#  Crenshaw Subway Coalition’s Fight Against Gentrification Isn’t Going Away

     Details    Leonard Isenberg   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         March 22 2018      [  ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Mar-2018/024t.png)    ](https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/15126-crenshaw-subway-coalition-s-fight-against-gentrification-isn-t-going-away)

  [LOS ANGELES](https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles)   - [  Previous Article **Dems … This (Really) Is It!** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15127:dems-this-really-is-it&catid=312)
- [  Next Article **Cambridge Analytica: Slogging through Submerged Rivers of Emotionalism** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15125:cambridge-analytica-slogging-through-submerged-rivers-of-emotionalism&catid=312)

  ###### Typography

- [](# "Smaller Font")  ****Smaller** **Small** **Medium** **Big** **Bigger****  [](# "Bigger Font")
- [](# "Previous Font Style")  ****Default** **Helvetica** **Segoe** **Georgia** **Times****  [](# "Next Font Style")

- [ Reading Mode](# "Reading Mode")

> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_print"></a>[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
>
>  [Comments](#disqus_thread)

>
>
>
> FIRST PERSON-The new Crenshaw subway line extension and related mall and housing development projects have falsely been sold as a form of positive urban renewal.

 In reality, they are the antithesis of any real notion of urban renewal. If implemented as proposed, it would go a long way toward decimating and scattering this vibrant Black majority,most of whom will no longer be able to afford to live in this historically African American community.

Honest urban renewal would incurthe greater expense of putting more of the Crenshaw subway line underground to have a less negative impact on this community. It would have also used community members to conceptualize and build all aspects of the project, so that people who live there would benefit from and financially share the rewards by being able to afford to live in this renewed segment of the community.

But like San Francisco's once African American Filmore District and other once vibrant innercity African American communities like it around the country, all the Crenshaw subway project will do as presently conceived is displace and exclude those who presently live in the community, because they will no longer be able to afford living there.

Two key pieces of legislation being used by the real estate lobby -- the biggest contributor to the Democratic Party and those behind this and other projects running roughshod over existing communities – are the [Costa-Hawkins Act](https://la.curbed.com/2018/2/16/17021886/costa-hawkins-rent-control-initiative-repeal-rent-control), which precludes rent control for any housing built after 1978 and [Senate Bill 827](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB827), which removes all parking requirements for the market-rate high-rise dwellings being pushed by those behind the Crenshaw subway projects.

The only real strength the African American community has for stopping these real estate speculators’ exclusive profit-driven agenda is in their numbers. By using an Historical Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ), existing Crenshaw community members can legally restrict development of their community with elements of the HPOZ that prohibit changing the residential areas immediately surrounding the proposed Crenshaw subway developments. By eliminating high density, high-rise residences, the density of population needed to make viable the proposed mall and other projects would no longer exist, and this couldblock the presently profit-driven real estate juggernaut.

*(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles, observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He was a second- generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at* [*perdaily.com*](http://perdaily.com/). *Leonard can be reached at* [*Lenny@perdaily.com*](mailto:Lenny@perdaily.com).*) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.*

  - [  Previous Article **Dems … This (Really) Is It!** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15127:dems-this-really-is-it&catid=312)
- [  Next Article **Cambridge Analytica: Slogging through Submerged Rivers of Emotionalism** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15125:cambridge-analytica-slogging-through-submerged-rivers-of-emotionalism&catid=312)
<div data-id="1" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-emailform eb-1 eboxContentLocker"
	data-options='{"trigger":"onPageLoad","trigger_selector":"","delay":3000,"early_trigger":true,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":1,"reverse_scroll_close":true,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":10000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"slideInDown","animation_close":"fadeOutDown","animation_duration":400,"disable_page_scroll":true,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #1 - Global Email Signup Form","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog eb-formVer" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog1" aria-label="dialog1">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<form action="https://citywatchla.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=34d69f33624fd058ee9b56516&amp;id=4bfa422f51&amp;f_id=00d6c2e1f0" class="eb" method="post" id="mcform-1" name="mcform-1" target="_blank">
			<div class="eb-form-header"><p><img src="/images/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png" alt="be a city watcher" width="350" height="97" loading="lazy" data-path="local-images:/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png"></p>
<p>Sign up to receive our special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evenings!</p></div>
	
					<div class="eb-field-row">

			
			
			
			<input class="eb-input" type="email" name="EMAIL"  placeholder="Email address"  id="EMAIL" value="" required>

			
		</div>
										
	<div class="eb-footer">
    	<button class="eb-btn" type="submit" name="subscribe" style="background-color:rgba(93, 183, 93, 1);color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)">
    		Sign up    	</button>
    </div>
</form>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
<div data-id="3" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-yesno eb-3 "
	data-options='{"trigger":"onScrollDepth","trigger_selector":"","delay":0,"early_trigger":false,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":2,"reverse_scroll_close":false,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":1000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"fadeInUp","animation_close":"fadeOut","animation_duration":300,"disable_page_scroll":false,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #3 - Yes \/ No Donation Popup Box","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog " role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog3" aria-label="dialog3">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<div class="ebox-yes-no">
	<div class="ebox-yn-text">
		
		
		<div class="ebox-yn-headline" style="font-size:22px;color:#888888">
			<p>If you only give once a month, would you consider giving to CityWatch?</p>
<p>Your support fuels our mission to promote and facilitate civic engagement and neighborhood empowerment, and to hold area government and its politicians accountable.</p>
<p>Would you like to help? Even if you can only give $5, it will make a difference.</p>		</div>
			</div>
	
	<div class="ebox-ys-buttons" style="font-size: 16px;">
		
<a
					data-ebox-prevent="0"
		data-ebox-cmd="close"
				target="_self"
		href="https://www.citywatchla.com/donate"
		rel="noopener"
	
	
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#2ec664;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Yes
	</a>
<a
	
	
			data-ebox-cmd="close"
		href="#"
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#ef2345;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Not Right Now
	</a>	</div>

	</div>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>