Exactly a fortnight before the decades-long deprived South Los Angeles neighborhood learns whether its odds-against light rail wishes will be granted, the brilliant young community organizer Damien Goodmon last evening assembled his enthusiastic troops as a general would on the eve of a pivotal battle.
Supposedly it was simulated war — the grit, commitment and professional-like organization of South L.A.’s aroused residents pitted against the massive political muscle of the MTA.
But the tension was real when more than 60 motivated, well-informed neighbors huddled at the popular, revered African American Cultural Center, on 48th Street, just east of Crenshaw.
Before Mr. Goodmon took the podium amongst the beautiful cultural décor, the tone-setting meeting opened with an atmosphere-setting greeting in Swahili, with the entire audience exchanging phonetic sounds.
This is a geographic and psychological as well as cultural showdown.
Geography: The MTA’s gigantic downtown headquarters, just behind Union Station, looms in the middle of the skyline as a symbol of undeniable awesome, almost unapproachable power while miles and worlds away in South L.A., loyal, hungry residents who may have felt leaderless until the extraordinary, young and streamlined Mr. Goodmon entered their lives.
Psychological: After generations of being beaten down and/or ignored by most downtown politicians — the late County Supervisor Kenny Hahn being a notable exception — they have been brought to a fine simmer this summer by Mr. Goodmon. This was the third of three summertime community assemblies before the MTA’s Sept. 22 vote. On that fateful Thursday, the 13-member Metro Board doubtless will not give even a tumble to taking the middle mile of the Crenshaw-to-LAX line underground, the way the rest is, and accommodating a station at Leimert Park Village.
Cultural: Allowing for overlapping in the categories, there is no doubt — (justified) in the minds of every single resident who has participated in this series of meetings — that their region is being denied critical elements of the transportation system because they are the wrong color.
No one in the political world would dare deny the assertion, would he?
(To be continued)
