My neighborhood: Manchester Square

October 21, 2013 By 1 Comment


Participants in Reporter Corps, a USC Annenberg program to train young adults from South LA to report on their own communities, created audiovisual introductions to their neighborhoods this summer. Skylar E Myers project focuses on history, poverty, and love. 

Skylar Endsley Myers, 23, Saint Bernard Catholic High School graduate, University of California San Diego graduate 

My family has lived in South Los Angeles for nearly three generations. My grandparents remember the treachery of the Watts Riots of 1965 just as vividly as they can recall their first time witnessing the genre-bending genius of George Clinton & the Funkadelics at a house party in Compton. And let me tell you their words are unlike anything you’d read in a history book. In the midst of gang wars, riots, and disparity my grandparents would tell me these stories and they’ve worked to instill me with pride, hope, and dignity throughout my life. I always assumed they told me these stories as a reminder that we’ve been here before and we’ve made it through and we have the power to get through it again. For this reason I feel storytelling is important, especially for the improvement of the community. Stories are records of what has happened in the past to form both who you are and how you’ll behave in the future. Through Reporters Corps South LA, I hope to bring light and voice to the overshadowed stories of the streets, the people, and the schools in hopes of instilling all South Central Angelinos with the same pride, hope, dignity and attachment I feel for this city.

To read about Skylar’s experiences growing up in South Central click here.

Filed Under: Community, Homelessness, Inglewood, Neighborhood, Reporter Corps, South Central LA Tagged With: , , ,

Leimert Park targeted by investors

October 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment


Metro’s new light rail stop in Leimert Park could bring an end to L.A.’s historic African-American cultural hub. After three years of fighting to get the line to stop in the area, business owners now fear the area will be commercialized. About a dozen of Black businesses in the area have been notified that their leases won’t be renewed after investors started buying buildings in the area.

Laura Hendrix, owner of Gallery Plus, in Leimert Park.

Laura Hendrix, owner of Gallery Plus, in Leimert Park. | Brianna Sacks

Laura Hendrix has owned an art store called Gallery Plus in Leimert Park for 23 years. While the owner of her space has not changed, she says many businesses around her have left or might be kicked out after investment companies recently bought several buildings housing multiple units.

“We are on edge because we don’t know what is going to happen to us,” said Hendrix. “This is a cultural icon and we worked hard to get it like this and want to keep it that way.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Development, Featured Story, Leimert Park Tagged With: , , ,

Community unites to bring more homeless youth services to South LA

May 14, 2013 By 2 Comments


Jiovonni Tripplett

Jiovonni Tripplett

Dressed to the nines in a grey pinstriped suit, Jiovonni Tripplett hardly looks like he’d ever been homeless. But it was only months ago that the 23-year-old South Los Angeles native stopped seeing the streets as a necessary way of life.

The only child of a mother struggling to overcome drug and alcohol addiction, Tripplett recalls lashing out at other family members who tried to care for him—including his grandmother, who eventually turned the self-described “wild” child over to the county’s Department of Child and Family Services when he was 8 years old.

Tripplett floated in and out of foster homes, and later, youth detention camps—at 13, he stole a car and was released from foster care to juvenile probation services. Ignoring his family’s efforts to help him, he found solace in a gang and racked up robbery and assault charges. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Story, Homelessness Tagged With: , , , ,

Historic South Los Angeles neighborhood breaks ground on new housing project

February 24, 2011 By 2 Comments


Listen to an audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

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University of Southern California alum and renowned Los Angeles architect Paul Williams had a dream for the African-American community around the historic 28th Street district in South Los Angeles.

Williams, the first practicing African American architect west of the Mississippi River, built a YMCA in 1927 that would provide housing and basic social needs for young African American men starting out in the city.

Over the past 80 years, while Williams’ intricate Spanish architecture has remained the signature of the community’s aging center, the late architect’s vision has slowly withered away.

After his death in 1980, the YMCA discontinued providing housing for low-income residents and, in effect, the community around the district began to struggle socially and economically.

Today, though, with the help of Councilwoman Jan Perry, Clifford Beers Housing and the Coalition Responsible Community Development organization, Williams’ YMCA is getting a breath of new life, as ground was broken to begin construction on a new housing project inside the building.

“It’s almost as if he [Williams] is here with us today,” Perry said. “His life touched our lives in so many ways, and that still continues to resonate.”

The project will provide the surrounding community with 49 new apartment spaces aimed at helping low-income residents, mental health patients and emancipated youth.

Perry believes it is the first step in creating a sense of stability in the neighborhood.

“We just need to be able to help people live stable lives,” said Perry. “If we stabilize the people who are in the greatest need, we actually life up the entire community.”

Although the YMCA has teamed up with organizations in the community like Youth Build to promote education, job training and healthy lifestyle choices, members like 19-year-old Joe Serrano believes the new plans help to fulfill an even greater need with the area’s children.

“Today means a lot to the community because there are a lot of people with no homes out there, no where to go and no where to live,” Serrano said. “This is something that is needed in our community.”

The new 28th Street Apartments are set to be unveiled to the community in June 2012.

More stories on housing in South Los Angeles:

Protestors give Herb Wesson a hand-delivered Valentine

City Planning postpones ruling on luxury apartment complex

Filed Under: Housing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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