Interesting that while Sunland and Atwater Village are both trying to keep Home Depot from moving into their neighborhoods, the long-neglected stretch of Mid-City at Pico and San Vicente is embracing a new shopping center anchored by Lowe's.
The L.A. Times writes of the CIM Group's 10-acre Midtown Crossing center, which has been in the planning stages (and finally under construction) for quite a while:
Back in the days when Los Angeles had streetcars, the crossing of Pico and San Vicente boulevards in Mid-City was a hub of activity.
The streets were lined with shops, restaurants and movie theaters. A hilltop Sears department store drew customers from far and wide, some taking the Pico line of the Los Angeles Railway Co. trolley car system.
Then came the Watts riots in 1965, followed by years of economic decay and the 1992 riots. Crime rose, storefronts shuttered and the landmark Sears closed its doors.
But Mid-City is now in the midst of a revival, part of a wave of gentrification that has swept over many of L.A.'s once-neglected neighborhoods. The boarded-up Sears, for years a symbol of decay, is being replaced by a 500,000-square-foot mall, anchored by a Lowe's home improvement store.
Local businesses, of course, are concerned about the encroachment of big, Mom-and-Pop killing chains. But most of the residents who have suffered through decades of no big retail close by are welcoming the gentrification.
