Destination Crenshaw, a Stalled Beautification Project, Finally Sees Cleanup After Community Outcry

Destination Crenshaw, a $100-million beautification project meant to transform 1.3 miles of the Crenshaw Corridor into an open-air museum filled with art and gathering spaces, has been stalled for years. Pitched in 2016 and started in 2021, the project was intended to celebrate 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. Neighbors have their own name for the project: Procrastination Crenshaw. After a local town hall demanding answers, the city has started to clean up the construction this week.