Beware the perils of the Community Redevelopment Agency in LA: The CRA’s affinity for corrupt reverends, dubious community activists, and outright crooks is legendary:

That developer with “legal and financial problems” in the Marlton Square debacle is the serial check bouncer and tax cheat Christopher Hammond, whose only visible skill is an ability to game the local political class. The agency’s partner in the two-decade-old Slauson Central Retail Center project is the highly questionable community group Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, which has a long history of taking public money for projects that never get built.

Oh, but they sound like they have good intentions, so they keep getting showered with public money, while controlling over $1 billion of real estate that never seems to get developed. And a potential partnership on a development project with Magic Johnson fell through because apparently he has a reputation for, you know, getting things done.