Crenshaw: a Fresh Start

A modern shopping mall complete with major stores, specialty shops and smart cafes could reverse the commercial decline of the Greater Crenshaw District.

Mayor Tom Bradley, Los Angeles City Council President Pat Russell and others have refused to let time run out on the Crenshaw Shopping Center. A year-end deadline had threatened to block $51 million in improvements that have been years in the planning.

Chic boutiques and Crenshaw sounds like a contradiction. It shouldn’t. Despite a decline in the central sections of the area, there’s money in the hills----specifically the neighborhoods such as Leimert Park.

But 60% of the disposable income of Crenshaw residents is spent outside the district, according to a 1978 study that was part of the initial redevelopment plans.

What if shoppers were drawn to shops closer to home?

The shopping center, located on Crenshaw Boulevard between Stocker and Martin Luther King boulevards, was a hub of retailing 30 years ago. It is no longer competitive with the newer, more compact malls. The scheduled improvements include a facelift, a remodeling and a walkway to span the street that separates the two major department stores--the Broadway and the May Co. Also planned is a third major store, along with new businesses and cafes for the shops that are now vacant.

The project seemed doomed as recently as October because of the loss of a federal grant earmarked for distressed areas. City officials compensated when they beat a deadline of Jan. 1-- the date when a new federal law took effect, limiting the use of industrial revenue bonds, but the financing for this project. The law was changed because of abuses in the use of such bonds, but the Crenshaw project-- if it works-- would not be an abuse under any circumstances.

The perseverance of all who refused to write off this area will pay off if the new shoppingcenter attracts newcomers and reverses the decline in the Crenshaw District.