over District Square. In 2010, Wesson and his colleagues voted to provide the Gabays $26 million in taxpayer loans and grants to build a two-story shopping center with a Target retail store and a Ralphs supermarket.
Arman Gabay, one of the project’s developers, was arrested last year on bribery charges in an unrelated case dealing with Los Angeles County government leases. He has pleaded not guilty. Gina Fields, who serves on the Empowerment Congress West Area neighborhood council, said her group had pushed for District Square to set aside 45% of its units for low-income households. Appearing before the commission, she said her group is determined to protect residents living in “the last long-standing African American neighborhood in Los Angeles.”As the project changed, so has Wesson’s position on it.
The area planning commission was unmoved by the developers’ offer, voting to uphold challenges to the project from a neighborhood resident and from the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, a group focused on fighting gentrification.