COMMENTARY : Latino Neighborhood in El Sereno Stands in Path of Freeway

As the quarter-century battle over the proposed 6.2-mile extension of the Long Beach (710) Freeway north from Cal State Los Angeles to Pasadena moves into what may be its final rounds, the freeway fighters have come out in full force.

Most of the anti-freeway arguments focus on preserving picturesque turn-of-the-century neighborhoods in South Pasadena and Pasadena. But an equally important neighborhood preservation battle faces families on the proposed route in El Sereno, where the freeway’s proposed 1.8-mile route would rip out one of the region’s best working-class Latino neighborhoods.

“We’ve got history too. South Pasadena isn’t the only historical place in the world,” said Yolanda Vasquez, 42, whose El Sereno home on the Alhambra border could be lost in the freeway extension. “I think it’s sad. The freeway is going to break up families that live here. Where are we going to go? This is all residential.”

Caltrans, the state’s freeway-building agency, has estimated that 675 El Sereno dwelling units will be taken for the extension if the freeway follows its preferred route, just inside Los Angeles’ Alhambra border. In contrast, South Pasadena would lose 599 homes and Pasadena would lose 124 homes.

Spanish-style houses, tree-lined streets, and single-family homes dominate the proposed freeway path in El Sereno. Unlike some deteriorating Eastside neighborhoods, working-class Latinos have found an area where children play safely on unfenced lawns, gang graffiti is almost absent and the neighborhood is clean.

“It’s very quiet,” said Jaime Valdivia, 30. “I don’t fear my children being out here playing. It’s real nice. People are always outside and we know each other.”

“This is not East L.A., but it’s part of East L.A.,” Vasquez said. “It’s a community of families that are settled. They have schools and churches they like. They’re all working and they came here from Maravilla and Estrada (public housing projects) because they like living in the houses here, not in apartments . . . .”

If the freeway goes through, the families and senior citizens living in many of the houses may find it impossible to get affordable housing in a comparable neighborhood so close to downtown Los Angeles.

Vasquez, a telephone representative for a bank, said she wouldn’t mind moving to La Verne, San Gabriel or San Marino if Caltrans buys the home she and her husband have owned for 20 years. But she quickly mentioned that her family would probably have to move to Ontario to find a home they could afford.

Freeway disruption of neighborhoods is no stranger to Eastside Latinos. In the 1950s and ‘60s, federal, state and local officials routed several freeways and interchanges in areas east of downtown Los Angeles; leaving areas west of the downtown virtually untouched.

Now another freeway threatens the city’s Eastside. The proposed route follows the classic Caltrans strategy: cut up the Eastside. The route stays on Los Angeles’ side of the Alhambra border and then curves into South Pasadena, instead of following a straight line that would cut partially through Alhambra.

“It’s a Latino issue. The reason it’s become a Latino issue is because it’s no accident that six freeways go through the Latino communities on the Eastside,” said Jesse Granados, of the Neighborhood Action Committee. When earlier freeways were built “a lot of Latino political representation was not available to voice an opinion, to bring up issues and to bring up alternatives.”

But Latino politicians today are divided. State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) has long advocated a no-freeway position. U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal wrote to Federal Highway Administrator Arthur Larson last October that he “would not be upset if the entire project was abandoned.”

City Councilman Richard Alatorre, whose El Sereno constituents would be displaced, supports the extension. As a state assemblyman he introduced a law stopping the freeway from taking parklands along the Arroyo Seco. As a city councilman, however, he has not proposed similar legislation protecting one of the nicest working-class neighborhoods in his district.

“Most of the homes along the adopted route have been purchased by the state of California,” said Alatorre. “I’m not saying they are not valuable but the alternative splits El Sereno and that position is not viable.”

Some El Sereno residents hope other alternatives, such as street widenings, light rail or expressways will take the place of the proposed freeway. If not, their neighborhood will be destroyed and they will be thrown into a tough housing market.

“The freeway itself would virtually wipe out the area, it would trigger a homeowner flight along the freeway route and would further depress El Sereno as a total community,” said David Diaz, an environmental planner and El Sereno resident.

Granados is also pessimistic, noting that nice neighborhoods near downtown Los Angeles are increasingly out of reach of working-class Latinos.

“There’s only two choices homeowners and renters will have,” he concluded, “It’s either move to the desert or move into an apartment.”