Leimert Park

When I was a kid, I had a map with a dotted line for the Beverly Hills Freeway. It was going to run just south of my East Hollywood neighborhood, plowing through the Fairfax district on its way to the sea, bulldozing a mansion or two along the way. It was never built, of course. Another dotted line on that same map marked the Century Freeway, Interstate 105, which was built. Caltrans cut a gaping no-man's land through South L.A. and Lynwood years before construction began, and so fostered crime and urban decay.

Los Angeles' combative redistricting battle is signaling a new, harder-edged political era at City Hall — one that some are tracing to the rise of new Council President Herb Wesson. On Thursday, Councilwoman Jan Perry accused Wesson of gutting her district during the Redistricting Commission's latest map-making session, saying she was being punished for her refusal to back his bid to run the council. Wesson responded that he doesn't take things personally and isn't paying anyone back.

With paint brushes, work gloves and comfy shoes, they came straight to the heart of Leimert Park. More than 1,000 volunteers, some as young as 10, joined forces Saturday to give the historically black neighborhood in South Los Angeles a colorful face-lift. They fanned out across several blocks to paint light posts, plant a vegetable garden, erect street signs and banners, create a community mural and make African drums to launch a youth music program. The day of service was organized by L.A. Works, a volunteer center celebrating 20 years of giving back throughout Los Angeles.

EVENTS Martin Luther King Day Santa Monica marks the holiday with a multiethnic, interfaith program of entertainment and inspiration. The celebration, one of the West Coast's largest, includes a morning of music and dance performances, educational readings and awards, plus featured speaker Congresswoman Janice Hahn. SGI Auditorium, 525 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. 9 a.m. Free. (310) 458-8411. http://www.smgov.net. MLK Day "Lending Hands" Kids learn about the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with an interactive performance from percussive children's band Rhythm Child.

After years of delays, a nearly $10-million plan has been unveiled to revitalize Vision Theater, the cultural heart of Leimert Park Village in South Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other civic leaders said that $2.4 million will be financed from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment and more than $7.4 million from the city of Los Angeles.

IT'S SPRING, AND in the fertile but fallow heart of black Los Angeles, redevelopment plans are blooming -- again. I say "again" with equal parts hope and trepidation. Since the civil unrest in 1992, this bloom has been a seasonal occurrence in South L.A. and Crenshaw, involving much discussion, debate, goal setting and idea gathering. In the end, however, it all yields very little fruit.

The Malcolm X Day Festival has found a new home in Leimert Park. The event, formerly held at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson, debuts today at Crenshaw Boulevard and Vernon Avenue. It pays homage to the slain black leader with music, lectures and storytelling. The festival also offers African-themed food and craft vendors and a Malcolm X film festival at Fifth Street Dick's jazz coffeehouse, which borders the park on 43rd Place.

An ambitious effort to revitalize Leimert Park's commercial areas was begun last week, but for merchants, the revamping proved to be a tough sell. The Leimert Park Neighborhood Design Workshop, a broad-based partnership whose members include the Los Angeles Conservancy, Woodbury University and area merchants, unveiled a model of one proposed face lift of the area, where a black arts community has blossomed.

After nearly three years of vacancy, a Degnan Boulevard retail development destroyed by fire in the 1992 riots is going to be rebuilt. The former site of Dobson's Market at Degnan and 43rd Street was purchased last year by Community Build, a private nonprofit economic development organization formed after the riots. Construction of a retail center is scheduled to begin in the summer.

Many Leimert Park residents are dismayed, puzzled and deeply incensed regarding the negative, misleading comment by photographer Akili Ramsess in the article on South-Central Los Angeles ("What It Is. [And What It Was.]," by Lynell George, Oct. 8). A "little ghost town" is code for deserted, dilapidated, in decline and decay. Where, within the commercial or residential core of Leimert Park, are these characteristics rampant or dominant? Where are those "still shuttered" places? The possibilities and potential are still there!

Martin Luther King Jr., she admits, looked a little funny at first. His head was too big, his cheekbones were too low, his eyes were kind of lopsided. And his lower lip? "Let's not even go there," Karen Collins, 60, said with a laugh. Photos: Karen Collins' shadow boxes On her third try, she finally got him just right. Her pint-size creations fill nearly every inch of her living room in Compton. On her carpet slaves in chains await their transatlantic voyage.

With paint brushes, work gloves and comfy shoes, they came straight to the heart of Leimert Park. More than 1,000 volunteers, some as young as 10, joined forces Saturday to give the historically black neighborhood in South Los Angeles a colorful face-lift. They fanned out across several blocks to paint light posts, plant a vegetable garden, erect street signs and banners, create a community mural and make African drums to launch a youth music program. The day of service was organized by L.A. Works, a volunteer center celebrating 20 years of giving back throughout Los Angeles.

Now in its fifth year, the Leimert Park Village Book Fair returns to the center of L.A.'s African American arts and culture scene for a day of readings, book signings, panel discussions, cooking demonstrations and live entertainment. Participants include boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, radio host Russ Parr and celebrity chef Govind Armstrong. Vision Theatre back lot, 4318 Degnan Blvd., L.A. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. Free. (323) 730-0628. http://www.leimertparkbookfair.com.

The Metro Board of Directors expressed support Thursday for adding a rail station in Leimert Park to the forthcoming Crenshaw Line but declined to provide extra money to pay for it or for placing a one-mile track segment underground at Park Mesa Heights. Some board members said the decision was a "victory," and others expressed frustration that the board did not act more aggressively. Some in the large crowd of South Los Angeles residents said they were simply confused. "I can't tell you if we have a station or don't," said Jackie Ryan of the Leimert Park Village Merchants Assn.

On Thursday, the 13-member Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board will vote on two issues of significant concern to the people of South Los Angeles: whether the new Crenshaw-to-LAX light-rail line will include a station in Leimert Park Village, and whether it will go underground along a congested stretch along the Park Mesa Heights stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard. The planned rail project will run about 8.5 miles along Crenshaw Boulevard, from the planned Expo Line on the north to the Green Line on the south.

When I was a kid, I had a map with a dotted line for the Beverly Hills Freeway. It was going to run just south of my East Hollywood neighborhood, plowing through the Fairfax district on its way to the sea, bulldozing a mansion or two along the way. It was never built, of course. Another dotted line on that same map marked the Century Freeway, Interstate 105, which was built. Caltrans cut a gaping no-man's land through South L.A. and Lynwood years before construction began, and so fostered crime and urban decay.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has added DASH service to the Leimert Park and Slauson areas. The new route operates along Crenshaw Boulevard, Slauson Avenue, 54th Street, Denker Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard. DASH vehicles stop at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Santa Barbara Plaza, Leimert Park, the Crenshaw post office, Van Ness Recreation Center and Crenshaw Plaza. Buses run from 6:30 a.m. to 6:50 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on Saturday from 9:50 a.m. to 5:13 p.m.

The Community Redevelopment Agency has opened a new field office in Leimert Park to give residents and business people better access to agency staff. The office is headed by Bill Price, CRA project manager on two proposed redevelopment projects in the Crenshaw/Slauson and Western/Slauson recovery areas. The office is at 4332 Leimert Blvd. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. weekdays. Information: (213) 977-1795.

Leimert Park Village has long been a soul of African American life and culture in South Los Angeles. Jazz and blues regularly spill into the street, and shoppers browse the titles at one of the last remaining black-centric bookstores. Community activists meet in Leimert Park Village and residents sometimes hold memorial vigils there. But to dismay of some in South L.A., a new light rail line set to run through the heart of L.A.'s black community does not include a stop at the historic district.

Leimert Park Village, the historical enclave of black culture and arts, has been showing signs of new life lately, and not a moment too soon. The nonprofit Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, named for the veteran jazz and blues singer, opened last month. In December, the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation premiered the Leimert Project, a space for arts education that has so far mounted two solo shows for local artists. On Leimert Boulevard, native son and internationally renowned artist Mark Bradford works out of a studio that has piqued new interest in the neighborhood in fine art circles.