Today we visited Boyle Heights located in East Los Angeles. We met two community actors here working to raise awareness toward and fight against gentrification. One significant sight was Mariachi Plaza, where we visited an empty lot that was fenced off. Normally, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to such a lot, but on a section of the fence were at least a hundred colorful ribbons. These ribbons had various words and phrases and after reading through a few of them, I was able to make sense of them and discover that these were community inputs for what they would like the empty space to become.
We learned a brief history about this space that this empty lot is owned by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority or LA Metro for short, which is the agency in charge of all transportation in LA. LA Metro has not developed this plot of land for reasons ranging from economics to social discrimination/inequality. Regarding economics, LA Metro has claimed that developing on this land would not be economically viable. They claim that the local community is not the demographic, they cater to. Another reason was that the Metro wishes to create an affordable housing project to assist the local community. However, this “affordable housing” project would base its income qualifications on the median income in all of Los Angeles, which is an annual salary of roughly $80,000- well beyond the means of a Boyle Heights resident.
I believe both of aforementioned reasons. The Boyle Heights district is surrounded by freeways and it apparently is a leading district in particulates in the air. The wind produced by these freeways carries dust and pollution toward the town, which has led to health issues and complications, as well as the creation of a local hospital. Secondly, the economic deprivation in this district reinforces the attempted gentrification by housing developments, neighbors, and the government. Most landowners in Boyle Heights are approached by development agencies who offer the landowners cash for their properties. For a poor household these offers are very attractive since they have never been anything but poor. This cash purchase allows for a quick and tempting option for landowners, where they could move out of this expensive area and live wealthily in another area. Landowners’ second option is to refuse the offer and to remain poor in their strongly knit communities, yet strive against gentrification and work toward improving their lives in the long run.
I was quite taken aback when I heard that the company that was handling this development project was government run. The first words that come to mind when I think of public transit are affordable, inexpensive, and great for sporting events. However, from today’s Boyle Heights’ speakers depicted, the Metro was described as a pro-gentrification organization. The Metro has been holding back from developing this land and has put up red tape to delay work on projects. Additionally, since this project is supposed to incorporate community input, I am shocked to learn that it is nowhere close to gathering or hearing community concerns or solutions. The Metro sounds like a multinational corporation pursuing its plans regardless of effects on the local community.
My brain screams irony. In America, public transit has the stigma of being for the poor and immigrant populations, but in a poor and high immigrant population in Boyle Heights, the opposite is true. The Metro doesn’t seem to be concerned with the wellbeing of their community. Besides management and policy change needed within the LA Metro, I applaud Minor’s efforts in educating and coordinating the Boyle Heights community to take a stand and speak out against exploitive development projects and hope that credibility and trust can be built among residents, politicians, and developers. As with the rest of the social conditions, I have been talking about this week, let us hope for the best.