How Starbucks May Help Save South Central

"The recent opening of a Starbucks in the notorious Los Angeles suburb of Compton may offer area residents much more than a three-dollar latte. It is, of course, another example of the decade-old trend in which major corporate retailers target 'urban markets' in America's poorest minority communities. But the project, a joint venture with Magic Johnson's ambitious Johnson Development Corporation, might also be a blueprint for an entirely new way of thinking about inner-city revitalization: a way that emphasizes civic discourse just as much as it employs more traditional paths to revitalization, like economic development."