Plans to revive the area after the 1992 riots have been largely unfulfilled.*
By Molly Selvin, Times Staff Writer
April 27, 2007
Fifteen years after the 1992 riots, South Los Angeles has seen dramatic population shifts — but frustratingly little economic progress.
Latinos are a growing presence in a community that was once the center of African American life. Many middle-class black and Latino families have moved out of the area for better schools and safer streets. Those remaining are disproportionately poorer and have fewer job skills.
New grocery stores have opened since the riots — a longtime goal of residents and activists. Yet the area still suffers the region’s highest unemployment and underemployment rates.
By almost any economic measure, South Los Angeles has lost ground compared with the city and county. The area, bordered roughly by the Santa Monica and Century freeways between Alameda Boulevard and west to the city limits, grew jobs by only 0.4% from 1993 to 2005, versus 24.6% growth for L.A. County as a whole, according to the state Employment Development Department. The area’s average wage grew 21.3% in that period, versus 47.3% for the county.
Demographic figures indicate the poverty and violence of south Los Angeles is not going to change as long as the population remains majority black or mestizo.