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USC Village Displaces Small Business As Construction Begins

Sara Newman |
June 15, 2014 | 10:54 p.m. PDT

Deputy Editor

USC's plans for the new USC Village (Sara Newman/Neon Tommy)
USC's plans for the new USC Village (Sara Newman/Neon Tommy)

For over a year the University of Southern California (USC) has been battling complaints from members of the surrounding community in its attempt to replace the University Village, a shopping center just north of the campus, with the new USC Village. 

Less than a month after the majority of USC students returned home for summer vacation, the rundown shopping center has become an absolute ghost town. With padlocked gates, farewell notes left by longtime owners and an abandoned grocery store, it looks more like a scene from the zombie flick “28 Day Later” than it does a community staple where people used to take their kids out for ice cream and haircuts. 

“I’ve worked at this Baskin Robins since I was 16 years old,” recalled Daisy Vasquez, who is approaching her 30th birthday. “We have customers who’ve been coming here for years, and they’re pretty upset.” 

Smaller business like Touch of Class Hair Salon and Magic Machine Graphics were almost entirely moved out by the beginning of May, but Baskin Robins and some of the larger corporate businesses were able to stick around until the end of the month. 

But rather than witnessing a slow decline, Vasquez said that business actually picked up as customers from the community around USC paid more frequent visits to Baskin Robins as the closing of Superior Grocery Store and 21 Choices Frozen Yogurt left people with fewer places to go.  

“I’m not so happy about the move,” said Vasquez, who was assured that she will be relocated to work at another Baskin Robins. “But what can we do?” 

READ MORE: USC University Village Closure Displaces Small Restaurant Owners 

Like Vasquez, Sukhwinder Ghuman, 23, was disappointed that the redesign of the University Village meant moving time. 

Soon after arriving from India, Ghuman had begun his two-year career with Subway. Working first in Orange County before being promoted to a leadership position at the University Village Subway location.

 Like Baskin Robins, Subway has been able to find work for many of its employees at various Subway locations throughout the county, but the loss of this location means the closure of Subways’s largest L.A. location, according to Ghuman. 

“We were giving out coupons for free sandwiches with the purchase of a 40 oz drink to encourage our regular customers to visit our other locations,” Ghuman said.

READ MORE: University Village Remodel Faces Less Opposition After Agreeing To Changes 

Tall buildings will forever change the West Adams landscape (Sara Newman/Neon Tommy)
Tall buildings will forever change the West Adams landscape (Sara Newman/Neon Tommy)
Starbucks employees didn’t have the benefit of such transparency. 

“We have no idea when we’re closing,” said one barista. Two weeks later, the iconic green letters were coming down and the Starbucks was as abandoned as the rest of the stores in the University Village. 

As the current tenants of the offices that the contractors, subcontractors and architects plan to occupy, Bank of America remains all that is left of the University Village while the rest of the site undergoes construction.

Bank associates have negotiated to continue serving customers from their current location until the end of August, according to their customer service manager, but other than that the site is closed off to everyone except construction workers and project managers. 

READ MORE: As South L.A.'s Largest Building Project Approved, Businesses Move Out To Make Way

On June 2, locked barriers went up around the whole site, leaving what was once the University Village emptier than ever. 

“For me it’s a good feeling,” said superintendent Darren Roybal of working at the all-but-abandoned site. “It means we’ll be getting the job done quickly.”

In just three years the ghost town will give way to a five-story block of buildings with retail and commercial spaces on the lower floor topped with four floors of student housing. 

“It will be like walking in a canyon with tall buildings all around,” said Roybal.

But few people seem concerned about obstructed views, as only a handful of students and professors have raised any questions about the constructions.

“And those who do come in really only ask when the construction will be done,” said Roybal. “Mainly it’s the homeless who are asking questions and making complaints. They want to know why things have to change. They’re very into routine because they’ve been coming here for years and years.” 

READ MORE: USC U.V. $1 Billion Makeover Leaves Shop Owners' Future Uncertain 

With the addition more campus housing and East Coast-style brick buildings, USC is hoping entirely shed its former reputation as a commuter school. 

But Roybal continued to emphasize that the construction would not wholly penalize the surrounding community for the benefit of the students. 

“We are required to have a certain percentage of employees from this area,” Roybal said. “At the height of construction we’ll probably be creating 400 new jobs. Plus by having more students living in this concentrated area, it will prevent them from significantly driving up rent prices by living in homes that would otherwise be left to community members. 

But that doesn’t change the fact that dozens of small businesses had to close to make way for USC’s expansion. Soon the buildings will be coming down, while the stories remain of workers and customers who had been coming to what was once the University Village for decades.

Contact Deputy Editor Sara Newman here. Follow her on Twitter here



 

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