A Letter to Judge Carter

The Honorable David O. Carter

United States District Court — Central District of California

Dear Judge Carter,

I write this letter to you in light of your hearings on May 26 and 27.

I’m writing to you as a Skid Row Artist and former resident selected by the County to curate an experience for We Rise which is happening now through the month of May. We Rise is an initiative of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health that encourages well being and healing through art, connection, community engagement, and creative expression.

I lived inside Union Rescue Mission from 2013 to 2017 and had many, many experiences on the streets of Skid Row, some bad, most of them very good.

I’m still heavily involved in the Arts in Skid Row, specifically with the Los Angeles Poverty Department as an actor/writer and Urban Voices Project, a community choir of Skid Row.

I find this whole situation with the LA Alliance very complicated and so I just want to share my thoughts about some recent developments to highlight both the good and the bad. I’m talking about the North Sea. I don’t want to even speculate on what the legal implications might be with what I’ve witnessed and studied.

The commonly understood boundaries of Skid Row for decades is fifty blocks — Third to Seventh, Main to Alameda. That’s 20% of the land mass of Downtown. Within Skid Row are some names like the Toy District and Seafood District. A few years ago an effort took place to re-name the Seafood District, the North Sea. The Seafood District is basically the northeast section of Skid Row.

In some ways this North Sea initiative was a good thing with family owned fish businesses contributing their own resources to beautify their neighborhood. In other ways, and the true essence of it, the North Sea was a ploy of gentrification and arguably pioneered “hostile architecture” and “displacement landscaping”.

I first learned something unusual was happening in the northeast section of Skid Row the beginning of 2018. In March, I walked all the blocks listed as the North Sea on their new website and took eight photographs on different blocks showing temporary sidewalk fencing where plants and murals would go. This fencing, all the way to the curb, was a total violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. That’s because the point of the fencing was to drive tents from one section of Skid Row into other parts of Skid Row.

The North Sea is now established in the northeast section of Skid Row and I bring it up as context for two pieces of property now in development: 4th and Central in Skid Row pretending to be in the Arts District and the Umeya Rice Cake Company property in Skid Row not pretending to be anywhere else.

The developers for 4th and Central (LA Cold Storage) are part of the LA Alliance and an April 29th article in the LA Times talked about this proposed one to two billion dollar development being in the Arts District. 4th and Central is in Skid Row and, directly across the street, is the North Sea.

The Umeya Rice Cake Company on Crocker Street between 4th and 5th, very much Skid Row, is one of the most iconic family owned businesses in Little Tokyo history. The land, part of the North Sea, was sold a few years ago to the Little Tokyo Service Center, a social service nonprofit which builds deeply Affordable Housing. The family did not sell the land to the highest bidder as they wanted it to serve community.

The vision for Umeya is eight stories of deeply Affordable Housing with half the residents from Skid Row and half the residents from Little Tokyo.

Judge Carter, I believe what you see with Umeya and with 4th and Central is a microcosm of your past year. Greed, ego, deception, public service, compassion, building community all rolled up together in one complex reality called Skid Row Downtown Los Angeles.