Never Finished

During my research I found an article from the Los Angeles Times that talked about the neighborhood of Baldwin Hills. In the article it talks about how a developer took a plaza on the corner of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards, which is an are that is predominantly minorities who have low incomes. The purpose of the new plaza was to bring in new business and revitalize the neighborhood economically as well as give it a cleaner and more modern look. However, the developer never followed through on his plans and millions of dollars were wasted. Not to mention the are that was under construction became a haven for drugs and crime. In trying to improve the city developers came in and actually made it worse. If a city or are is to be revitalized it should be done by the government with the people's wants and needs in mind as the primary goal. The government could choose to do the work on its own or it could bring in developers for additional funding, but the government must give the developers a strict idea of what needs to be built and where. When developers come in a try to improve a city they can end up making the situation even worse, which is why gentrification is not the answer.

Poverty Help in Los Angeles

USC Master Plan

The university seems to have a very organized and structured idea of what they want to accomplish with this plan. It discusses improving traffic and bringing in business to the area. The plan consists of many things that seem to be beneficial mainly for the school. The project on Jefferson Boulevard seems like it could be a interesting in the sense that it may bring jobs to the community, but when the community tries to use this resource along with the students and faculty there may be issues. Overall the plan does not seem very good to me. It seems like the focus of it is to improve the school and bring the spotlight to the university rather than involve the community. The plan did mention the community, but not in a sense that made me feel like the community and neighborhood around the school was really that important. The feeling I got from reading the plan was that the university just mentions the surrounding neighborhoods so it looks good and seems like it's doing something for the surrounding community. However, when I read the whole plan I didn't get the feeling that the community really was that important and that rather the main goal was to make the university better first and then maybe help out the community.

http://www.usc.edu/community/upcmasterplan/