In the Fall of 2024, the Protect LA’s Garment Jobs Coalition — garment workers and local fashion businesses who came together to fight against the displacement of the garment industry — celebrated key victories in the Downtown LA 2040 Community Plan, which was unanimously passed by Los Angeles City Council.
Following a lengthy, multi-year process, the final version of the DTLA 2040 Community Plan now includes key provisions that will help protect and preserve the garment manufacturing industry in LA’s historic Fashion District.
Read more about the campaign’s history in this recent article, “LA Garment Workers Vindicated in Final City Council Vote for DTLA 2040 Plan.”
“There is No Fashion District Without Garment Workers,” said many signs held by garment workers and members of the Garment Worker Center at City Council. This has become a refrain of garment workers working in Downtown’s historic Fashion District in an effort to protect their job sites from being displaced by luxury development.
“We’d like to thank City Council and Department of City Planning for accepting our recommendations. And we’d like to thank city council offices for meeting with us and hearing our concerns, especially the offices of Councilmembers Price and Hernandez,” said Garment Worker Center member Maria Celaya.
Garment workers and the Protect LA’s Garment Jobs Coalition successfully advocated for years for changes to be included in the final draft of the plan to preserve, protect, and incentivize the garment industry in Downtown LA. Those changes, now to become official, include:
1. A prohibition on new hotels in the Fashion District
2. A prohibition on conversion of viable industrial spaces into luxury lofts from 7th street to Santee, to 16th St to Crocker St.
3. Incentives to build more housing if a property owner dedicates 50% of their building to manufacturing in buildings from Broadway to 7th St to Crocker St to 16th St.
4. The establishment of a taskforce to study what resources and trainings are needed to support workers and garment businesses throughout the region
5. Protections against displacement of garment businesses in existing buildings
6. A requirement to include manufacturing space in new construction in one subsection of the Fashion District.
7. A requirement to protect freight elevators and loading bays in one subsection of the Fashion District.
“We commend City Council for including our recommendations in the DTLA 2040 Community Plan. Garment workers and local garment businesses organized diligently to have their voices heard and included in the City’s plans,” said Garment Worker Center Executive Director Marissa Nuncio in a statement following the final vote in late 2024.
“But there is still much work to be done at a local level in regards to bolstering an industry that has called the Fashion District home for over 130 years,” Nuncio continued. “We look forward to working with the City and various stakeholders to continue supporting the garment industry and the thousands of highly skilled workers who call LA home.”