A fruit seller passes by a former store on Vernon Avenue in South Los Angeles. Social Compact, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, studied nine neighborhoods in South and East L.A. These communities have long gotten by without many big grocery stores or major retail chains, forcing residents to travel far for basic goods.
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INNERCITY

Inner city

A fruit seller passes by a former store on Vernon Avenue in South Los Angeles. Social Compact, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, studied nine neighborhoods in South and East L.A. These communities have long gotten by without many big grocery stores or major retail chains, forcing residents to travel far for basic goods.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Jordon Tire Service

Peter Moreno works at Jordon Tire Service in South LA. The tire and car repair busines has been open for 44 years. A study of nine neighborhoods concluded that the Census Bureau underestimated annual income in those areas by about $1.9 billion and their population by 82,000.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Inner city

The Los 4 Hermanos Mini Mart at Vernon and Towne avenues in South Los Angeles offers the neighborhood basic food items for sale.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Nix Check Cashing

The street scene in the so-called Vernon Central area of Social Compact’s inner-city study.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Inner city

Sisters Rosslynn Mitchell, left, and Sydney Bradford. “Everybody in the neighborhood is not destitute, homeless, and on drugs,” says Bradford, who lives in an neighborhood near Watts. “People have money, they just have to go out of the neighborhood.”  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

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