Many small businesses in Los Angeles County have been forced to assess whether they can weather the storm of the pandemic. A recent study estimated that about half of all the small businesses in the county will close forever because of COVID-19.
Some local restaurants and stores are asking their customers for help or turning to GoFundMe campaigns to stay open. Others are petitioning to make their business into a historic cultural monument.
But Alissa Walker, urbanism editor at Curbed, says that while saving businesses is a good thing, not every building needs to stay the way it is.