For Crenshaw Plaza, Season Looks Bright
Since it opened 10 years ago, the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza has been as much a symbol as a retail mall.
Sitting at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Crenshaw boulevards, the mall owes its existence to the idea that older minority communities, threatened by neglect, can be revived by offering goods and services that residents previously had to travel several miles to find.
Although it is very close to the affluent neighborhoods of View Park, Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills, the mall got off to a slow start. In its early years, it appeared to have more vacancies than occupied spaces.
But that early, grim picture has brightened over the years. And now, with less than two weeks left in the Christmas shopping season, mall merchants are cautiously optimistic, saying that prospects for this year look promising.
The mall “has come through some very, very hard times,” said Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Commission. “Most people don’t acknowledge what went on in the department store industry with mergers and familiar names disappearing.”
The shopping center survived consolidation in the industry and “major economic turmoil in the community,” Kyser said, referring to the economic downturn that hit Southern California in 1990 and to the 1992 riots.
Mall officials say that it is 90% occupied, and that “is strong testament to their survival capability,” Kyser said. The shopping center “is sort of a metaphor of how successful the area is--the temperature indicator for that community,” he said.
And the temperature appears to be rising.
A big boost came with the opening of the Magic Johnson Theatres and the foot traffic the multiscreen complex generated. Moreover, observers and residents say, the mall can only benefit when the $100-million redevelopment of an adjacent eyesore--the Santa Barbara Plaza--is completed early in the next century.
The good times were certainly evident on the day after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas shopping season traditionally begins.
One Los Angeles woman decided to stop by the plaza in search of bargains, but was unable to find a parking space. After many minutes of searching, she was finally able to park in a remote corner of the lot “that is never full.”
“But it was practically full too,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I have never, in 10 years of shopping at this mall, ever seen the lot that crowded.”
There was no hint of complaint in her comments. She saw the nearly full lot as a strong sign that the mall was off to a good start in the scramble for consumers’ Christmas dollars.
“Business has really picked up,” said Patrice Ausby, assistant manager at the Lerner’s Shops in the mall. “And the crowds after Thanksgiving--oh, my goodness!”
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The level of business this year varies by shop. Some owners say they are running about even with last year, others say sales are slower, and still others say they are counting on a last-minute rush to make their season profitable.
Steve Gentry, the mall’s manager for the last 2 1/2 years, said that this Christmas “is looking good, with good crowds. I don’t have any numbers yet, but that is the sense I get from talking to merchants and walking the mall.”
The mall can trace its origin--in part--to sharp criticism from African Americans of the late former Mayor Tom Bradley.
Those critics argued that Bradley had wrought a miracle along Figueroa Street in the downtown financial district, but had done very little for the blighted Crenshaw district, where he had found rock-solid support at the ballot box throughout his political career.
The Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza was Bradley’s response. And even his most severe critics acknowledge that without Bradley twisting arms and wheeling and dealing, the mall may never have happened.
Even after it opened, naysayers proclaimed that retail investments in Central Los Angeles were tantamount to throwing money away.
And there are still critics who say they will not shop at the mall because its stores do not carry the merchandise they are seeking. Some point to paint peeling in great swatches from the Macy’s exterior and contend that such conditions would not be tolerated at the company’s stores in other neighborhoods.
A spokeswoman at Macy’s western headquarters in San Francisco said the company official who could discuss the store’s condition was out of the country and unavailable for comment.
Some merchants criticize residents of affluent nearby neighborhoods for not patronizing the mall in large enough numbers.
Manny Agee Muze, owner of Diamond Jewelers in the mall, is optimistic about this selling season, but he wants to see more of what he calls “the rich people” from the hillside communities.
“We get a lot of action, but it would make a big difference if we could get the people with the big money,” said Muse, who owns two other jewelry shops. He said he has not discovered how to break through “the mentality” that keeps those customers away.
“They don’t want to come over here,” he said. “What is the problem? This is a great mall, a beautiful mall.”
He concedes that he gets some customers from nearby upscale ZIP Codes, but more shoppers from those neighborhoods patronize his stores in Westchester and Culver City, he said.
But even without the “big money” people, Muze said, he thinks this will be his best Christmas in two years in the mall.
“I see it coming,” he said. “This area is coming up.”
And what appears to be the insoluble problem of attracting more well-heeled African Americans to the mall may be becoming a moot point. Solidly middle-class and working-class African Americans are making the mall their first stop.
“I love this mall,” Grace Epps, a Leimert Park resident, said as she looked at warmup suits at Sears. “I don’t have to ride three buses to shop.”
Eric Ellison and Eric Braden, special education assistants at Locke High School in Watts, brought six students to the mall recently as part of a program to teach them “life skills” such as riding a bus and making purchases.
“I make it a point to come to this mall,” said Ellison, who lives in Gardena. He said it is important for his students, all African Americans on the recent trip, to see black people in business.
The plaza is also cashing in on the rapidly increasing numbers of Latinos who shop there.
“For me, this mall is fine, with many shops and a great selection,” Marco Perez, 35, a Los Angeles hotel steward, said in Spanish as he shopped last week with his daughter Melissa, 3. The fact that he doesn’t speak very much English has not been a problem, he said.
“Robinsons May, Macy’s, Sears all have people working there who speak Spanish,” he said.
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African Americans are still 54% of the customer base at Sears in the mall, but Latinos now make up 46%, said Sears manager Lupe Barraza.
This Christmas season is about equal to last year, she said.
“This is a very competitive marketplace,” she said, “and we’re expecting a late Christmas.”
Jebessa Daba’s Ethio Cafe, a kiosk selling espresso coffee and other drinks, opened just after Thanksgiving last year and became an instant success, he said.
“Last year we did great, and this year we are hoping to do just as well,” said Daba, 31, an Ethiopian immigrant who also owns an Inglewood nightclub, a video store and a beauty supply store.
But Daba is the personification of the problem other merchants like jeweler Muze is trying to solve. Although his business in the mall has been an unqualified success, Daba is one of those upscale nearby residents who does not shop there. And he sees no contradiction in not shopping where so many people patronize his business.
“I can’t find the clothing in the Macy’s here that I find in the Beverly Center,” he said.
By most estimates, the mall will prosper as long as the local economy does well. Along with increased traffic generated by Johnson’s theaters, Chalee Blues, a Creole restaurant, has built a large following with a savory array of Louisiana dishes, along with jazz and zydeco music.
Gentry, who spends a good part of his day walking the mall--checking for everything from spills to unlit store signs--is nothing if not upbeat about the future.
“The mall is 90% occupied, and we have a lot of inquiries and meetings with companies,” Gentry said. “Those companies realize this is a viable mall in a viable area.”
