streets of South Los Angeles recently, Sgt. Mike Goosby explained how the police department is working to reduce gang violence, hire more officers and build community-based policing with so-called "block clubs" and programs to work with at-risk youngsters.

"These kids are right in the middle, they can either go good or bad, so we try and put them on the good side," Goosby said.

Speaking after a community meeting at a school in the heart of South Los Angeles this week, officer Sean Anderson said he thought Obama's election would likely help those efforts.

"It could only have a positive effect on the community, though it won't happen overnight," he told Reuters on a day when officers responded to robberies, car thefts and a drive-by shooting carried out by a suspected gang member with a 6-month-old baby in his car.

"A lot of the problem in this community is that people feel hopeless, stuck in a cycle and they can't get out. I think that helps in a big way in helping people realize there's really no limit to what they can do."

as of 11/15/2008 9:04 AM