On any given weekend, Degnan Boulevard, bookmarked by West forty third Road, vibrates with exercise. As you stroll down the road, the sound of African drums blends into Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” The music comes from huge audio system propped beside varied avenue distributors: individuals promoting garments, books, hashish, sea moss and extra.
A buyer lifts up a prayer plant.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
In case you proceed this informal stroll north, you’ll finally spot an orange wall with inexperienced accents. The distributors’ music — Stevie Marvel is taking part in now — flows by way of its low gate. As you observe it, you step right into a verdant oasis. A large open inexperienced house large enough for 2 boys to cross their soccer ball backwards and forwards offers strategy to a greenhouse teeming with “wishlist plants.” And should you’re courageous sufficient to step deeper into the lot, but clearly not assured in ascertaining a Golden Pothos from a Pothos N’Pleasure, a lady with a heat smile will strategy you kindly.
“Welcome to the Plant Chica. Have you visited us before?”
In spring 2023, builders within the shortly gentrifying West Adams neighborhood handed Sandra Mejia a 90-day eviction discover on the lease for her plant retailer, the Plant Chica, a enterprise she began in 2018. Having a bricks-and-mortar retailer was a dream for the onetime medical assistant. Subsequently, Mejia needed to reckon with whether or not to open herself as much as extra emotional turmoil as she looked for a brand new location to reopen in.
“We were super sad about losing the space and we were having a really hard time letting go of it,” mentioned Mejia, who co-owns the Plant Chica together with her husband, Bantalem Adis. “I felt like I was never going to find anything as special as that space was — not just for me but for the community.”
Whereas the Plant Chica continued to finish on-line orders after the eviction, Mejia doubted whether or not to proceed the enterprise in any respect. Enterprise had been gradual throughout winter 2023; and though the group poured right into a GoFundMe web page devoted to serving to the shop keep afloat, Mejia and her husband had offered or given away almost their total stock earlier than closing. “Should I be doing this?” Mejia requested herself.
Co-owners of the Plant Chica, Sandra Mejia, left, and Bantam Adis, at their outdated West Adams location in 2022.
(Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Occasions)
Satirically, it was a 2023 Occasions story revealed concerning the retailer’s eviction plight that led Mejia to an answer. Robbie Lee, interim chief government officer of the Black Owned and Operated Neighborhood Land Belief, learn the article and thought Mejia may be an excellent match for what his group was attempting to construct in Leimert Park, the guts of Black Los Angeles.
“The energy that she brought to the area that she was at in West Adams was something that we specifically felt would be a good energy for Leimert,” Lee mentioned. “She seemed to have some really strong ties to the South L.A. community and she seemed to also have an interest in being a part of a community that was really tied to a community of color and culture. And so we felt that it would be a good fit to try to help support her in identifying a space.”
At first, Lee confirmed Mejia a couple of bricks-and-mortar choices on Degnan Boulevard, however they didn’t fairly match the greenhouse really feel Mejia was in search of. Then Lee walked Mejia over to an empty lot managed by Neighborhood Construct Inc., the L.A.-based nonprofit providing training, coaching, assist companies and employment placement help. The lot had beforehand been rented for varied group and personal occasions all year long, however in any other case it sat unattended to.
Dana Gills Mycoo, left, and Martin Mycoo store for houseplants on the new Plant Chica retailer in Leimert Park.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
Reopening would take a variety of sacrifice — specifically, in March 2024, Mejia and her husband had to surrender their place and transfer in together with her mother and father to save cash. However Mejia immediately knew she discovered the store’s new dwelling.
“It feels like the space was literally sitting here waiting for us because it cannot be any more perfect for us,” she mentioned.
After signing the lease in June 2024, the Plant Chica reopened in Leimert Park Village in October.
Initially, the Plant Chica retailer, which opened on Jefferson Boulevard in West Adams in 2021, had been an outdated auto physique store that was retrofitted to be a greenhouse. However with the open lot in Leimert Park, Mejia might craft the plant store of her desires: an enormous dome-style greenhouse designed to be weather-resilient.
“It just feels so magical, especially when the sun is hitting the greenhouse, the way the sun bounces on the leaves,” Mejia mentioned. “I always also wanted rocks, which I know is something so small, but to me, to be able to hear people walking on rocks is so therapeutic.”
The brand new house can be particular for one more cause: The open house permits Mejia to extra simply facilitate the group occasions and collaborations she is well-known for.
Sandra Mejia, left, helps Reginald Alston pick a plant.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
“Most people see a plant shop,” mentioned Jasmine Clennon, 36, a daily buyer and good friend of the shop. “We see a communal space so we can come together.”
Clennon is aware of Mejia by way of their children and recollects Mejia turning the brand new store’s garden right into a Halloween get together for the kiddos after trick-or-treating. Different hallmark Plant Chica occasions embody queer poetry readings hosted by Cuties Los Angeles, yoga courses hosted by Black Ladies’s Yoga Collective, and naturally, the shop’s in style Undertake-a-Plant sequence.
“How do I say this without getting emotional?” mentioned Clennon on a latest journey to the plant retailer as her school-aged daughter performed at her ft. “Seeing her resiliency, opening it back up and specifically being intentional about it being in a Black community, is great.”
Prospects browse the Plant Chica greenhouse.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
This significance can be not misplaced on Mejia, who shared that the transplant identities of most of the enterprise house owners in West Adams precluded her from feeling related to them.
“In West Adams, I was trying to create community, and it was kind of exhausting,” she mentioned. “There’s already so much culture here [in Leimert Park]. I just get to add to that.”
Mejia added that she feels exceptionally seen and supported in Leimert Park, which lends itself to a pure reciprocity on her half.
“A lot of businesses will take, take, take and not put back into the neighborhoods they’re in,” she mentioned. “But I think it’s different when you’re from the neighborhood. You’re like ‘No, I grew up here. I want to see this neighborhood thrive.’”
For her half, Mejia created maps of the historic Degnan strip to offer to her prospects. The thought, she mentioned, is “Don’t just get back in your car after visiting the Plant Chica. Here’s this map. Go support the other businesses.”
That peer-support contains companies discovered on the Plant Chica’s personal garden.
Proprietor Sandra Mejia provides free greenhouse house to different small companies to promote their merchandise.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
Amorette Brooms, 47, ran a storefront on Pico Boulevard for over a decade earlier than monetary shortfalls within the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic pressured her to shut down. When the Plant Chica reopened in Leimert Park, Brooms reached out to Mejia through social media to see if they might collaborate ultimately. She was shocked when Mejia supplied her a free house to promote her merchandise as an alternative.
“I was like ‘What do you mean you’re not going to charge me?’” mentioned Brooms, who sells planters. “It kind of restores my faith in humanity.”
At present, 4 companies, Brooms’ Queen, Louis LIV Design, Golden Backyard and Plant Man P, promote their merchandise rent-free on the Plant Chica. The retail mannequin permits small enterprise house owners to totally promote by way of their stock with out falling prey to pop-up occasions that sometimes go away them within the gap, Brooms mentioned.
Now Brooms, in flip, is planning to deliver her Tiny Plant Desk sequence — a play on NPR’s in style Tiny Desk sequence — to the Plant Chica. Which for Mejia is precisely the purpose of giving again.
Sandra Mejia, proprietor of the Plant Chica.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
“I feel like people support us so much because they know that if they spend money here, there’s going to be an awesome event that’s going to be free to the community, which is hard to get,” Mejia mentioned.
Along with serving to prospects with their plant picks, Mejia additionally rings them up on the register after which busies herself with tidying and organizing the store. She has no workers, however she nonetheless has formidable objectives. Two weeks in the past, she formally filed the paperwork for her nonprofit, co-founded with Brooms, Plant Energy to the Folks. And he or she’s hoping to arrange a Los Angeles Earth Day Competition, hosted in Leimert Park, by April. To outsiders, Mejia’s pursuits and tasks could seem overwhelming, however the place Mejia had doubts about her future a 12 months in the past, she now is aware of she’s precisely the place she’s meant to be.
“People are always like ‘Oh, you do so much for your community,’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, but my community does a lot for me too,’” she mentioned, explaining that group members cleaned her wind-strewn garden within the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires whereas she was busy organizing donations for Altadena residents who misplaced their houses. “I’m being so fulfilled and feeling like I’m walking in my purpose, and as a person, I don’t know that there’s anything greater than to be like, damn, I love what I do.”
It’s not possible to not really feel this love — this sense of group — once you stroll by way of the Plant Chica’s Degnan Avenue gate buzzing the soulful tunes — Luther Vandross is taking part in now — of the distributors outdoors.
“I feel like everything is a lesson,” Mejia mentioned. “[My son] saw us open on Jefferson and he cut the ribbon then. And then, he cut the ribbon again here in Leimert Park. I think that was super special because it shows him that if things sometimes may not go your way, you can’t just give up. You got to keep going and find new ways.”
The signal for the Plant Chica’s new location.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)