A Feb. 3 teleconference of community leaders officially launched the "Campaign for a New Century" to improve conditions for hotel workers, local communities and the tourism industry near Los Angeles International Airport and Century Boulevard.

The broad-based coalition of churches, community organizations, labor unions, workers, educators and residents announced its ambitious agenda to raise job standards and wages for thousands of hotel workers, to increase city investment in the long-neglected LAX tourism industry, and to insure that adjacent communities affected by poverty, crime and overcrowding play a central role in revitalizing the blighted Century corridor.

"Many of us have been embarrassed when we had to pick up our friends at the airport," said Rev. Altagracia Perez of Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood. "As we drive off the ramp, the first thing we see are sex shops and all sorts of nudie shows, and things that really depict us in the worse sort of light.

"Those of us who live and work and serve in the communities surrounding Century Boulevard would like to see that gateway into Los Angeles be a wonderful introduction to all that is good about our city. Our hope is that we can start from the beginning partnerships between businesses and local governments, community organizations, churches, institutions that are in our community in order to change the reality of the Century corridor"

Rev. Perez said Inglewood, Hawthorne and Lennox --- where most of LAX's hotel workers live --- are especially affected by an overflow of poverty and crime.

She pointed out that one-out-of-four residents live below the poverty line, even those working two or three minimum wage jobs; violent crime is five times greater in the area than in L.A. County; and in all three communities, the percentage of overcrowded homes is higher than in the county, with overcrowding in Lennox being eight times higher.

"We see these as problems that show a lack of investment in the development of these communities," observed Rev. Perez.

As an educator, Eric Davidson, assistant principal at Westchester High School, said he saw the impact of poverty and limited health care reflected in the low performance of local students. The coalition, he stressed, was looking for a positive solution, not only for the hotel workers but also for the surrounding communities and the local tourism industry.

"We really want to see the image of Los Angeles be improved for people who are getting off of planes," he declared. "To take pride in the way people first see us."

Father Eugene Buhr, retired pastor of St. Joseph Church in Hawthorne, said many members of his large parish's 7,000 families worked at airport hotels for very low pay. He pointed out that the Catholic Church, with its century-plus history of popes and bishops supporting the rights of workers, had an obligation today to continue that pro-labor tradition.

"So many of our people are just really down-pressed here," Father Buhr reported. "We're supposed to be a community helping one another, and not having two higher and lower levels of economics among our working families. So we're going to help where we can in this campaign."

Cheryl Grills, a professor at Loyola Marymount University and another leader of the New Century Coalition, said an assault on social justice was being played out right in LMU's backyard. She called the Century corridor an economic "fault line" for the City of Los Angeles, with its "shameful imbalance" of resources between hotel owners and workers.

A true partnership of all parties was needed during the community revitalization, she noted, if the rights of workers weren't going to be pushed aside like they had so often in other locals.

Grills warned that perhaps "Loyola Marymount's eyes can be watching to try to insure, and support can be provided, that something like that does not happen again."

Anna Mendez, a banquet server at the LAX Hilton Hotel who lives in Lennox, said she was grateful for people, community groups and churches who wanted to help her better her life.

"There's a lot of poverty in the Century corridor," she acknowledged. "We want the hotels to take responsibility and to give us back our communities by offering good, reasonable wages that people and their families can survive on. We want them to respect the workers. We want them to let us organize freely with no intimidation.

"Right now, it's only working for the hotel industry," the hotel worker added. "They're generating income, income, income --- and they're forgetting about the people. We need something that's going to benefit both of us."