Charlie Tang grew up alongside his family’s restaurant.

Once just a busboy working for his parents, Tang is now the owner of Randy’s Donuts & Chinese Food, one of the last remaining staples of Inglewood’s past. As the once-bustling Market Street died around the small Chinese eatery over the past few decades, Tang’s small “mom and pop” business has somehow managed to survive everything thrown its way — until now, that is.

“We’ve been here 43 years and don’t get any say in the matter,” said Tang, standing outside his restaurant in a shopping center on Market Street — a shopping center where every business is set to be displaced.

Randy's Donuts & Chinese Food

What’s displacing them? An upcoming project called the Inglewood Transit Connector.

The Inglewood Transit Connector (ITC) is a 1.6-mile, fully-elevated railway that will connect the heart of the Inglewood sports scene to the rest of Los Angeles’ public transportation system. According to the city, it’ll help mitigate traffic and pollution concerns around the sports stadiums — especially important with the 2028 Olympics creeping closer. Additionally, it’ll close the first/last mile gap between Metro 15-5 K Line (Crenshaw/LAX Line) and the housing and employment centers, and sports and entertainment venues. On top of all of that, the bottom line is, it’ll also just make it easier to get around.

However, the benefits of the project come with a less obvious cost: the displacement of nearly 100 small businesses along the route. The proposed route would force out businesses at the intersection of Florence & Market Street, the North end of Market Street, and multiple buildings on Manchester Blvd. and Prairie Ave.

Fox Theatre on Market Street

How is the city allowed to do that? They’re using something called "eminent domain laws", which give the government the power to take property, even if the owner doesn’t want to sell. Under the fifth amendment, eminent domain must be “for a public use.”

“[Market Street] is supposed to be the face of Inglewood… and look at it, it’s a ghost town,” Tang said as he waved at a passing car that honked briefly to acknowledge him. “And now, when they finally are trying to [revitalize the area], they’re making us get out of the way to make room for it.”

The city will create a business interruption fund (BIF) to assist “mom and pop” businesses like Tang’s with any expenses or overall losses directly attributable to the ITC’s construction, as well as finding a new location if necessary. It is crucial for the businesses to have accounting of their revenue to be awarded any available funding under the BIF.

“Sure, they’ll help us try and find a new place, but we have no idea where, or if it will even be worth it,” said Tang. “There’s no point in trying to fight the city… if there isn’t a good place to move that’s still in this vicinity, we’ll probably just [close down].”

Either way, eminent domain laws make it so no businesses are given a say in the matter. And with the fact that multiple studies indicate Metro as a lead instigator of gentrification in Los Angeles, it’s easy to picture the effects the ITC can and will have on the surrounding community — more chain businesses and high-end stores/restaurants replacing small businesses, more high-income housing, etc.

“It’s going to be acquired and it will be a transit plaza,” said Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts on the shopping center Tang’s restaurant is in. “That’s exactly what [the BIF] is for. It’s to help with business relocation if necessary.”

Some might see these changes as positive, but whose call is that really to make? The people of Inglewood? Consulting agencies? At the end of the day, right or wrong, it’s the city government.

“It’s part of a big plan,” said Butts. “When I came back, I had a vision. The first vision was to reopen the forum, and we negotiated a deal with Madison Square Garden. Then we began negotiations with the NFL and Rams, then Youtube, then [many others]... So this is a vision and a plan. And Market Street is the final component of that, the revitalization of Market Street.”

Mayor Butts says the welfare of the existing businesses in the ITC’s path is high on the list of priorities for the city. Despite that, the project must go on.

“The reality is that when you have such a revolution, there are gonna be several options for businesses,” said Butts of Inglewood’s revitalization. “The beautiful thing is that Inglewood’s an embryo right now. Even though we’ve solidified the entertainment core of the city, Market Street had died a long time ago and there are a lot of empty storefronts on Market Street. So there are a lot of opportunities in the immediate vicinity.”

With all of the side effects of the ITC, though, something else sure to happen is an increase in average rent — an issue the residents of Inglewood have already been experiencing in recent years, resulting from SoFi Stadium.

“I drive around Inglewood, and I see suddenly, these big apartment buildings going up,” said Erin Aubry-Kaplan, a longtime resident of Inglewood who regularly writes op-ed pieces about her city for the LA Times and other outlets. “It’s like a general problem in L.A., that they’re building all this housing for a very small pool of people.”

Additionally, the construction of the upcoming Intuit Dome (future home of the L.A. Clippers) right next to SoFi Stadium is already underway. It’s worth noting that this project was approved only on the condition that the ITC would be built as well to help mitigate the extra traffic and pollution resulting from the new arena, along with SoFi.

But Aubry Kaplan believes the city ought to fix the existing issues that have resulted from SoFi before creating more.

“It keeps getting sold to the residents that this is great for the city, it’s gonna, you know, put us on the international stage and yada yada, but on a day-to-day level, it’s terrible. That SoFi traffic’s dreadful. You don't just build it and then, you know, it turns the area into this great hip, hot place. In fact, research has shown that actually, sports venues — cities, affluent cities, don't want them in their town. You're not gonna see a sports venue in Beverly Hills, because it brings traffic, it brings noise, it brings people they don't want into the neighborhood.”

Despite the ITC project not yet being fully funded (just $400 million of the $1.2 billion has been secured to date), the City is pressing forward with consultants to provide relocation services for properties slated for eminent domain. The Inglewood Public Works Department continues requesting Measure R funds be allocated to consultants for activities relating to the ITC. Measure R, passed by L.A. County voters in 2008, introduced a half-cent sales tax to finance new transportation projects and programs. In other words, Measure R is your tax dollars. Metro has already awarded Inglewood approximately $300 million in Measure R funds.

They seem to very much plan on getting it fully funded.

“Like I said, we aren’t gonna fight the city or anything,” said Tang. “At least it will be cool to see what the train does for Inglewood.”