IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD : Watts: Demographics and Culture Shift, but Poverty Persists

Residents welcome new services like a city library branch, a family-style restaurant and the proposed business and cultural development of the area surrounding the famed Watts Tower. Still, the community’s unemployment rate is at least 20% and nearly half of its residents live below the poverty line. And it faces this continued economic struggle amid dramatic population shifts.

Ten years ago, roughly 90% of those who lived in Watts were African-American; today it’s about half African-American, half Latino. The population shift has created tension between the groups, but most who work and live in Watts say that the strain is more related to the frustrations of people living in poverty than to racial or ethnic hatred. The community is, after all, undergoing an ethnic transition during the worst economic times since the Great Depression

Here, economic and social gains are hard-won. After years of community effort, a new 10,500-square-foot library is scheduled to open later this year. Late last year, Watts gained its first large, family-style restaurant since the 1965 riots. Recent bright spots also include the first commercial single-family subdivision in Watts since World War II. Before last year’s disturbances, which hit harder in South-Central Los Angeles and Koreatown than in Watts, home prices in the neighborhood were increasing even as they decreased countywide, but the mini-boom in residential real estate has been on hold since the riots last April.

Population: 64,943

Population by race and ethnicity:

Black:

Hispanic:

All Others:

Those over 18 with less than a 9th grade education:

Watts: 28%

Los Angeles County: 15%

Those living below the poverty line:

Los Angeles County 15%

Watts 44%

Per capita income:

Watts: $8,159

Los Angeles County: $16,149

Owner occupied housing units:

Watts 39%

Los Angeles County 49%

COMMUNITY HEALTH ADMINISTRATOR

Donzella Lee

Director of Administrative Services for community health programs, Watts Health Foundation Inc.

I was raised on 129th and Avalon, which is not far from this area. In the early 1970s, parks and recreation programs started to disappear and jobs for adolescents dried up. When you don’t have any place for kids to work and you don’t have any place for kids to play you have a problem. Gangs provide jobs, and they also provide a recreational outlet. And not only don’t we have jobs for adolescents, but we don’t have jobs for their parents. (This) leaves the community very vulnerable--vulnerable to developing an underground community (including) drugs and other criminal activity.

We’ve said it for years and years: Jobs is the issue. And not just any kind of job but adequate paying jobs. You can’t have people work a full time job and then still be below the poverty level.

With transition there’s a lot of give and take and pull and tug. This is not the first time Watts has changed its color. The transition period and the things that are happening are very normal--issues around bilingualism . . . and whether or not people are culturally competent so that they understand some of the cultural issues that drive behavior.

COMMUNITY WORKER

Arturo Ybarra

President of Watts-Century Latino Organization and resident of Watts for nine years

We don’t have enough programs for our youth and children or programs that will help us with single mothers so that our people can break this vicious cycle of dependency (on welfare). (That would happen) with training programs, with more jobs so people can have a decent income to support their families.

African-Americans and Latinos suffer from the same social and economic neglect, and what is available is not enough for everyone, so this creates some kind of resentment in some groups. This resentment wouldn’t exist if the problems (like unemployment) were taken care of.

Latinos and African-Americans can work together when we have common ground. And we have lots of common ground, including lack of opportunities--economic and educational. Hopefully we will get together to form a new majority to try to make our voice heard.

LENDER

James Taylor

CEO, Watts United Credit Union, has worked and lived in community for 27 years.

Here we sit with 27 years worth of experience of lending money in the community and providing credit for people who cannot otherwise get credit the conventional way. We have some expertise. Nobody from Rebuild L.A. has contacted us. That’s part of the frustration. Outside efforts are not focused enough.

All the statistics say small businesses employ more than corporations. There’s no focus on basic services that people need. If these small businesses are not put into place the major corporations piece (of the equation) isn’t going to work.

Economic development is the key because if you get people working you’re going to take them out of (crime). I just got back from a country where they depend upon imports entirely. Well, our community basically depends upon imports. Somehow those of us in the community and outside of the community have to change this.

RESIDENT

Ava Chavez

Jordan High School PTA President and Watts resident for 22 years

We have to learn about each other’s culture . . . to know where we come from and not forget our roots and share with each other.

I have a friend. We call each other “play sisters.” I’ve known her since I moved here. She’s African-American. My kids grew up with her children. Whenever she would do cooking she would send a plate over. I had never heard of a chitlin, and I learned to eat those chitlins and greens with her. Whenever I fix a Mexican dish I will share with her. I have learned to cook her dishes and she has learned to cook mine.

I go to meetings, picnics where there’s hardly any Hispanics. Hispanics need to get involved, but they don’t come out. They don’t have enough experience getting involved; they are coming into this for the first time and they feel uncomfortable. I went through the same thing.

The community feels that we don’t get the (police) service that everybody else gets and that the police are afraid to come to Watts. It takes forever for them to get here. When I call them to come to the meetings they tell me, “I’m afraid to come.” This is not only with Hispanics but with blacks, too. Everybody.

Source: U.S. Census data, programmed bt Times analyst Maureen Lyons.