CHANGING THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Inglewood has hired a consultant to come up with a plan to revitalize the Darby-Dixon neighborhood, the city’s most crime-troubled area.

Located southwest of Century and Crenshaw boulevards, the 40-year-old neighborhood is under the flight path of planes heading toward Los Angeles International Airport. City Manager Paul Eckles said the neighborhood has attracted a transient population since 1958 when airplanes got louder and larger, and crime also has increased since then.

In an attempt to clean up the neighborhood, largely composed of apartment complexes, the city has made many changes in the area that include changing the zoning to attract industry to the area, adding no-parking signs and closing off streets, Eckles said.