Little Tokyo Community Groups Oppose Fourth & Central Development Project

By J.K. YAMAMOTO
RAFU STAFF WRITER

Little Tokyo community organizations expressed opposition to the Fourth & Central development project at a press conference on Jan. 21 at Tokyo Villa.

The project, to be built on the Cold Storage site on the southeast edge of Little Tokyo, spans 7.5 acres with 10 buildings originally proposed, ranging from six to 44 stories.

David Monkawa of Save Our Seniors Network noted, “The community has been rallying and organizing to oppose the giant mega-mall … We’re here today at the epicenter of this construction project that’s going to last seven years and cost $2 billion.”

He expressed concern about “displacement for … small business people as well as because their rents are going up. In fact, some are already going up.”

Cindy Lin, a Tokyo Villa resident and an organizer with J-Town Action & Solidarity, spoke on behalf of the many older adults who live in the area. “This project is a threat to their health and well-being, not only during the long construction period, but also followed by the projected cost-of-living increases that come with a luxury development. And this one with only minimum low-income housing guarantees this will make it harder to survive. That’s a problem because the fastest-growing population of unhoused individuals are older adults.”

The developers have promised spaces for offices and stores, a public green space, and about 1,600 housing units, but only 249 of those units would be classified as affordable.

“I want people, everyone, housed and healthy, and this project will simply make that really more difficult,” Lin said. “Instead of a mega-mall, I want a significant percentage of space to be used for extremely low and low-income housing” with a Section 8 voucher, which would pay a portion of their rent.

She added, “If this project gets approved as proposed, it’ll only encourage similar developments to come in and destroy the legacy of this neighborhood.”

800 Traction Evictions

Artist Nancy Uyemura, who lives at Tokyo Villa, lived and worked at the 800 Traction building in the Arts District for more than 30 years. All of the tenants were evicted when the building was bought by a large New York developer.

“The community really came out to help us … We fought, we actually got cultural-historic designation [from the city] because there were a lot of Japanese American artists that were in that building,” she recalled. “Anyway, the developers came in, they took it over. I think it is on the third owner and the banks own it … It is a historically, architecturally important building … It’s just a shame, it’s heartbreaking to see that it is just trashed, and I just cry every time I think about it. It’s such a waste.”

For the people of Little Tokyo, the Arts District and Skid Row, “instead of building something that would be a benefit to everybody in the neighborhood, they’re putting in a mega-mall that would be something like Century City,” Uyemura said. “It doesn’t make sense for Downtown, especially in this area.”

She pointed out that an abandoned real estate project on 11th and Figueroa remains unoccupied, with graffiti covering all 30 floors of each building. “Nobody has done anything with them. It is empty and it’s just really an eyesore.”

Regarding Fourth & Central, she said, “I think we can’t stop it, but we could at least maybe have it mitigated for some of us that live down here because the construction would really kill all of us. People that don’t live down here don’t understand the kinds of problems that we have to deal with day to day. It would be just really horrendous and difficult for us to live here anymore … Little Tokyo is struggling right now, so anything that’s going to affect our day-to-day traffic, air quality, noise quality, everything, it is just not going to be good for the community.”

JACL Pacific Southwest District Youth Representative Sebastian Carbajal said that he loves his job at Aloha Cafe in Honda Plaza, “not because I love bringing out food, but it’s because I love serving this community … It is something really beautiful to be able to see the same people every single day, or just people who live here.”

He said that he fears for his co-workers. “They are afraid that if something like this [development] would happen, they could be gone … Jobs will be disappearing.”

Carbajal suggested, “What this project could be, if done correctly … we can see old businesses return and even … families that used to be here but were pushed out for different economic reasons.”

“Communities Are Under Attack”

Donna Maeda, who worked at Occidental College’s Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice and retired as dean of the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizen-ship at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., said that the small Japanese American community established in Minnesota after World War II has struggled “because there was no actual place … with people and organizations committed to our culture and history and working for the well-being of the community.”

Although Little Tokyo is a bigger and more well established community, it has been diminished by the wartime incarceration as well as postwar redevelopment. “The proposed development continues that history, threatening … a Japanese American community with sustainable businesses, community and cultural organizations, and residents that are an active part as one of only four remaining Japantowns,” Maeda said, stating that “big-market” development “drives up prices and drives people out …

“It’s clear that our communities are under attack in so many ways.”

Mitchell Matsumura, president of Greater Los Angeles JACL, noted that his chapter, together with Save Our Seniors Network and J-Town Action & Solidarity, has formed Little Tokyo Against Gentrification, “a 100% volunteer group.”

Little Tokyo, which once covered 20 square blocks from Temple Street to 9th Street, “has been reduced to just two-and-a-half blocks due to waves of gentrification,” he said.

Matsumura warned, “The Fourth & Central mega-mall would irreparably harm and reshape the character of Little Tokyo, the last remaining Little Tokyo in the United States, for generations to come.”

LTAG is calling for “adequate low-income housing, low rents for Little Tokyo legacy small businesses, zero-emission green construction measures, public green spaces, and a venue for community events,” he said.

Two more public hearings on the project will be held by the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee and the full City Council. The dates have yet to be announced.

LTAG has asked for help from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado of Council District 14, which includes Little Tokyo.

Monkawa said that Little Tokyo has been reduced by 75% since 1942 and that in Council District 14 there have been 34,000 evictions just in the last 18 months.

On top of that, with the Small Business Administration proposing cuts in Section 8 housing assistance, “500-600 seniors within 1,000 feet of the construction site may be kicked out,” he said. “It also means that Miyako Gardens, another building right here where low-income people live, seniors here would be booted out.”

Monkawa added that during the estimated seven-year construction period, air pollution can saturate the area and both seniors at Little Tokyo Towers and youngsters at the Lumbini Child Development Center would be impacted.

A video statement from Carol Tanita, owner of Rafu Bussan in Honda Plaza, was shown. Rafu Bussan is considered a legacy business and has been operating since the 1950s.

“I have seen so many changes, not just gentrification, all the projects [like] Metro, all of the ups and downs,” Tanita said. “… But with the new projects like the Cold Storage … there’s going to be so much disruption, a lot of dust, a lot of pollution, possibly our rents are going to go up again …

“We just want to all work together and not have to disrupt or relocate families … because they can’t afford the new rent, property taxes and all of that … I’m speaking on behalf of many of the small businesses in Little Tokyo and hope that [the City Council] will take all of this into consideration as well.”

According to LTAG, although Continuum Partners, the Denver-based company that partnered with Cold Storage on the development, has dropped out, Cold Storage will continue to pursue the project.