Broadway Glory: The Hope Is Alive : ‘Miracle’ Group Striving to Restore Thoroughfare to Days of Grandeur

Jovita Santamaria started working at the Rose Corset Shop in 1922, back when Broadway was the classiest strip in town. Shoppers wore hats and gloves when they visited downtown’s main street, department store employees were attired in black and white uniforms and movie theaters hosted glamorous world premieres.

Today, she still sells, measures and sews undergarments for ladies, as she always has. And Rose Corset remains the same fancy, old-fashioned shop with elegant window displays and boxes stacked neatly on shelves behind the counter.

But Santamaria--now the owner at age 85--laments how her former dream street fell prey to the forces of urban decay. She complains about indigent teen-agers smoking crack in graffiti-covered alleys, derelicts stabbing one another, purse snatchers attacking customers as they leave her store. Passers-by dump half-eaten mangoes on the crumbling sidewalks, and she doesn’t like it.

So once a month, she gets up early for an 8 a.m. meeting with a group of people who are just as disgusted as she is. Calling themselves Miracle on Broadway, they are merchants determined to bring back Broadway’s glory.

As she sees it, here is a group that is at least trying to make the street “decent and clean again, a place where people can shop all night without being afraid.”

With the help of both public and private assistance, the organization has an ambitious plan to give the street a high-priced face-lift.

Among its goals: wholesale rehabilitation of half-empty buildings and cracking sidewalks, restoration of peeling and unsightly storefronts, removal of tacky commercial signs, elimination of heaps of sidewalk and alleyway garbage and a significant increase in parking space for shoppers.

Just as important, the group wants an all-out crackdown on crime, from purse snatchers to dope dealers and street gamblers. For even though there are signs that such crime is declining, it remains the biggest complaint along the street.

Broadway boosters foresee a day not too distant when mounted police will patrol a thriving street and a new trolley line will not only improve transportation but also recall the romance of an earlier era. But some of those who work on the street view it all as a pipe dream and consider Broadway beyond salvation, too infested with urban rot to make a comeback .

The merchants have significant support from the influential Community Redevelopment Agency, which granted Miracle $430,000 to get off the ground.

Said Richard Roe, who is in charge of the Broadway project for the CRA: “We are trying to provide all the missing amenities to reinforce the street’s loyal customer base, attract new groups too and make sure that as Broadway’s shoppers move up in the economic picture they have plenty of reasons to keep coming back.”

Smaller Scale

Similar projects have succeeded in revitalizing Larimore Square and the Gas Lamp district in Denver, the Pike’s Place Market area in Seattle and, on a smaller scale, the three-block Fairfax shopping district in Los Angeles.

The health of Broadway, planners say, is crucial to downtown Los Angeles because it serves as a link between the Civic Center and the booming financial district.

Miracle got its start only at the end of last year, and 30% of the street’s 200 merchants have already joined its ranks. The group was spearheaded by such businessmen as Grand Central Market owner Ira Yellin, movie theater impresario Bruce Corwin and John Lopez, the owner of Broadway’s three McDonald’s franchises.

Broadway’s decline goes back to the 1930s when the entertainment industry moved west and many other big businesses steadily followed. Small stores and fast-food franchises rushed in to fill the void, while in almost every building the upper floors were vacated.

Then came the Pachuco wars of the ‘50s, race riots that dealt the street perhaps its most severe blow. Not many affluent shoppers were willing to put up with the sight of Mexican youths in pleated pants being clubbed by sailors on leave or vice versa, and most soon fled to safer grounds.

Yet despite the years and the changes, Broadway is still very much alive, a throbbing retail district that bears witness seven days a week to a thousand rituals:

‘Special Bargains’

Salesmen exhort shoppers to come see their “special bargains,” newspaper vendors bark out the day’s headlines, transients walk to the beat of cumbia or salsa coming from record stores, tenacious street peddlers hawk umbrellas and watches, loudspeakers blare discount rates in Spanish, immigrants from Mexico and Central America take advantage of the “credito facil” (easy credit) offered by furniture stores.

Beggars tell their life stories and ask for coins in exchange. Old-timers sip beer and watch people walk by from the stalls of Jack’s Plazita, listening to the mariachis and the minutes tick by.

While 95% of Broadway’s traffic is Latino, there are many other ethnic flavors, from Greek barbers and Filipino bookkeepers to chefs from Shanghai.

The busiest pedestrian street in Los Angeles County, Broadway’s vitality is characteristic of most major Latin American downtown shopping districts but unique among U.S. Western cities. Studies show that about 100,000 mostly low-income Latino visitors shop or browse here every week.

Sales per square foot range from $200 to $700 a month, according to a study last year, which found that the street compares favorably to Beverly Hills’s Rodeo Drive shops in sheer dollar volume. The same survey showed that street-level Broadway shops command some of the region’s highest rents.

Most merchants say sales have dropped in recent months because of the effect of the new immigration law and fears of government sweeps on Broadway, but nobody is pressing the panic button. Yellin said that after an initial decline, sales at his market have “leveled off.”

Corwin is confident that customers will keep coming as long as he offers the right product.

“We’ve had better times, but we’ve also had worse,” said the owner of 11 Broadway movie theaters.

‘Korean Films’

In the ‘60s, he started showing black movies, and later the Spanish films took over, he recalled. “These days, American movies are making a comeback and who knows? Maybe in 20 years, I’ll be showing Korean films.”

The heart blood of the street remains the scores of smaller merchants. Take for example one tiny restaurant, El Rey Sol.

While owner Hyung Dob Jang, a middle-aged immigrant from Korea, smilingly offers to serve anything from a hamburger to a taco or chow mein, her brother, Kon, has transformed the restaurant’s narrow storefront into a capitalist kiosk, from which he sells watches and backpacks, calculators and gold chains.

“This is a restaurant-swap meet!” he rejoices.

To the experts, the Jangs are what Broadway’s all about.

“These businesses preserve the spirit of exploration, the bit of risk that is so important in our culture,” said Robert Harris, dean of the USC School of Architecture

The street is also guardian of some of the country’s most important architectural treasures. A dozen imposing movie theaters constructed between 1917 and 1932 survive mostly in their original forms, and the 1893 Bradbury Building, with its soaring atrium, is a national historic landmark.

Yet roughly a third of the buildings do not meet city earthquake safety regulations, and about half are below fire safety standards, Roe said. Instead of making the necessary improvements, many owners have chosen to demolish the old structures or use only the first floor for retail space and abandon the rest of the buildings.

“If the old buildings are not reoccupied in the near future, they will be torn down and replaced by less beautiful and typically less humane structures,” Harris said.

The upshot, he predicted, would most likely be just another dull American street of closed, controlled shopping malls and unfriendly steel and glass skyscrapers.

If Broadway escapes Harris’ scenario, it will be in large part due to the efforts of people like Estela Lopez, executive director of Miracle on Broadway.

Lopez is a self-proclaimed “Broadway junkie,” whose enthusiasm is contagious as she sits in her third-floor office of the Million Dollar Theater building.

“Just look!” she cries, throwing open her window and leaning into the street that she is trying to save. The sounds of salsa, the honking of horns and the murmurs of a thousand voices come pouring in. “There’s a life on this street you can’t find anywhere else in the city. Broadway’s the heart and soul of L.A.”

At age 34, Lopez has already established credentials in the worlds of politics and journalism. She has served as an aide to Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy; was a news director, producer and editor for three local television stations, and worked for a major public relations firm.

Washed Out

On this day, her latest project, “Sweep Broadway clean on Halloween,” had fallen through, washed out by rain. But never mind, two weeks later she was kicking off “Sidewalk Fantasy,” a program to bring in mimes, jugglers and clowns; hang bright banners from the light posts, and promote special weekend Christmas sales.

Bringing back a department store is a priority, so less than a month ago she set up a task force of street merchants and city officials to do the recruiting. Members are targeting stores like Mervyn’s, Sears, Target and Circuit City.

Six well-known local architects have been hired to develop a comprehensive design for the heart of the retail district, from 2nd to 9th streets.

In addition to designing improvements for sidewalks and storefronts, the plan will seek to enhance the street’s ambiance by removing oversize signs, said Peter de Brettville, a member of the planning team.

“Everybody is trying to outshout the competition, and in the process they cover up the terra cotta tile and the elaborate ornamentation that make the buildings so unique,” he said.

The team will also offer architectural solutions to the street’s crime, trash and parking problems.

Crime, for example, can be reduced by improving the street’s lighting system and closing down unsafe alleys, said De Brettville. Trash collection would benefit from accessible pickup spots for garbage trucks. Parking structures can be designed above street level so that they don’t interrupt the streetscape.

The plan should be completed by the end of next year, and the improvements would be paid for through a district assessment.

In the meantime, the redevelopment agency is funding an enthusiastic trash-collection crew made up of Skid Row derelicts, constructing a mini-park on 2nd Street to provide transients with a quiet rest area and building an adjacent 1,250-space parking structure.

But crime, everyone agrees, remains the main obstacle.

Some officials say that the perception of crime is a greater problem than crime itself.

“People see a homeless person and immediately make a judgment, yet that person may or may not be a criminal,” said Assistant City Planner Robert Chattel, a member of the CRA Broadway project.

Furthermore, Capt. Rick Batson of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division pointed out that street crime has gone down significantly in recent months since Miracle on Broadway organized a Business Watch and assigned block captains. The Police Department does not keep statistics for individual streets, but the patrol area that covers most of Broadway’s shopping district reported just over 3,000 “repressible” crimes--burglary, robbery and auto theft--so far this year, 25% less than last year.

And more improvement is expected, Batson said, once the police division and Miracle on Broadway iron out the details for the installation of a mobile booking unit van on the street, the first of its kind to be used in the city.

Others are less optimistic.

“I’ve been working for 10 years in this street and nothing has changed,” said Alfonzo Guzman, a security guard who works for an electronics shop. “I see purse snatchers rip people off every day right in front of me. I don’t do anything because I’m not insured if I go out on the street.”

In between issuing jaywalking tickets, Officer Lew Parker, a police veteran, offered his own theory of crime:

‘Deal Drugs’

“Seventy percent of the derelicts in this street are predators. They snatch purses, rip off necklaces, gamble, break into cars, deal drugs. The other 30% are schizophrenic alcoholics.”

Parker also believes that the street is getting worse. In his opinion, the number of street predators is increasing.

Across the street, Luis Manuel de Romey looks out of his clothing store in disgust.

“I don’t like this street. It’s like a zoo, and it keeps getting worse. Seventy-five percent of the people come here to buy or sell drugs,” he said, nodding toward three passing derelicts dressed in rags, who were sharing a pint of cheap wine. “You call that a living?”

Santamaria, for her part, continues measuring corsets with the same cheerful optimism that keeps her young despite the years. The street, she said, is finally begining to look nicer. The drug dealers have moved away from her corner, and she is hopeful that Miracle on Broadway will continue to make a difference.

The shadows move in and cover the street, the last customer leaves the store. But Santamaria is in no hurry.

“I have so much memories of Broadway. If I start talking, I’ll never end,” she said, shaking her head.

Then she looks up, her eyes finding the window. “The day I leave this street will be the end of my life.”