Inglewood

The controversial plan to raze the landmark racetrack at Hollywood Park is coming into clearer focus this week as developers plan to unveil a model of the proposed 620,000-square-foot retail district that would partially replace it. The Hollywood Park Tomorrow project would mark one of the region's largest redevelopment projects, covering 238 acres in Inglewood -- though it faces hurdles. The plan has yet to be finalized, and Inglewood officials still must approve it. The developers say that once they get the go-ahead, they're ready to tear down the track and break ground on the roughly $2-billion project.

The Inglewood where young Fredrick Martin Jr. grew up was plagued by crime, gangs and the fear that came with both. But by the time he returned in 2006, after graduating from college in Texas, the city was slowly turning around. Crime was down. Graffiti had largely disappeared. The barred windows and gated front doors were still fixtures on the street where he lived with his wife and child and grandmother, but every day they seemed less relevant in this community under the flight path to LAX. Until a week ago. Martin, 28, was cleaning the garage on the evening of April 3 with his 8-year-old son and a friend when two gunmen approached on foot and began firing.

The city's first certified farmers' market is scheduled to open Saturday on Locust Street between Manchester Boulevard and Regent Street. It will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. The open-air market will be held every Saturday afternoon and will feature fresh fruits, nuts, vegetables and organically grown produce that are certified by the county to be fresh from the farm. Eggs and fish also will be sold. Food stamps will be accepted.

Fredrick Martin Jr. made no effort to conceal the pride he felt for his son. He bragged about the 8-year-old's skills at karate and baseball, and showed family members copies of the boy's completed homework. "I have a young child genius," Martin told his half-sister recently. On Tuesday evening, Martin, 28, was cleaning the garage of his grandmother's Inglewood home, along with his son, Fredrick "Tre" Martin III, and the boy's godfather, Joseph Hickman. Just after 7 p.m., they heard gunfire nearby.

I've always known that race and geography are intimately connected in L.A., a city practically built with segregation in mind. Though I deplore the effects of segregation, I always felt a nativist pride in the place I was born and raised, South Central. I felt the same about Inglewood, just across the border from South Central, where I moved as a teenager and where my husband and I bought a house six years ago. I imagine lots of people, whatever their color, have the same affection for their own stomping grounds.

Why get a degree? Re "Is a college degree still worth it?," June 12 It is hard to believe that The Times would present a front page article questioning the value of a college education. Even a college major that may be significantly less rigorous than science or engineering requires that the student synthesize, integrate and present information from multiple sources with minimal direction. Repeating this process hundreds of times during a four-year degree develops a skill set that cannot be acquired by on-the-job training.

James Butts, who headed the police department's narcotics task force that helped halt drug trafficking in the Dixon-Darby and Lockhaven neighborhoods, was sworn in as captain of operations Wednesday, marking the first time a black officer has been appointed to that rank in a South Bay police department, according to area police officials.

Seldom do I write editors regarding the content of their publications, primarily because doing so serves little purpose other than to provide an escape valve for one's pent-up emotions. I must admit that this letter stems from an emotional reaction to an article appearing in your South Bay edition on Sept. 24. The headline was in eye-catching type: "Inglewood, Jamaican City Plan to Become 'Sisters'." What triggered my near state of apoplexy was the first paragraph of the story: "One is a tough urban community that serves as home to a professional basketball team and horse racing."

A 51,000-square-foot Inglewood parcel housing Thrifty Rent-A-Car has been sold by the West Manchester Co. to the Cloverleaf Group, which plans to build a retail shopping center on the site at Manchester Boulevard and Hindry Avenue. The transaction, valued at $1.9 million, was negotiated by the Goodglick Co. for the seller and by Spark & Muller for the buyer.

As mayor of Inglewood, I was surprised and disappointed by Frank del Olmo's Jan. 12 commentary concerning the effort to bring NFL football back to the Los Angeles area. While devoting most of his commentary to a blistering criticism of the NFL, Del Olmo also manages to attack Inglewood, most of the cities where NFL football is played and Hollywood Park Race Track and its CEO, R.D. Hubbard. Hubbard's record in the gaming industry is spotless. In any event, the proposed stadium would not be built, owned or operated by Hollywood Park.

Classic Party Rentals, one of country's largest suppliers of tents, chairs and china for events, has agreed to move its headquarters and a fulfillment center to Inglewood. The party-rental business will relocate its Culver City fulfillment center to 901 Hillcrest Blvd. in Inglewood by June, real estate brokerage the Klabin Co. said. The headquarters will be moved from West Los Angeles next year. Terms of the 10-year lease for the 96,000-square-foot site were not disclosed, but rents for warehouses near Los Angeles International Airport average 83 cents per square foot per month, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers donned hoodies Thursday to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager who was shot to death last month by a neighborhood watch volunteer. At a Capitol news conference, members of the black, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander caucuses called on the federal government to intervene in the investigation and used the case to highlight the problem of racial profiling in America. One by one, lawmakers spoke from a podium draped with a hoodie and holding a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles –- items Martin was carrying when he was shot.

During five years as a frequent substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, George Hernandez was investigated by police three times for allegations of sexual misconduct involving students. Although he was never arrested, Hernandez resigned a week after the third investigation in 2007. But his teaching career wasn't over. Weeks later, he joined the roster of substitutes in the Inglewood Unified School District and taught there for nearly three years - until police discovered a videotape they say shows him molesting a second-grade girl at school.

When Johnny Young looks at La Tijera School, he sees more than the gleaming new facade of steel and stucco, the technology lab outfitted with 36 desktop computers, the fitness center with spinning cycles, treadmills and weights. The Inglewood school board president sees salvation for his beleaguered district, the most financially precarious in California. Socked by state funding cuts and declining enrollment, the Inglewood Unified School District is expected to go broke by May. Inglewood is one of seven school districts in the state that projects red ink through next year and is closest to the brink of bankruptcy, according to state fiscal management officials who work with troubled schools.

As part of her campaign to battle childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama visited the site of a future grocery store in Inglewood on Wednesday and spoke about the importance of bringing fresh food to disadvantaged communities. The market, which will open in April in an empty warehouse on South Prairie Avenue, is part of a statewide push to reduce obesity by attracting grocers to low-income neighborhoods and making healthy food more accessible. "I'm here today because I believe every family in our country should have access to healthy food," she said to a group of community residents and leaders.

A public viewing will be held Friday in Inglewood for R&B great Etta James, who died last week at the age of 73, a family representative said. The viewing will be from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Manchester Chapel at Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary , 3801 W. Manchester Blvd. The Rev. Al Sharpton will lead a private memorial service for the singer Saturday. —Phil Willon

The Inglewood Redevelopment Agency has approved the $1.7-million sale of the vacant Boston Store building for conversion into a jewelry mart modeled after jewelry marts near Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. Korean investors Kee Dok Kwon and Kyoung Bok Kwon told the Redevelopment Agency, which consists of the five City Council members, that they will spend about $500,000 renovating the two-story, 44,850-square-foot building.

If you're a fiend for the spicy, then you may have attempted to down an entire bowl of the Special 2 ramen at Orochon in Little Tokyo, which earns you a photo on "the wall of bravery. " Or you've sought the experience of Jitlada's southern Thai specialties, including Chef Tui's Dynamite Special Challenge, covered in a chile sludge that packs so much heat your ears start to ring. (Thais say southern food is the ultimate of phet , or spiciness.) Where to find more of the burn? Here, from recent Find columns, are several ways to satisfy the capsaicin cravings.

There was a time when Inglewood's Market Street hummed with activity — department stores, bustling movie houses and a steady stream of pedestrians. Now the department stores are largely gone, the movie theaters have closed and vendors fight for business on a street that's grown tired. But architect and artist Chris Mercier sees something far livelier — water from Centinela Springs flowing alongside the sidewalks, rooftops farms and aeronautic-looking windmills that would add an offbeat and colorful touch to the city's main artery.