LA bank formed after '92 riots . . . will shut down | Sacramento Bee

LA bank formed after '92 riots to help rebuild poor communities will shut down

The Associated Press
Last Updated 4:41 a.m. PST Monday, March 29, 2004

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles Community Development Bank, created after the 1992 riots to help rebuild poor communities, is almost broke and will shut down, bank officials said.

The nonprofit organization, which has struggled in recent years as several high-risk loans went into default, was told by the City Council last year that it must either end its dependence on government funds or cease operations.

The city will stop providing money at the end of this month, and bank officials say other funding sources are drying up.

"As a result, LACDB is beginning the process of closing its operations in a manner that appropriately protects and addresses the needs of all parties who have an interest or stake in the bank," the institution's officials said in a statement released Sunday.

The bank, the federal government's most ambitious response to the riots, had only mixed success in its efforts to revitalize the city's poorest areas.

More at the Sacramento Bee

for major LA rioting to break out again.

But with the Bushista economy and the Terminator governorship, it won't take nearly that long this time around.