Little Tokyo Residents Pool Savings To Buy Legacy Businesses' Buildings
In short
- The Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund raised nearly a million dollars from investments as small as $1,000.
- It bought its first building last year, a two-story commercial building on East 1st Street near Fugetsu-Do.
- The aim is to shield legacy businesses and community gathering places from rising rents.
Why the Good News Desk likes this one
Rising rents from outside owners have been pushing out legacy businesses in Little Tokyo. Owning the buildings lets the community decide what happens to its neighborhood. The fund's first purchase is a single building so far, and the longer-term effect is still to be seen.
From Next City
The Little Tokyo neighborhood in Los Angeles. (Photo by Looka Chow / Unsplash) There are so many reasons for people to love LA’s Little Tokyo. There’s the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, with its famous Japanese garden, and Nisei Week, the annual cultural festival that’s drawn visitors to the neighborhood since 1934. There’s Little Tokyo’s small businesses, like Fugetsu-Do, a confectionery and bakery famous for its mochi, owned and operated by the same family since 1903. There are the seniors who sit at the same coffee shop together every morning at 7 o’clock. For about a...
