City Rising | KCET
Gentrification arrives with promises of revitalization but has also developed from a history of discriminatory laws and practices in the United States. "City Rising" illuminates this history and reveals how gentrification is traditionally molded and dictated by those in power.
Cities have been entrepreneurial about encouraging development, while regarding displacement as inevitable. Fast-rising home values have made property ownership more elusive than ever for those historically excluded. As housing prices rise, people of color who cherish their community and culture are mobilizing against unsustainable rents and other forces they see pushing neighbors into homelessness. Fearing the loss of their basic needs, these residents are part of a movement, not just in California, but across the nation as the rights to property, home, community and the city are consuming local and global debates.
"City Rising" is a one-hour broadcast special and multi-media project that analyzes six California communities undergoing gentrification: Boyle Heights and South Central in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Oakland and the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento.
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Full Episodes
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City Rising
City Rising
E1: Legacy
From the displacement of Native peoples to the enforcement of Jim Crow, the history of in U.S. land policy and practice is a history of inequities.
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City Rising
City Rising
E2: Resilience
Communities that have historically been disinvested, such as Boyle Heights, Santa Ana and East Oakland, have established rich community networks, informal economies and culture.
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City Rising
City Rising
E3: Return to the Cities
Cities have become more entrepreneurial, seeking private investment that fuels large-scale gentrification.
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City Rising
City Rising
E4: Impact
Laws that favor property owners and real estate developers have left many residents without a safety net to protect themselves from displacement.
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City Rising
City Rising
E5: Mobilization
As more tenants face displacement, they are recognizing their power in numbers and creating a “renter nation” movement advocating for their right to property and equitable development.
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Clips & Alternate Versions
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City Rising
After the Great Depression, the federal government backed mortgage lending as a route to homeownership and wealth accumulation, but redlined minority communities.
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City Rising
Legislators and developers are critical to how we address this issue, as are landlords and tenants, but our actions are framed by our thinking about housing.
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City Rising
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City Rising
Fearing the loss of their community’s soul, residents are gathering into a movement, not just in California, but across the nation as the rights to property, home, community and the city are taking center stage in a local and global debate.
Upcoming Airdates
The 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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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
The Problem With the Second Phase of Gentrification
This first wave of gentrification did not displace many people, but then the second phase happened.
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City Rising
City Rising
How One Organization Is Providing Small Business Owners the Help They Need
Since 2013, Leadership for Urban Renewal Network has created sustainable communities through promoting and building places that meet the diverse needs of residents.
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City Rising
City Rising
Sacramento Housing Alliance: Dispelling Myths About Affordable Housing
Through its annual Affordable Housing Bus Tour, Sacramento Housing Alliance facilitates discussions and plans for affordable housing by showing community members real, tangible examples of how affordable housing works in their communities.
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City Rising
City Rising
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles: A Tradition of Justice
Since 1929, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has provided countless poor and low-income people with legal help or a crisis that threatens their shelter, security or basic needs.
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City Rising
City Rising
Educate, Agitate and Organize: Lessons on Community Organizing in Latinx Communities
As a Boyle Heights native, Alvaro Huerta recollects the legacy of community organizing within the Chicana/o-Latina/o communities and gives advice on how to sustain that activism.
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Long Beach
City Rising
Persistent Gentrification in Long Beach Increases Student Homelessness and Debt
“They’re working several jobs in order to make ends meet in addition to going to school. They come in hoping that financial aid will cover everything and they find out it will not.”
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Neighborhood Data for Social Change
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City Rising
Boyle Heights Residents Face Significant Obstacles to Homeownership
Addressing low homeownership rates requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses the various barriers to homeownership such as affordability, access to credit, immigration status and linguistic isolation.
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City Rising
Los Angeles is Short on Parks, Ranking 74th Out of 100 Cities
Los Angeles has a median of 3.3 acres of park space per 1,000 people, well below the median of 6.8 acres per 1,000 people in other high-density U.S. cities.
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City Rising
73,000 Opportunity Youth Live in the City of Los Angeles
Opportunity youth (disconnected youth) disproportionately live in low-income neighborhoods that often lack access to entry-level jobs and post-secondary education.
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SoCal Connected
Living Paycheck to Paycheck: The Rise of the Gig Economy
A recent survey found that 78% of full-time American workers are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
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transportation
City Rising
Transit Ridership in Los Angeles County is on the Decline
While more than 4.5 million commuters walk, bike, drive, rideshare or take public transit to get to their jobs, transit ridership has declined more than 19% since 2013.
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City Rising
Linguistically Isolated and Living Alone, Little Tokyo’s Aging Community
In Little Tokyo, an area of Downtown L.A. adjacent to Skid Row and the Arts District, 25% of the population is 65 years or older, more than double the county average.
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