Central Los Angeles : Anonymous Donor Aids Police Station Campaign

Organizers of an effort to use donations to turn a closed-down bank on Western Avenue near Koreatown into a police substation have received a holiday surprise: a $100,000 gift from an unknown donor.

“It’s a wonderful holiday surprise,” said Yohngsohk Choe, co-director of the Koreatown-West Adams police substation project.

The substation project drew national publicity recently, both because of its success in raising more than $400,000 from local businesses, churches and residents and its new approach to financing a basic public service. Critics of the plan say citizens should not have to pay for police protection and that donors might expect special treatment from police.

Those questions aside, one man was moved enough by news of the project to telephone Choe last week for more information.

“He was evasive whenever I asked him who he was,” Choe said. The man asked Choe how the project was going, and if anything else was needed. Choe told him things were well and that the group hoped to raise at least an additional $50,000 in the coming months.

A few days later, a $100,000 check from a New York trust company arrived at Choe’s office. Choe suspects the mysterious phone caller is the donor, but has no way to find out.

The extra money should speed up the opening of the substation, which is expected to house about 30 Los Angeles Police Department officers sometime in 1996, Choe said.