Property Managers Praised by Residents for 30 Years of Service to Community (Extended)

By JACQUELINE PRIMO

Reporter

Rodney Taylor and Lowell Charles, property managers at the Via de la Paz Condominiums, were celebrated at a party put on by tenants of the building last month in honor of their 30 years of committed and ever-humble service. Taylor and Charles cut into an anniversary sheet cake while residents wrote loving messages of gratitude in photo albums for the men.

“We have a great deal of good fortune in having them here. They are like members of our family and we all feel that way,” said 25-year resident Mavis Feinberg who helped to organize the party.

“If the world was filled with Rodneys and Lowells, we would have a better world,” said Ester Eden who has lived in the building with her husband Harry since 1978.

“Rodney and Lowell are wonderful, honest and trustful and everybody in the building just thinks the world of them,” Harry added. “They make an effort to know every child in the building.”

As property managers, Taylor and Charles are, among other things, responsible for daily maintenance of each of the complex’s 107 units, handling everything from repairs and vendors to the security and safety of the homeowners.

“If we can’t help you, I don’t know what to tell you,” Charles told the Palisadian-Post with a laugh at their shared onsite office. “This is half job, half family. Kids stop by every day to say hello and the elderly are like our parents,”

Taylor went on to say the partners have seen families raised and children grow up during their time as property managers where they estimate 80 percent of the residents have been there as long as they have.

“We run this building. We’re connected to these people,” he said.

Taylor and Charles arrive at work by 6 a.m. Monday through Friday and leave by 5 p.m. when they head to what they describe as “the most dangerous part of South Central LA” to coach at Pop Warner football team of 5-14 year old boys five days a week.

Caring Coaches

Growing up the inner city themselves, they know firsthand how hard it can be to stay on track – so this has been their routine for 30 years.

“Football is the reason I stayed in school, because I had to stay eligible to play,” Charles said.

Both fathers with families and grown children of their own, giving guidance to inner city is of the utmost importance to them both.

“Kids are kids. Kids don’t ask to [grow up in South Central LA]. Our job as adults is to find a safe place and a happy medium for them. The parks in those areas are dangerous to play in so without a program for them, they don’t have anywhere to play,” Taylor told the Post.

In addition to living in dangerous areas with a high level of gang activity and crime, Taylor and Charles said many of the players live in single-parent homes, group homes, shelters or are in foster care. Some as young as 10 years old take the bus alone for two hours just to come to practice.

“They’re running around wild with nobody putting money into the inner city kids. There are no Boy Scouts,” Charles said, adding that in these neighborhoods kids are being “jumped into” gangs as young as 10 years old.

“Many of the parents are single and working 12-hour days,” said Charles, who is also the vice president of Woodcrest Generals. “Guess who gets left behind?”

In addition to coaching the boys’ practice for two hours, five days a week and games on weekends, Taylor and Charles usually provide transportation (in their own cars) for their players who lack their own reliable transportation.

The coaches even provide hot meals at the practices because they don’t know who will be fed dinner at home.

“Football is seasonal but the real world is every day,” Taylor said, adding that the focus is never on winning, but on teaching the boys how to play the game and focusing on discipline. “The sport is just a way to get them all together, but it’s really about teaching them life lessons, loving and caring for them and letting them know someone cares.”

Circle of Giving

While the players face a number of challenges related to where they live and struggles at home, the football team has its own challenges—funding being near the top of the list.

“They play against teams of kids in affluent areas, and they are defeated once they get out of the car,” Charles said in reference to opposing teams having top-of-the-line equipment and sharp uniforms. “We have the lowest Pop Warner fees in the league and parents still can’t afford it.”

This is where the residents of the Via de la Paz Condominiums come in to play. Taylor and Charles said they get close to $3,000 a year in donations from residents who give money to keep the team going, including buying the all-important football helmets to protect the players from injury.

“The residents see the love we give to them, and they give love to what we love,” the coaches said. “If it weren’t for the tenants, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”

Checks of donations can be made out to Woodcrest Generals and delivered to Taylor and Charles at the Via de la Paz Condominiums, 1029 Via de la Paz.