LOS ANGELES (CN) — At a hair salon on Los Angeles’ Southside, owner Mae Shaw sits in a barbershop recliner, chatting with a friend as seven-year-old Darren Rickenbacker gets his hair cut. Outside, a two-way river of traffic trickles across the bumpy street.
Pedestrians pour out of the Metro light-rail trains and convulse into a stream of people darting towards their destinations. The prominent black church West Angeles Cathedral towers over the junction as the clangor of earth-mover engines bellows from a construction site across the street.
Shaw’s shop sits in a small shopping plaza at the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Crenshaw, steps away from a major transit hub set to open in 2019.
When the underground Expo/Crenshaw rail line station opens it will add a critical Westside transit node to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority system. The rail project, which broke ground in 2014, will provide a highly sought rail connection to LAX, one of the busiest airports in the world. It will extend south from Crenshaw and connect with the Green Line in the South Bay.
The massive transit project covers three parcels of land near the Expo and Crenshaw intersection. It’s one of 12 projects funded by Measure R, the half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.
Crenshaw has one of the highest concentrations of black people in Los Angeles, 71 percent in Baldwin Village/Crenshaw and 79 percent in Leimert Park, according to data analyzed by the Los Angeles Times.
In a statement, Metro said the project will provide an “alternative transportation option to congested roadways” and provide “economic development and employment opportunities.” The line will serve the cities of Los Angeles, Inglewood, El Segundo, and portions of unincorporated LA, Metro said.
At the shop, Darren finished his haircut and sat down next to his father Damon Rickenbaker, who said he is excited about the future rail line.
“It would be great to get to LAX on a clean and safe transit option,” he said.
Rickenbacker, who has lived in the community area for 43 years, said he is a “progressive thinker on transit.” He hasn’t found it easy to find information about the transit project.
He said he would like Metro to demonstrate its progress to ease residents’ frustration with increasing car traffic.
“People feel out of the loop and inconvenienced,” Rickenbacker said. “We need to know there is an end in sight.”
Shaw’s business has been disrupted for long stretches of time during construction. Clients couldn’t access the shop because sidewalks were blocked. Others stayed away from Crenshaw because of traffic. Some days, the shop’s water would be cut.
Metro connected her to support that provided some financial relief funds.
“The grants helped us stay open financially but they didn’t cover everything, in terms of operation costs,” she said. “We are just trying to come back now.”
She said she has seen an increase in traffic and police visibility. There is more racial diversity, which she said she likes. She said she wants to hire people of different races to serve the changing community.
“[Racial diversity] brings people together,” she said. “It demands improvement in the community.”
Shaw first moved to nearby Leimert Park in the late 1950s, after political leaders in Arkansas shut down schools due to a mandate of racial integration. She didn’t mind the switch. “The California weather can’t be beat,” she said.
Shaw said she is optimistic about the project, hoping it will bring in more businesses that residents want such as grocery stores. The opening of the Expo Line station in 2012 was good for the community, she said, because it reduced some congestion initially, and offered residents a path to visit Santa Monica beach.