Never Finished

During my research I found an article from the Los Angeles Times that talked about the neighborhood of Baldwin Hills. In the article it talks about how a developer took a plaza on the corner of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards, which is an are that is predominantly minorities who have low incomes. The purpose of the new plaza was to bring in new business and revitalize the neighborhood economically as well as give it a cleaner and more modern look. However, the developer never followed through on his plans and millions of dollars were wasted. Not to mention the are that was under construction became a haven for drugs and crime. In trying to improve the city developers came in and actually made it worse. If a city or are is to be revitalized it should be done by the government with the people's wants and needs in mind as the primary goal. The government could choose to do the work on its own or it could bring in developers for additional funding, but the government must give the developers a strict idea of what needs to be built and where. When developers come in a try to improve a city they can end up making the situation even worse, which is why gentrification is not the answer.