Father Alexis Ibarra’s weekly Sunday Mass announcements at St. John Chrysostom Church in Inglewood might mention an upcoming Billie Eilish concert at the Kia Forum, an international soccer match at SoFi Stadium, or an updated tipoff time of a Clippers’ NBA playoff game at Intuit Dome.
It’s merely a heads-up.
The parishioners of Inglewood’s only Catholic parish for more than 100 years know the drill by now. Navigating the latest swirl of traffic patterns, all the main entryways might be worth an extra prayer.
“Come early, be patient,” Ibarra said he reminds them.
For the handful of Catholic institutions around the LAX Airport/Inglewood area, the rapid pace of change in just a few years has brought both stiffer challenges and new opportunities for the communities they serve.
At Ibarra’s parish, the most noticeable sign of that change is the brand-new Metro Rail K Line. Every few minutes, train cars zip past the front steps of St. John Chrysostom, delaying cars waiting to turn left on the church’s Centinela Avenue entrance.
Parents check their GPS apps for alternative routes as they drop off and pick up students from St. Mary’s Academy, the all-girls school around the corner on Prairie Avenue, or drive children to a CYO flag football game a few miles away at St. Frances X. Cabrini’s new all-purpose field on Imperial Avenue.
Those who regularly seek assistance at St. Margaret’s Center in Lennox also may get a break — their lawns and driveways might sell as a parking spot for the day.
“I think you could say we’ve benefitted from it all, and we’ve suffered inconveniences from it all,” said Ibarra, whose arrival as pastor at St. John Chrysostom coincided with the SoFi Stadium opening in September 2020.
Ibarra said his parish welcomes the civic outreach and spike in activity, but acknowledges there are “traditions and customs that might be challenged if more money or gentrification or entitlement comes with it.
“It has to be a shared benefit.”
The benefits on the church campus, for example, are evident from the new hardwood flooring in the school gym. The Clippers helped with that (and embossed their new logo) while also resealing the school’s outdoor basketball court.
Upgrades have also come from the Doheny Foundation, Shea Family Charities, and Parishioners Federal Credit Union, as well as local support from OP Electrical plus Edward and Mary White.
Some of the 10,000-plus parish families own local businesses and work around the church’s schedule of six weekend Masses. Younger families moving into the area help repopulate the school to where it has reached nearly 300 students, trending upward since the COVID pandemic.
“The energy has been a great blessing to our school community,” said Principal Miguel Arizmendi, whose school has absorbed some students since the recent closure of St. Augustine Catholic School in Culver City. “The changes have made a real impact. Longtime residents and new families have found a true home.”
More activity. More adaptation.
“Changes bring certain expectations,” said Ibarra. “We have to be there with the grace of offering a Catholic presence.”
When Inglewood adopted the nickname “City of Champions” by then-Mayor Edward Vincent after the Los Angeles Lakers captured the 1972 NBA title at the former Great Western Forum, the civic pride became a branding opportunity.
But the Lakers and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings moved in 1999 to downtown LA. Then the Hollywood Park racetrack, which gave the city its first major sporting venue in the 1930s, closed in 2013.
City planners expected to use that land for community expansion, but the ownership of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams successfully pushed for the construction of SoFi Stadium, bringing along the Chargers from San Diego. As a result, there is an NFL home game nearly every Sunday in Inglewood from September through Christmas.
Last August, the Clippers left downtown LA to move into their new Inglewood digs on Century Boulevard near the busy Hollywood Park Casino.
The city reclaimed its “champion” status when the Rams won Super Bowl LVI on its home field in 2022, and more super-sized events are coming.
This summer, SoFi Stadium helped host the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer tournament, a primer for hosting some matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup next summer. It will host Super Bowl LXI in early 2027. Then in 2028, it will be one of the most important venues of the Summer Olympics in LA.
Meanwhile, Intuit Dome, which has the NBA All Star game in February 2026, will host Olympic basketball matches in 2028.
St. John Chrysostom school enjoyed the spoils of victory after the Rams’ Super Bowl title with an ice cream-and-cookies party, complete with Rams cheerleaders. It was the result of a friendly wager Archbishop José H. Gomez won with Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati, who supported his Bengals, and a fundraiser generated scholarships for St. John Chrysostom students.
The next wave of sports stars could be from St. John Chrysostom’s school, which is among the 75 inner-city schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles aligned with the nonprofit St. Sebastian Sports Project (SSSP) to help underserved sports programs.
St. Frances X. Cabrini School in South LA — a few blocks from the Inglewood city limits — has been the benefactor of the $1.4 million all-purpose “Sister Johnnie Field” for soccer and flag football since 2021, funded by the Shea Foundation.
The Chargers’ pledge of support is on one of the banners lining the field.
“The kids get saucer-eyed when they see the field, because they aren’t used to having this as a Catholic elementary school,” said SSSP Executive Director Clare Gurbach, whose group donated funds to sponsor the Cabrini field scoreboard. “It’s neat that it’s kind of hidden behind the school like a field of dreams.”
St. Albert the Great Elementary School and its Lew Yocum Memorial Gym, about five miles south of the Cabrini field, also provides a place for CYO volleyball and basketball.
“What I have seen are families whose children play here feel more part of the community,” said Carlos Rivera, whose company Subler rents out the Cabrini field that can be busy as many as six days a week. “If a family is here for a practice, and say it’s Ash Wednesday, they might attend Mass at Cabrini because they are already here. They become more engaged with the school and the church.”
For Carmen A. Orinoco-Hart, principal of St. Frances Cabrini’s school, the benefits of more economic activity nearby are clear.
“The result is more funding for local schools, businesses, and government agencies that recognize the value of sports tourism and participation,” she told Angelus.
At St. Mary’s Academy, around the corner from St. John Chrysostom, a plaque celebrating its 2024 All-CIF Division 4 track and field championship is on display at the main lobby. Its all-weather track and field facility is easy to spot on the Prairie Avenue corner in front of the school marquee and entrance.
“I think you need to lean into it and figure out you’re called to be in this moment,” said Dr. Brandi Odom Lucas, head of school at St. Mary’s since 2023. “Maybe a Beyoncé or Taylor Swift concert brings more eyes to our school.”
Odom, a graduate of Serra High of Gardena with experience as an educator at Verbum Dei High in South LA, shows a display inside the first floor of the school where students who won an art contest had their work displayed along the new Metro K Line. She says her school is “perfectly poised” to serve as a practice facility for Olympic athletes in three years.
But she also sees the changes as an evangelization opportunity for St. Mary’s, and as a confirmation of what the school’s original founders, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, would have wanted.
“Of their 100 maxims, the foundational tenant is to serve the neighbor without distinction, so there will be more to serve and be the hands and feet of Christ.”
Grace Park, directly south of St. Mary’s, represents a prime example of the changes in the area. It sits on the site of the former Daniel Freeman Hospital, which had been run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet since the 1950s and was demolished in 2013. More than 260 compact townhomes were created in the dense area, keeping school crossing guards alert with drop-offs and pickups during residents’ activities.
Directly next to St. Margaret’s Center, the Catholic Charities of Los Angeles outreach facility, a five-story, 30-unit apartment complex is going up along with a 60-unit building across the street by the same developer. The added parking and traffic commotion almost drowns out planes flying low overhead on their final descent to LAX.
Neighbors who’ve found rents on their one-bedroom apartments spike toward $2,000 a month already have anxiety related to immigration issues and grocery costs. There, St. Margaret’s can assist with ongoing programs. But there’s also a constant ask for rent assistance.
“We only have minimal help for that,” said Mary Agnes Erlandson, the longtime director of the St. Margaret’s Center with a second-floor office view of the Intuit Dome a mile away. “As rent prices go up and gentrification happens, Inglewood’s seniors are really being squeezed with fixed incomes.”
Richard Wise, a St. Margaret’s Center case manager for the last six years, lives a few blocks away in Inglewood and has worked for the city in homeless services.
He noted Inglewood has closed seven public schools in the last few years. The closures have a domino effect on low-income rental rates: even if new homes are being built, he has seen owners use them as high-priced rentals or even as Airbnbs.
“Once the housing authority raises its rates, most landlords will jack up rents as quickly as they can,” said Wise. “The pandemic led to a lot of money for housing vouchers and many clients got emergency funds, but that has been pulled back.”
Wise, whose great-grandfather was one of the founders of Inglewood’s business development in the late 1800s, is wistful in what he sees going on this century.
“Inglewood was the most amazing city when I was a kid growing up,” he said. “Now that I still live here, and see the gentrification and change, I wonder what it will become again.”
Ibarra agrees that those well-rooted in the community find new rents or property tax rates tougher to manage. He resists using the church lot to generate income for any event parking, and also wonders as well if St. John Chrysostom can bring back its annual fundraising carnival, dormant since the pandemic. Land that had been donated and rented for that event isn’t available now.
“We don’t have affluence, but we have loyalty, which is a blessing to our history,” he said. “It will likely take us a generation to witness the depth of all this change.
“I’m not a politician and I’ve never aspired to be one, but one thing you learn in the Church is how to be diplomatic and respectful. So if the Clippers win, or Lady Gaga is in town, we serve the City of Champions community as it grows and invite them to participate in our faith to be loving and compassionate.”
