City Rising | KCET
City Rising is a multi-platform documentary series in partnership with The California Endowment that has examined gentrification — its historical roots, economic role and social consequences. In this season, City Rising investigates informal economies — how workers who labor off the books, sometimes hiding in plain sight, are organizing to find pathways for legalization and protection.
City Rising illuminates the journey of California's neighborhoods advocating for responsible development. The documentary series highlights individuals facing discrimination but fighting to change policy and improve upward mobility for their communities. The effects of these movements are far-reaching, and their voices will ultimately impact the social health of communities across the country and beyond.
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Full Episodes
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City Rising
City Rising
City Rising: The Informal Economy
California is the world's fifth largest economy — yet, hiding in plain sight are workers who labor off the books, unprotected and unregulated. Follow four California workers organizing to find pathways for legalization and protection.
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City Rising
City Rising
City Rising: Gentrification and Displacement
City Rising shows how gentrification is deeply rooted in a history of discriminatory laws and practices in the United States.
Clips & Segments
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City Rising
As an independent contractor, Daniel “Seko” Uaina drives merchandise for some of the largest corporations in the world yet he struggles to make ends meet.
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City Rising
For decades, many immigrants — primarily women — have been criminalized for supporting their families with street vending income.
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City Rising
In Eastern Coachella Valley, Santos and Juana Barajas discuss immigration policy that funneled them into low-wage jobs and the challenges they have faced as entrepreneurs.
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City Rising
In Oakland, where residents are still recovering from the crack epidemic and disinvestment that hit the city in the 1980s, formerly incarcerated residents struggle to establish sustainable careers to sustain their families.
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Upcoming Airdates
Articles
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City Rising
City Rising
Voices of Resilience: Stories from Women Navigating Informal Labor
Many women immigrants are often forced into informal jobs that take advantage of their precarious situation, yet their contributions often go unrecognized and their labor is exploited and undervalued.
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City Rising
City Rising
When Nail Salon Workers Organize, Customers Also Benefit
An organization based out of a community health clinic in Oakland has pioneered the way for safer conditions for nail salon workers.
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City Rising
City Rising
Social Agency: Art, Gentrification and Reclaiming in Northeast L.A. Neighborhoods
"Taking Back the Boulevard,” a new book by Jan Lin, not only documents the current situation in Eagle Rock and Highland Park but it tells a bigger story of the artists and activists that have called Eagle Rock and Highland Park home for over a century.
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Informal Economy
City Rising
Making it Official: How L.A. Street Vending Became Legal
After being criminalized for decades, street vending in Los Angeles has finally gained legitimacy thanks to an active community of fearless street vendors and their allies.
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Informal Economy
City Rising
Docking Paychecks: The High Cost of Working as a Port Truck Driver
Since April 2014, port truck drivers have held 16 strikes at the L.A./Long Beach ports, often demanding to be reclassified as regular employees.
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economic development
City Rising
The Scale of Informal Labor and Its Impact on the Economy
Measuring the nature and impact of the informal economy is difficult due to the lack of a common understanding of its meaning.
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Neighborhood Data for Social Change
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City Rising
El Monte: More Than Just a Pass-Through Community
El Monte is working to leverage its unique position as a small city with many transportation assets to solve some of the housing, environmental, and economic challenges facing many cities across Los Angeles County.
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City Rising
Diverting Los Angeles Youth from the Criminal Justice System
The U.S. currently incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation in the world. Police forces and school systems are beginning to use diversion tactics to redirect young people away from criminal records.
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City Rising
County Program Works to Build Economic Stability in Low-Income Communities
L.A. County's Center for Financial Empowerment is working in low- to moderate-income communities to help close the income gap by supporting economically vulnerable residents.
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Los Angeles NDSC
City Rising
Early Childhood in Westlake and Silver Lake
How is it that the conditions that children are born into can differ so much between two adjacent neighborhoods?
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homelessness
City Rising
Everyone In: Combating Rising Homelessness in Los Angeles County
In 2018, Los Angeles County saw its first decrease in homelessness in almost 5 years, only to see it rise again in 2019 to nearly 59,000 people
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Coachella Valley NDSC
City Rising
Community Profile: North Shore
North Shore is named because of its location along the northeast shore of the Salton Sea and home to just over 3,000 people.
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