Inglewood is a beautiful city.

It’s my hometown; it’s where I was born, where I grew up and where I
again live.

In the interim of having been born and raised here and returning, I have spent time in the lovely communities of Los Feliz, downtown L.A., Lincoln Heights and Beijing, China. Nevertheless, Inglewood remains my beloved hometown.

On one hand, Inglewood is home to many Art Deco architectural gems like the Academy Theater on Manchester, the Fox Theatre on Market and the 5th Avenue Theatre (which the Chronicle would just love to acquire for its office) on Manchester; on the other hand, it is also one of the last cities in L.A. County to end segregation in its schools.

Why this bizarre set of figurative bookends? It is the range of news that the Morningside Park Chronicle will bring to the community: wonderful facts and hard ones too.

To be sure, Inglewood is not South Central, it is not the Westside, it is not the Eastside and it is certainly not the South Bay. Modern Inglewood is just Inglewood.

Inglewood is in a town in the center of it all. Like any city in America, we are all Americans from a plethora of heritages: Nigeria, Scotland, Belize, Germany, El Salvador, Sweden, Kenya, Mexico and more. We are young and old, immigrant and native-born. We’re middle class and working class. We’re Christian, Jewish and Muslim.

Inglewood is not one thing. We’re a mosaic of California culture. One thing Inglewood will cease to be is a stepping-stone for the would-be politicians.

As the publisher of the Morningside Park Chronicle, I will bring an objective view of Inglewood, a view of the city that represents the entire community: the business people, the politicians and the residents. It will be a view that is inclusive of our many communities such as those aforementioned, of the many vibrant underground and healthful scenes found in and offered by Arbor Village Co. (see page 5) and the Community Supported Agriculture (see page 6), of the established traditional values found in Morningside Park and the artful outlook being established in our burgeoning popular art scene like in Fairview Heights, and everything therein.

Welcome to the Morningside Park Chronicle, an independently owned newspaper in, from and for Inglewood.

Teka-Lark Fleming
- author palace