Doctoral Student Danielle Hoague in Grist: Decades after Watts revolted, the Black neighborhood is being ‘revitalized’ — but the cost is steep
Los Angeles’ future is haunted by its past in the South L.A. neighborhood of Watts. A community that has experienced social, economic, and environmental neglect for decades is now the center of the city’s ambitious plans to make housing and transportation more accessible across the increasingly expensive metropolis. On top of all that, no other place in California suffers more cumulative environmental burdens, according to the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
“Climate change will make this worse,” said Danielle Hoague, a doctoral student at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and volunteer with the Better Watts Initiative, a neighborhood environmental group. “Kids actually have higher blood lead levels when it’s summer and when it’s hotter, and with the continued construction, there’s more dust kicked up for the folks who’ve been stuck living there.”