Today we worked primarily in South Central LA and one place we specifically visited was the Mercado La Poloma community housing corporation. This center was home to many organizations but the most attractive and popular section of this building was the downstairs area. This space was occupied by more than 6 restaurants, all pertaining to different cultures. There were Mexican, Thai, Ethiopian, American, Yucatan, and Oaxacan cuisine. All of these restaurants were locally owned and supported and have been located in this complex either just recently or for more than a decade.
As you can see in this picture, there is a nice ambiance, where restaurants are located side by side, predominantly located on the perimeter of the building and chairs and tables located throughout. Every menu had affordable meals as part of their leasing agreement with their NGO landlords. I chose the Thai food since we hadn’t yet had any Asian food during our stay. The green curry beef with rice and veggies was phenomenal. From what I sampled and saw from the group’s meals, they also had authentic and fresh tastes.
This diverse community restaurant experience was a development project to embrace and preserve local businesses, thereby combating gentrification by the nearby University of Southern California, various corporate housing developments, and franchise chain restaurants. This grassroots and sustainable (long term) business model was orchestrated by one of the main NGO tenants and property owner. I am talking about food today because I appreciate the unique and various ways to approach poverty and violence. It doesn’t have to simply be a grassroots approach or conducting policy work or even advocacy to tackle a social issue. A sustainable, viable, and well though business model can be used to protect vulnerable neighborhoods and populations. Additionally, using business can not only provide direct services by creating jobs and having taxes attribute to community development, but it can reinforce diverse cultural communities by attracting business and lead identical communities to move into the area. I’m encouraged by this approach because we have talked a lot of gentrification and this is the first time I’ve heard of an organization seemingly using gentrification’s medicine against it. It is striving to flip the process on its head and de-gentrify. I quite like that there are so many opportunities to collaborate and approach social issues from various perspectives and methodologies.