A group of 100 retirees, school teachers and regular people who love Little Tokyo pooled their money together to buy as many buildings as they could to protect the historic Los Angeles neighborhood.

"What we don't want is some speculating investment group from Beverly Hills or China or whatever and they don't care about the neighborhood, they just want to make money," Bill Watanabe said.

Watanabe and his friends started the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund as a way to fight gentrification. They've amassed 100 investors and almost $1 million. With some foundation support, they leveraged their money to buy their first building last month.

"When we got this building, the previous owner told tenants here that they sold the building," Watanabe said. "The first thing they said was, 'You thi

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