Leimert Park is the Soul of Los Angeles, an African American cutlural center within the city filled with cafes, shops and music. Near it, Baldwin Hills is the high-class star of the BET Network's successful foray into reality TV.
In between these two L.A. neighborhoods is an embarrassment no one wants to talk about - Marlton Square, aka Santa Barbara Plaza.
The 20-acre shopping center, apparently already in disrepair in the early 90s, was slowly killed as the city attempted to buy it, then sell it to a private firm to redevelop. First there was talk of working with legend Magic Johnson. Then football star Keyshawn Johnson dropped out. Then a check-bouncing, politically-connected developer became the city's partner.
Today all the buidlings, dozens of storefronts with a mammoth parking lot in the middle, are still there - crumbling. All but a few shops are boarded up and waiting for the bulldozer that never comes. Oh, there's one new multi-story nursing home, but it's never been occupied. The deserted center has hurt business strips nearby, including the adjacent Crenshaw Mall, attracting criminal elements and being blamed for lowering property values.
And $50 million later, L.A. officials are back to square one with their bombed-out plan, holding back a community's promise.
The numbers are murky but it's been reported there was $43 million in government subsidies tied to the project and that at least $15 million of that has been lost - plus an additional $30 million in private funds were spent.
Most of the political players are still around as the next developer in line, current owners of the adjacent Crenshaw Mall, courts city officials. What will happen?
I am a 15-year veteran of daily newspapers, including the Arizona Republic, the Daily Breeze, San Bernardino County Sun and Tucson Citizen. I have lived in Leimert Park for the past five years and created the online social network for Leimert Park, which has 500 members.
This will be a crowdsourced story as residents of the the area and members of LeimertParkBeat.com will be recruited to contribute content, voices and reporting. Students from the University of Southern California who report for Intersections South LA will also be asked to assist in the investigation. .
We plan to track down how much money was spent on this project, who spent it and what it was spent on. And just as important, what's left over and who owns the land now. We will put the relevant documents online. We will hold officials accountable for a plan, for lessons learned and to retrieve their (our) money.
We also plan to do a comprehensive time line of Marlton Square's history, ancient and otherwise. We will piece together the events and create a timeline of the shopping center, from its opening in 1947, its demise some time in the early '90s and pinpoint the debacles since. We plan to gather photos from residents and share their memories of what was once a thriving destination of locally-serving businesses.
Citizens who participate will be given an honorarium for their work.They will be asked to find and document the community members who can give a personal narrative of the site. They will help with editing and fact-checking.
We plan to produce a video documenting Marlton Square's current state and impact.
As a resident of Leimert Park, I think that the best for Leimert Park involves job, and businesses and a top priority of keeping this neighborhood a gem of the city, but maybe not so hidden. I started a social networking news website for the area called LeimertParkBeat.com three years ago. It has 500 members and a few have agreed to help with the project. I believe it takes many voices to define what the best is for any neighborhood.
The story of Marlton Square’s demise and future will be turned in this August for a grade for my last class to get my master’s in Communication Management in the Annenberg Program in Online Communities.
