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Inglewood Entrepreneurs Help To Revitalize City's Once-Struggling Image

INGLEWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Named Los Angeles' 2014 Neighborhood of the Year by one real estate blog, a big move is underway in Inglewood to revamp its once-struggling image.

Curbed L.A. recently gave the city of slightly more than 100,000 people the distinction, beating out Koreatown, South Park and Los Feliz.

The publication mentioned the newly revamped Forum, which Betty Porter says "has first-rate shows and venues."

"I see people mellowing out and walking in the neighborhood and making it friendly and comfortable for everybody to live and be happy," Porter said.

"We have no food like this in Inglewood," explained Lynda Credit, a business owner, who saw a need and decided to fill it by opening her eatery, the Rusty Pot Café, in the heart of the city.

"We have to go out to Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Venice, places like that, and I decided, 'Well, why not bring that food to Inglewood?'" she said.

She is one of several new business owners helping to revitalize the city, which may become the site of a new NFL stadium in light of Monday's proposal.

Lynne Weaver, another Inglewood business owner, also saw an underserved market.

She recently opened a 12,000-square-foot brewery called Three Weavers Brewing Co.

"I think that it's assisted in bringing people outside of Inglewood who have this preconception of what Inglewood is," Weaver said.

Weaver and her brewmaster decided to open in Inglewood as rent was about half that on the Westside.

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