SPECIAL REPORT * It’s suffered a riot and a recession. Now there’s a major push to . . . : Bring Back Whittier Boulevard

“Let’s take a trip down Whittier Boulevard!”

--The Midnighters, 1966

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Whittier Boulevard was once the place to see and be seen in East Los Angeles, a bustling street that teemed with shoppers and teenagers cruising by in low-riding Chevys.

But battered by a 1970 riot during a Vietnam War protest, the mile-long retail district never recovered its former glory despite several efforts to revitalize the strip.

Meanwhile, the growing Latino population spread throughout nearby communities, fueling the creation of such rival commercial centers as Montebello’s Town Center, Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park and malls in the city of Commerce.

Little by little, customers turned to those shopping districts, and major chains such as JC Penney, Woolworth, Thrifty and Pep Boys closed on Whittier Boulevard, leaving mom-and-pop shops struggling.

The largest building on the East L.A. stretch of the boulevard, the famed Golden Gate Theater, has been vacant for a decade.

Now merchants and Los Angeles County officials are renewing efforts to lure back shoppers with programs for facade improvements, easier parking and a change in the street’s mix of businesses. The district--from the Long Beach Freeway to Atlantic Boulevard--is in an unincorporated part of the county and is known for its large entry arch and the Latino Walk of Fame.

“I’d like to bring about the full economic vitality of that street,” said county Supervisor Gloria Molina, whose office is spearheading much of the work. “This is a location with a real future.”

On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a new community standards district for the boulevard, a law several years in the making that will put a cap on the number of pawnshops and auto repair businesses, and encourage sidewalk cafes, movie theaters, street sales and landscaping.

In addition, about 20 businesses have signed up for a $5,000 facade improvement grant from the county. About nine stores have opened in the last year and the major supermarket on the strip is in the midst of a top-to-bottom renovation. The county has also beefed up efforts to keep the streets clean, added a sheriff’s foot patrol and closed down bars violating state and county codes.

This push to create a “Main Street” atmosphere is part of a national shift in retail development from suburban malls to city streets, said Michael Beyard, vice president of the Urban Land Institute, a research group in Washington.

Some examples of successful “Main Street” style shopping districts include Old Pasadena and Sierra Madre’s downtown strip. Alhambra is also revitalizing its Main Street with multiplex theaters, restaurants and small shops.

“We’re at the beginning of a resurgence of street-front retailing, and as usual, the poorer areas are the last to see the trend,” Beyard said. “People wants shops in their home environment rather than going to nondescript shopping centers.”

Built in the 1920s along the historic Spanish road El Camino Real, the Whittier Boulevard retail strip has long been the symbolic center of East Los Angeles, the port of entry for many Mexican immigrants.

“At one time, it was like the Wilshire Boulevard of the Latino community,” the main shopping district for Mexican immigrants, said Howard Barsky, whose La Popular furniture store has been on Whittier since 1939.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, the street was jammed with cruising teenagers in the evenings and the vibrant scene was an integral part of Eastside rock ‘n’ roll culture, memorialized in the song “Whittier Boulevard” by the Eastside group Thee Midnighters.

“Cruising as we know it from ‘American Graffiti’ was born on Whittier Boulevard,” said Frank Villalobos, a longtime Eastside resident and head of Barrio Planners, an architectural firm that has done several projects on the street.

In August 1970 about 20,000 people protesting the Vietnam War were marching down the boulevard when a riot erupted. Windows were smashed and buildings were set on fire and looted. Three people died that day, including Ruben Salazar, a columnist for The Times and news director at KMEX, a Spanish-language television station.

After the destruction, businesses deteriorated and shoppers stayed away during the evenings. The Sheriff’s Department barricaded the streets to keep out cruisers.

A large effort was made in the 1980s to bring back the street. The state, county and merchants invested more than $3 million in facade improvements and a street-scape program that included palm trees, new curbs, bus stops, benches, banners and a massive steel entry arch. The now-famous arch is featured on Spanish-language television in Latin American broadcasts about Los Angeles, making it a powerful symbol for many recent immigrants.

Shoppers Turned to Nearby Malls

That revitalization effort helped boost business, many agree, but merchants say they are still recovering from a steep drop in sales that hit during the recession of the early ‘90s. Also, many shoppers have turned to nearby malls.

“Suburbanization has been pulling some of that core Hispanic crowd and core young crowd to shopping centers and newer communities, and really served to fragment the marketplace,” said Larry Kosmont of Kosmont and Associates, a real estate consulting firm.

One of the biggest challenges in turning around the street is the empty Golden Gate Theater, an ornate movie palace built in 1927 and modeled after the University of Salamanca in Spain. The churrigueresque structure at the corner of Atlantic Boulevard used to be “where everyone met their girlfriends,” Villalobos recalled.

But plans to turn it into a restaurant or renovate it as a transit station for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have fallen through, leaving the fate of the 11,000-square-foot building unclear.

Despite that, most agree that the boulevard has maintained much of its vibrant atmosphere. In the mornings, the smell of fresh pan dulce wafts out from the shops, as ranchera music and Spanish telenovelas blare. On weekends, the sidewalks are crowded with families shopping at the 200 or so stores on the boulevard.

“I come here a lot because you can find everything,” said Montebello resident Olivia Torres, 46, shopping one recent morning. “You feel like you’re in Mexico.”

Ray Abboud, who used to have four clothing shops on the boulevard, had to close two after sales declined in 1989. But he refused to leave altogether.

“It’s a very friendly, hospitable environment,” he said as he walked down the street on a recent morning.

Abboud, president of the Whittier Boulevard Merchants Assn., said he has confidence that the strip will come back, pointing to recent additions such as the new Spanish-language bookstore, pizza place, furniture store and children’s dental clinic. But the boulevard still needs a major drugstore and an ice cream shop, he says, as well as a well-known anchor tenant.

County officials are having a difficult time persuading major chains to move to Whittier Boulevard. Recently, the popular restaurant El Gallo Giro and music chain Ritmo Latino were going to open stores there, but opted for a mall in the nearby city of Commerce. The street’s small land parcels and lack of easy parking dissuade many large businesses, officials said.

The new community standards district will establish architectural guidelines for all current and new businesses, and will be part of a larger effort to unify the look of the street with a single theme, possibly Spanish or Art Deco.

All these efforts are going to “tremendously change Whittier Boulevard, elevate it to a higher level,” Abboud said.

The merchants association has launched a parking study and is flirting with the idea of creating a business improvement district. The county’s Community Development Commission plans to invest $400,000 in improvements of business facades and parking on the boulevard.

Business owner Sam Miconi said he is excited about using the facade grant to refurbish his two-story hotel on the boulevard. He plans to add neon strips on the front and new awnings, which will be lighted from behind. “It will really brighten up my building,” he said.

The merchants also want to add more plaques to the Latino Walk of Fame, which honors leaders such as Cesar Chavez, Jaime Escalante and former Rep. Edward Roybal.

Retail expert Kosmont said transforming the boulevard will require the presence of major anchor tenants, as well as a long-term comprehensive plan.

“It’s going to be a long haul,” he said. “There is no one thing that will make an area like Whittier Boulevard come to life again.”

For longtime neighbor Martha Cooper, who lives a block away, the improvements can’t come soon enough. She reminisces about the days when Whittier Boulevard “had everything you needed,” when stores held moonlight sales and tuxedoed employees took tickets at the Golden Gate Theater.

“This is our community and we want to see it look better,” said Cooper, 72. “If it comes back to half of what it used to be, that would be wonderful.”

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The Battle for Business

Once a bustling retail area, Whittier Boulevard in East L.A. has declined as other commercial areas lured away shoppers. County officials and merchants are launching an effort to revitalize it.