A Permanent Scar: The Aftermath of The Century Freeway

The city government apparently did not foresee, nor could not prevent, the irreparable harm to the tax base that the removal of 1,100 homes would have. (That represented about 10% of the single-family homes in Lynwood before the freeway.)”

In 1999, Jack Leonard surveyed Lynwood’s history in the Los Angeles Times. Leonard’s piece, “A City Divided”, squarely places the Century Freeway at the heart of the city’s past, present and future. He maps how the city has gone from being adorned as a white All-America City in 1961 that worked vigorously to keep minorities out, only to ultimately fail. White Flight commenced, nearly 1000 homes were destroyed, minorities gained dominance, businesses left and the city of Lynwood transformed from a thriving “bedroom community” to a bonafide poor city. 

The crown economic jewel of present-day Lynwood is arguably Plaza Mexico. The shopping center makes an explicit appeal to the city’s predominantly Latinx population but, funnily enough, the project was conceived of by Korean developers before reaching completion in 2002. Plaza Mexico developed on a site originally known as The Lynwood Towne Center where Montgomery Ward was anchor tenant. City officials hoped that with the completion of the freeway and improvements made on Long Beach Boulevard, the city would find prosperity in the increased sales tax revenues that would be captured. But by 1986, prior to the freeway’s completion, Montgomery Ward closed and the economic hopes for what the city was slated to become were effectively dimmed. 

The Plaza Mexico project helped to demonstrate that even in a poor community, investors could speak to cultural identity. Plaza Mexico speaks to the inhabitants of the city and fosters an environment and blend of retail selections that they want to patronize. Yet, despite the affinity that the community has for the shopping center, it has been far from the magic bullet needed to turn around the city’s economic prospects.

From time to time, city officials seem to hope against hope that there is a big economic opportunity on the horizon that could help to reverse the city’s bad fortunes. This appeared to be the case when plans for bringing the NFL to town went public against the backdrop of years worth of city council scandals. It sounds as implausible today as it did then in 2007, but such was the reality of the city. 

The plan was for a 70,000 seat football stadium to be built with ample surrounding room for retail, performance venues and hotels. Reminiscent of the Century Freeway project, homes, schools and more would have been torn down to facilitate the development. 

Councilwoman Leticia Vasquez who took major heat from the hispanic community for being a bit too smitten when the Black community stomped hard for the project. “We are at a crossroads,” she said. “Every year, the citizens of Lynwood spend over $200 million in the cities of Downey, shopping at the Stonewood Mall, the city of Lakewood, shopping at the Lakewood Mall ... and Cerritos, shopping at the Cerritos Mall. We help keep their streets paved and their trees trimmed." And in what was an obvious jab at opponents, Council Louis Byrd would simply say, “the NFL may be too big a dream for the city.”

Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, whose support for the plan cost him his seat also stressed that sales tax revenues were the motivator. “The City of Lynwood needs the revenue that will be delivered by the development project.” And along the way, groups like The Concerned Citizens of Lynwood Alliance showed support for the plan given the belief that the sales taxes associated with such a project could reverse the city’s bad fortunes. Nearly a decade later, two NFL teams would relocate to the greater Los Angeles area. Neither would consider Lynwood as a viable candidate during their stadium site selection process. 

When the dust finally settled, all four councilmembers that stood in support of the plan would be ousted from the council in September 2007. Jim Morton, a contender for the mayorship, surmised that “people just don’t want to be told they may have to give up their homes.” Residents had been told that once before and it was clear how that worked out. 

Realistic Prospects for a Working Class Community

Lynwood’s elected officials would continue to keep the city in the crosshairs for years to come. In 2012, convictions of council members Louis Byrd and Fernando Pedroza made news throughout the region and the state when they were each found to have acted inappropriately in measures that were taken to boost their part-time earnings from the city council up to $100,000 and $72,000 respectively. Prosecutors hoped to use this judgment as a model for how public corruption would be combated in other areas. Lynwood, it seemed, was part of a larger regional set of communities where reports of misconduct have flowed in steadily. 

But even without the bad behavior, it remains unclear where one would derive hope for seeing the economic health and vitality for the city improve. Surely the push for a football stadium in 2007 was a pipe dream, but one can almost understand why proponents would believe that only some massive undertaking, like constructing a football stadium, might reverse the city’s fortunes. Then again, those same proponents wouldn’t need to look very far to see how something massive, like a freeway, fell short of its transformative promises. 

There are no easily discernible sustained benefits that the city has gained from the freeway that cut it in half. In spite of decades worth of championing and anticipation, the prosperity did not flow. Job growth didn’t spike and the city remained particularly susceptible to swings in the larger economic climate, as evidenced by the spiking unemployment and foreclosure rates that took the city by storm in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. 

Furthermore, the chase for sales tax revenues hasn’t proven to be the city’s salvation either. In the Annual Operating Budget for FY 2016-2017, the following was noted by City leadership:

Sales tax revenue is influenced by a variety of factors: the number of retail outlets in the City, the level of interest rates, disposable income among area residents, consumer confidence and the rate of inflation. In the past, the City has lacked large retail magnet stores and consequently has not realized the sales tax revenue that would be expected, given the level of disposable income available to the residents of Lynwood and its neighboring cities. However, as the economy and unemployment rates have begun to improve in recent years, the City’s sales tax revenue base has stabilized and seen positive sales tax growth. In addition, a number of new projects have either been built or are in the planning stages that will also bring in additional sales tax revenue.

Over a decade after the Century’s opening, it was acknowledged that the “large retail magnet stores” had not arrived and the share of expected sales tax revenue for a city like Lynwood had not been realized. The grand plan of attracting shoppers throughout the region had not materialized and to the extent that those shoppers from neighboring cities were using the freeway, they were not using it to bring their buying power into Lynwood en masse.

In November 2016, Lynwood voters overwhelmingly approved a 1% increase to the city’s sales tax rate which is slated to last for 10 years and places the combined sales tax paid for goods within city limits north of 10%. According to a description of the measure provided by the Lynwood City Attorney’s office, “the tax revenues will be deposited in the City’s general fund and may be used for any municipal purpose.” The measure came about as the result of a declaration of a fiscal emergency by Lynwood’s city council. 

While local leaders may find some relief in the form of a time-gated sales tax geared towards the maintenance of vital municipal services, they won’t be able to rely on taxes as a means by which they can generate prosperity in the city. In a post Proposition 13 world, local control remains compromised and limited in scope. This means that assessors no longer have the luxury of augmenting property tax rates up and down in order to ensure that the most pressing needs of a municipality are being met. And while the pre-Proposition 13 world was far from perfect, it did mitigate the extent to which cities - especially suburbs - were destined to live or die based on their ability to attract businesses and shoppers to their cities. It wouldn’t be unreasonable for one to assume that Lynwood leaders that so adamantly supported the Century Freeway in the wake of Proposition 13 were solely motivated by the allure of more traffic which meant more sales tax revenue which meant a potential return to prosperity - or at least normalcy - in the wake of the freeway project that had so deeply gutted and divided the city. 

In reality, it was significantly more complex than that. Instead, it was the convergence of a city being transformed physically while it was simultaneously being transformed demographically. The entire composition of Lynwood was changing dramatically in a manner that caused violent twists and turns generating deep uncertainty about what the city was and what the city was set to become. City leaders advocated for a 2nd exit because given the circumstances that’s really the only thing that they could have advocated for. The freeway that had sent the city to the brink was the same freeway expected to fuel the city’s resurrection. 

Decades later, it isn’t remotely surprising to see local leaders “thinking big” as they advocate for professional sports venues or as they work to hitch their wagons to the legalization of marijuana. The Century Freeway had driven the city even further into its state of distress and only a massive transformation, physical or otherwise, would be able to help the city break out of its economic funk. 

Such is the reality for Lynwood and other cities like it….