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
City Rising: Gentrification and Displacement
This multi-platform documentary shows how gentrification is deeply rooted in a history of discriminatory laws and practices in the United States. City Rising follows the journey of California communities that are fighting gentrification and features a growing movement of advocates seeking responsible development across the state. People of color who cherish their neighborhood's culture and sense of community are mobilizing against unsustainable rents and other forces that they see are pushing neighbors into homelessness.
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2019-12-04T18:00:00-08:00KCET-HD
City Rising: The Informal Economy
From the beginning of our nation’s history our laws, institutions and social norms have contributed to the creation of a segmented or dual economy. Many people — including people of color, women and immigrants — were excluded from the benefits of society, forcing them to find alternative ways to make a living in a parallel economy.
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2019-12-11T18:00:00-08:00KCET-HD
Neighborhoods
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yost theatre
City Rising
The Gentrification of Santa Ana: From Origin to Resistance
From the late 1800s, Santa Ana has gone from being a historic urban center in wealthy white and conservative Orange County to a large center with a Mexican, working-class and immigrant identity.
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City Rising
City Rising
The Historical Roots of Gentrification in Boyle Heights
Perhaps more than any other community in Southeast L.A., Boyle Heights' residents are the most at-risk of displacement and a loss of community due to rising gentrification.
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City Rising
City Rising
The Gentrification of Sacramento's Oak Park
Up until recently, the tight-knit Oak Park community carried the stigma of being a neighborhood with a high poverty rate, gang violence and neglect. For a long time, that was mostly true.
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south central los angeles
City Rising
The History of South Central Los Angeles and Its Struggle with Gentrification
Rising property values, no rent controls, Metro's expansion and the arrival of the Rams all contribute to the area's complex gentrification issues.
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Articles
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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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City Rising
City Rising
San Diego Nonprofit Feeds the Entrepreneurial Spirit of East African Women
In the heart of San Diego a group of East African women is running catering services to promote entrepreneurship and implement the valuable skills refugees bring to the table.
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Neighborhood Data for Social Change
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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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Coachella Valley NDSC
City Rising
Community Profile: Desert Hot Springs
Desert Hot Springs was officially incorporated as a city in 1963 and draws tourists to its numerous hot springs and is known as a wellness destination.
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NDSC
City Rising
Community Health in the I-710 Corridor
A closer look at the I-710 Corridor reveals how historical, environmental, and socioeconomic factors interact to explain why the region is a environmental justice hot spot.
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