We had a chance to preview KCET “CITY RISING” a riveting series about the impact of gentrification in some of California’s cities hosted by The California Endowment Foundation. From South Central, Santa Ana, Long Beach and north to Oakland this series bring issues and and the problems facing local to the forefront. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with influential community leaders..
Panelist
Photos by Rafael Cardenas courtesy of The California Endowment
Missed KCET’s “City Rising” don’t despair you can watch an encore presentation on Tuesday the 19th at 8 p.m.
From the displacement of Native peoples to the enforcement of Jim Crow, the history of U.S. land policy and practice is a history of inequities. Gold rush-era Chinese workers and Blacks fleeing Southern racism were barred from California’s housing market and segregated to particular communities. After the Great Depression, the federal government backed mortgage lending as a route to homeownership and wealth accumulation, but redlined minority communities. White flight to suburbia left the urban core starved for investment and government services. Predatory lending and the 2010 foreclosure crisis further depressed rates of homeownership in the inner cities. Today, housing deeds still bear restrictive language such as “no lot in said tract shall at any time be lived upon by a person whose blood is not entirely that of the Caucasian race.” The restrictions have lost their legal standing but their spirit lingers in more nuanced ways.
Juan Davis/Executive
Photos by Rafael Cardenas courtesy of The California Endowment”.
Included in the documentary are gentrification activists that include USC’s Professor of Sociology Manuel Pastor, Former NBA Player and Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, the California Endowment’s Senior VP for Healthy Communities Dr. Anthony Iton and UCLA Urban Planner Gilda Haas.
“Gentrification affects every aspect of a person’s life. In addition to financial distress, displaced residents face fragmented communities, extended commutes and a loss of social support systems and health care access. The incredible degree of disruption caused by gentrification in a person’s life is far reaching and trickles into their overall health and quality of life,” said Dr. Iton.
The series looks at six California communities where residents, activists and urban planners have identified gentrification as a primary concern:
Boyle Heights: an urban enclave neighboring downtown Los Angeles has made itself a cultural mecca for the city’s booming Latino population.
South Central: a mostly low-income and under-resourced neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles that was historically African-American has since become nearly 80 percent Latino.
Long Beach: a coastal Southern California city whose central and western neighborhoods have a diverse population of Latinos, African-Americans, Southeast Asians (especially Cambodians), Filipinos and Pacific Islanders.
Santa Ana: a mostly low-income and historically Mexican city in the wealthy, conservative, anti-immigrant and predominantly white Orange County.
Oakland: a major port city east of San Francisco that was historically racially diverse and has seen large influxes of young professionals and waves of urban redevelopment.
Oak Park: a modest, working-class neighborhood in the state’s capital, Sacramento, plagued by crime and a struggling economy.
The breakdown of the six webisodes released digitally on kcet.org/cityrising and linktv.org/cityrising is as follows (*subject to change):
Episode One “Legacy” From taking the land of Native peoples to Jim Crow laws and predatory lending practices, we reveal a lingering history of inequities in U.S. land policy and practice.
Episode Two “Resilience” Communities that have historically been disinvested such as Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, Santa Ana in Orange County, and East Oakland in Northern California, have established rich community networks, informal economies, and burgeoning arts and culture scenes.
Episode Three “Return To The Cities” Cities have become more entrepreneurial, seeking private investment that fuels large-scale gentrification.
Episode Four “Impact” Laws that favor property owners and real estate developers have left many renters without a safety net to protect themselves from displacement.
Episode Five “Mobilization” As more tenants face displacement they are recognizing their power in numbers and creating a movement advocating for their right to property and equitable development.
Episode Six “The Future” As more people realize they will never be homeowners, renters are thinking about their rights and refusing to yield decision-making to owners and developers.
Join the conversation on social media using #CityRising
