Victor Ahaiwe and Corinthian Ugdan are frustrated. For at least the last decade, the two entrepreneurs have struggled to keep their doors open and their businesses running as smoothly as possible in the face of a Marlton Square building project which began with high hopes of developing a top-notch mixed-use retail-residential development. But instead, over the course of almost 20 years, the project has gone through several developers and is on the way to having a third one.

Nearly 400 residents, parents, members of clergy, police officers, and community activists gathered at Crenshaw High School recently to participate in “Hands Around Crenshaw High School,” a community call to promote healing and unity.

Many attending said they were disturbed by the recent racial turbulence that broke out at Locke High School and hoped that this gathering would be the symbolic event that would promote peace in other schools in the Southland.