Inglewood’s District 4 is home to a large amount of small businesses that have been mainstay’s in the City since I moved here in 1974. Many small business owners live in the surrounding neighborhood, and we have watched the buildings and businesses be passed down from the owners, to the children, as a way of maintaining the elusive “generational wealth”.
That wealth is now being threatened with the proposed rezoning of the Crenshaw/Imperial intersection, and subsequent businesses that stretch along Imperial Hwy.
A couple of years ago, business owners in the shopping center where Superior Market is located, came to city council meetings, complaining that the City installed barriers that didn’t allow S/B traffic on Crenshaw, to turn left into the shopping center at the corner where Wells Fargo is. The City relented and reopened it to turn into the center, but kept the barrier up preventing you from turning West onto 113th Street.
Countless small businesses occupy space in 2930 W. Imperial building, which used to be home to Cal Fed, where many of our family banked. Now its Citibank. The old smorgasboard is now Chipotle and Five Guys.
Gentrification is sweeping through our city, like a raging wildfire, and Mayor Butts thinks because his fanciful tales of having “previously worked here” and allegations he was “shot at” that he is some expert on what Inglewood needs. He had the audacity to tell the students they didn’t know what the word gentrification meant.
The more we tried to get Butts to address some of the concerns we’d heard in our interviews with home and business owners just steps away from the soon-to-be stadium, the more defensive the mayor became.
When the word “gentrification,” was uttered, Butts assumed we didn’t know what the word meant.
“Did you say a gentrification threat? And you’re a college student right?” Butts asked.
He specifically told USC’s Annenberg Media of ALL the things Inglewood residents would see with the opening of the stadium.
“Oh my goodness . . . They’ll see more police officers, more park hours, more library hours, the ability to replenish our capital infrastructure faster than we did before. So this is a total win for the citizens of Inglewood,” Butts said. “Their streets will be paved more often. Their sidewalks will be repaired more often. They’ll have more recreational opportunities and longer library hours.”
Related: Ramming Success into Inglewood
We need a council that knows how to spend money. We need a council that votes on what their constituents want, not the billionaires who paid for their campaign websites and mailers. We need a council that will stand up for Black and Brown people. We need a mayor and council with integrity and morals. Not a council who pats themselves on the back for kicking us out, or who uses City Hall as their personal photo booth.
On Tuesday, August 24, the Planning Commission will hold a special meeting to rezone the area we know as Imperial Village. Don’t think for a second that because the map only shows one area for consideration, that it won’t trickle into the residential area.
The Public Comments attached to the staff report have called this project a violation of CEQA. You may see a flyer on your door, or see one in your local business, and the planning commission needs to hear from us.
There’s a reason residents have been kicked out of council chambers, because this council doesn’t want to hear from us. They don’t want to see our faces begging for our community to not be “reimagined” because they put a football stadium in the heart of the city, it can’t control.
2UrbanGirls started this blog to inform you, and hopefully inspire you to click the links in the articles to do your own research. Form your OWN opinions.
You can start by reading the comments below, and we ALL (myself included) need to plan on being at the Main Library, across from City Hall, by 6:50pm on Tuesday, to have our voices heard promptly at 7pm. If you can’t make it in person, log into Facebook, search for the City of Inglewood government page, and watch the meeting.
Mayor Butts, Dionne Faulk, and the rest of the council are asking us to vote to raise certain taxes, November 2, 2021. Why would we give them another dime to squander on the “friends and family” hiring spree in City Hall, more lawsuits attached to Butts’ wandering eye and reckless driving, or whatever else they do with the money, if what WE want doesn’t matter to THEM?
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5 Comments
If people want different city leadership they must vote for it. Silence equals consent. However, the bygone days of sleepy, laid back Inglewood are done and gone. Best to try to stay ahead of the curve and profit on what’s to come.
It is sad that your suggestion to profit is what you consider “ best “. Greed excessive desire for constant profit is what has brought us to this horrible place of taller and newer…..it sounds a lot like the guy who trading up for a younger, firmer, less wrinkled wife for his arm candy ego.
Not everyone wants a rat race to out-impress or to have the newest . Some of us actually value, treasure, and even desire that we can sit back and enjoy what we chose to be our long term HOME.
We should not be forced to have to try to stay ahead of a curve and profit.
Our dreams of peaceful gracious single family homes and families being able to pass their homes to their children (generational homesteading) should not be considered a bygone dream .
A home worked for, paid for, struggled to find should not be the next developer or Johnny come lately’s doormat to trample and destroy.
A home isn’t just four walls – it is a place of security, comfort, a place where neighbors are known, where families care for each other’s kids, granny’s and pets with compassion, and love because we as neighbors have become extended family this is a concept that can not be purchased from profits gained at the insultingly low offers not even close to what we would have to pay for a similar home in Westchester or El Segundo and certainly laughable in Manhattan Beach
So sad you think profit is happiness consider how many millionaires commit suicide.
Rice, Beans, and Collard Greens shared with great long term neighbors is so much better than champagne, caviar, and Rolex’s with those you constantly must impress.
My question is why there are no plans to install bonafide (READ: Real lanes with dedicated barriers and lights) bus lanes that connect the light rail at 120th/Crenshaw and Prairie/Imperial Hwy terminal to Hollywood Park. Also, there could be designated bus lanes that run from the corner of Crenshaw/Century straight to the LAX light rail. Oh wait, there is a belief that the current light rail does that for the public. No, light rails do not always serve the community and tend to be outdated by the time it is completed. The bus lanes are dedicated lanes with separate lights that bus drivers could activate and not compete with personal drivers. Unfortunately, you will find that many drivers (regardless of race) do not want bus lanes that help those without personal vehicles. Heck, it shows the economic divide between the haves and the have nots regardless of race. But, I think advocates for public buses need to be aggressive in putting an initiative on the City ballot to fund bus lanes. Put the proverbial gun to the citizens’ head to see how committed they are to promoting better traffic, care for the working class, and public transit buses. Otherwise, it is business as usual in Inglewood.
Another question, is why has no one put an initiative on the ballot create term limits for all elected positions in the City of Inglewood? If you want to end the monarchy, the people need to flex the political will through ballot initiatives.
Don’t ya just admire the way the Mayor tries to put down anyone who asks a legitimate question- that alone should make our personal radar start screaming Don’t Trust This Guy.
THANK YOU for including the attachment which gives us the opportunity to see many reasons WHY this is such a NOT GOOD group of projects. Those with significant background have asked where are the options, ie the no change and a few alternative options? how is it you have no considerations for local hire? Etc etc.
PLEASE EVERYONE TAKE THE TIME TO AT LEAST SKIM THE COMMENTS – THIS IS ABOUT ALL OUR FUTURES !!
This project and the way it has been shepherded thru the process is a smack in the face to anyone who has ever walked for civil rights! Doing everything under the table, behind closed doors, making sure public opinion is stifled if allowed at all, as if we and impact on us, do not matter is an insult to every civil rights leader who has ever walked to give us a vote about our future!
COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR IMPACT ON EXISTING COMMUNITY SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED
This project expects future occupants to bike and walk everywhere after they get as close as possible on the metro lines but….. really how many can grocery shop (assuming we get a replacement grocery store though probably one we can not afford) for a family without a car (to shuttle bags home) never mind who watches the kids as mom bikes for the milk. To those who say well “ amazon delivers” don’t those trucks use the same exhaust systems our cars do ? Of course we are to believe all residents will get jobs near a metro stop because again no family will have two parking spaces .. This “plan” is for someone who has never thought about how Los Angeles is different from NEW YORK CITY.
This is an insult to every small business owner that still survives…..amazingly those small businesses which were so excited to support the stadium Prairie project foolishly thought their business would flourish …yet notice their buildings are gone or fenced in for demolishing in the future- if they had bothered to read they may have noticed they were in the zones planned to be be “replaced” aka moved out.
This is just ANOTHER step in destroying our community one little piece at a time.
Let’s not buy into their plan to make some men richer at the expense of our quality of life.
Sad isn’t it how just one generation from the civil rights movement passage… WE WERE TOLD TO VOTE FOR SOMEONE who since ascending to his throne HAS DONE NOTHING BUT BETRAY OUR TRUST
Let’s say NO this is OUR community which should not be bulldozed so an outside developers (whose only motivation is their own wealth) can have their way.
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