That multiplex is still around (it\u2019s now a Cinemark), but the mall has lost its Sears, Macy\u2019s and all but one of its anchor tenants, and, like most retail, is struggling mightily. The old open-air Santa Barbara shopping center across the street generated much discussion and proposals, including one from Johnson, but it stood fallow for 25 years before a Kaiser Permanente complex opened there in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Michael Anderson, an architect and developer who\u2019s proposed several economic development plans in the Crenshaw District, said elected officials have repeatedly missed \u2014 or ignored \u2014 opportunities to make meaningful improvements, in part because there are so few precedents for them. Not that he sees that as an excuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack folks just don\u2019t know economic development, they know hope,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cCrenshaw still doesn\u2019t have new sidewalks, alleys, all that basic stuff that makes a place livable. It\u2019s still Black, but because it isn\u2019t modernizing it\u2019s a dying Black space like all Black spaces, like Central Avenue. It\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others aren\u2019t quite that pessimistic, including many of the \u201cKeep the Promise\u201d critics. Hope is indeed ingrained in many Black people\u2019s outlook, economically and otherwise, sometimes without much evidence to justify it. But sometimes there is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the plus side, Vision Theater finally opened after being dark for more than 30 years,\u201d said Ryan of Zambezi Bazaar, referring to the city-owned Art Deco theater in the middle of Leimert Park that had been undergoing renovations for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once owned by television star Marla Gibbs, it\u2019s now operated by WACO Theater Center, an arts organization co-founded by Tina Knowles, mother of pop icon Beyonc\u00e9 and a Black arts advocate in her own right. While the reopening certainly took far too long, it\u2019s also true that, given the woes of Destination Crenshaw, the timing couldn\u2019t be better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still skeptical about Destination Crenshaw,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cBut let\u2019s see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That multiplex is still around (it\u2019s now a Cinemark), but the mall has lost its Sears, Macy\u2019s and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-494970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}