Adult Business to Be Topic of Town Hall Meeting

The proposed opening this weekend of a sex-oriented video store and shop near Leimert Park will be the focus of discussion at a town hall meeting tonight in the Baldwin Hill-Crenshaw Plaza shopping center.

“The purpose of the meeting is to solicit community feedback on how people feel about such a shop opening on Crenshaw,” said Charles Stewart, press deputy for Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles). “We are continuing to revitalize the business community, and we want to find out what the community thinks about [the adult store], if anything.”

Najee Ali, one of the meeting’s organizers, opposes the opening of the store at 4324 S. Crenshaw Blvd.

“We don’t want businesses that are detrimental to the community,” said Ali, director of Project Islamic HOPE. “This place is going to be selling handcuffs and sexual devices]. A lot of children are around here and they don’t need to be near that junk.”

Owners of the store could not be reached for comment.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on the mall’s second floor.