I ran this co-op for awhile. It's gone now.
West Los Angeles is less for it being gone.
I was trying to change stuff for the good. The interaction was intense. I got to educate. I got to meet strange people.
I got to decide what to do when some messed up street guy came in and stole a piece of meat.
I got to decide what to do when our hot young bookkeeper asked me to help her because she was being sexually harassed by one of the local crack dealers.
I told her I'd take care of it. I went outside and looked for the dude.
I got right in his face. I told him I was not okay with his harassing my employee.
Right. Up. In. His. Face.
He backed down. Then the next day, he waltzed into the store and started complaining about being abused.
I ignored him, pretty much.
I gave him a little acknowledgment.
But he knew he lost.
My bookkeeper left after awhile. That was cool. I hope she made some money as a model, or in the movies. Nice girl.
The whole place died down, eventually. Whole Foods started up there, near the intersection of Brooks and Lincoln.
I made history, though.
I cared about my employees. They did kind of crazy stuff sometimes. Fuck, they were only making about $5 an hour.
(this was back around 1991).
They asked me to prop them up? I said okay.
They asked for outs? I said okay.
They messed with me, because they could not figure out how to let me know that I wasn't being there for them the way I should?
I didn't like it. But I said okay.
I left because I couldn't handle the robberies.
Every week, for three months.
I was the manager.
Had a great front guy; another Michael.
African-American. I heard he wound up getting into the police force. We should all have such good police.
Michael cashiered, and he worked with the produce some. Stalwart guy. I still feel guilty that I didn't work out how to keep him from having to deal with so many robbers.
We got it on tape sometimes. He'd throw up his hands, say; "Okay, okay. You got it."
The cops came by once, watched a video I took, hiding in the back room.
Robber came in, looked at the camera over the checkout counter.
Took off his mask to look at it more closely.
Cops looked at that, laughed.
They didn't stop our robberies, though.
That wasn't the agenda.
Maybe our excellent VOP Michael has become one of the L.A. police. Maybe he's changed something.
I sure with so. Because he rocked. He was a great guy, and he was there for me, when I was managing that store.
Decent guy. Smart.
Black. Very black.