*Gentrification is hitting South Central Los Angeles hard and Celia and Joe Ward-Wallace are fighting back by putting their stake in the ground.
“Crenshaw is not looking like Crenshaw anymore. Some people say that’s great but we beg to differ. Corporations are coming in but the real estate flipping firms, they’re just seeing dollars and opportunities here and a lot of it is not for the people who actually live here it’s for the people who are going to come,” Celia told EURweb’s Lee Bailey recently. “We’ve been sitting back seeing all of this and feeling so frustrated and sort of helpless.”
That’s when the couple decided to do something. Last summer, at the site of what once was an old church on Western Avenue and MLK Jr. Blvd., they began a process that would culminate in the opening of South LA Cafe, a 2,200-square-foot coffeehouse, meeting place and activism hub that is supported by the community. The cafe’s grand opening was this past Sunday (12-08-19). In addition to the cafe, Celia and Joe opened up the South LA Market in the same complex to address the issue of food deserts in their neighborhood.
The couple is laying their roots like hundreds of thousands of black, Latino and Asian people who have lived in LA all of their lives and never packed up and headed to the ‘burbs during white flight. Celia and Joe hire people from the community – students, single moms and former inmates – and they do business with black-owned companies – from the pastries made fresh every morning by a company that hires incarcerated workers and gang members, to the Oakland-based coffee partner for which they buy their coffee.
“Pretty much everything you see and everything we’ve done has been done with 100 percent intentionality,” Celia said. “Our partners are aligned in mission and socially conscious.”
“This is a space for primarily black, brown and Asian people who have been holding it down in the community for the last 70 years since white flight,” she added. Celia said although companies may now be reinvesting in the area, she wants them to know “we’re still here. If you’re going to come here, know the culture, know the history, know the people.”
Joe, a former Los Angeles firefighter and a semi-professional and college-level basketball referee, said he always dreamed of opening up a coffee shop, but that he was thinking too small – perhaps a 500 square foot hole in the wall with drip coffee and Costco muffins – until he happened upon the Western Avenue for sale sign that piqued his interest.
When he called his wife and she gave him the go-ahead to call and negotiate terms on the property, he said he felt like “a kid with no limitations.”
“If I lost, it didn’t matter,” Ward-Wallace said, explaining that he felt they had nothing to lose by negotiating. His wife said the property wasn’t for sale, so Ward-Wallace negotiated a lease with a “continual right of renewal for a very low fixed rent increase.”
“I’m going to ask for this, they’re probably going to say no,” Ward-Wallace said he thought.
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They were both surprised at all of the yesses they received. Ward-Wallace, who’s celebrating his birthday today (12-12-19), said he believes the developers were eager to work out an agreement because “they didn’t have the vision of this place. They had this as the back of their little city mall and this is their throw away.”
“They are not from the community,” Celia explained. “This is an investment for them. If I were to guess the reason why … they didn’t necessarily have the vision but Joe is masterful and he’s cunning and he’s passionate. Who wouldn’t want to help him out?”
The South LA Café has been a Godsend for the couple, who call themselves serial entrepreneurs. They once ran a real estate business and Celia also formerly worked as a business coach and consultant. The couple have two daughters and now have plans to turn The South LA Café into a franchise in a few years.
“Communities are happening – they’re hungry and thirsty for something like this all over and they deserve it. This is my calling now,” Ward-Wallace said. “Kids are walking in here and like I can’t believe this is here and I’m like why? You deserve this. This should be common for our children.”
Celia describes the café as “a community coffee shop, cultural center and … a co-working space.”
“It was designed to be a mixed-use space. Everything is modular and part of our blueprint. So we’re focused on arts and culture, social justice, open mike, health and wellness,” she said. “We want to have programs for the community that are completely free. It’s also meant to be usable as a rental space.
“This is a win-win for the community,” she said. “We want the community to see that and go hell yeah, South LA. And South LA is not being used in a negative way. It’s a way to bring people in.”
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It’s a way to also offer educational workshops for the community. The couple plan to offer classes to help educate the community on what they’ve learned going through the process of starting a brick-and-mortar company.
“We got into the process and didn’t necessarily know how challenging the permit journey was with the city. It ended up being way more than we expected,” Celia said. “We had our savings that we put completely in. We put our credit cards on the line. We then did crowdsourcing from the community (and raised $45,000) and even then, we realized we might need a loan. We looked into an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan, the bar was extremely high to qualify, which we did. We qualified but it took us three months to get the funds. It was eye opening how much equity exists within the structure. We were that close to it not happening. (The system) is set up for multimillionaires and not for the average Joes.”
Now they want to teach others what they learned.
“We want to give workshop classes here and show people the steps,” Joe said. “We’ve learned a lot of steps and doors opened weeks after we were stressed out. Now our manual for this is golden.”
In the meantime, the couple is loving how the café has already become a meeting spot for the community.
“We put together some people who haven’t seen each other in 40 years in a little over 12 days. It’s amazing with all of that – with all the stresses that we went through making this happen, the rewards washed it away,” he said.
Celia said the little dream that Joe had has turned into “a big vision.”
“It’s about the community – community first – and what’s going to bring the community together – it’s the coffee. Once we get them in the door, it’s coffee, community and connection,” she said.
You can follow the South LA Café on Instagram or learn more at www.southlacafe.com.
EUR Bonus Coverage … Celia and Joe Ward-Wallace speak on the delight of bringing the South LA Cafe to to the community:
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