Central Los Angeles : Face Lift in Store for Vermont Square Area

Trying to undo the damage of the 1992 riots and a failing neighborhood economy, residents armed with federal dollars will give a 16-block stretch of Vermont Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles a $150,000 face lift.

The project, part of the federally funded Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative program, proposes to transform the mile-long commercial corridor in the Vermont Square neighborhood into an inviting promenade for shoppers and residents by the end of the year. Residents and Los Angeles Conservation Corps members have already planted dozens of trees in the area, near 48th Street.