![]() It is the Little Tokyo Community Council. A previous version of this story said Kristin Fukushima is the managing director of the Little Tokyo Service Center. “But we’re coming back as soon as we can.”ġ:56 p.m. “It breaks my heart to know we’re not going to be there,” said Suzuki. When Suzuki took over in 1991, the restaurant was more of a community project than the work of any one chef or individual, he said. They made friends who helped them handle the restaurant’s finances and eventually found enough regulars to create a sustaining business. They added their customers’ favorites to the menu and encouraged staff members to add their own dishes, such as oroshi soba - buckwheat noodles topped with dashi, grated daikon, green onions and seaweed. The sisters often subsisted on spoiled produce so they could have money to pay their staff. “Okyakusama wa kamisama desu,” Junko would often say. ![]() But they cultivated strong relationships with their suppliers, customers and employees. When they started the restaurant, they were primarily hoping they could host mah-jongg nights there. His mother, Junko Suzuki, and her younger sister, Yuriko Morita Regaert, knew little about running a business. But what made Suehiro unique was that it was run by two women at a time when female entrepreneurship was rare, Suzuki said. Known for its extensive menu and late hours, Suehiro Cafe opened in 1972 as an American diner that later incorporated Japanese comfort food, much like neighborhood institutions such as Kouraku and Mitsuru Cafe. But it is becoming clear that rail development’s biggest benefits so far are for property owners, not historic communities and small businesses that rent their spaces. Planners have stated in the past that the new route would open in early 2023, and Metro in April began test runs of the 1.9-mile light rail tunnel connecting the 7th Street/Metro Center stop to Union Station. It’s not clear when Metro’s regional connector will open. “But I don’t think anyone anticipated all of these changes.” “The word from Metro has always been the regional connector, when completed, will be the second-most frequently traveled after Union Station, and that foot traffic would increase,” Muranaka said. Now some of those businesses are not around to enjoy the benefits. Many Little Tokyo business owners believed rail construction would help them and supported the development. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, said Gwen Muranaka, editor in chief of the Japanese American newspaper the Rafu Shimpo. But I’m disturbed by the similarities between this modern wave of transit development and the destructive development of the California freeway system in the 1940s.īack then, boosters justified the wholesale destruction of Black, Latino and Asian communities in the name of “progress.” Now progress demands that we build rail, and again, it’s communities in Chinatown, South Los Angeles, Koreatown, Little Tokyo and Boyle Heights that are suffering. Rail and mass transit in general are essential to any city’s future, and tough decisions about mass transit are essential to the future of downtown Los Angeles. City programs meant to encourage dense development near trains have sparked a building boom around Koreatown’s subway stations, driving up residential rents. In Inglewood, longtime businesses struggle to survive the decline in foot traffic brought about by construction. Chinatown’s swap meets, once home to a majority of the area’s small business owners, are facing redevelopment. Longtime businesses, many of whose owners supported rail construction, now face steep rent hikes and evictions. Metro stations in Chinatown, Inglewood and Koreatown have contributed to a rapid escalation in property values. But heritage businesses in ethnic neighborhoods facing the same quandary around Los Angeles are not all so lucky. Suzuki plans to move the restaurant to a Main Street location a few blocks away and hopes to open the new space by June if all goes well. In-state business license records show Sperl as a partner in a limited liability corporation called Tokyo Greens registered in 2018, and he’s been seen gathering support at community meetings for a cannabis business in the area.
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