LA Rams COO Kevin Demoff was interviewed about the impact SoFi Stadium had on the city of Inglewood and its nearly 100,000 residents. His response will shock you.
Mayor James T. Butts has always maintained he brokered a joint partnership between Stan Kroenke and Hollywood Park which was of huge benefit to the owner of the Rams.
Prior to Butts’ 2011 election, the city pledged millions of dollars to the redevelopment of the racetrack site. In 2009, the city and Hollywood Park entered into an operating agreement that laid out the details of the Inglewood Redevelopment Agency footing the bill on infrastructure and $40 million towards affordable housing.
Though some community members expressed concern that the city loaned $18 million to The Madison Square Garden Company for the purchase of The Forum, and another $21 million to the Hollywood Park Tomorrow Project, loans that will both eventually be forgiven, both Cruz and Inglewood Mayor James Butts have said that the city’s relationship with these entities is mutually beneficial.
Both developments are required to provide compensation to the city: $600,000 a year in revenue from The Forum, and $100 million in tax increments toward the Successor Agency from the Hollywood Park Tomorrow project, plus an additional $40 million in tax increments for affordable housing initiatives. The Forum was also held to a strict local hiring requirement, and is required to allow the city access to its property for things like community yard sales for a set number of days each year, said Cruz.
Neon Tommy: Inglewood Could Be Making A Comeback
Those tax credits converted to Kroenke once the partnership was created.
Fast forward to Jan. 2015 when the Inglewood City Council approved the project, a representative of the developer stated the CITY asked for no affordable housing.
2500 market rate homes will be built. No affordable housing included. Market rate will range from $400-$700K. #Inglewood #NFL
— 2UrbanGirls (@2UrbanGirls) January 15, 2015
This site has made multiple requests to Mayor Butts to clarify why affordable housing isn’t being built on the site, despite the credits being attached. He has consistently declined to respond, but did offer this anecdote to a local newspaper about assertions the City is being “gentrified”.
“This is not gentrification,” he said. “Gentrification is when you have an impoverished area and people who have higher socioeconomic standing come in, buy property, renovate it and raise the value so the people that formerly could afford to live there can’t anymore.“What we’ve done in Inglewood is different,” he continued. “We raised the value of properties that are owned by a population that is 92% Black and brown. Now they’re accumulating generational wealth, the same as their neighbors in Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Pasadena, Redondo Beach.”
Mayor Butts:
In an unearthed video, Demoff is asked about it, and here’s what he said.
Lmfaoo and that my friends is COO of the LA Rams stating how the city of Inglewood asked him to gentrify Inglewood pic.twitter.com/dP8MjNhRZj
— Machi (@a_new_hopee) February 12, 2022
1 Comment
Not a single Inglewood resident has publicly said I want to be displaced or only wealthy should be allowed to live in Inglewood.
Butts decided he wanted to help the Billionaires no matter what that cost the community- changing Zoning, gifting “forgiven loans”, contracting unrealistic transfer of public property, using eminent domain to displace those Balllmer was un-something (willing/interested ) to compensate and the list goes on ….
Amazingly some will continue to repeat that false claim “the projects have been privately funded” .
Yep $18 million of tax-dollars were given to the help a billionaire renovate the Forum-for added insult a local preacher was the spokesperson to add a blessing to the unholy arrangement.
While $21 million is pocket change for Billionaires that tax money was to be used to benefit this community. Somehow giving Kroenke tax breaks for years to come while the businesses around his land are unable to sustain income because of traffic and road closures screams wrong.
Let’s just ponder …why were all these back room deals cloaked in so much secrecy ? Could if be if the local residents knew what their elected were up to they might say, “NO! a group of 1 dazzled by his own image and “his team” should not be allowed to devastate the neighborhoods as they have” ?
Perhaps we would say, “hey it is time for a different group of elected who ask OUR OPINION and act in OUR BEST INTEREST rather than in the interest of the out-of-town-Billionaires?
Consider the Ballmer “what ever they call it this week” project -Perhaps someone should get an award for the smoke and mirror staging surrounding that behind closed door deal!
“ Murphy’s Bowl” does not suggest basketball does it ?
For the unsure A BOWLING BALL is heavy with finger holes-stays mostly on the ground, while a BASKETBALL is filled with air mostly staying in the air. Hmmm what kind of floor surface would be needed if Bowling Balls were to be thrown into an overhead hoop and …wow imagine workman’s comp insurance for those in the path of flying 15 lb balls?
Was it a comedian who came up with that tall tale of a google-like technology center at Century and Prairie? Was that a jab at Inglewood Unified’s Math teaching skill shortcomings or a more generic chuckle/insult suggesting our neighbors would be replaced by technology employees crafted specifically to deceive the Forum Billionaire re future plans but really a plan to benefit the Basketball Billionaire ?
How sad 3 Billionaires don’t want to spend their dollars to mitigate the traffic nightmare they have created for our community so they want the people living paycheck to paycheck to fund the Automated People Mover AKA Inglewood Transit Connector AKA Metro Extension…..
Oh wait ! never mind we won’t be here if Butts has his way…senior fixed income homeowners will be taxed out and the new rentals /condos Butts plans won’t be anywhere affordable except to the upper class who will displace us.