Seeds of renewal take hold at venerable L.A. marketplace. (Spotlight on Flower District).

The downtown Flower District has been blooming of late.

Gone are the drugs, grime and panhandling that up until a couple of years ago seemed a permanent imprint on the area, just blocks from Skid Row. In their place are improved parking and yellow-clad security and "Clean Team" patrols. There's also a French cafe in the district, which is anchored by the two cavernous flower markets and more than 35 surrounding businesses.

Bottom line: a 12.5 percent increase in pedestrian traffic in the past year.

"It took a year or two to really turn things around," said Kent Smith, executive director of the L.A. Fashion District Business Improvement District, which was expanded to include the flower markets and now encompasses 82 blocks.

That's a significant development, since retail traffic generates up to 30 percent of the two markets' sales (the remainder coming from florists and wholesalers who arrive as early as 2 a.m.) Consumers weren't originally allowed in -- florists purchase a membership for $25 a year -- but so many individuals tried to sneak in that the doors were opened in 1995 to all during certain hours.

Now, it's hard to walk the district, bordered roughly by 7th and 8th streets between Maple Avenue and San Julian Street, without running into a yellow-clad safety officer cruising the area on a bike. The "Clean Team" keeps sidewalks on a par with Disneyland's.

"There's still a perception that the area is gritty and unsafe because it will never look like the Westside," said April Elgas, the BID's marketing director.

Mid-black crosswalks

Launched in 1996 by the Downtown Property Owners Association, the Fashion District BID was among the first property-based BIDs created in Southern California, generating $3 million a year from assessments of property taxes on area businesses.

One of the first improvements undertaken was the addition, in late 2001, of two lit crosswalks on Wall Street between 7th and 8th streets -- one of the city's most active pedestrian corridors. Now buyers can move easily back and forth between the two facing flower markets.

New buildings and renovations also are underway in the area.

The Wall Street Mart was renovated by its two property owners, Solomon Rastegar and Ezri Namvar, and it houses a variety of floral design and textile shops.

Another new building on Maple and 6th Street is outside the BID area. "It's become a center of commerce," said Paul Minoo, owner of the 30,000-square-foot site he bought for $4 million and spent $2 million renovating.

Each of the two main flower markets that make up the core of the Flower District has a distinct flavor and history. The model of bringing an entire trade under one roof was adopted later by the surrounding Fashion District.

The Southern California Flower Market, with 60 vendors, houses mostly Japanese growers and wholesalers and has a second floor devoted to floral supplies. It was started in 1913 by a group of Japanese growers who tended flower fields in Santa Monica. The market moved to its current location in 1923.

The second market, the American Florist Exchange, was founded by Italian immigrants a year later and now includes 100 wholesalers, balloon operators and ATM machines.

Johnny Mellano, owner of Mellano & Co., which operates 400 acres of flower farms in Oceanside, said the biggest challenge comes from street vendors who try to compete against wholesalers in the markets -- another sign that the area has become safer and accessible to non-professional customers.

City officials, he said, haven't taken action against street vendors because they would be forced to roust vendors off sidewalks in the Fashion District as well.

"The problem is we are second fiddle to the Fashion District," he said.

Competition also is coming from 10 to 15 wholesale houses that have sprung up in a 10mile radius around the flower District, Mellano said. He said there's nothing to stop this trend since the markets can't expand in their present location.

Nevertheless, the improvements could be helpful in the Rower District at least holding its own. Said Scott Yamabe, general manager of the Southern California Flower Market: "The general public is benefiting from a good product at a cheaper price."