Crenshaw, CA

Development is simmering along the rail line, which is slated to open next year

The Crenshaw Line will offer rail service to Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills, Hyde Park, and Inglewood. | By Liz Kuball

With Metro’s Crenshaw Line scheduled to open next year, properties along its path are attracting attention from developers.

The line will offer rail service to the neighborhoods of Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills, Hyde Park, and Westchester, as well as the city of Inglewood. Ultimately, the train will connect to LAX via a people mover tram.

The neighborhoods have already begun changing in anticipation of the new amenity, with more changes expected to come. For many residents, displacement and cultural erasure—and how to push back against both—are top of mind, especially with the roughly $2 billion Inglewood NFL stadium planned to open the year after the rail line.

Here, a map of a few notable projects along the under-construction light rail line. The projects include a lot more affordable housing than projects along, say, the Expo Line, but include quite a few large buildings with market-rate apartments too. They will all help define how the neighborhoods around the Crenshaw Line will look in the years to come.

Running along Crenshaw Boulevard between 48th and 60th streets, this open-air museum will acknowledge the contributions of black Angelenos. It will also highlight Crenshaw’s role as the “Main Street” of LA’s black community. Designed by Perkins + Will and Studio-MLA, it will combine elements of a park and gallery with elements of local history.

The 1.3-mile-long project is also a response to community concerns about the impacts that constructing and operating the line at street-grade would have on local businesses, and about the larger social and economic effects that the line could bring to South LA.

A ceremony for a groundbreaking is slated for February 29.

Destination Crenshaw broke ground February 29, 2020 — just three weeks before Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the state’s first stay-at-home order in response to the pandemic. Almost two years and many Covid-related complications later, the open-air museum and cultural revitalization project received a new influx of resources when B.S.D. Capital Inc., which does business as Lendistry, announced it joined with several local and national financing partners — including U.S. Bancorp, the Department of Energy’s Building America Program and New Markets Support Co. — to provide almost $30 million for infrastructure investments, job training and more.

The partnership between Destination Crenshaw and Lendistry, the latter of whom contributed a third of those funds, intends not only to bring money, jobs and culture to a marginalized and economically neglected area of Los Angeles but also to fulfill the original ambitions of both organizations as they combine community outreach and financial empowerment.

Downtown-based Lendistry, one of only four Black-led financial institutions in California, has grown by leaps and bounds since Chief Executive Everett Sands founded it in 2015. The Washington, D.C., native and University of Pennsylvania graduate began his career at a mortgage company before joining San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. in Washington, D.C., and later in Orange County where he saw the need for a lender that could fill the gap left behind by the decline in community banks.

“Our mission is to be a source of capital and source of financial education for underserved businesses and their communities,” Sands said.Lendistry estimates it has supported 570,000 small businesses with approximately $8.5 billion in loans and grants across the United States as of Dec. 28, according to its website. Those numbers reflect two yardsticks by which Sands said the company measures its success; a third is “innovation,” meaning its ability to build technology and to partner with other mission-based lenders. In that regard, it has also been effective: Lendistry, working as one of the 50 institutions providing financial resources to small businesses through the California Small Business Covid-19 Relief Grant Program, helped distribute almost $4 billion. Moreover, as the system’s administrator on behalf of the state of California, Lendistry processed 344,000 applications in 15 days.

Destination Crenshaw was first conceived in response to the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 2011 plan to build a $1.76 billion light rail line that would connect the Crenshaw District, Inglewood and Los Angeles International Airport, feeding an estimated 5.9 million new commuters through the area , per the organization.

Following a series of community discussions starting in 2015, the organization officially filed as a nonprofit in 2017 with the goal of revitalizing the 1.3-mile corridor of Crenshaw Boulevard between Vernon and Slauson avenues. Its leaders subsequently began working with Chicago-based architecture firm Perkins & Will — which designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the Motown Museum in Detroit — to build an open-air museum that combined outdoor spaces of a quarter acre or less, known as pocket parks; reforestation efforts (including planting more than 800 trees); and more than 100 public artworks by Black artists in the community.

Destination Crenshaw, under the leadership of President and Chief Operating Officer Jason Foster, has combined artistic and cultural initiatives with workforce development components for economic revitalization. The Knoxville, Tennessee, native first began his career as a nonprofit worker after studying finance at Howard University where he first developed an understanding of the relationship between money and community. After joining Destination Crenshaw in late 2019 as a financial consultant, Foster jumped into the organization “full tilt” in 2020 when Covid-19 stalled its building and design efforts.

“It was really apparent to me that Destination Crenshaw had the right model,” Foster said. “It was community-led, and it was focused on all the aspects that would actually elevate the residents’ lives, along with the infrastructure improvement.”

Sands said the work Lendistry is doing with Destination Crenshaw effectively showcases what the lender is capable of as it grows as a financial institution and extends its reach in the communities it wants to help.

“There’s the obvious, which is small businesses and nonprofits that are connected to that Crenshaw corridor, and then the unforeseen businesses — the vendors, the suppliers and all the others that will be connected to these businesses,” Sands said.

There are 43 businesses on the corridor, Foster said, and thus far, Destination Crenshaw has provided personnel or economic support, or both, to many of them through its partnerships. The organization, through Leimert Park-based nonprofit partner TEC Leimert, matched 10 businesses, including Leimert Park-based Hot and Cool Cafe and Hyde Park-based Jordan’s Hot Dogs, with local young people to work as social media interns. For Leimert Park-based Swift Cafe, it provided a microgrant for human resources services — “bricks and sticks stuff,” Foster called it — to help streamline the business’s operations while offering financial relief. Additionally, Destination Crenshaw supports smaller construction companies through its Ascend L.A. program at the downtown-based community development organization Local Initiatives Support Corp., which enables those businesses to apply for larger public contracts to which they might not have access without the organization’s help.

Pouring resources directly into the community is the cornerstone of Destination Crenshaw’s operations and its most visible way to combat concerns that the project might fuel gentrification in the historically Black community.

“We believe that Crenshaw deserves to be a beautiful environment, and what that means is we are driving to improve it both aesthetically and environmentally,” Foster said.

Recognizing local criticism about the kinds of displacement that have occurred in the Chinatown and Boyle Heights neighborhoods, and noting that the corridor’s small businesses are its chief job creators, Foster said Destination Crenshaw works explicitly to help residents not just grow the community but combat the rising cost of living throughout Los Angeles, now and into the future.

“L.A. has a public infrastructure pipeline of $30 billion over the next 30 years, and it’s an opportunity for us to really look at both the traditional economy and the creative economy as opportunities to grow as our community does,” Foster said. “This is the largest intact Black community west of the Mississippi along Crenshaw Boulevard, and we intend that this project is going to keep it that way.”

Each week during February, the Los Angeles Chargers will highlight the Black history and culture of four unique Los Angeles neighborhoods through the lens of the restaurants, highlighting how food can bring people and communities together.

This week, it's Earle's on Crenshaw.

"They just know us for hustling; these guys are always hustling."

That's the mentality Duane Earle and his brother, Cary, use to attack each day they run Earle's on Crenshaw.

The Earle brothers have taken what was once a small hot dog cart, that Cary built with his engineering expertise, and turned it into a full-fledged restaurant and catering operation, making them a fixture in the community for nearly four decades.

"No matter what you do, as long as you do it to the best of your ability (and) you do it right, you're confident about it, you cross your Ts and dot your Is; as long as you can handle business like that, eventually it will pay off," Duane said. "People will notice."

They did.

That "hustling mentality" was built from their days growing up in Brooklyn. Once they ventured out west and people caught on, the hot dog cart expanded and now features a menu with their famous and unique grilled dogs sliced down the middle, burgers and sandwiches, fries, desserts, their famous Playas Punch, and even vegetarian and vegan options.

"We would split and grill hot dogs," Duane mentioned. "Everybody else in L.A. boiled hot dogs. So my hot dog cart at the time, used to be like a McDonalds, it was extremely busy … There was something always going on. People were always coming to my cart. I'm feeding a whole community, I'm feeding businesses, hundreds of businesses in the area.

"I'm the only one grilling hot dogs, nobody was doing this. The amount of different types of hot dogs, (too) … just really unorthodox and unusual. And then on top of that, a young Black guy doing it. That was really unusual, you didn't see that in L.A."

Their "slice and chop and split them down the middle" hot dogs became a trademark of Earle's after changing their cooking format to best help elderly customers enjoy their products.

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The Earle brothers have always had a penchant for giving back to their community. And it was never for praise, it was always done out of the goodness of their hearts.

They fed their community during the riots in 1992. And when COVID-19 hit last year, they selflessly made an impact.

They started delivering 100-150 healthy meals on average a week to senior citizens. They also started "Meatless Mondays," where they invite a number of vegan or vegetarian restaurants to set up in front of Earle's on Crenshaw and sell their own items.

"These are the things that make communities strong," mentioned Duane. "You have those that become successful in the community and come back and reinvest in the community.

"We're the 'Cheers' of the community … Everybody knows our name."

For over 30 years, brothers Cary and Duane Earle have served up New York inspired classics, Los Angeles culinary trends, and robust vegan offerings to the community at Earle's On Crenshaw.

Address:

3864 Crenshaw Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90008

Hours:

Monday - Saturday 10:30 am to 9:00

Closed on Sundays

Website: https://www.earlesrestaurant.com/

Crenshaw High School football was once one of the top programs in Los Angeles. But the football team has fallen on hard times, and the challenge of rebuilding it has become an ongoing battle. LA Times prep sports reporter Luca Evans wrote about the many obstacles to overcome to help restore this once proud tradition. Evans joined Kelvin Washington on “LA Times Today.”

Crenshaw used to be a powerhouse team in LA. Evans detailed how Crenshaw’s beloved coach crafted past success stories.

“Ever since coach Robert Garrett took over in the late 1980s, they’ve been consistently one of the top programs… In 2009 and 2010 [they] won back-to-back titles and three between 2009 and 2013. That was really that prime heyday when the name Crenshaw became one of the biggest names in Southern California prep football,” Evans said.

Now, Crenshaw coaches have a hard time filling the team’s roster. Coaches have started recruiting players from PE class or other school sports teams.

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“One Crenshaw coach told me that, on a good day, he’s lucky if 16 players show up at a practice. Obviously, you’ve got 11 on the field, so that’s a bit of a problem going into a scrimmage... Not the best situation to be in as a football coach. In that heyday, they had 40 to 50 players on that roster. It’s a very exponential and rapid decline that’s mirrored the decline in the overall enrollment at the school over the past decade,” Evans explained.

One reason that Crenshaw’s enrollment has declined is that middle schools in the area that used to feed into Crenshaw have transitioned into K-12 programs.

“Particularly in football, and I’m sure this problem extends to overall enrollment as well, but the perception of Crenshaw and the area. Kids are transferring out. Especially in football, a lot of private schools, charter schools are trying to siphon talent at the youth level out of Crenshaw. These kids who would have normally gone straight to playing football and starring at Crenshaw are now being taken out of the area by private charter schools [who are] recruiting them at the youth level,” he said.

Evans talked about the impact of coach Garrett had on his community and his players.

“His trademark sunglasses and shorts have never changed over these decades that he’s been in Crenshaw. Many feel he’s kind of embodied the essence of what Crenshaw is: resilience and surviving... He coaches kids to succeed in life and not just football. And a lot of times that means discipline. And in these changing times, he’s stuck to his guns. He’s going to take whoever comes into his program and is not going to chase kids who transfer out,” Evans said.

Watch the full interview above.

Watch “LA Times Today” at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.

This story was previously published by Rafu Shimpo on Aug. 13, 2020.

Editor's note: George Izumi passed away on Aug. 2, 2020 at 99. The Manzanar incarceree's life as a baker, small business owner and community leader in Southern California Japanese American life is reflected in this piece, first published in The Rafu in October 2012. Izumi's family has also graciously shared two of his recipes from Grace Pastries for baking at home.

Talk to anyone who grew up in the Crenshaw district of southwestern Los Angeles and they'll tell you how they remember the sweet aroma that once spilled from the doors of Grace Pastries.

At Grace Pastries, the cake was king; a symbolic reward that came as a result of the Japanese American communities' hard-earned post-war successes. For every wedding, every graduation, every grand opening or anniversary, and especially when a child's birthday was celebrated, there was a specialty cake from Grace; a bed of pastel roses, scalloped buttercream borders, a riot of plastic palm trees or circus clowns.

Weddings are the most superstitious of holidays. And the cake? Well it's like any marriage, right? I won't say the cake is human, but the cake is something special. Mary, former Grace Pastries customer

These were edible trophies for a community finally rising from the harsh realities of World War II, and for a time, it almost seemed that the bakery couldn't be able to keep up with all of the demands.

The original store was a tiny retail space, only 50 feet deep, but the walls were neatly papered and the glass cases nearly burst with a dizzying array of buttery confections. The staff were always neatly coiffed and dressed in starched uniforms, ready to greet customers from the moment doors opened. As the customer base swelled exponentially, Izumi expanded to a larger location six blocks away on Jefferson and Crenshaw, right where the J Yellow Car line ended. Within a decade, Grace Pastries had the highest name recognition of any bakery in Los Angeles, and eventually boasted 14 outlets throughout greater Los Angeles County.

Among his devoted customers was Marian Manaka, who remembers fondly; "My sister and I lived together right there on Jefferson Boulevard and used to take our two kids in a stroller past all the shops on our way to Grace, where we always got a treat. The dobash cake and oh, the teacakes!" These rapturous recollections are especially common amongst the Nisei and young Sansei, who describe a trip to Grace as "the ultimate good," for a generation craving sweet memories that lingered.

The founder, George Izumi, is a Nisei — born in Hollywood in 1921 and raised on farms where his father Riyozo raised commercial flowers and vegetables, as the majority of Issei at that time did. He was one of eight kids, which taught him to be fiercely independent, and some of his earliest chores were learning to harness the horse to the wagon and spread manure on the fields. It was a hard time in America, and daily meals for a family of ten, let alone a powdered donut, were meager or non-existent.

"In Santa Monica there used to be a city dump where someone would throw all their walnut shells out, and us kids, we'd pick through the shells and eat what we could find. Dad would go fishing and bring back whole sacks of bonito and mackerel, which we'd cook with shoyu and sato, turning it all into gelatin, and pour over hot rice with cooked beet leaves. I'm also pretty sure my mom would pickle all of the fish guts."

Growing up in the '30s also meant picking up a sack of day-olds from Wonder Bread that turned nice and soft in the steamer and was eaten with oleo or lard if the kids were that lucky.

Izumi was 18 when war broke out. The family was sent to Manzanar, where he first worked as a carpenter, but really what he wanted to learn was how to cook. He got a job in Mess Hall #16, which required getting up at 3 a.m. to fire up the oil stoves. But learning from the Issei men in the kitchen provided to be slippery: "The Issei just said, a piece of that, a scoop of that — it still tasted good — but they sure couldn't tell you how to make it."

In the end, he claims he didn't learn much, since all he did was cut out biscuits. And he recalls that the mutton stew sure used to stink.

National Security, Racism, Detention: The Relocation of California's Japanese-American Population

When the Nisei draft was re-enacted, George enlisted from camp, fully prepared to train for combat. Once the Army learned of his cooking experience, they sent him to the Cooks and Baker's School at Ft. Meade, Maryland instead. "Learning to bake? Its not that hard. Its all written out step by step, you got it made. Just like the Army — you follow directions."

At the end of the war, he found work in Chicago flipping English muffins on a grill, and gaining more bread, cake and cupcake experience before he earned enough to return to California in 1946.

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In this episode of "Lost LA," host Nathan Masters considers how Little Tokyo and Crenshaw's diverse history intersects with community-building efforts today.

From Little Tokyo to Crenshaw (Preview)

George and Grace Izumi (nee Kato) began courting in 1948 and were married in 1949 at Nishi Hongwanji Temple in Little Tokyo. The young couple founded Grace Pastry Shoppe on March 13, 1950, six months after the wedding, on a $3,500 loan from Grace's parents. They acquired second-hand equipment and cleaned and painted the place, pulling 18-hour workdays.

On opening day, they took in $25 and the next day $30, and called it lucky if they made $100 a week. They even made wedding cake deliveries in their 1942 Pontiac, with Grace in the backseat, holding onto the cake for dear life. She eventually retired from the bakery and dedicated her time to raising their four children, all with auspicious "G" names: Grayson, Glenda, Garret and Genelle. Grace revealed that even the pets had "G" names, so that they wouldn't feel left out: Gabby the Mynah bird, cats Gussie, Gigi and Ginny, the dog Gibo, and of course the fish were all Guppies.

According to Izumi, what really saved the bakery from mediocrity and turned it into a real enterprise was knowing the value of improving any product. "You have to have determination to make it better, " says Izumi, and for 39 years he persevered and like the rest of the JA community, made things better than before. Meanwhile, his reputation as a master baker grew.

You have to have determination to make it better. George Izumi of Grace Pastries

He was the only baker in the National Association of Retail Bakers to have won Gold Cup awards in all 14 categories, and while most assume that the popular layered Dobash cake is an invention from Hawaii, it was in fact George Izumi who created it first and brought it to the islands during baking demonstrations. "I made a traditional Dobos torte, which caught on with some Issei ladies, and with their Japanese accent, they asked for that 'Doba-shi' because they couldn't pronounce the Hungarian word."

Ultimately, those intimate stories connecting the strawberry pie, the coffee danishes or a cream pastry with so many personal memories, combined with Izumi's community work, has left a lasting impression. Leftover baked goods went to Maryknoll school, he gave to Centenary and Senshin church, donated a cake annually to Nisei Week and dozens of city celebrations and events, and was an active fundraiser for Yellow Brotherhood.

He also credits the sweat and tears of his staff: Richard Kojima, general manager; Tak Teramae, office manager; Bob Wright and Emma Englund, cake decorators; Peggy Nishima; Toggie Nakamoto; all of the Sansei girls who got after-school jobs working behind the counter; Kaz Furuto, the original bookkeeper, who would bring Grace and George dinner so that they could keep pushing into the night.

Grace Pastries was sold in 1989 and George Izumi doesn't complain. Taking into account the whole of his story, an American life filled with contradictions, the life of a baker whose toughness and business acumen brought a touch of salt along with the sweet, you see the essential ingredient to everything he did.

"How do I make the tea cakes? Simple cake. You have to know what you're doing, that's all."

Try baking Grace Pastries' iconic Danish tea cakes with this recipe, provided by George Izumi's daughter, Genelle Izumi.