San Gabriel Valley : Latino Group Joins Suit Over Freeway Plans
One of the nation’s top Latino civil rights organizations has joined a federal lawsuit alleging that the Long Beach Freeway extension discriminates against Latinos in El Sereno.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has joined a suit by a coalition of El Sereno community groups against Caltrans in September, charging that millions of dollars to be spent to minimize the 6.2-mile freeway extension’s noise, blight and air pollution will benefit predominantly white and upscale areas of Pasadena and South Pasadena, and not the mostly Latino working-class area of El Sereno, which it also bisects.
Attorneys said El Sereno’s Sierra Vista Elementary School is an example of how the project disproportionately affects the community. While a tunnel is planned near South Pasadena High School and Pasadena’s Westridge School for Girls, at Sierra Vista the roadway would be more than 20 feet above the school, which is just across the street.
Caltrans officials contend that a tunnel cannot be built in El Sereno because the road climbs uphill there.
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