New Developments, New Problems?
As young urban professionals move in to historically cultural communities of Los Angeles, is their authenticity a necessary price to pay?
There’s no question that Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a massive revival right now. Dozens of cranes dot the skyline, streets are often closed and the constant drone of construction echoes throughout the streets. It’s not uncommon to walk past through some historic buildings and suddenly find yourself at the feet of a brand new apartment building, complete with its glass balconies, indoor fitness center and first floor coffee shop. While the revitalization is definitely a boon for Los Angeles, some neighborhoods like Little Tokyo have begun to worry, as familiar cityscapes transform at a rate never seen before.
Just last month, Jamestown Properties acquired Brunswig Square, an old office complex built in the 1930s, that currently sits at the corner of South Central Ave. and 2nd Streets in Little Tokyo. The 140,000 square foot building currently sits mostly empty but does house a number of Japanese tenants, including the Ebisu Tavern and Tenno Sushi. Jamestown hopes to repurpose the building into a creative hub similar to the nearby Arts District, which has begun to attract many tech companies, with its industrial grit similar to that of San Francisco’s tech riddled South of Market district.
While Little Tokyoites have been looking for office space for some time, locals fear that Jamestown may elevate rents, push out tenants and transform the building into a complex that simply isn’t in line with Little Tokyo’s historic culture. In fact, the previous owners, ACT Second Street LLC, did just that. Brunswig was once home to Izakaya Haru Ulala, a small sushi bar, Kokekokko, a Yakitori restaurant, and various other small businesses. According to Takao Suzuki, Director of Community Economic Development at Little Tokyo Service Center, these small business were evicted simply because of language barriers that made communication difficult for the tenants and ACT Second Street LLC. What remained were chain stores and larger businesses.
“The Subway and the larger businesses… had access to more capital, more time and more resources. Because of that, they had the ability to push back and go through the lease negotiations. It’s just the culture of running a small business versus working for a larger corporation or company,” Suzuki says. He added that ACT Second Street LLC only owned the property for less than a year and they simply cleaned out the place to make a quick buck before selling it off to Jamestown. Apparently, getting rid longtime Little Tokyo stakeholders was part of that process. These evictions, which were done without consulting the Little Tokyo community and suggest developers aren’t interested in preserving authentic cultural frameworks, is exactly what Suzuki is afraid of.
Despite this past experience, Suzuki is still hopeful that working with Jamestown. “There’s definitely the opportunity to do something good with Jamestown, but again, I don’t know if Little Tokyo is ready to see something like the Chelsea Market without input and whatnot,” Suzuki says. “We just hope they will be more transparent owners just because I think when [ACT Second Street LLC] was going through the negotiations, they weren’t very transparent with the process and didn’t hear our concerns.”
However, not every new development comes with displacement and disruption. Weller court, just across the street from Little Tokyo Village Plaza, is home to many Japanese retailers, including Orochon Ramen, Kinokuniya Books and Maruaki Market. The court serves as an example of redevelopment in a way that bolsters the existing Little Tokyo community and falls in line with the long established cultural framework of the neighborhood.
While developments like Weller Court may give the illusion that all is well within Little Tokyo, there’s no denying that there has been a gradual chipping away at the Little Tokyo over the past decade. Just a few months ago, two historic buildings that once housed Spice Table, Señor Fish and Weillands were demolished to make way for the new Little Tokyo Station that the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority is currently working on as part of the Regional Connector projects.
In the past year, two years, eight commercial properties in Little Tokyo, including Brunswig Square and the Mikado Hotel have changed hands. And with each new owner comes a new taste and new ideas on how to develop the community. Many of these properties are occupied by generations of Little Tokyo retailers and preserving these is of the utmost concern for community groups in the area.
“There’s a part of me that feels that there are certain things we are losing, given this community has been around for 130 years,” says Suzuki.
At its peak right before the outbreak of World War II, Little Tokyo was once home to 30,000 Japanese Americans. Now, many Japanese Americans have begun to move east, toward the San Gabriel Valley or “626 Area,” where thousands of other Asian-Americans and immigrants now reside. Streets like East Valley Road are full of endless Asian shopping plazas, where the youth of the area head out every weekend for milk tea, Chinese barbecue or Japanese ramen.
Even though these challenges potentially threaten the livelihood of Little Tokyo, as with every cloud, there’s a silver lining. Suzuki says these kinds of situations help bring the community together. In the past, they’ve rallied together against the City of Los Angeles when it attempted to build a 512-person jail right next to a Buddhist temple. Many new businesses that have opened recently have also been very helpful of one another and supportive of community efforts. Suzuki describes it as “somewhat of a village mentality and to a certain extent, that adds to the cultural fabric in Little Tokyo.”
Community organizations, like Sustainable Little Tokyo, are aimed at developing the neighborhood in a way that “respects and enhances the neighborhood’s history and culture.”
“We’re trying to get out ahead of development projects before vultures swoop in and developing these crazy high rises that have nothing to do with the community because suddenly the land here is really valuable. It’s overall just scary,” says Kristin Fukushima, a project manager with the Little Tokyo Community Council.
In the long run, Suzuki just hopes that Little Tokyo doesn’t become a cluster of historic buildings and an ethnic themed shopping district like San Francisco’s Japantown or an empty tourist geared attraction like Chinatown to the north.
Reach Staff Reporter Benjamin Dunn here, or follow him on Twitter.
