Sunshine Was Never Enough by Laslett John H. M

Author:Laslett, John H. M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

THE SHAME OF CHAVEZ RAVINE, 1949–1959

Accompanying this debate over urban renewal was a second debate, which cast a long shadow over the future of race relations in Southern California, about the treatment of the city's ethnic and racial minorities. Traditional white supremacists such as Edward Davenport believed that social conditions like poverty and criminal behavior were inherent in the immigrant populations who lived in places like Bunker Hill. Opposing this view were racial liberals, including minority leaders such as Roybal and African American journalist Charlotta Bass, who argued that ethno-racial characteristics had no bearing on urban renewal and that L.A.'s minority populations should be treated with respect.93

The city's Hispanic and African American workers, who stood to benefit most from public housing, were understandably angered by the city reneging on its 1949 housing agreement with the federal government. But they were angered even more by the insensitive urban renewal policies pursued by the corporate modernists. During the early 1950s, East L.A. was bisected by no less than three new freeways (the Golden State, the Santa Ana, and the San Bernadino), each of which was driven through a formerly residential ethnic neighborhood described as “blighted” by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation.94

Other minority neighborhoods suffered the same indignities. While the Division of Highways lauded the growth of the freeway system as a major step in the creation of the world's ultimate suburban city, the Eastside Sun lamented the loss of numerous homes, the deterioration of race relations, and the destruction of traditional, working-class ways of life. Those among the urban poor who had the money to move elsewhere did so. But the majority, who could not afford to move, remained behind, reinforcing the concentration of minority families in the downtown ghettoes and in the East L.A. barrio.95

But it was over the redevelopment of Chavez Ravine that the greatest conflict arose. The fight over the disposal of this hilly, eight-square-mile area just north of downtown illustrated, better than any other urban renewal project, the losing battle fought by the supporters of racial tolerance and humane development against the champions of corporate growth and racial exclusion. In 1948 most of Chavez Ravine's population of 3,764 (more than two-thirds of whom were Latino) lived in substandard wooden dwellings, many of which lacked toilets and running water but which, despite poverty, formed part of a deeply bonded, traditional neighborhood. It therefore became the perfect target for urban renewal.96

In December 1950, the CHA began purchasing properties in Chavez Ravine, intending to replace them with the Elysian Park Heights public housing project, which was to contain more than thirty-five hundred public housing units, complete with churches, schools, a community hall, and a commercial center.97 Although many of the residents resented being required to move, most of the immigrant families in Chavez Ravine accepted the city's promise that they would be resettled in homes superior to the ones they had left. But then came the cancelation of the public housing contract with the federal government, the CHA's sale of

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