Send your message to the public pension funds, Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS, and local elected officials
Send your message to the public pension funds, Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS, and local elected officials
Dear Board Members of the Pension Funds Involved in the Sale of the Crenshaw Mall, Deutsche Bank's DWS and Local Elected Officials:
We write today with a specific ask: support the Crenshaw community's bid to purchase the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza through Downtown Crenshaw Rising.
Los Angeles’ Black community has a right to own it’s future. As displayed by the historic fundraising accomplished in less than 60 hours, there is a national groundswell of financial support for Black community ownership of the Crenshaw Mall. The many donors coupled with the tens of thousands in the community who have signed petitions over the past several months reflect a broad base of support for a new model of economic development that uplifts instead of uproots the community.
Since its establishment in May of 2020, Downtown Crenshaw Rising has been the only group that has conducted an inclusive process of open meetings and expressed an intent of uniting the entire community. The broad coalition of over 300 community-based groups, neighborhood associations, civil rights organizations, elected officials, merchants, property owners, business leaders and artists supporting Downtown Crenshaw Rising is unprecedented. It speaks to the power of the moment and the development team.
We respectfully ask that you allow Downtown Crenshaw Rising to help cure this challenge for the respective pension funds by placing this critical Black community asset into the hands of trusted and capable community leaders who will build a community-centered development. Your representative Deutsche Bank’s DWS has tried traditional developers unsuccessfully repeatedly. Direct them to give the community a chance. Allow Downtown Crenshaw Rising the opportunity to directly present all parties with a win-win solution, and make your funds and the nation proud.
Sincerely,
Your voice is urgently needed and critical to stopping the sale to those who would displace residents of the historic Black Crenshaw community and support the effort for community ownership of the Crenshaw. It was the community’s voice that prevented the business partners of Donald Trump and his family members from purchasing the mall, and it will be the community’s voice that will convince the sellers of the mall to sell the mall to the community.
Our key targets are a) the public pension funds that are the major investors in the Crenshaw Mall; b) Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS, which is the entity making the decision on who to sale; and c) and the local elected officials LA City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas who have land use authority.
By using this form you are sending a direct message to each of the leading decision-makers.