Game 52: Edward Vincent - Ginger Cookies

“I’m tired of people saying that they’re from Inglewood, when they should stick their chests out and say INGLEWOOD. - Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent, 1990”

“Yeah, Inglewood. Inglewood always up to no good. - Dr. Dre, 1996”

Last December, I went to The Forum in Inglewood for the first time in 13 years. For that previous trip, my dad took me to The Forum to see a decrepit Bob Dylan -- he barely strummed his guitar and his voice made me think he was literally knockin’ on Heaven's door -- perform 2006’s incarnation of his Never Ending Tour. This time, my girlfriend and I were there to see another legacy act from the 1960s, Dead & Company. Unlike the other iconic L.A. venues near us like the Hollywood Bowl (a 2 mile Lyft and a 15 minute walk up Highland), the Greek Theatre (a 30 minute walk through the Los Feliz hills), or Staples Center (6 stops on the Red Line and a 15 minute walk), The Forum is not an easy place to get to for many Angelenos. That’s doubly true when you’re trying to avoid driving after a Grateful Dead concert, maaaan.

Inglewood is in Los Angeles’ South Bay region, a hub for L.A.’s aerospace, oil refinery, and Japanese manufacturing industries that contains picturesque Beach Cities like Hermosa and Redondo, diverse working class towns like Gardena and Carson, and megarich gated communities like Rolling Hills Estates, a place that make Beverly Hills look like a shanty town. Like its neighbor to the east, South Central -- a place that Lynell George once described by writing that outsiders knew more “about ancient cities and dead civilizations -- the chalices the elders drank from or the raiments warriors wore — than we do about day-to-day life in South Central Los Angeles." -- the South Bay is a place misunderstood by both foreigners and Angelenos alike, including yours truly. I am the farthest thing from an expert on Inglewood, but one thing I do know is that like its immediate forefathers Echo Park, Highland Park, and Boyle Heights, this city is undergoing rapid gentrification. What makes it different is that it’s being brought on by the return of a status symbol that left it decades earlier: A sports arena.

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Prior to The Forum’s 1967 opening, Inglewood, which was founded in 1888 by Daniel Freeman (that’s him in the drawing up top by Japanese artist Toshio Aoki), was best known for quaint symbols of early 20th century America, like the first Foster Freeze or… one of the country’s most powerful KKK chapters. For decades, the police departments of Inglewood, Los Angeles, and other cities recruited brutal enforcers from the Inglewood KKK. For most of the 20th century, black people did not live in Inglewood. It was a death sentence. 

KKK marching in Inglewood Park Cemetery across from where The Forum now stands.

But the racial make-up of the city began to change in the 1960s. By the end of the decade, Inglewood’s first black police chief, Harold P. Moret, was sworn into power. And in that same turning of the decade’s page, The Fabulous Forum, as it was called by locals, opened up as the new $16 million home for Jack Kent Cooke’s Lakers and Kings. Like the latest incarnation of Madison Square Garden, which opened the following year, The Forum not only became a mecca for basketball but one of the top music venues in the country. The venue was also located directly next to Hollywood Park Racetrack, a gambler’s destination since its opening in 1938. Together, the two buildings turned the sleepy town near the airport into a bustling hub of activity and a destination for millions of Angelenos and tourists who might’ve otherwise never traveled down to the intersection of Manchester and Prairie.

Inglewood, like much of the inland cities of the South Bay, became a destination for blacks, Latinos, and Asians looking for a nice middle class life in Los Angeles. By 2000, the Inglewood’s black and Latino population combined to make up 93% of the city. But 2000 was also the first year, part of the 1999-2000 NBA and NHL seasons, that The Forum went without its two biggest tenants, the Lakers and Kings, who moved into DTLA’s shiny new Staples Center. Within a couple years, the WNBA’s Sparks had left too, leaving The Forum completely vacant. 

Inglewood residents were devastated and the local economy suffered. Economic studies purporting that cities make money when sports arenas are built (always with public funds) have been proven to be nothing but bullshit. But ripping a team away from a town does a hell of a lot of damage, both personal and economic. According to the LA Times, "businesses left, its signature Market Street deteriorated," and to residents like Bob Watson, "We just dried up out of sight." 

In 2000, The Forum was sold to Faithful Central Bible Church. They held megachurch services on Sundays and rented out the arena to (church-approved) musical acts. But the arena showed its age. Its acoustics were far better than those at Staples Center -- Bruce Springsteen famously vowed to never play it again after he and the E Street Band opened it in 1999 -- but it lacked modern money-making amenities like luxury boxes and hadn’t had an upgrade to its dilapidated seats in years. The church planned to expand around the arena, but their plans never broke ground.

In 2013, Hollywood Park Racetrack finally closed its doors, though its 19 year old casino remained. Long-lasting rumors that the NFL would bring back a team began to gain heat now that L.A. County had an open spot of land to attract a team (or two). In the midst of this gossip, Madison Square Garden’s parent company bought The Forum and spent $100 million in renovations to return it to its former glory as a top notch music venue in 2014. Then a year later, the Inglewood City Council unanimously approved the building of a gigantic new football stadium and entertainment complex on the former grounds of Hollywood Park. The NFL’s return to L.A. in the form of a multibillion Inglewood stadium wasn’t the only warning sign to renters and business owners. In late 2019, Inglewood approved Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s plan to move the Clippers from DTLA to Inglewood with a state of the art arena and practice facility.

MSG repainted The Forum to its original red color in 2014.

All of these events have caused real estate speculators and developers, who had targeted Inglewood for years for its proximity to Silicon Beach and its potential to gentrify, to pump ungodly amounts of money into the city. L.A. County has seen its black population drop by 10% since the start of the millenium, largely due to the city’s legacy of racist policies, but now the once unthinkable is happening: White homeowners are returning to a city that was abandoned by them when the KKK and its descendents in blue died off. And their arrival is bringing the usual symbols of gentrification: The corporate chains in some parts, the hip coffee shops in others, and the ubiquitous e-scooters. Erin Aubrey Kaplan writing for the LA Times said: “That first scooter on the corner brought a rush of fear; it seemed like an alien space ship bringing a dangerous substance from another universe.”

Unless they’re lucky enough to fully own their home or the property their business operates on, countless Inglewood residents are being displaced by rising rents and eviction notices. That this is happening after many of them weathered the economic storms of the last 20+ years is crushingly similar to the same story taking place in too many neighborhoods across L.A. The Inglewood City Council has finally reacted to protect its citizens by instituting rent control, but it’s too late. They invited the NFL to transform Inglewood without passing laws to protect the people most affected by its “revitalization.”

Inglewood, always up to no good.

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Ginger Cookies

¾ cup shortening

1 cup sugar

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

Melt shortening -- cool -- add sugar, molasses, and egg. Beat well -- add dry ingredients -- chill 1-2 hours. Roll into 1-inch balls in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees (8-10 minutes).

Don’t judge a ginger cookie by the cover. Yes, these cookies look hideous. And the night I baked them, only the gooey middle part tasted good. I was planning on tossing out the whole batch that night, but I fell asleep. And the next morning, I was in a rush and left the tray out. Thank Magic, I did.

Over the day they were left out, they had softened just enough for me to put them in a Tupperware. By the next morning, some process of humidity and goo-ification had caused them to become incredible soft and moist. I’m eating one right now as I type this. I wholeheartedly recommend this recipe. But unlike my preparation, you’d do best to actually roll them into 1 inch balls instead of the 1 to 3 inch balls I made. What can I say? I don’t like following the rules, maaaan.