Gardena Official Offers Apology to Community

After repeated requests from City Council members, Gardena Planning Commission Chairman Banks Bowling has reluctantly apologized to residents of the city’s Hollypark section, some of whom had accused him of slandering the mostly black community and had demanded his resignation.

Four Hollypark residents, including City Council candidate Ollie Hadley, asked for Bowling’s resignation at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

The residents cited a remark Bowling made at a Feb. 2 Planning Commission meeting during a discussion of why a Ralphs supermarket at Rosecrans and Van Ness avenues had closed 1 1/2 years ago.

According to a transcript read by Mayor Donald L. Dear at Tuesday’s council meeting, Bowling said that “the main reason Ralphs moved out is it was stolen blind. . . . There have to be changes in the neighborhood where people become more concerned about it.”

Bowling, who had been asked by the council to attend the Tuesday meeting, told members he “didn’t see anything wrong with it. I know certain people in Hollypark took it to say I was saying something against them. I wasn’t.”

Bowling told the council he made the statement based on information from “a good friend of mine close to the Ralphs family.”

However, Ralphs Chairman Byron Allumbaugh, in an interview, said the Gardena store was one of 16 stores in the Los Angeles area that closed when the company bought Zodys department stores and converted them into the Giant supermarkets.

Shoplifting Problem

Before the buyout, the Ralphs store in Gardena had been reasonably profitable and theft was not a particular problem, Allumbaugh said. “Shoplifting is a continuing problem in many areas, but that would never be a reason for shutting down a store,” he said.

Duffie Brown, president of the North Gardena Hollypark Homeowners Assn., said that he has been working with city staff members to attract another supermarket to the area and that Bowling’s remark damaged the effort.

“It was an arrogant, irresponsible statement which could cause an entire community to suffer,” Brown told the council. He requested that Bowling be removed from the Planning Commission.

Hollypark resident James Parker urged Councilwoman Gwen Duffy, who appointed Bowling to the commission in 1982, to seek his resignation. “I don’t see a person making a statement like Bowling did as representing the community,” Parker said.

Duffy said that Bowling, 69, who took over as chairman in January, was “inexperienced at conducting meetings.” She said she would caution him but not remove him or ask him to resign.

“That would almost be a slap in the face to someone who’s served the community very selflessly,” she said.

Council members, including Mas Fukai, expressed concern over Bowling’s unwillingness to apologize.

“I don’t want a Jimmy the Greek in this town,” Fukai told Bowling, referring to television sports commentator Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder, who was fired by CBS recently for remarks that many considered racist.

“I thought an apology would have been the first statement,” he said. “It was not and I’m disappointed.”

Duffy also asked Bowling: “Would you be willing to say you are sorry?”

After more than half an hour of questioning and testimony, Bowling told the council, “I still feel I have nothing to apologize for, (but) if that will satisfy Mrs. Duffy and the rest of the council I will say I’m sorry. . . . I hate to do it, but I will say I’m sorry I insulted Mr. Parker.”

No Racial Intent

Of the residents requesting his resignation, Parker was the only one who attended the Feb. 2 Planning Commission meeting.

During a break in the meeting, Bowling was asked whether he thought his remark had been interpreted as a racial insult because of Hollypark’s large black population. “I didn’t see anything about the black people,” said Bowling, who is white. “Hollypark is not just black.”

Bowling’s two-year appointment to the unpaid position ends May 12.