March 1, 2017
High Country News
by Erika Aguilar
High Country News
by Erika Aguilar
Thelmy Pérez stood on a cramped street corner in the Jordan Downs public housing complex in Watts, a low-income neighborhood in the heart of South Los Angeles, California.
The area’s sooty appearance makes it easy to forget that the Pacific Ocean is just 15 miles away, to the west. Behind Pérez is the homely buzz of auto shops, junkyards and cluttered recycling centers. Facing her is an empty lot that’s waiting to be transformed into attractive shops and restaurants. Pérez is an organizer with the advocacy group LA Human Right to Housing Collective. She has been helping tenants at this 700-unit housing project in their fight for decent living standards and an environmentally safe neighborhood.
Jordan Downs’ difficult history goes back to the discriminatory housing laws of the 1960s; frustration with police back then would eventually erupt into the Watts Riots. By 1992, violent feuding by local street gangs had contributed to a historic spike of murders in Los Angeles — nearly 1,100 in a single year.
Currently, a $1 billion plan to overhaul the decaying public housing complex holds out some hope for change. But the persistent soil and groundwater pollution around the housing project, left behind by former steel mills and industrial companies, has some people doubting whether the residents will ever escape inequitable living standards.
“It’s not just the groundwater plumes,” Pérez said as she stood over one of the underground contamination sites. “It’s this whole industrial area. What does that do to a body, not just physically, but also your stress levels, mental capacity?”
Watts is unlike other parts of the Southwest, or even Southern California. Instead of tall photogenic palm trees, there are forests of wooden utility poles feeding electricity to crowded households. A handful of flat, trodden parks nearby attempt to offer a natural escape, but they are too small to satisfy the local population. Life expectancy in Watts is 72.8 years — eight years less than in the rest of Los Angeles. And Jordan Downs is among the top 10 percent of California neighborhoods most affected by air pollution, poverty and proximity to toxic cleanup sites, according to a state environmental health scorecard.
The area’s sooty appearance makes it easy to forget that the Pacific Ocean is just 15 miles away, to the west. Behind Pérez is the homely buzz of auto shops, junkyards and cluttered recycling centers. Facing her is an empty lot that’s waiting to be transformed into attractive shops and restaurants. Pérez is an organizer with the advocacy group LA Human Right to Housing Collective. She has been helping tenants at this 700-unit housing project in their fight for decent living standards and an environmentally safe neighborhood.
Jordan Downs’ difficult history goes back to the discriminatory housing laws of the 1960s; frustration with police back then would eventually erupt into the Watts Riots. By 1992, violent feuding by local street gangs had contributed to a historic spike of murders in Los Angeles — nearly 1,100 in a single year.
Currently, a $1 billion plan to overhaul the decaying public housing complex holds out some hope for change. But the persistent soil and groundwater pollution around the housing project, left behind by former steel mills and industrial companies, has some people doubting whether the residents will ever escape inequitable living standards.
“It’s not just the groundwater plumes,” Pérez said as she stood over one of the underground contamination sites. “It’s this whole industrial area. What does that do to a body, not just physically, but also your stress levels, mental capacity?”
Watts is unlike other parts of the Southwest, or even Southern California. Instead of tall photogenic palm trees, there are forests of wooden utility poles feeding electricity to crowded households. A handful of flat, trodden parks nearby attempt to offer a natural escape, but they are too small to satisfy the local population. Life expectancy in Watts is 72.8 years — eight years less than in the rest of Los Angeles. And Jordan Downs is among the top 10 percent of California neighborhoods most affected by air pollution, poverty and proximity to toxic cleanup sites, according to a state environmental health scorecard.