Content area
Full Text
SEE CORRECTION APPENDED; Wrong street--A story in Wednesday's California section on Inglewood and its mayor incorrectly stated that Costco, Home Depot and Target stores recently opened on Manchester Boulevard. The stores are on Century Boulevard.
In the courtroom and in church, the Rev. Roosevelt Dorn earned a reputation for trying to save troubled youths and lost souls. His iron will and baritone oratory inspired some, but irked others.
Now, as Inglewood's mayor, the First AME Church minister and former Superior Court judge is applying his pastoral and judicial skills to the city's troubled economy, harmed in part by the loss of its two professional sports teams two years ago.
He gets mixed reviews for his campaign of redevelopment and corporate courting in the 10-square-mile city of 112,000--located between the Harbor and San Diego freeways and in the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport.
"Economically, we don't miss the Lakers and Kings that much," Dorn, 65, says. "What we do miss is the fact that the Lakers and Kings don't play here anymore."
Since the 1970s, Inglewood had been losing retail revenue to malls in nearby cities, and has increasingly relied on federal funds. When Dorn became mayor in 1997, the city was $8 million in debt, and soon had its bond rating downgraded. After his first year in office, city staff was cut by 25%, pay was frozen, and such city assets as a senior citizens center were sold. The Fire Department was disbanded and a fire protection contract was signed with the county.
If Dorn gets his way, the city will be reborn as a haven for big business. And increasing corporate interest in tapping minority markets might help. Since the city's white flight 30 years ago, African Americans have dominated Inglewood politically, although Latinos are a growing presence; blacks now make up 46% of the population and Latinos 42%.
"Inglewood has to develop a tax base," Dorn says. Business "will create a type of tax base...