In 1996, the Stewarts, pioneers who brought the first legitimate theatre to their community in 1950 when legitimate theatre was unknown, were sued by the Community Redevelopment Agency which declared the area to be the Mid City Redevelopment project. At first, the Stewarts fought successfully to save the theatre from demolition by the redevelopment agency. But on September 3, in spite of public pronouncements by City Councilman Nate Holden, and the CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency), that the redevelopment agency was "saving" the "Ebony Showcase Theater," the CRA moved quickly to demolish the building in a few hours.The picture below shows Nick Stewart in front of the Ebony Showcase Theatre a few years ago.
The two pictures above were both taken on September 3, 1998. CRA staff (left) is shown standing in front of the building in the early morning just moments before the demolition. Official CRA reports dated September 3, 1998, say that the roof suddenly caved on September 2 in the late afternoon. The report also goes on to say that the building shown in the picture (above left) is "leaning precariously" and that it will fall on someone (Why is some of the CRA staff -- minus hard hats -- standing so closely?). A few hours later (right) most of the building has been demolished. The entire scenario took place in less than 24 hours without any public announcements.
The Northridge Earthquake took place in 1994. The city receivied millions of dollars of HUD (federal) block grant (Northridge Earthquake) money to build a different theatre controlled by politicians and the City.
In 1997, the CRA demolished a house on the complex. Thiey later demolished the remaining two buildings in the complex (shown to the left of the main theatre building in the photos above).
Afterwards CRA demolished the privately-owned neighboring cleaners and privately-owned buildings across the street and a few streets away, they wanted to demolish the privately-owned Girl Scouts of America building which was located on Adams boulevard. Opponents described a LAND GRAB and redistribution of private property: The CRA called their methods "Acquisition," "Eminent Domain," "Economic Development," "Job Creation," "Slum Clearance," and "Tree Planting"
-- to be continued --