For up to $70 million, you too can get a brand new 500,000-square-foot mall and a Lowe’s home improvement store. But wait, there’s more! Today’s package – brought to you by the lovely developers of Midtown Crossing – also includes a wonderful, three-story parking lot. Call within the next 15 minutes and you can get the limited edition Starbucks and Jamba Juice gift set for free!!!
Okay, so this article in the LA Times didn’t exactly use an announcement like this for the new 10-acre retail development that is to be built in Mid-City within the next 16 months. But at the current rate of revival projects that the city is undergoing (Spring St., downtown, USC, and so on) Los Angeles may as well be called “The City of Dislocation.” So a 20 second spot on a late-night infomercial could be somewhat feasible in this sweeping “wave of gentrification.”
Centered on the crossing of San Vicente and Pico, Mid-City has long been a neglected neighborhood after the 1965 riots and 1992 uprising left the area in economic decay. The boarded-up Sears is just one of the artifacts that serve as a testament to the region’s plight. Darnell Hunt, director of African American Studies at UCLA, called the development “momentous” since retailers have always been reluctant to build there.
But while the gentrification has mixed reviews from residents, local business owners, and city officials, Midtown Crossing is already set to bring in the largest and first major project that Mid-City has ever seen. Drawings for the mall already show similarities to the Grove. Great. Good luck finding parking and fending off the hordes at the after-Thanksgiving Day sales.
But in a neighborhood that has been struggling for the past 40 years and is still predominantly working-class, how willing are big-city developers to assess, let alone provide for a community’s needs? Other than increased foot traffic and cash flow (which go hand-in-hand with car congestion), what about current living wages and local businesses? Will the community’s residents be able to reap the rewards? And at what point does “new mall” mean “move out” for the neighborhood’s poor?
An older article from USA Today offers an interesting take on gentrification and how the poor are not really “pushed out.” The 2005 article, however, doesn’t specifically include Los Angeles as an example. LA Weekly published a more recent article on this topic, explaining how Angelenos, poor and rich alike, are no exception to the Ellis Act – or the condominium uprisings and spawn of $4 latte/gelato shops.
I, myself, enjoy a small Salvadoran pupuseria over a Baja Fresh or Chipotle any day.
