A recently released report by UCLA‘s School of Public Affairs finds a major demographic shift in today’s South Los Angeles neighborhoods since the 1992 Rodney King riots. But one constant remains: poverty. In 1990, Latinos and African Americans each comprised 47% of the area’s population; today Latinos outnumber blacks 2 to 1. But that ethnic transformation is one of the few dramatic changes in an area that for decades has been characterized by poverty and crime.
According to a recently released report by UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, almost one-third of the area’s residents have been living below the poverty line since 1990.
“There is no denying that there have been some efforts [to revitalize South Los Angeles] that have born fruit,” said a UCLA professor who contributed to studies on the neighborhood. “But on average the areas are marginalized and still economically on the edge and that’s a problem.”
Which raises the question: Why are neighborhoods, comprised primarily of people of color, so poor? That question, we can only hope, will be addressed by our next president as it raises many issues about equality in the U.S.
For the full article published in the Los Angeles Times, check out:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-southla14-2008sep14,0,1142833.story