Thank you to the community that came out for the first of our five Summer of Resistance town hall series on gentrification “What the Heck is Going on in Leimert Park Village?”

The full recap and action items are below.

The Barron Rule

We debuted what we call “The Barron Rule: If our people can’t afford it, don’t build it.” Unsurprisingly: it works! Charles & Inez Barron the Assemblymember and Councilmember respectively in East New York (Brooklyn/border of Queens) have held to this and East New York has seen an 13% increase in Black population and 6% decrease in White population.

African-American Cultural & Conference Center on LPV City Lots

We had lots of discussion on the proposed African-American Cultural & Conference Center. Local architect Roland Wiley presented the concept of the center and reminded us of the that this project was one key point of agreement going back 13 years. Most questions focused on parking capacity of Leimert Park Village, youth engagement and how to protect the surrounding Leimert Park community. It was pointed out that the Save Leimert plan for the village had an upgraded Vision Theater, Cultural Center on the lots and a multi-story parking lot on the western lot, similar to Little Tokyo to handle the additional parking needs.

TEAR DOWN THAT FENCE around Leimert Park

The #LiberateLeimertPark campaign was kicked off! Master drummer Najite provided his historical reflection of the now famous Leimert Park African Drum Circle. Representatives of City National Bank which financed the $1 million loan to the Parks Foundation to upgrade Leimert Park expressed that they did not know that a fence was part of the project and that they don't support it going up. They also told the audience that they were told that the park was to be opened last January, and questioned the limited scope of the $1 million loan.

Themes

Community ownership was a theme expressed throughout the meeting, and people signed up for committees on Land Use Oversight, Community Wealth Building, and The Umoja Center maintenance.

And four tenants were able to get help from our tenant rights attorney through the Tenant Clinic organized by ACCE!

Join us at our next meeting is on Monday, September 9 at 6:30 pm

ACTIONS:

1) Petitions are being circulated to tear down the fence around Leimert Park.
2) Goal of petitions gathered is 1,000 by Wed Sep 11 (download the pdf), when we go to the 1 pm City Council Parks committee meeting (City Hall Room 1060) to demand #LiberateLeimertPark
3) Going to Parks Commission meeting at 9:30 am on Wed Sep 18 at Algin Sutton Recreation Center (8800 S. Hoover, Los Angeles, CA 90044) to demand #LiberateLeimertPark