[img]133|right|Mr. Ridely-Thomas||no_popup[/img]Dateline Leimert Park Village – That Friday morning was a moment to relish. Melida and Company choir harmonized to the sounds of “Get on Board,” while the Rev. Cecil Murray and Pastor Kevin Sauls galvanized the crowd with grateful prayers at a 9 o’clock gathering to celebrate the advent of a train station stop in Leimert Park Village.
Speaking to a crowd of 100 assembled in the historic park, directly across the street from the future stop along the Crenshaw-to-LAX light rail line, County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas said, “You have heard the African saying that it takes a village to raise a child? To paraphrase, ‘It takes a village to cause a train to stop in Leimert Park Village.’ In other words, we did it together.”
The event a week and a half ago also featured remarks by outgoing Mayor Villaraigosa, who had been a villain in the long-simmering controversy, Los Angeles City Council members Herb Wesson and Jan Perry, Metro Director Mel Wilson, Leimert Park business owner Jackie Ryan and Tunua Thrash, executive director of West Angeles Community Development Corp. Throughout the short program, transportation advocates , community activists and residents gave thanks, prayed and cheered.
“This is a community that people from all over town should come and visit,” said Mr. Villaraigosa. He reminded the largely African American crowd that many of the city’s Latino founders also traced their ancestry to Africa, that the richness of the area’s cultural offerings should extend far beyond its borders. Visitors to the city should “taste the soul of this part of L.A.”
The gathering came one day after the Metro Board surprisingly, and to the enormous relief of the long-deprived Crenshaw District, voted to approve $80 million in funding for the station in Leimert Park, as well as funding for a stop on Hindry, in Westchester.
Leimert Park was developed by Walter H. Leimert in 1928 and designed by the Olmsted brothers, whose famous father drew the layout for Central Park. Leimert Park was conceived as a model of urban planning that is resurging today. Schools, churches, stores and restaurants are easily accessible. It is also visually appealing with utility wires buried or otherwise obscured from view in alleys and rows of trees lining its streets. The community was designed on the order of a classic town square, complete with a central gathering place at the park, benches and a fountain.
As it evolved to became the center of African-American life in Los Angeles, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ray Charles and Richard Pryor frequently performed in its nightclubs.
Residents and business owners long have argued that establishing a station there would be crucial to reviving a community that suffered heavily with the economic downturn.
“The Metro stop will revitalize the community and it will create access for people who don’t drive,” said Antonia M. Routt, resident and a health and fitness coach. “It will be an essential component for people with disabilities to learn to use public transportation.”
It was not only a long but periodically angry struggle to win the station.
Two years ago, despite overwhelming support for a station from a broad coalition, the Metro Board voted to build one only if it could fit within the existing $1.7 billion-budget allocated for the overall project, leaving the station’s future in question.
But civic leaders, Damien Goodmon of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition prominent among them, neighborhood activists, merchants, clergy and the elected officials representing South Los Angeles, did not give up. The decisive Metro vote w to support the funding motion was co-sponsored by Mr. Ridley-Thomas, Mr. Villaraigosa and four other Metro directors.
Latest estimate for the Leimert Park Station is $120 million. Metro’s fiscal year 2014 budget spans $460.5 million in uncommitted funds—more than enough to safeguard against a significant cost overrun. Further burnishing the station’s funding prospects was the recent commitment by the City Council of $40 million toward the design and construction of the station.
Groundbreaking is expected to begin this year at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 43rd Street with 2019 being the completion date.
Resident Nicole Parrish said the Metro stop will introduce people from all over Los Angeles to a community that prides itself on camaraderie.
“We want to build this into a progressive township,” she said as she passed out flyers for the Leimert Park Farmer’s Market every Saturday. “We want to see Leimert Park represented as something of beauty and success within the African-American community.”
