Feeling of Home Rests on Mutual Respect : Parkside Manor: Residents’ concern for one another keeps area of Watts peaceful and relatively gang-free.

Communities are sometimes considered special because of their schools or parks or their convenient location, but the neighborhood of Parkside Manor, in the heart of Watts, is special because of its residents.

“People think that everything in Watts is negative, but it really isn’t,” said Parkside Manor resident Jean Biddle. “There are some wonderful people here and I think Parkside Manor is beautiful. It’s a very quiet neighborhood and very friendly. People look out for one another. If a neighbor needs assistance, people are right there to help out.”

Biddle, a first-grade teacher at Hoover Avenue School in South Los Angeles, and her sister, Margert Robinson, live with their aunt, Gertie McNeal, in the same house in which Jean and Margert grew up.

“It was 1946 and I was in the third grade when we moved to Parkside Manor,” Biddle said. “My sister was born soon after that.” Biddle moved away in 1957 and raised a family, but returned in 1987. “Even after 30 years it felt like I was coming home. Some of the original people still live here, and it has the same warm feeling.”

In 1988, Biddle and her sister realized they needed more space. They’d thought about moving but decided instead to add a third bedroom, a second bath, a den and laundry room, increasing the original 925 square feet to 2,600.

“When we started looking for another house, we found, for the money, we weren’t being offered as much as we had here,” Biddle said.

Parkside Manor, bordered by Central Avenue to the west, 103rd to the north, Mary Avenue on the east and 107th to the south, is a small residential community of about 240 tract homes.

Located on what was once farmland, the tract was built over three years at the end of World War II and became one of the first housing developments in the area known today as Watts.

Before passage of the Rumford Fair Housing Act, and a subsequent California Supreme Court decision upholding the act, restrictive covenants precluded certain minorities, including African-Americans, from buying homes in many residential areas in Los Angeles.

According to Watts’ historian Cecil Fergerson, Parkside Manor was one of several communities conceived and built to provide quality housing for African-Americans, who had migrated from the South to work in the defense industry.

The homes in Parkside Manor have remained essentially the same over the decades, with additions of bedrooms and baths to accommodate growing families, well-kept lawns and gardens, and rows of magnolia trees to shade its winding streets.

“I love this neighborhood because it’s quiet, and because my neighbors are kind to one another--they seem to respect each other,” said longtime resident Cleo J. Steen, who moved to Parkside Manor in 1944 with her husband, William.

“We both began working in the defense industry. My husband was an electrician and I worked in mechanics. Then we wanted to buy a home. Parkside Manor was a tract of homes being built at reasonable prices for people working in the defense industry, so that’s where we went to look and eventually buy the home I still live in today.”

“My husband passed away in 1982, but I wouldn’t think of moving,” said Steen. “I get so many calls and letters, but I don’t want to move. God has blessed me to live in this home--and I have improved it the best I can.”

“Whether you live in Watts or Beverly Hills,” said Steen, “you can love your neighborhood so long as you can live comfortably.”

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Lanis Washington, 33, first moved to Parkside Manor in the late 1970s with his mother, his grandmother, his two brothers and a sister. In the early ‘80s he moved away, living for a short time in Long Beach and then going to school in Michigan, where he studied auto mechanics. He now works for the Los Angeles City Maintenance Department.

Washington moved back to Parkside Manor in 1988 with Patricia Williams, a preschool teacher at the Charles Drew Headstart Program, and their young son, Shelton Lewis.

“I used to live in the house right next door to the house I live in now,” Washington said. “I’d heard the guy was selling and I thought for the price I couldn’t find a better area or nicer people.”

The house has two bedrooms and one bath, he said, and “we bought it for $75,000. I think it was worth $80,000, but we got a real good deal because I knew the guy.”

According to Leon Love with L. Love Realty in Downey, the selling price of the average 900-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath home in Parkside Manor is “$85,000, on the low side, to $130,000, on the high. If there has been extensive rehabilitation the home could be as high as $150,000.”

Said Washington: “We’ve thought of moving away and into a bigger house, but more than likely we’ll add on. I like Parkside Manor. It’s a nice place to live. Peaceful and quiet. I was 19 when I first moved into Parkside Manor with my mother and it’s just as nice now as it was then.”

“Parkside Manor has always been a nice area,” agreed Cornelia Daniels, who moved there in 1987 with her husband, Leroy, a construction worker, and their two teen-age sons, Trevon and Tavio. “We bought a four-bedroom home because both of our sons wanted their own bedroom,” Daniels said.

“I grew up nearby in the Jordan Downs Project, so I knew the neighborhood very well. I went to school at Markham Junior High and then Jordan High School and a lot of the kids who went to (Markham and Jordan) lived in Parkside Manor.

“Now, some of the same people I went to school with are my neighbors.

“Parkside Manor is quiet and clean and my neighbors are really good neighbors,” Daniels said. “Everyone looks out for one another. That’s what I love. When I first moved in, (my neighbor) Mrs. Gonzaque came over and welcomed me to the neighborhood. That really made me feel good. I would never think of moving from Parkside Manor.”

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Ozie Gonzaque is a longtime community activist. “Unless people care enough to find out the truth, they’ll go on believing that the only things that Watts stands for are drugs, gangs and welfare lines,” Gonzaque said. “It’s so unfortunate.”

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Al Landy has worked in South-Central Los Angeles for four years, assigned to the crime prevention unit.

“I know many of the people in Parkside Manor because I frequently attend their community meetings to talk about how the police department can be more effective,” he said.

“Unfortunately, throughout the Watts area, gang involvement has grown considerably, and that includes drugs, violent crime and the graffiti that is associated with those things. But Parkside Manor is relatively gang-free because the people in Parkside Manor send out a very strong message that they live in a community of togetherness.

“During the (May) riots, it is safe to say that none of the people in Parkside Manor were involved with the rioting or looting. That’s not to say they weren’t as outraged or frustrated as some other people were, but this is an active group of people, who try to work within the system,” he said.

“There are people like Ozie Gonzaque, who could have left, but chose to stay. They haven’t given up and I don’t think they ever will. They help maintain the relative calm . . . in that neighborhood.”

Gonzaque said: “I was 18 years old when my parents moved from Louisiana in 1944 and bought this home. It was a quaint little community--literally in the country. I used to go horseback riding every Sunday at an academy on Imperial Highway and crawfish hunting in (nearby) ponds.

“Most important to me back then was the friendliness and closeness of the people moving in. It reminded me of the neighborhood where I grew up in Louisiana. People lived together in harmony. (I think) it was a time when people had simple respect--for themselves and for each other.”

Gonzaque has lived in the family home since the early 1950s, shortly after both her parents passed away.

“First, my sister and I bought it from our family,” said Gonzaque. “When I married, my husband, Roy, agreed to raise our family here. There were so many sentimental reasons for staying. Although we later bought a second house in Las Vegas, we’ve stayed here because this is truly our home.

“I’ve always told my children, if you live in a community, then you have to be willing to do your part. If you don’t become involved, then you have no right to complain.”

When Roy Gonzaque died this past winter, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn’s office dedicated a grove of trees in nearby Will Rogers Park with a plaque recognizing both Roy and Ozie Gonzaque for their years of service to the community.

“We used to walk together every morning in that park,” said Gonzaque. “When they called to tell me they wanted to honor Roy, they said that planting one tree wasn’t enough--so they dedicated an entire grove.”

Washington and Williams wanted to move to Parkside Manor for their young son. “It was perfect because the school is not far,” said Washington. “Shelton goes to St. Albert’s Catholic School on Rosecrans.

“Will Rogers Park is across the street where they have activities for the kids: basketball, football, softball. Watts’ Health Foundation is down the street for health care and that’s important when you have a child.”

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Washington volunteers at the Will Rogers Park, where he coaches Little League. “I’d like to see a Teen Post,” he said, “where the kids could go for video games or boxing or to play pool--different activities besides (team sports) like baseball and basketball.

“A lot of kids like basketball, but there are other kids who feel more comfortable doing other things. A place like that would give them a place to go. It wouldn’t keep all the kids out of trouble, but I think it would help some of them.”

Washington credits Parkside Manor’s many older residents for maintaining the quality of life enjoyed by everyone living in the close-knit community.

“I still enjoy living here,” said Beechum Jackson Jr., a veteran of World War II, who moved to Parkside Manor in 1953 with his wife, Eva Mamae, their four children and “our fifth child due the following March.”

Jackson gives a lot of the credit for his community’s quality of life to the Parkside Manor Homeowners’ Improvement Council.

The council was started in the early 1950s. “We didn’t have the participation that we would have liked,” said Jackson. “But we didn’t get discouraged. There were three of us. I’d make copies of the fliers and we would take the notices to each house three days before each meeting.”

The council continues to meet from September to June. “Residents are still concerned about the community’s upkeep and (safety). If someone in the neighborhood is concerned, we’ll call each other, then we’ll call the president of the council, and then we go to the City Council.”

Jackson retired eight years ago after 36 years with the Department of Water and Power. With 14 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, he admits he’s kept pretty busy. “But I keep trying to participate and volunteer (in the community) when I’m needed. I just hope we can get other people to help make things happen.”

At a Glance Population

1991 estimate: 1,063

1980-91 change: +10.4%

Median age: 30.9 years

Annual income

Per capita: 9,238

Median household: 23,650

Household distribution

Less than $10,000: 23.6%

$10,000 - $20,000: 20.7%

$20,000 - $30,000: 24.6%

$30,000 - $75,000: 24.3%

$75,000 + 6.8%