From Little Tokyo to San Pedro

LA Communities Unite to Save Historic Businesses

By Emma Rault, Columnist

As redevelopment plans jeopardize cherished gathering spots all over San Pedro, the community faces a crucial moment to advocate for these vital spaces.

Thankfully, we are not alone. All over Los Angeles — the metropolis that San Pedro is begrudgingly part of — communities are organizing effectively against the displacement of longtime mom-and-pops and finding ways to save the places that matter.  

This month, Little Tokyo residents won a major victory in the battle to preserve their neighborhood character. When landlord Anthony Sperl evicted the historic Suehiro Cafe last year, the LA Times reported his desire to turn Little Tokyo into the new Melrose Avenue and his efforts to get a marijuana dispensary off the ground.

In response, nearly one thousand community members pledged to boycott a dispensary in that location or other type of business that would destroy the neighborhood fabric. A coalition called Little Tokyo Against Gentrification (LTAG) spent two and a half months picketing outside the Suehiro Cafe Building.

Their efforts were successful: Sperl has informed the Little Tokyo Business Association that the next tenant will be a new Japanese restaurant.

Another advocacy group, Little Tokyo Service Center, was instrumental in advocating for a citywide program to protect historic small businesses. Their efforts, too, have paid off: in the fall, the City of Los Angeles is opening up applications for its new Legacy Business Program, which will offer grants and practical support to community linchpins.

“We … pushed to ensure that those [businesses] who are most vulnerable to displacement will benefit from the program,” Erich Nakano, executive director of Little Tokyo Service Center, explained in a press release.

These examples are a testament to the power of collective action. They also debunk the false binary that sometimes creeps into the public conversation about development: the notion that, on the one hand, you have those who embrace the forces of progress, and on the other, you have nostalgic pipe-dreamers who are unwilling to accept change.

Rudy Espinoza, executive director of LA-based Inclusive Action for the City, rejects that false binary outright. 

“You can protect culture and have a values-driven approach to community development that invites new people while [also] protecting the folks that want to stay,” Espinoza told Random Lengths.

As well as providing micro-loans to individual businesses that are at risk, Inclusive Action is fighting for mom-and-pops in the political sphere. To this end, it has joined the nationwide Small Business Anti-Displacement Network (SBAN), a think tank that explores various ways that local communities can push for change to protect their legacy businesses.

Many of SBAN’s recommendations for systemic change echo those made by dyed-in-the-wool LA urban planner Don Spivack in the last Random Lengths. They include government loan and grant programs for building repairs, legislation that penalizes negligent and greedy landlords, and neighborhoods taking an active role in succession planning to make sure beloved businesses stay in the community when owners retire, rather than the building being bought up by speculators and razed.

Another promising avenue is community-owned real estate. To this end, Inclusive Action has teamed up with the aforementioned Little Tokyo Service Center and another nonprofit called East LA Community Corp. to form CORE. Since 2019, CORE has already been able to secure $5.5 million in loans to buy five commercial buildings to preserve the businesses located there.

Inclusive Action is also part of an LA-wide initiative called the Small Business Alliance for Equitable Communities, a coalition of organizations from all over the city putting their heads together to focus on the issue of small businesses being displaced.

Step one is to diagnose the problem; step two is to identify solutions; step three is to advocate for them, loud and clear. This kind of commitment, Espinoza says, is vital.

With initiatives like LTAG, Little Tokyo Service Center, Inclusive Action, and CORE scoring key wins for the future of Los Angeles, it’s clear that it is both an urgent and hopeful time to take up the fight for San Pedro’s heritage. 

Espinoza recognizes that getting involved in city politics can feel daunting. 

“But this is our government,” Espinoza said. “We should be able to push where resources go. I understand the cynicism, 100%. But what is the option — just give up? We need to lean in more.”