In May, the National Trust named Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles to its 2024 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. One of only a few remaining Japantowns in the United States, the neighborhood was established by Japanese immigrants in the 1880s. Until World War II, when the federal government forced residents into incarceration camps, it was the largest Japanese American community in the country. Today the neighborhood still has some Japanese American residents and many Japanese American–owned businesses—such as Fugetsu-Do, a popular 121-year-old confectionary that specializes in mochi and manju.

A portion of the main drag, First Street North (shown above), is a National Historic Landmark. But development and an influx of chain businesses have damaged Little Tokyo’s character and driven up rents, threatening legacy establishments. “This is the only place we were allowed to be, and we’ve been fighting to stay here ever since,” says Kristin Fukushima, managing director of the Little Tokyo Community Council (LTCC).

LTCC is part of a coalition of groups, known collectively as Sustainable Little Tokyo (SLT), that are working to ensure the neighborhood can still support the small businesses, houses of worship, nonprofits, and residential communities that shape its identity. One of SLT’s lead partners, Little Tokyo Service Center, has successfully redeveloped existing structures, and it broke ground last year on a mixed-use building in collaboration with the Go For Broke National Education Center. The coalition hopes to take on similar projects in the future, rather than ceding them to for-profit developers. “One of our best preservation strategies is community control,” Fukushima says.