Days after Los Angeles County began its most recent round of downsizing at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Yong Tai Kim, the 73-year-old owner of a Denny's restaurant across the street, said he could already feel the squeeze.
Lunchtime crowds were smaller. Hospital workers were missing, and the families of patients were not filling his booths as they did in the past.
"If it continues like this, I don't know if I can continue," Kim said. "We have 30 people, and I may have to let some go."
There are other signs of trouble at Kenneth Hahn Plaza, the shopping center across the street from the Willowbrook hospital. Lines are shorter at the Starbucks; even the fast-food restaurants don't seem as packed. The owners of the dry cleaners, who blame their downturn on the hospital's downsizing, posted a going-out-of-business note thanking customers, wishing them good health and listing a phone number to call to pick up clothes.
Adding to Kim's distress, the entire 165,000-square-foot-plaza -- anchored by a Food 4 Less, Rite Aid, Factory 2-U and General Discount Center -- is up for sale by Kimco Realty Corp., a real estate investment trust specializing in shopping centers anchored by supermarkets.
Much has been made of the healthcare failures of King-Harbor -- and the community that must cope without the full services of its historic hospital, treasured as a symbol of hope and progress when it opened in 1972. But little is known about the potential economic losses caused by the reduction of services, and the transfer of more than 1,600 jobs and numerous patients. An estimated 48,000 patients passed through the hospital last year.
The situation is considered bleak, even though the hospital will maintain a large segment of outpatient services.
"It will be catastrophic," said Oscar Neal, president of the Greater Watts-Willowbrook Chamber of Commerce and the owner of Jordan's Cafe, less than a mile from the hospital. "That is a big chunk of our economy, another slice of the pie taken away."
Nowhere is the impact expected to be greater than at the Kenneth Hahn Plaza, which was built in 1992 with the expectation that it would be supported by a vibrant hospital.
"That center will be hard hit," said City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes nearby Watts. Hahn was the marketing and advertising developer at the plaza when it opened in 1992 -- named after her father, the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.
