Investment Without Displacement: Gentrification of One of California’s Last Black Enclaves

During the outbreak of the Black Lives Matters Movement, I contributed to a Twitter thread of Black-owned businesses by sharing a personal neighborhood favorite of mine, Hilltop Coffee & Kitchen in Downtown Inglewood. To my surprise, the part-owner of the cafe retweeted me, and it happened to be the actress and producer, Issa Rae.

It wasn’t surprising that Issa Rae partnered with Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen as HBO’s Insecure explores the ever-changing environment of South-Central Los Angeles, specifically the city of Inglewood. This beautiful cafe stands proudly next to a construction site for new luxury apartments and shares the street with the brand new Los Angeles Rams/Charger’s arena. But these new, luxurious, and expensive buildings tower over Downtown Inglewood’s Market Street — a former vibrant, go-to spot for shopping and entertainment in Los Angeles’ South Bay.

In the 1970s, Market street was filled with a mass of boutiques, movie theaters, shoe stores, drug stores, gift shops, car lots, and novelty shops. You could spend hours there, thanks to the advent of indoor malls and movie multiplexes. It was home to the World Champion Lakers basketball team, the Kings hockey team, and the Hollywood Park Racetrack, recently celebrating 50 years of championship horse racing. Now, Downtown Inglewood is left with empty, closed-down shops and “for lease” signs that never seem to go away.

Unfortunately, the demise of Market street was due to the continual expansion of Los Angeles’ sports teams as the Lakers and the Kings moved out to the Staples arena in 1999, and in 2013, Hollywood Park closed its doors. But the same reason that led Market street to its demise is the same solution Inglewood is using to revive the city — to what cost?

Early in 2016, the NFL approved Inglewood's Mayor’s proposal for the Ram's relocation back to Los Angeles. This led to the construction of a brand new stadium, located in the heart of Inglewood beside the former Lakers arena. The initial cost of this arena was originally estimated to be approximately $2.66B but as construction progressed, debt totaled to $4.963 billion with another $500 million in loans approved in 2020. This starking investment makes this arena the most expensive sports venue ever built. To add on to the costly effects of this new development, when construction started on the NFL stadium, rents on Market Street increased by about 12.5%, according to CoStar. Furthermore, Inglewood home prices have surged 63%, making it the fastest-growing market in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

With rising rents, Inglewood’s population is being forcefully displaced from a city that consists predominantly of BIPOC. Out of a population of 108,151, approximately 49.9% are Hispanic or Latinx and 42% are Black or African American alone. The rising rental prices clash with the 2019 median household income for Inglewood at $50,335 with 18.5% persons in poverty compared to California’s overall household income of $71,228 with 12.8% persons in poverty.

All of these changes in South Central lead to one jarring question, something that is continually discussed within the Empower to Change community: how can these communities “evolve” without suffering from the harmful effects of gentrification?

Part of Issa Rae’s goal with Insecure was to showcase the authenticity of Inglewood — something aside from Hollywood’s stereotype of lavish Los Angeles and our beautiful palm trees and hills. She told the Los Angeles Times in 2017, "I never get to see [South L.A.] not displayed as the 'scary hood' and that's not the experience that I know. I just wanted to make it feel sexy in a way that other places in L.A. are allowed that. Black and Latinx places are not afforded that same luxury."

In a 2016 interview with Vulture, Rae states, “We get to represent an area that’s not only diverse in terms of ethnic makeup but also socioeconomically, where people who are affluent and who are living in poverty mesh — that’s the culture of the area.” But even Rae admits that it has been difficult for her to scout locations due to the rapid gentrification: the club at which she filmed the pilot is now being sold at $3.75M, and one of the Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles they shot at is being replaced by a hotel and a Whole Foods nearby. She even admits: “I do love Whole Foods … I just want the benefits of gentrification without the gents.”

On several occasions, Rae has referred to Insecure as a “time capsule of sorts,” preserving the neighborhoods she loves and establishing them as a sense of place. On top of that, Rae’s establishment of Hilltop Coffee & Kitchen has provided a Black-owned space where collaborations can flourish. She notes,

“Coffee shops facilitate productivity in so many ways, they facilitate collaboration. I’ve personally done all my writing in coffee shops. So it always disappointed me that there weren’t any that were Black-owned (or) people of color-owned in my neighborhood. Now to have the Inglewood location I was just immensely proud because it’s home. I just feel like it’s so important to have these spaces where you feel safe where you can be creative, and have a sense of comfort. To know that it’s your space.”

This sense of community has been another unifying force that has come together to fight against gentrification. Community organizations such as the Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) are working alongside Inglewood residents to organize to prevent displacement while improving their material conditions using a social justice framework. Similarly, inspired by the late rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle, Buy Back the Block LA was launched to educate South LA residents on how to fight gentrification by buying property in their neighborhoods. Another community group, Uplift Inglewood, a tenants' rights group is suing the city and a developer to halt construction of the new Clippers arena in Inglewood. The lawsuit alleges that the city's proposed sale of public land to build the new arena violates state law that requires prioritizing the use of such land for affordable housing.

With rising housing prices and constant changes to the infrastructures in place, it is clear that gentrification is a threat to the BIPOC that flourish in the cities they call home. As a Los Angeles native, an Inglewood resident, and an alumna of the Los Angeles Unified School District, watching my city’s inhabitants being forcefully displaced is unsettling and unnerving.

Ultimately, it is not strictly up to residents to understand the threats of costly establishments, but rather city planners and building owners to make decisions that revitalize their communities, not gentrify them. There must be a clear model for investments in our communities of color, without displacing those who make these cities as beautiful as they are.

Looking for a way to support Black-owned businesses? Here is a list of 200 Black-Owned businesses in Los Angeles.

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