The Upgrading of Figueroa Becomes a Two-Way Street

Figueroa Street may be the only one in Los Angeles with three cathedrals at one intersection.

There’s St. Vincent de Paul Church, an ornate Roman Catholic church built by oilman Edward Doheny and his wife and modeled after one in Mexico, at Figueroa and Adams Boulevard.

Then there’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, an imposing, Romanesque-style structure completed in 1925 with an outdoor pulpit across the street from St. Vincent de Paul.

And there’s the cathedral to the car: the headquarters of the Automobile Club of Southern California. It is a landmark, an example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture with an interior courtyard, that was completed in 1923.

“Pretty neat, huh?” area resident China Martinez said.

The corner of historically significant structures is just part of a 2 1/2-mile stretch of Figueroa, from Staples Center to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard where the Memorial Coliseum and the Sports Arena are, that is the focus of two independent efforts to improve the thoroughfare.

The area, dubbed the Figueroa Street Corridor, is on the upswing these days, primarily because 150 property owners and merchants have banded together to form a business improvement district to spruce up the area’s image. Crime has declined because of privately financed patrols in the area, and routine services, like trash collection, have helped Figueroa’s appearance.

At the same time, a coalition of activists, ministers, labor officials and residents has gotten together in an effort to ensure that development in the area includes community input on the decision-making process.

The group, called the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice, has been critical of any public subsidy for a proposed $1-billion arts and entertainment district near Staples Center. They argue that public funds should be used for child care and other worthy programs elsewhere in the corridor.

While the two groups don’t always see eye to eye, they are united when it comes to the corridor’s future. They want it to be a good place for business and residents.

“We want it to be an inviting place that will bring more people to downtown,” said Darryl Holter, chairman of the Figueroa Corridor Partnership, the business improvement district.

Gilda Haas, an organizer of the corridor coalition, said: “People live here too. We want safe streets too.”

Figueroa is a hodgepodge of aging storefronts, parking lots and dilapidated housing, along with some of the city’s architectural jewels and high-profile buildings; Staples is the latest addition.

The “three cathedrals” at Figueroa and Adams are remnants of when some of Los Angeles’ elite lived in the area. Doheny and his wife, Carrie, lived in a nearby Victorian-era mansion that later was donated to Mount St. Mary’s College.

The Shrine Auditorium, across Jefferson Boulevard from the USC campus where several Academy Awards ceremonies have been held, is another landmark.

As World War II approached, working-class blacks came to dominate the area, moving into homes off Figueroa. Some later were displaced by shopping centers and the building of the Harbor Freeway parallel to Figueroa.

Despite the emergence of student-oriented businesses on Figueroa, parts of the corridor languished, particularly after the Watts riots in the summer of 1965. The area’s affordable housing dwindled, replaced by housing for USC students and businesses. Some merchants moved away, leaving behind empty storefronts and lots.

Over time, property values declined and business at auto dealerships on Figueroa stagnated. Gang-related violence plagued the area in the 1980s and early ‘90s. The sight of rundown buildings and the occasional empty lot did not encourage prospective investors.

The unrest in 1992 after the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case didn’t help, either.

And while USC sports teams continued to play in the Memorial Coliseum and the Sports Arena, where John F. Kennedy had accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960, the on-again, off-again status of pro football in the Coliseum did little to reverse the lingering image of bad times in the corridor.

Banding Together for the Common Good

For a while in the early ‘90s, Nick Shammas, the owner of Felix Chevrolet, which features the landmark Felix the Cat statue atop the dealership’s main showroom at Figueroa and Jefferson, thought of closing his eight auto dealerships in the corridor and waiting for better times to return.

Holter, Shammas’ son-in-law, left his faculty post at UCLA to help reorganize the family-owned dealerships. He also began to wonder whether the corridor’s key players should band together for the common good of Figueroa.

In 1998, a 40-block business improvement district was established for Figueroa and Flower streets, setting up a taxing system under which the members would pay to improve the corridor. The district stretches south from the Santa Monica Freeway to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Operating on a $500,000 annual budget, the district employs staffers in purple polo shirts who act as “community ambassadors,” serving as tour guides for visitors and as surrogate cops to others. The partnership also employs a cleanup crew.

In the two years since the partnership’s creation, Holter, who serves as the district’s board chairman, has seen improvement. “Crime is down and business is up,” he said. “If we work hard to turn around this area, the rest will fall into place.”

Holter and partnership Executive Director Ashod Mooradian point to one statistic as proof that things are better: Last year, nearly 345 tons of trash were collected and hauled away. Jus a few years ago, much of that cleanup would not have been done.

Although Staples Center is outside the business district, Holter says it is a positive development that benefits the corridor. He also praised plans by the arena’s owners to transform more than 30 acres near Staples into an arts and entertainment area capped by a four-star, 40-story, 1,200-room hotel. “It can only benefit the partnership,” he said.

But others, particularly those in the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice, aren’t as enthusiastic. Espousing the grass-roots approach that was heard during last week’s protests at the Democratic National Convention, they oppose taxpayer-financed subsidies for the project.

“Why should billionaires get public money?” asked Haas, director of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, a coalition member.

Since its founding a year ago, the coalition has focused on a variety of issues--ranging from USC’s relationship with local residents to the hunt for new public school sites--that members say will benefit the area’s residents, the majority of whom are working-class Latinos.

The group supported USC dormitory and cafeteria workers last year in a dispute over outside contracting. Campus administrators’ unease with the organizers deepened when the coalition questioned whether USC should build a new arena for its basketball teams in a parking lot across the street from the Felix dealership. Coalition members argue that the parcel could be put to better use for area residents.

Currently, they attend local community meetings to closely question university officials.

The coalition also is trying to help decide what to do with the old Santee Dairy plant on East 23rd Street. The plant is idle, but the coalition says a new school there will help relieve overcrowding on other campuses in the area.

“This is something that will make the corridor a better place to live,” Haas said.

To some in the corridor, the work on the improvement district and the squabbling by local activists are encouraging signs that there will be better days ahead for Figueroa.

At a burrito stand on Figueroa on a recent morning, Martinez, 35, and Art Saenz, 31, said Figueroa is an important part of the city that should be safeguarded.

“He’s a UCLA fan,” Martinez, a die-hard USC fan, said of his companion, “and we always go to important games in the Coliseum and the Sports Arena. I think we sometimes take things for granted. Felix the Cat? We ought to take care of that. The same for the Shrine. We can’t let the area fall down.”

Nodding in agreement, Saenz added: “I remember this area as a kid. It’s a great area. Life would be perfect if UCLA was here instead of SC.”