After local outcry, stalled Destination Crenshaw project sees movement

Destination Crenshaw has taken so long that neighbors have their own name for it: Procrastination Crenshaw.Pitched in 2016 and started in 2021, the $100-million beautification project was meant to transform 1.3 miles of the Crenshaw Corridor into an open-air museum filled with art and gathering spaces — a celebration of Crenshaw’s role as a hub of Black L.A., home to defining figures such as Tom Bradley and Nipsey Hussle and cultural institutions such as the Museum of African American Art and Dulan’s on Crenshaw.Instead, over the last five years, it has turned the historic stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard into a nuisance, a ghost-town construction site with vandalized fences and barricades sitting for years on end.Parking doesn’t exist, so cars cram onto the sidewalk. Construction equipment and safety barriers litter the block. The street has become such a maze that it’s unclear what’s even there, resulting in a series of “Businesses Open” signs assuring the public that something still exists inside the chain-link exoskeleton. “People feel like they’re imprisoned in their own neighborhood,” said Kyron Shorter, senior pastor at Bethesda Temple Church. 1. Veteran talk show host Tavis Sm...