Los Angeles Cracks Down on Alleged Gang Apartments in Gentrifying Area
The City Attorney's Office is cracking down on a South L.A. apartment building it describes as a hotbed for a notorious gang in the area, the Black P-Stones. But concern has been expressed over the timing: Los Angeles is in the midst of a dire housing crisis, and some folks in communities like this one, known locally as the Jungles, fear that such actions are a symptom of the kind of gentrification that is pushing minorities out of homes via increasing rents and evictions.
The real estate in the community formally known as Baldwin Village, a neighborhood made famous as a setting for the film Training Day, could be considered on the rise as Metro is working on a new, 8.5-mile rail line a few blocks from the city attorney's target. Observers say crime in recent years has been historically low in the complex's greater Southwest L.A. area, which has seen a 3.8 percent decrease in reports of month-to-month violence, according to Los Angeles Police Department data.
Cal State Long Beach professor of Chicano and Latino studies Alex Alonso has for years researched the correlation between law enforcement action, particularly gang injunctions, and gentrification. Housing prices in the area have been especially explosive. The renowned gang expert says there appears to be such a connection here.
"Crime is all-time low in the Jungles," he says. "No one is really complaining. But there is a massive redevelopment and gentrification plan in that area, the likes of which is almost always preceded by some law enforcement action to satisfy the developers."
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