“Two months after I purchased the business,” young Mr. Agaiby had a real-life dream. He learned that a Wilshire Boulevard developer was planning to level the hundred businesses on the west side of South Sepulveda Boulevard and gentrify the 13 acres with an upscale mixed-use project of high-powered stores and condos. Many untied details are dangling from the roof of City Hall. It may be 90 days before a clearer picture of the giant economy-sized revised layout is available.
In an understatement of his reaction, Mr. Agaiby said, “I was surprised.” He surmises “it is going to take a very long time before something like this would occur. And I definitely would not want it to occur. I would like my business to enhance and grow. I want to stay in Culver City — and provide my service to everybody who lives in Culver City.
“As opposed to this gentleman (developer Bob Champion) who wants to destroy everything and start over from scratch the way he wants to do it.”
‘Selfishness’ Mr. Agaiby, who graduated Culver City High School 10 years ago last June, was part of the raucous and restless capacity crowd that met with Mr. Champion the night of Dec. 5 at El Rincon School. “What I saw that night was pure selfishness,” Mr. Agaiby said. “He showed he was not worried about anybody but himself. He is not worried about the hundred businesses nor the residents behind us who are not happy about what he wants to do. This project is going to cause a lot of traffic, a lot of heartache, and it is not fair for us.”
He Is Not Alone
As a lone businessman, Mr. Agaiby is not despairing, though. Quiet, he promises not to be. He means to fight. He believes he has useful options. “I can retain an attorney and fight my battle,” he says — the first business owner who has mentioned that subject to thefrontpageonline.com. On what grounds? “A good question,” he said. Meantime, the gritty owner of Tobacco Plus has locked arms with his neighbor, Peter Messinger, the petition-pursuing owner of The Aquarium, another endangered business at the north end of the project.
Postscript
Mr. Agaiby senses a swelling army of opposition, a unity of purpose among his fellow store owners. He says they are vowing to resist the development, creatively and traditionally. “Everybody I have encountered has negative feelings,” he said. “Not only store owners, but customers, friends and family. Everybody does not like the idea. My neighbors don’t. I have not encountered anybody who favors the project.”
Are Mr. Agaiby and his colleagues optimistic about roadblocking the project? “We all have faith,” he said. “We are sticking together. We are going to fight this battle all together, as one.”
