Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: USC should work with anti-gentrification coalitions

Despite rising housing costs, neighborhoods within walking distance to USC’s main campus remain coveted, especially for undergrads. In recent years the university has heavily invested in the continued expansion of student housing. USC Village—the largest development in the school’s history— was a $700 million endeavor completed in 2017, despite outcry from local South Central residents who feared it would only further exacerbate gentrification.

Posted inRepresentation

JESÚS AYALA, award-winning news producer, trains young Latino journalists

When Ayala started working at ABC News more than 20 years ago, he was the only Latino in the newsroom. Countless news assignments, dozens of awards and a teaching career later, the veteran producer turned college professor is an inspiration for the next generation of journalists of color. Today, Ayala, 43, is an award-winning news producer and an assistant professor at California State University, Long Beach.

Posted inEnvironment

Latinos living in Los Angeles’s most lead-polluted neighborhoods demand change

Latino advocates and activists in Los Angeles blame California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for failing to remove lethal lead pollution in predominantly Latinx communities near the previous Exide Technologies, Inc. battery recycling factory in southeast Los Angeles, leaving locals angered and fearful. Efforts to clean the factory began in July 2017 after the DTSC announced its plan to remove lead pollutants from the area surrounding the abandoned plant located at Bandini Boulevard, Vernon. Almost six years later, many homes in the southeast LA community continue to have high levels of lead, which exceed the state health standards.