There are 20 acres in our community that everybody knows as a dump, as a shame. But once Marlton Square, aka, Santa Barbara Plaza held 300 stores, stores supported by our community. Banks, dry cleaners, tailors.

Let's try to imagine.

Seem like a lifetime ago because for most of us in the Crenshaw area the only memory is of Marlton Square in shambles.

It was once a destination. Now it is in decay. Development could be just around the corner. Let's hope it is.

It is with this hope in mind that I have asked the members of LeimertParkBeat.com to tell the story of Marlton Square. Where it came from, how it was important to the residents, how it is still important to the residents.

A number of residents who care about Leimert Park and a members of LeimertParkBeat.com have stepped up and offered to help. If you have lived in the area for a while, or know people who do, we'd love to talk to you andwe invite you to be involved.

LeimertParkBeat.com also has partnered with Spot.us and Intersections South LA in this community powered reporting project. Both are new startups dedicated to the idea of community journalism.

Spot.us is a non-profit that assists in funding coverage of "important and perhaps overlooked topics." They will help us raise money to cover the costs of the effort and pay residents a small honorarium for their work in helping report this story. Spot.us has already contributed $325 toward this effort.

You can help just by registered and filling out a very short survey at Spot.us. If you register as a member, you can click the EARN CREDIT tab you can take a survey and get $5 to donate to the cause.

Spot.us started in San Francisco and now have an office in LA under the direction of Anh Do. Do, a veteran of the Dallas Morning News and Orange County Register, is the vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language
newspaper in the U.S.

Intersections South LA is a community news web site dedicated to covering South Los Angeles and surrounding areas, with contributions from residents, high school students and journalism students from the USC Annenberg School for Communication. Director Willa Seidenberg, also director of Annenberg Radio News, was a broadcast journalist for more than 20 years for such outlets as National Public Radio and KCAL.