After local outcry, stalled Destination Crenshaw project sees movement

Destination Crenshaw has taken so long that neighbors have their own name for it: Procrastination Crenshaw.

Pitched in 2016 and started in 2021, the $100-million beautification project was meant to transform 1.3 miles of the Crenshaw Corridor into an open-air museum filled with art and gathering spaces — a celebration of Crenshaw’s role as a hub of Black L.A., home to defining figures such as Tom Bradley and Nipsey Hussle and cultural institutions such as the Museum of African American Art and Dulan’s on Crenshaw .

Instead, over the last five years, it has turned the historic stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard into a nuisance, a ghost-town construction site with vandalized fences and barricades sitting for years on end.

Parking doesn’t exist, so cars cram onto the sidewalk. Construction equipment and safety barriers litter the block. The street has become such a maze that it’s unclear what’s even there, resulting in a series of “Businesses Open” signs assuring the public that something still exists inside the chain-link exoskeleton.

“People feel like they’re imprisoned in their own neighborhood,” said Kyron Shorter, senior pastor at Bethesda Temple Church.

1. Veteran talk show host Tavis Smiley said he toured the construction site this week with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. 2. Smiley, who broadcasts from Crenshaw, credits the project’s progress to residents making their voices heard. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Crenshaw residents say construction in many areas lasted only for a few months before funding ran out, leaving the neighborhood in disarray. For years, they questioned city leaders but didn’t receive answers. In July, their frustrations boiled over in a packed town hall meeting at Shorter’s church.

“It was heart-wrenching,” said Tavis Smiley, the veteran talk show host who broadcasts KBLA-AM (1580) from Crenshaw. “This project is years behind schedule, and the entire community is suffering because of it.”

But it appears the meeting made a difference. Smiley said he spoke to Mayor Karen Bass multiple times in the wake of the town hall, and on Monday, city crews showed up to clean up fencing along the corridor. The next day, Bass joined Smiley to walk around the site and discuss the project.

“The work has started,” Smiley said, adding that this is what happens when a community comes together to make its voice heard.