Photos: Life at Jordan Downs
Fred “Scorpio” Smith, left, 37, has lived in the Jordan Downs public housing project in Watts most of his life.
A new Jordan Downs that will cost more than $1 billion is being planned, and Smith is helping a team of consultants and architects understand the issues of the project’s residents. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
Resident Andre Powns gives a haircut to his son Alijah, 3.
Theres an amazing sense of community there, and they dont want that dismantled, said architect Daniel Solomon, who heads the rebuildings planning team and has redeveloped other city projects. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
Michael Jerod Adams, 17, hugs fellow graduate Vanna Briattany Colbert after high school graduation ceremonies at the housing project. The graduation was held for the Los Angeles Computer Science Academy at Jordan Downs. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
The new Jordan Downs will take more than five years to complete. Current project residents will be moved into temporary housing across the street while their old homes are torn down and rebuilt.
Then, if things go according to the master plan, they will move back in to new complex with middle-class neighbors, a bank of shops and businesses, and a cutting-edge high school campus next door. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
Many tenants are less than impressed by the rebuilding plan. Many remember a similar renewal proposal 20 years ago that crumbled amid political resistance and tenant complaints.
They also cannot imagine life alongside the middle-class families the project plans to lure.
Upscale people are not going to move over here, to the heart of the ghetto, Fred Smith, at left, said. Theyll be, like, Where are the gas stations? Who are all these dudes hanging around? (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
Many residents suspect that the renewal plan is an excuse to kick them out of their subsidized apartments, where rents are based on family income; some say they pay less than $100 a month. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
A crackdown on lease violators has fueled conspiracy theories, particularly among blacks, who have watched the population in the project shift from virtually all-black 40 years ago to more than two-thirds Latino today. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
Some residents are just too busy trying to survive to worry about the rebuilding project. Only about a dozen of Jordan Downs 700 families turn out consistently at architects planning sessions. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
