NAJEE’S NOTES
By Najee Ali
Contributing Writer
Tisha Greene, a member of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Neighborhood Alliance, and her colleagues continue to impress as they move forward with educating community members on why they support the sale of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to LIVWRK and its CEO and founder Asher Abehsera.
The alliance is comprised of Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw and Leimert Park area homeowners, residents and stakeholders.
The alliance is working with the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Economic Development team, led by Sherrie Franklin, Roland Wiley, Dolores Brown, Earl Gales Jr. and Brenda Curry, that delivered a powerful Powerpoint presentation at a community Zoom meeting hosted by Empowerment Congress West Area Chair Gina Fields and watched by several hundred community members.
The team and alliance announced their combined support of the private sale process by Lacera/DWS to LIVWRK-DHF.
They also announced that Black ownership in the Crenshaw Mall was a must and they will be reaching to community stakeholders who have an interest in Black ownership of the Crenshaw Mall once the deal closes. They support this buyer’s vision to ensure accountability in community development and ownership in creating a new 21st century community development model.
As a community, we should all support it.
Downtown Crenshaw is led by a group of fringe activists who have no money. Even if 100,000 people signed up for their $5 membership, that doesn’t scratch the surface of the money they would need to raise.
Damien Goodman has been spreading false hopes and dreams that the community group he created called Downtown Crenshaw would be in a position to purchase the Crenshaw Mall. That was never a realistic option.
Downtown Crenshaw never had the financial capital to pull off a sale of this magnitude. Once Black professionals realized that, they walked away from Downtown Crenshaw.
The new alliance believes divided we fall; success comes from unity. The Crenshaw Mall used to be a symbol of Black prosperity. Many of us would like to see that “uptown” status return with a shopping, eating, living experience reflective of Black prosperity.
That is preserving its true legacy. That’ why we support the sale of Crenshaw Mall to LIVWRK.
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The Community Control over the Police, under the leadership of its founder, activist Cliff Smith, took the fight for justice right to the doorstep of L.A. County Sherriff Alex Villanueva’s home in La Habra Heights Nov. 18. I could not participate.
This is the first time I have ever heard of this type of protest outside the personal residence of the leaders of the Sheriff’s Department. Smith and his coalition were there demanding that the names of the deputies involved in the shooting deaths of Andres Guardado and Djion Kizzee be made public.
Many community members believe both shootings were unjustified, and it was cold-blooded murder in both cases. Smith, along with his wife Keyanna, have been on the frontlines for years often overlooked and vastly underappreciated. This writer sees you and commends your sacrifice, leadership and work on behalf the community.
