A turning point for Leimert Park Village Plans for a commuter rail station in what was once known as the West Coast Harlem are stirring hopes of a resurgence but also worries that it will be more commercial than cultural. print Comments 3 Email Share 122 1 2 next | single page Once the vibrant heart of L.A.'s black community, many storefronts in Leimert Park Village now stand empty. Residents hope a stop on the Crenshaw/LAX light rail line will restore some of the commercial area's luster without driving out mom-and-pop shops in the process. CAPTIONS 1/12 By Angel Jennings February 9, 2014, 5:45 p.m. At the Sunday drum circle at Leimert Park, the hypnotic beat of African drums breathes life into the neighborhood. Artists showcase their work. Vendors hawk clothes, soap and incense. It almost feels like nothing has changed in the 20 years since this was the vibrant heart of the African American arts and culture scene in Los Angeles. On other days, though, Leimert Park Village is a ghost town of broken windows and vacant storefronts. Leimert Park Village Photo: Leimert Park Village West Hollywood council compromises in City Hall rainbow flag debate West Hollywood council compromises in City Hall rainbow flag debate Applicants should come clean about cheating allegations, colleges say Applicants should come clean about cheating allegations, colleges say Crenshaw High community speaks out against choir teacher's removal Crenshaw High community speaks out against choir teacher's removal In its heyday, the neighborhood was something of a West Coast Harlem dotted with jazz cafes, performance spaces and art galleries, and it was the community's gathering spot after the 1992 riots. Efforts to revitalize the area by trying to attract chain stores and shopping center developments have been rejected by residents, saying they would prefer to restore it as a center of African American arts and culture. That is particularly important, some South Los Angeles leaders say, because other once-prominent black neighborhoods now have Latino majorities: Central Avenue, once the center of the black jazz scene, and Watts. "All the neighborhoods in South L.A. have changed except one: the Leimert Park area," said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. "It is the last vestige of not only a predominantly populated African American community, but also a predominantly business-centered African American community." The debate over Leimert's future is coming to a head. South L.A. officials successfully fought last year to add a Leimert Park stop for the new Crenshaw/LAX light rail line, which is set to open in 2019. For residents, the big question is whether the trains can bring back some of the village's old luster and whether the mom-and-pop shops will be driven out in the process. "Why can't we have street vendors and a fine arts gallery here?" local artist Mira Gandy said. "You don't have to lose its flavor. People have to be open." :: Leimert Park has long been associated with the elites of black Los Angeles. Blacks began moving into the area in the 1950s, after the Supreme Court lifted racially restrictive covenants that barred non-white homeowners. The early arrivals — including former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley — had to employ white intermediaries to buy homes in the exclusive neighborhood, Hutchinson said. In those days, the village was considered something of a Beverly Hills for blacks. Designed by stepbrothers John and Frederick Olmsted, whose father was co-designer of New York's Central Park, Leimert Park was designed as a quaint village of shops and homes surrounding a town square. As well-heeled African Americans moved in, white residents and businesses moved out. Eventually, artists settled into the empty storefronts in a triangle-shaped shopping district split by Degnan Boulevard known as Leimert Park Village. A dozen or so small businesses that sold African artifacts and art opened. By the 1970s, up-and-coming African American artists flocked to the area to set up studios and show their works at Brockman Gallery. "In those buildings were once very powerful people," said Ben Caldwell, who was an intern at the gallery when it nurtured black artists such as David Hammons and Elizabeth Catlett. During the day, visitors sat outside popular jazz coffeehouse 5th Street Dick's playing chess and writing poetry. At night, the jam sessions went into the wee hours at Caldwell's Kaos Network and the World Stage. But by the late 1990s, the village was in decline. Some middle-class blacks moved out of the area, and those remaining were increasingly doing their shopping elsewhere. "They were now conditioned to think, 'Ah. I can go to the Beverly Center and South Bay. Why do I need to go to Leimert Park? There is nothing there for me,'" said Hutchinson, who has lived in Leimert Park for more than half a century. "That was the first seed of decline."