Compton Pride Blooms for Start of Centennial

When James T. Jones told people he was opening a Sizzler franchise in Compton, “I got nothing but negative input from people about coming here.”

Even close friends, said the retired lawman turned restaurateur, told him he was crazy to start a business in Compton, a city whose reputation was so sullied by reports of urban blight, drug trafficking and gang wars that a hospital moved its mailbox from one street corner to another just so its postal address would be in a different city.

With banks unwilling to invest in his business venture, Jones said, he went to the Sizzler corporation and the city’s Redevelopment Agency for loans totaling nearly $1 million, and in 1985 opened the doors of his restaurant. Except for a pizza parlor in the same shopping center, it is the only sit-down eatery in Compton’s downtown.

Jones’ annual sales are half a million short of his $2-million goal, and at night in a city with a murder rate double that of the state average, business falls off sharply. Jones, though, is optimistic about the future.

“I’m very proud that I made the decision to come here,” he said, echoing a sentiment that is running high throughout the city as it launches its centennial celebration this month. Banners on lampposts throughout the downtown proclaim, “100 years of pride.”

“There’s just a tremendous amount of success in Compton,” Redevelopment Director Laurence Adams said, ticking off a list of construction projects under way in the community of more than 90,000 people.

The centennial, Adams and other officials say, will celebrate a rebirth in Compton, which is rebuilding its economy and its reputation. Compton, its residents contend, has been the target of media coverage that concentrates on stories about crime and the shortcomings of local politicians.

“If we were to make a list of all the (successful) kids who come out of the Compton schools, people would be shocked,” said retired probation officer Martha Bowers, whose seven children went through Compton schools and on to jobs as professionals, business managers and public servants.

Signs of new economic life are visible in the city, which was devasted economically after most of its white population fled in the wake of the Watts riots.

Construction barriers fill the streets around Jones’ Sizzler, where tracks are being laid for the light rail transit line that will stop in Compton on its trips between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles beginning in 1991. Two shopping centers and a transit station, all spurred by Redevelopment Agency funding and tax abatements, are being built nearby.

About eight blocks away, 97 single-family homes are under construction, an encouraging sign in a city that in 1975 did not issue a single construction permit for a new house and the following year issued only four.

“We are booming,” said Diane Ford, a code enforcement aide in the city’s Building Department. “Look at over there,” she said, pointing to piles of construction permits she has to sort and file. “Oh, yes,” she said, “Compton is coming back.”

Optimism, however, is tempered in some by reality. City Clerk Charles Davis agrees that, economically, property owners in the city have become better off in recent years as homes have begun to appreciate again.

“From that standpoint, yes, we’re changing,” he said, at the same time acknowledging that the city still has problems with unemployment and high illiteracy and school dropout rates.

Likewise, Supt. Ted D. Kimbrough of the Compton Unified School District does not try to gloss over the city’s gang problems. “We have 35 gangs in Compton,” he said. “But we have some healthy signs where parents and kids are coming to athletic events at night, whereas five years ago, they didn’t.” Also, he said, fewer parents are sending their children to private schools.

Assistant Supt. Elisa Sanchez said the school district has launched a program to stem the dropout rate, which has been as high as 10% in the high schools. The district also has a new electronics curriculum and a sex education program, she said, that have become models for the state.

Not even the antics of Compton politicians, who often make headlines, seem to dampen the optimism about Compton’s future. The centennial committee has scheduled its grand ball for December in a new hotel near the 91 Freeway, even though the building is not yet complete.

“I’ve been here 23 years, and in my mind there’s no doubt Compton’s on the way back up,” Deputy Fire Chief Charles T. Griswold said over the taco salad he had for lunch at the Sizzler. “The signs are just very positive.”