Public Housing and Activism Series Part III: GENTE SÍ, GENTRIFY NO: RESISTING DISPLACEMENT IN BOYLE HEIGHTS
TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2017
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
PAB room 2355, 2nd Floor
UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
337 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, 90024
**Please RSVP as space is limited.
Light refreshments will be provided. Please bring your own beverage**
Activists, residents, and community members will come together to discuss the struggle against gentrification and displacement in Boyle Heights. Boyle Heights is at the epicenter of a spatially contested struggle for shelter in the midst of Los Angeles’ crisis of housing affordability. This renewed interest in the neighborhood comes after decades of disinvestment, racial discrimination, and substandard employment opportunities for its long-term residents. As a historic entry point for Mexican immigrants into the country, gentrification in Boyle Heights has not only taken a toll on the neighborhood’s most vulnerable populations, but it has eroded the vital social and cultural institutions of self-determination. But the threat of displacement has also inspired a rigorous and thriving social movement. In a moderated discussion, panelists will explore the realities of gentrification and the organizing that has emerged as a response to provide context to the debate about gentrification in the neighborhood, and similar debates taking place across Los Angeles.
MODERATOR:
Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography, and Director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
PANELISTS:
Alessandro Negrete, Outreach Officer, Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council
Elizabeth Blaney, Co-Executive Director, Union de Vecinos
Zacil Pech, Founder, Defend Boyle Heights
Nico Avina, Co-Owner, Espacio 1839
Prints made by Nico Avina will be provided!
Photo: Josie Huang, KPCC
Photo: Defend BoyleHeights
Photo: Flickr, Liberty Hill Foundation
Photo: Monica Almeida for The New York Times
The event is a project of the Graduate Student Group “Our Hoods, Our Stories” whose work has been funded by the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin.
This event is also sponsored by The Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate
