The Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund (LTCIF) Organizing Committee is holding its second community meeting in the South Bay. The Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute will co-sponsor this community meeting with LTCIF which will present the concept of a socially responsible corporation that will invest funds in planned and impactful real estate purchases to provide stability and support for legacy and community related business, non-profits, artists and cultural groups. Please join us to learn how to get involved in this important initiative to help preserve and maintain a vibrant, community focused Little Tokyo!

Members of the Organizing Committee will make presentations and be available for Q & A and discussion.

From our website:

Little Tokyo is a thriving community that emphasizes the heritage of U.S. born and Shin Nikkei Japanese Americans as well as the home of other Asian American organizations and a diverse residential community. Little Tokyo serves as a social, cultural, business, social service, athletic, political and religious hub, that expresses and shares our ethnic identity. Without Little Tokyo, we might never have had a JANM, a JACCC or an LTSC or held the rallies that organized support and won WWII redress. The four Buddhist temples and three Christian churches reflect Little Tokyo’s role as a spiritual center.

Little Tokyo is part of our contribution to the diverse neighborhoods that strengthen the social and economic vibrancy of the region.

A Little Tokyo Community Investment Fund will be established in which individual, corporate, or foundation supporters can invest funds in planned and impactful real estate purchases which will generate reasonable but below-market returns in order to provide some rent control for legacy and community-related businesses to operate in Little Tokyo (or possibly other local Nikkei communities).

The Little Tokyo Community Investment Fund is created to bring together individual, corporate and foundation supporters to invest funds in planned and impactful real estate purchases that will enable Little Tokyo and Japanese American legacy and community-related businesses, nonprofits, artists and cultural groups, faith-based institutions and other community-related businesses to operate in Little Tokyo.