Walmart workers rally in South L.A.

April 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageListen to the audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

Dan Hindman has an anniversary this week – with Walmart.

“I’ve worked at Walmart… on the 17th, that’s three years,” he said. To support his son and put himself through school, “I do a little of everything. I do a little LP sometimes, I work electronics, I play management at times… I do it all, dude.”

But despite all this history, he’s not happy about the stores springing up in Los Angeles.

“I don’t live around Chinatown, but if I did, I would tell them definitely not to open up,” Hindman said. “Because I feel if you’re going to open up, you’ve got to treat your people correctly. Walmart doesn’t. Things they promise, they don’t follow through with it. I’ve been promised interviews with different departments. I haven’t seen an interview yet.”

Hindman and about a hundred other Walmart workers met in Los Angeles this week at a national Making Change at Walmart conference. There, they put together a list of demands to present at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Walmart today.

The protesters say their schedules are irregular and they’re not earning as much as Walmart promised. They’re disrespected at work. They want higher wages, guaranteed health insurance and Walmart’s promise that it will invest profits in communities.

But Michael Jones, CEO of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce, says that’s what Walmart already does in South L.A. When the store opened about a decade ago, it created more than 500 jobs, most of which went to residents.

“That had a tremendous, tremendous impact. Before that, there were people that were out of work, and they made it happen,” Jones said. “I understand people will talk about unfair wages and things like that, but compared to what? If someone is unemployed, and they’re getting paid even minimum wage, is that an unfair wage? We’ve had a tough, tough economy. People can have some dignity .”

In a statement released today, Walmart said they do offer competitive pay and affordable benefits.

But the workers leaving the conference in L.A. today plan to air their grievances at Walmarts all over the country.

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Fannie Mae prepares to sell foreclosed properties in South LA

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageThere’s a house on East Adams Boulevard in South Central Los Angeles where broken windows are covered by cardboard and wrapping paper. Cockroaches crawl in water glasses and a ratty extension cord connecting a generator to a bare fluorescent bulb is stapled to the ceiling.

This house is in foreclosure under Fannie Mae. It’s also home to three families – 17 people total, including 11 children.

“There’s little baby cockroaches crawling in that cupboard. You want to take a souvenir?” Haide Clemente laughed. She’s a stay-at-home mother in this house. Her husband works in a factory, making parts for cars and airplanes.

One of the families had been there for nine years when foreclosure proceedings started last spring. The family says Fannie Mae stopped telling them where to send their rent checks and the lender still hasn’t answered their calls. In September, they stopped paying rent. Their electricity was cut off.

Strategic Action for a Just Economy, or SAJE, opened the house to public visits on Thursday. Executive Director Paulina Gonzalez says there are many Fannie Mae homes like it.

“They have dozens of properties in South Los Angeles, in Southeast Los Angeles, that are in foreclosure. They’re preparing to sell their properties and become equity owners, and we’re here to ask Fannie Mae, is Fannie Mae going to be Los Angeles’s newest slumlord?”

On Monday Fannie Mae announced a plan to let one investors buy whole chunks of houses in cities hit hardest by the mortgage crisis, including about 600 properties in Los Angeles and Riverside.

In California, and maybe nationwide, the Federal Housing Finance Agency will chose one new owner after a rigorous application process.

But Nancy Ibrahim, Executive Director of Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, says tenants also need to know their rights.

“A lot of people tragically end up in a situation like this not only because of Fannie Mae but because of many, many other banks, and they disappear so quickly that we can’t even inform them of their tenant rights.”

For example, SAJE says Clemente’s family accepted two thousand dollars from a “Cash for Keys” program to help cover their moving costs. They could have gotten nine times as much help through government programs. They just didn’t know about them. And Fannie Mae isn’t responsible for that.

Fannie Mae could not be reached for comment by the time of our broadcast.

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Second Wetlands Park opens in South L.A.

February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageNinth District Councilwoman Jan Perry greets 49th Street Elementary School students at South L.A. Wetlands Park.

All drains lead to the ocean from the new South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. Its developers think the park will make storm water cleaner – and its own community safer.

It will also become a space for fun and learning, said Ninth District Councilwoman Jan Perry.

“Right here at 54th and Avalon, it’s going to be a green space. it’s going to be an outdoor classroom for these kids, and give them something they’ve never had before.”

Perry has championed Wetlands restoration for most of her council term. Five years ago, this park was a metro bus yard. Now, it’s a nine-acre oasis – and the second such park in Perry’s district. The first, the Augustus F. Hawkins Wetlands Park, is a two-acre square on the corner of Compton Ave. and Slauson Ave. in Huntington Park.

It’s not just for the kids, though. The South L.A. park collects runoff, removes floating trash and dangerous chemicals, and then lets it drain naturally into the ocean.

Michelle Vargas is a spokeswoman for the L.A. Department of Public Works.

imageThe wetlands cover 9 acres of land along 54th Street in South L.A.

“It’s very important for us to clean the storm water because that’s what goes out into the L.A. river and then out into the ocean. Obviously it’s environmentally friendly, and it protects public health in the city of L.A.”

This park is a neighborhood dream come true for Rhonda Webb. she directs environmental volunteer projects for students at Compton’s Leaps Action Center.

“It’s just a vision of open space, and I can just imagine the various middle schools, high schools and community members coming out and just having a healthier outlook about their life and about their future,” Webb described. “We can actually come together and collaborate and actually do wonderful things that can really improve the quality of life for all residents.”

In fact, Webb hopes her neighborhood is next.

“When would I like to see it? Tomorrow,” she laughed. “I have visions of grandeur – tomorrow!”

She hopes the new park will inspire her neighborhood to start working on a ribbon-cutting ceremony of its own.

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Consistent job growth inspired re-imagined Crenshaw business district

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment


imageCalifornia employees and entrepreneurs were heartened by last month’s revelation that December marked a fifth consecutive month of a declining unemployment rate statewide. Los Angeles’ 8th City Council District, one of the poorest in the city, met the news with guarded optimism.

More than 3,200 new jobs were created in the 8th District in 2011, which was the sixth consecutive year of job growth in the area. The 8th District includes the Crenshaw, Hyde Park, Vermont Knolls, North University Park and Baldwin Hills neighborhoods.

“We believe that we’re kind of at the forefront of a transformation here,” said Karim Webb, a local restaurant owner. When it comes to employment, “there’s definitely a positive spin on the story.”

Still, like most of the nation, employment is one of the community’s biggest concerns, said 8th District City Councilman Bernard Parks.

“We send a weekly e-newsletter to 7,000 people every Thursday evening, and the number one item is every job opportunity that we become aware of,” Parks said. “Every time we check the most-reviewed areas, it’s employment opportunities. It’s the number-one question we get asked.”

Since 2006, Parks’ district has added jobs every year. In 2011 alone, restaurants created about 300 positions. Several primary care clinics opened in Crenshaw. And a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Vermont Knolls made public health 2011’s fastest-growing industry.

But because most of the 8th District’s jobs are still in restaurants, retail and services like car repair, income levels haven’t risen in concert with the improving job market.

“We have more people working, but we still have the lowest-paid jobs in the city,” Parks said. “We have people who actually criticize the district, saying that yes, you’re creating jobs, but they’re low-paying.”

imageBut Parks sees these jobs as the gateway to better employment down the road. “Every job is not a career,” he said. “Every job is not a life-long job. You move to another job. You develop.”

Karim Webb opened a Buffalo Wild Wings in Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza last year. He hired most of the staff from the Los Angeles Urban League, which helps young minority Angelenos find education and employment. Webb also believes the restaurant addressed a community need.

“It’s a place for people to bring their families, bring their kids after a soccer game or a little league game; a place for families to meet up after work; a place for buddies to meet up after work, have a beer, watch the game. There’s a pocket,” Webb said. “If we can secure that… then people will come. And we’re finding that.”

Webb worried about the community’s crime activity, especially gang problems, before he opened the restaurant. But he said those fears haven’t been validated.

“Demographically, incomes are lower here than among the general population, so that’s somewhat of a challenge,” Webb said. “But we knew there was going to be some aggressive movement toward redevelopment here.”

Edna Boedenave recognizes the neighborhood’s limitations as well. When she opened My Sassie Boutique last month in Crenshaw Square, a plaza on Crenshaw Boulevard between Coliseum and 39th Streets, she set a $20 cap on the price of the shoes, clothing and accessories in her shop.

“It’s something I thought would work here,” Boedenave said. “I like clothes, I love shoes… I think it offers people something they find refreshing. I have items that people want and are affordable.”

What entices customers, though, is not the rack of $19 five-inch heels or the gifts Boedenave offers new guests. Instead, “people say they walk in and it’s like they’re not on Crenshaw,” she said. “They have the feeling that, this is nice, I like the feel of this.”

Webb, however, wants visitors to remember exactly where they are – in fact, he wants Crenshaw Boulevard and Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to become citywide destinations. “Restaurants and boutiques are just the heralds of a neighborhood beginning to thrive,” he said.

“People that live in Leimert Park, View Park, Windsor Hills, Baldwin Hills are going to have every reason… to spend their dollars here. And there will be people from outside this community who want to come here just to spend time and money,” Webb said. “People who get off the freeway and travel south on Crenshaw Boulevard have a lot to look forward to.”

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Children’s Court May Make Trials Public

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

imageProtestors outside Children’s Court in Monterey Park on Tuesday want access to the hearings taking place inside.

Some came to the courthouse steps from Occupy LA, pitching two tents in the spirit of the downtown protest. Advocates, including several children and many parents, brought signs: “Children are also the 99%,” “DCFS, give us back our children” and “Community Heals: open children’s court” among their messages.

They say the courts that split up children and their families need to be accountable to the public. Right now, these cases aren’t seen by anyone but the people present – and according to protestor May Hampton, that means courts aren’t really seeking kids’ best interests.

“A lot of the public is not aware of what goes on, just like I wasn’t aware,” Hampton said. See, some of the children aren’t getting the help that they need. So they’re crying out. They’re calling to you, they’re calling to me. They’re calling all over the United States, maybe all over the world.”

Hampton wants people to see cases like hers. She helped her longtime friend Brittany care for her daughter from, literally, the day she was born. Brittany died last year. Her daughter took Hampton’s last name and began living with her full time. But the court barred Hamilton from the trial that sent the child to distant cousins in San Francisco.

Then, last month, Hampton lost her visiting rights. She still writes letters to her would-be daughter, but she’s not sure they’ll ever see each other again.

“I don’t have the words to express how we feel,” Hampton said. “I was shocked, because I thought Children’s Services was one of the best things, that they were there to protect children. But I see different.”

Judge Michael Nash, who presides over the county’s children’s courts, has already proposed a blanket order to open hearings.

Critics say opening courts isn’t the way to ensure accountability. After kids have already suffered, making their stories public will only traumatize them further.

The Department of Children and Family Services has not taken an official position on opening these courts.

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Downtown football field nearly ready for construction

November 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

imageOver the last six, LA Live’s developers have unveiled restaurants, clubs, stages and walking space south of downtown. In six more, they hope to add another draw: the National Football League.

Icon Venue Group and Gensler Architects presented their newest renderings of Farmers Field.

“This is a building that clearly called out to be something that felt lighter than air,” said Tim Romani, president and CEO of ICON, the project’s development manager. “That a strong breeze would almost lift it off the ground. And the ‘take flight’ notion was something we really took seriously.”

The rendering plops the new stadium just south of the Staples Center, in the current West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. A full-size football field sits about 40 feet below street level, enveloped by 72 thousand seats. A deployable roof opens like massive glassy wings over each side of the stadium.

Gensler Architects created the field’s concept design. Ron Turner heads the firm’s sports practice,and he wants the stadium to host everything from NCAA tournaments to trade conventions.

“Our goal was to create the most dynamic complex for hosting the worlds the most important events, many of which today bypass our great city,” said Turner.

The project is moving into schematic design now, seeking materials and preparing its environmental impact report. Icon is even working with the city to make it carbon-neutral, or close to it.

But ultimately, Romani said, they’re in it for the fans.

“What would you want if you were coming to that game on Sunday and you were bringing your family, what would make it the optimal experience for you?” Said Romani. “Thats the lens through which i look at these projects.”

They hope to break ground in 2013 and open Farmers Field in time for the 2016 NFL season, though they haven’t yet secured a team for the city.

Icon confirmed that talks with the NFL are ongoing.

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Budget cuts threaten Los Angeles community health clinics

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

image

The waiting room at the Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center is buzzing: about three dozen people, half of them children, sit on tall-backed, white benches. Nurses call them into clean white hallways with olive-green door trim. A sign above each reception desk promises, “No one will be denied immunizations because of inability to pay.”

But about a third of this public clinic’s funding comes from Medi-Cal, California’s division of federal aid program Medicaid – and the White House just approved California’s plan to cut funding for Medi-Cal, which allows poor and disabled Californians to see doctors regularly, by 10 percent in the 2012 budget.

Furthermore, the Congressional “Super-committee,” which convened this summer to reduce the federal deficit, is scouring Medicaid for potential cuts.

Louise McCarthy is the CEO and President of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, which comprises 47 centers like Eisner. Together, they serve about a million patients every year. A third of those patients rely on Med-Cal.

Filed Under: Community

Dia de los Muertos outgrowing its Mexican cultural roots

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

imageDia de los Muertos fills Los Angeles with altars, sugar skulls and yellow marigolds on the first two days of November each year. But recently, the Mexican holiday has become increasingly popular.

The Day of the Dead is at least a two-day affair. According to the holiday’s tradition, souls of deceased children returned to earth today, and they’ll be joined by families’ other ancestors overnight.

But at the South LA marketplace Mercado la Paloma, this year’s festival is much bigger than its Mexican roots.

Celebrations, art and food are bringing people from all kinds of backgrounds together, said Gilberto Cetina. He owns Chichen Itza, a restaurant within in the Mercado.

“White people, Asian people, Indian people, Latin people… it’s really a multicultural event. it doesn’t matter where you’re from, or if you sing in English or Spanish.”

This year, Gilberto is serving a special tamale pie called Mucbil Pollo. It’s what families in the Yucatan region of Mexico used to leave with their ancestors’ bodies while their souls waited for the afterlife. They still leave it on their altars. And people love it.

“The Mayans had a tradition to leave a corn on the mouth of the body, to feed the body. And now that corn dog is a little bit more sophisticated, and it’s a tamale pie.”

Visitors have plenty to see, too. Altars for families’ ancestors line the walls, and each one uses different fabric, pictures and relics based on what their ancestors loved.

Damon Turner is the Mercado’s Arts and Cultural Program Director. He helped set up the altars and a festival this past weekend. As a kid, his family didn’t even celebrate Halloween.

But Dia de los Muertos is special, he thinks, because it recognizes such common ground: family and death.

“I think the idea of Dia de los Muertos is really like celebrating that which is taboo, typically, in America, which is death. It’s looking at death as a place of strength, a place where we can build community with each other – and, yeah, have some good food while we’re doing it.”

Dia de los Muertos ends tomorrow – but Gilberto’s tamale pie will be back at the Mercado la Paloma next year.

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South Los Angeles citizens pledge support for Sheriff Lee Baca

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

imageSome Los Angelenos are beginning to speak out in support of Sheriff Lee Baca. The sheriff is facing criticism after the ACLU recently revealed that they’re investigating widespread inmate abuse in LA county prisons under the supervision of Sheriff Lee Baca.

Baca responded last week by meeting with inmates, collecting their concerns and beginning an internal investigation to look into their allegations.

But Peter Eliasberg of the Southern California ACLU says Baca’s latest investigation is nothing but a “PR effort” to cover up years of verbal harassment, beatings and tazings.

“All of these things add up to not only a pattern of abuse but also a pattern of investigation that even Inspector Clusoe wouldn’t do, they were so poorly done – and designed not to get at the truth.”

On the contrary, Baca says he hasn’t looked into deputies on this scale because, for years, he simply didn’t know about physical abuse or unsanitary living conditions. He didn’t even know how badly inmates needed soap or extra blankets.

“I’m willing to learn the lessons. I’m willing to engage my department’s deputies so that they can learn the lessons. And the lessons aren’t learned just by training and policy and supervision.”

If Baca is trying to preserve political support, he’s popular in South Los Angeles, promised Dr. Sandra Moore. She chairs both Concerned Citizens for Fair Policing and the Citizens Advisory Board in South LA and hosted a press conference in Watts today.

“I just want the community to know, he’s not resigning. we won’t allow it. he’s not going anywhere. But we’re gonna work with him side by side. The ACLU can have the same opportunity.”

The ACLU has demanded Baca’s resignation, but this panel of about a dozen neighborhood organizations pledged unflinching support for the Sheriff.

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Mayor prepares LA transit plan

September 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

imageMayor Antonio Villaraigosa conceded Tuesday that the recession has overpowered Los Angeles’ best efforts to hang onto jobs. It will likely take ten years for Los Angeles to offer the same number of jobs it did before the 2008 recession. But he’s confident in the city’s ability to capitalize in the future.

The mayor sees light rail and subway development as the foundation for a robust local economy. Additionally, he visualizes public transportation as a catalyst for economic growth nationwide.

“Now, let me be clear: Transportation is the key to building our own road to recovery,” Villaraigosa told a Town Hall Los Angeles luncheon today. “We must avoid turning the wrong way down a one-way street into a double-dip recession. We’ve raised the money here in LA to build our own road to recovery – but we need the financing from Congress to break ground on that road now.”

Villaraigosa is working with California Senator Barbara Boxer to pass America Fast Forward, a Congressional bill which will increase the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program to one billion dollars annually. Currently, its budget is $110 million each year.

America Fast Forward is modeled on LA’s 30/10 initiative. Undertaken in 2008, this program reduced 30 years of transit development to just ten years, funded by a half-penny sales tax increase and a federal loan. The mayor credited this program with almost 200 million fewer miles driven each year, plus 166,000 jobs over the project’s lifetime.

The rest of the nation, for whom America Fast Forward is designed, will “look to Los Angeles and Southern California, and our new subways, our railways, our roadways and our busways. It will be a catalyst not just for LA but for the nation, if we can adopt America Fast Forward,” Villaraigosa said.

Los Angeles transit is replete with success stories recently, Villaraigosa said: the city is a finalist for a $646 million TIFIA loan, which will allow it to complete the Westside subway system and regional connector lines between East Los Angeles and Long Beach. The second phase of the Orange Line, which already carries nearly five times as many passengers as the city predicted, will extend the rail line to Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley. Both developments are 30/10 projects.

Also, Los Angeles will finish synchronizing its traffic lights by 2013. Currently, about 92 percent of lights work in time with one another – “We’re the only city that can say that,” Villaraigosa said. The resultant traffic streamlining will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated metric ton each year.

Finally, the city recently reached its 2005 benchmark of gleaning 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Villaraigosa calls Los Angeles “The only public utility in a big city to accomplish that goal.”

Despite these victories, a jobs crisis persists nationwide. Unemployment in California still hovers around 12 percent. Villaraigosa believes public transit can help rectify that impasse and simultaneously make U.S. cities greener, friendlier and healthier.

“The millions that we invest in transit flow to businesses large and small and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. So let’s make this clear: transportation investment equals jobs,” the mayor said.

Villaraigosa, Boxer, the bipartisan Senate Committee for Public Works and Senator John Mica (R-Florida), who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, publicly support America Fast Forward. It will continue undergoing Congressional discussion.

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