Between the Plan and Reality . . . Falls the Shadow

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas is a man with a plan, maybe even a vision, but most definitely a plan.

The other morning he was explaining one of his plans over breakfast to the merchants of Leimert Village. Leimert Village is a quaint place just off Crenshaw Boulevard where a handful of merchants, with little more than spit and glue, have created a mini-cultural center of shops, coffeehouses, art galleries and jazz spots.

The councilman was explaining how $9.7 million may be coming into the neighborhood for redevelopment under one of his plans. Everybody’s eyes lit up. But that’s in the future.

Right now, the councilman said, the plan was for a shoe store to go into a vacant corner lot that anchors the village. The merchants were nonplussed. A shoe store didn’t exactly fit into their plans.

On another corner, the councilman informed the group, the merchant was planning to rebuild a beauty supply shop. The merchants really didn’t like that plan. Unfortunately for them, Ridley-Thomas has not come up with a plan yet to stop it.

I like listening to Ridley-Thomas’ plans. They are sometimes wonderful, elaborate proposals--the Vermont Manchester Recovery Study Area plan, the Western Corridor Recovery Study Area plan, the Los Neighborhood Initiative plan for Leimert Park, and my favorite, the Crenshaw Eight plan. I know that his staff works hard on them.

So, a few days later I headed over to his empowerment conference at Crenshaw High School. A really good thing, these empowerment conferences. Hundreds of people from the area come together, attend workshops, gather information and express their ideas. They also get to listen to more plans.

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In a slide presentation, Ridley-Thomas proudly showed off what he said was the fruition of some of his plans--new buildings, new businesses, visually impressive stuff. One slide featured a restaurant called Bumpy’s L.A.

“This,” the councilman said proudly, “is the kind of quality redevelopment that we are bringing to your community.”

Bumpy’s L.A. is right around the corner from my house. I had never thought of it as a model of redevelopment. Probably because it’s closed. In fact, it’s never been open. But I figured the councilman knew something I don’t know--because he’s got the plans.

So, I stopped by Bumpy’s L.A. It was still closed. I don’t think that was part of the councilman’s plan. I peeked inside a little bar next door and asked about Bumpy’s.

There was a pause, and then the bartender said, “Try the real estate office next door. He rents from them.”

I knocked on the glass door of Mac Daniel Realty and Edward Mac Daniel buzzed me in. I asked about the owner of Bumpy’s L.A. He paused for a minute. Looked me over cautiously.

“He just called me today,” he grunted. “Said he’d be back in town on Monday to pay his rent.” His name, Mac Daniel said, is Lamar Williams, “a real nice young man.”

Mac Daniel didn’t know when the place would open or if it would ever open. But he figured Williams must have a plan, because he’s been paying $1,300 a month for a vacant building for the past two years. In the interim, he’s sunk a lot of money into the place, about $200,000 by Mac Daniel’s guess, trying to make the place “real nice.”

And where does all the money come from? “I don’t really know,” Mac Daniel said. “He’s supposed to be some kind of rap music producer. That’s all I know.”

Before I left, he handed me a pager number. “That’s the only way I have to reach him,” Mac Daniel said. “I called four or five times, but nobody ever called back.”

I tried Ridley-Thomas’ field office that handles the area to see what his representative could tell me about Bumpy’s L.A. and how it fit into the plan. I figured if anybody knew, they would, since the councilman had highlighted it. It was mostly a mystery to them.

The field rep, Mary Jones, said she didn’t know much about it. She didn’t know when it would be open. No, she didn’t know the owner’s name. I gave her a name. It didn’t ring a bell. *

Williams is something of a mystery to area merchants as well. Almost nobody even knows his name.

Margaret Diop, Ridley-Thomas’ director of economic development, said the councilman never intended to give the impression that his office had actually worked with Williams. What he was showing, she said, was the climate that he had created through his redevelopment plans that allowed places like Bumpy’s to open.

The last anybody heard, Williams had spent so much money refurbishing his restaurant that now he doesn’t have the money to open his place. I suggest that he go see the councilman--because he’s got a plan.