This is the second part of a mult-part series (read “Buy Now - part I”) I’ ve been thinking about regarding housing market as it affects Boyle Heights. Attention to the housing market is huge right now across LA - whether because of the housing boom or the affordable housing crunch. The boom (read LA Business Journal here, and here, and LA Weekly here) & the crunch (read LA Weekly here, and LA Daily News here, and LA Times here) are all over the news.Much of the debate about affordability centers around about rent control (read a brief summary of the basic “pros & cons” of rent control). But more simply than that, is the basic economic notion that I learned in high school: supply & demand. The current low inventory of housing (Supply) across Los Angeles stands in contrast to the high concentration of residents (Demand) that are looking for housing. The high demand and low supply creates higher prices, thus the current housing boom. And this supply & demand problem cuts across class lines.What hurts the poor is the huge lack of affordability. Affordability is determined as housing costs not requiring more than 30% of household income. Based on the median home price of $542,000 in California, for instance, only 16% of residents can afford to buy a home. In LA County, where the median income is $52,000, a annual salary of $118,000 is required to meet the affordability of the median home price. That is a pretty big gap.

The math hits home faster when you realize the 96,000 residents were evicted in LA County last year due to inability to pay higher rents. That, obviously, is a huge problem - impacting homelessness, overcrowding, children and education, among other things.

But the issues have been on the table for a while now. Back during to the mayoral election, part of Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign platform included his ideas for addressing LA’s housing needs. “One of the biggest challenges we face as a city is providing affordable housing for our growing workforce. Los Angeles has one of the lowest rates of homeownership in the nation. I want to change that.” Part of his campaign plan included building of new housing along transit corridors - known as “transit-oriented development” - and over retail space on commercial streets.

This brings us back to Boyle Heights, which is currently constructing the East LA Gold Line extension, set to open in 2009. In conjunction with the “transit-oriented” development, is the proposed renovation of the historic Sears building on the south end of Boyle Heights, mixing multi-class housing options with a multiplex movie theater and shopping center.

In Boyle Heights, this is the development dilema. On the positive end, transit-oriented development will bring new revenue into the neighborhood and more resources that can increase education & reduce crime and gang activity. On the downside, the loss of affordable units hurts the poor and even the middle class, who are already facing a huge shortage of affordable housing.

READ: “Buy Now - part III“

Stories like this one inspire me about community development in Boyle Heights. This really puts a different spin on “community policing.”

There are some huge unrepaired potholes near us, including one on the onramp to the 5 freeway.UPDATE: From Mark Yim - Reporting potholes to the city is easy. Go to www.lacity.org/BOSS/request.htm

I’m glad it was all over the news today, since I must not know my Angelino history very well. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Watt’s Riots - August 11th, 1965. Reading this article - and the words from Villariagosa - are humbling. May it be that we avoid another 40 years of wandering…

Knowing the high concentration of lawyers among the 24,000 residents of South Pasadena, this proposed 6.2 mile tunnel to connect the 710 (Long Beach Freeway) to the 210 (Foothill Freeway) will probably be stuck in litigation for another 50 years. But I love the idea. Anything to get this freeway finished.I still remember 25 years ago when the end of the 210 freeway at California still had 4 lanes & equipment sitting there to keep on extending the freeway. It still shocks & frustrates me that such a small & powerful contigent of people can have such a significant impact on an area.

I’m not a hero. I get afraid. Afraid when I turn the corner near my house, only to see my driveway blocked by police cars, with police flashlights shining into car windows shattered by bullets from a shooting only 15 minutes earlier. Praise God no one was outside or on the street, so no one was injured. But we were coming back from a wedding. A wedding. A shooting. And it was only 10pm.I see two sisters, Teresa and Ursula, who live across the street. It was their car windows that were hit by the bullets. Not even sure why. Or by whom. That kind of scares me. Just a week earlier we’d been celebrating the diminished gang activity in our part of Boyle Heights, and the apparent weakening of the drug trafficking that takes place. And then this.

Ursula’s friend’s car also got shot - and somehow got a flat tire. I’ve got a new joke now, though. “How many St.Louis Street residents does it take to change a flat tire? The Answer — 6. That’s how many of us were out on the street trying to figure out how to change one flat tire. Thank God for good neighbors.

I guess, though I get somewhat scared at times, I also see hope here in Boyle Heights. Hope that good neighbors outnumber the bad. That two sisters and their friend aren’t stuck alone changing a tire at 11pm on a Saturday night. Hope that our friends - former students that we discipled - whose wedding we were coming from, have just moved into the neighborhood, just down the street. That even though this is the barrio, that good neighbors live here, too.

Two of my students - Curtis Parker Jr. and Jacque Lamont Herman - are performing in a new urban gospel musical that runs this weekend. The show has had excellent reviews in Atlanta, Georgia and parts of South Carolina.

“Fathers are vital to the process of a developing child. This play looks at the qualities and consequences of an absent father. People suffer extremely when a father is not there for mental, physical, and spiritual support. The play is designed to recognize the importance of fathers. The playwright constructed this piece from a personal perspective, however the messages that are so deeply engulfed cross culture in a very tangable way.

Ultimately, the most important of the messages is that only our Heavenly father can heal, redeem, and sanctify the scars of an absent father. Each character in this play interacts on positive and negative levels over this universal truth.

Prepare to engage all your senses when watching this performance. You’ll hear superb singing, watch dynamic acting skills, feel the need to laugh or cry, and you will certainly be given a taste of reality. “Father Me” is a worthwhile experience.”

If you don’t have plans for this weekend we’d love to see you there. Veronica & I are hoping to make the Sunday afternoon show. Here is the info if you can make it:

August 5th & August 6th: 7:00pm
Sunday, August 7th: 3:30pm

Washington Preparatory High School
10860 South Denker Ave.
Los Angeles, Ca 90047

DIRECTIONS
110 South — Exit Century and make a right
Left on Denker — Drive about four blocks
School is on the left side

$12 General Admission
$10 presale
$5 on Sunday’s matinee for Students w/ ID

If you have any questions or want to buy presale tickets, call Jacque at (323) 224-9515.

You heard it here first - Boyle Heights is the place to buy property in Los Angeles. Buy Now!!

OK. So maybe I’m not 1st (or even 2nd or 10th). Reports about land development in Boyle Heights are popping up almost weekly.

The Los Angeles Business Journal ran an article today on the interests of investors and developers in Boyle Heights because of the East LA Gold Line extension, set to open 2009. And similar articles have recently run in LA Times and in LA Weekly about the projected development in this area. Note these big dollar investments:

- $1 billion is being spent by MTA on the East LA Gold Line extension;
- $650 million is being spent to rebuild a new hospital at the USC/LA County Medical Center;
- $150 million was just spent to renovate White Memorial Hospital;
- $100 million to build two new high schools;
- $350 million to transform the Sears building into a multi-plex entertainment and residential center.

So BUY NOW. Jump in while its hot.

Here is my one caveat, though, to would-be buyers: Come live in Boyle Heights. Make this your home. Currently, 75% of owners are non-residents. Non-resident owners are also known as “absentee landlords.” We don’t need more absentee landlords in this neighborhood.

We don’t need heroes, either. What Boyle Heights needs is people that will invest in the sustained development of the community. What Boyle Heights needs is Christians who believe that God loves the city.

Because this Boyle Heights development is a multi-faceted and complex issue, I’m going to be posting a weekly series entitled “Buy Now” to address several issues; including the need for and the benefits of development in urban areas; the needs for and challenges of affordable housing; “replacing” the projects; development, policing, poverty and gangs; and a few other related issues.

READ: “Buy Now” - Part II and Part III

Reload is coming. Reload is a one-day training event from Urban Youth Workers Institute. Excellent training for anyone working in the city with youth. Check out more info at www.uywi.org/reload. Reload will be happening in 20 cities around the country between October and March.

Last night, my neighbors & staff partners Mark Yim and Maite Rodriguez and I went to the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council meeting. We initially went to the wrong place, thinking the meeting was in the Roybal office on 1st Street. There was another meeting to introduce the District 14 Mural Project. We met Lui Sanchez, the program director from the Center for Arts in Eagle Rock, who will be directing the effort to preserve several murals that are in danger of being eliminated.We finally made it over to the Boyle Heights Senior Center. There were over 60 people in attendance, including board members from each of the 4 quadrants in Boyle Heights, the Council officers, community police officers, representatives from District 14, and from Lucille Roybal-Allards office, as well as residents from the neighborhood.The meeting was informative on many levels. One report given by the police really stood out. He reported that for this year, 32 violent crimes had been committed in Boyle Heights, as well as 20 homocides. While that number was lower than in years past (34 for mid-point of 2003), that is a lot of homocides for a small geogrpahic area like Boyle Heights. Also, over 91 arrests had been made, including 34 felony arrests. The interesting thing was, of those 34 felony arrests - 24 were made on Sundays!!

Yesterday, my colleague and neighbor Mark Yim (see his blog) met with James Rojas from the MTA and Matt Benjamin from the LACBC (LA County Bike Coalition) to talk about creating a mural bike tour to incorporate into the East LA Gold line extension that is set to open in a 2009. There are three stops in Boyle Heights (West to East) at 1st & Utah near Pico Aliso, at 1st & Boyle near Mariachi Plaza, and at 1st & Soto.The idea came from a driving tour of Boyle Heights murals that I made as a pet project a few years ago. Then several weeks ago I met Diego Cardoso, a local artist, who works by day at the MTA. He was interested in my project and set up this meeting with James Rojas.

At this stage, I’m going to select 5-10 murals surrounding each station to be incorporated into a low-impact bike route. We are shooting for a date in September to have a community bike tour to launch the idea.

I’m not sure where this will go, but I’m encouraged by a pet project that is growing in interest & potential impact.

Karen - pictured here (2nd in from the left) with her team (see below) - is our first CSULA Deep summer missionary. Karen is participating in the Los Angeles Urban Project, living and learning on-site at the Church of the Redeemer in South Central Los Angeles. She is having a tremendous experience this summer.This past Sunday, she surprised us with a phone call. “I can believe how much I’m seeing the city differently, like for the first time.” More than tutoring kids in the church’s summer outreach program, Karen herself is being transformed. And the best part - she loves it! Read this from her mid-project prayer letter:

“As a teacher in the tutoring program (we emphasize reading), I teach 1st grade. I have a class of 8 kids and they are all at different reading levels (mostly below average for their age). God has given me a lot of love for these kids and I deeply desire to see them thrive in school. One student in particular, Alex, has been improving at a rapid pace. He came to the program lacking motivation to learn. He didn’t want to participate in anything and had a bad attitude.

As I was praying for him, I felt like God was calling me to keep asking questions and digging beneath the surface to find out what was really going on. I discovered that, even though he is only 6, he had been told that he was not smart enough to succeed in school. I prayed with him that day and he said he felt like “God is telling me I’m smart.” Praise God that Alex is now thriving and excited to learn.

Along with the tutoring program, we have also been doing neighborhood outreach 2 blocks north of where we are living. It’s been amazing to see God open doors (literally and figuratively) in our times. My teammate and I pray everyday to be able to get into the apartment complexes that are locked and gated, and everyday, we are able to get in and talk to people.

We’ve also encountered an excited group of kids that travel with us as our little translators. We met Carmen on our first day and, even at such a young age (10 yrs), she is a leader. She helps us communicate in spanish and it has been such a blessing. She tells all the neighbors that they need to get involved so that we can eliminate all the crime (drugs, prostitution,etc…) in the alleys behind the apartment complexes and houses. Praise God for the ways that He has been going alongside us in our efforts to bring justice to this neighborhood.”

Robert Linthicum, author
Transforming Power

I just realized this morning talking to some friends that today marks the anniversary of our 5th year since moving into Boyle Heights. I think some of our neighbors might shoot off some fireworks. In our honor, of course.

For those of you that are following me in this writing workshop, here is a snippet from my 1st chapter - entitled “Ordinary.” I’ll try to put short sections of the draft as I go through, just to get some feedback.

“But it was her response that turned my head. She said to me, “Scott, if your life is not heroic, then your normal Christian life challenges what the rest of us call normal Christian lives.”

I took notice because her words were courageously honest. I don’t believe she was commenting on my desire to live an authentic practice of my faith. Millions of Christians around the world are pursuing authentic faith in their daily lives. Pursuing faithful witness in their relationships and circles of influence. Pursuing lives of faithful commitment to studying the Bible. Pursuing a practice of faith in community with other Christians. Pursuing God in the everyday, normal flow of life.

What needed to be labeled as “heroic” that day was how pursuing authentic faith had lead me toward such radical displacement, towards being out of place, being a fish out of water. As a guy who grew up in the suburbs now living in the barrio, I was out of place. As an older married guy hanging out with single college students, I was out of place. As a second language learner in my Spanish-speaking church, I was out of place. As a tall white man with a Mexican wife leading a predominantly African-American student group, I was out of place.

That following Jesus and loving my neighbor had led me to be so far out of place, displaced by choice – that was what my friend needed to label heroic in order for her “normal” to continue to feel normal.”

I met the artist of this painting today - Diego Cardoso - at HomeGirl Cafe in Boyle Heights on First Street, right by Mariachi Plaza. [It is a great new restaurant - you should try it.]Cardoso grew up in Boyle Heights, graduating from Roosevelt High School. He has an exhibit of paintings - “Urban Images” - in the restaurant, which is across the street from the Metro Gold Line East LA extension that is set to open in 2008. “Working for the Metro (MTA) pays my mortgage,” he said, “but I want to connect each station on the Metro extension to the community life and art around that station.”

In Boyle Heights, that equals murals. When Veronica & I moved to Boyle Heights 5 years ago, I started working on a mural project, cataloging murals in Boyle Heights. In the end, I made a driving tour, including over 60 murals in the Boyle Heights neighborhood.

Cardoso was very interested in my mural tour, so I’m going to get together with him to talk more about the driving tour that I’ve made. Who knows, maybe I’ll be a part of future “urban images.”

This recent ruling by the Supreme Court - Kelo et al. v City of New London 04108 - has HUGE implications for urban development. O’Conner’s dissenting opinion is prophetic of the potential for explotation that this ruling opens up. The underlying principle that this rule supports is the take-over of private property if it will create economic development.This is ‘trickle-down’ economics at its worst, since this property is not being taken-over for public use - roads, schools, etc. - but for private use. Just because something will produce economic development and tax revenue does not constitute adequate grounds for this decision. Even if people were compensated with revenue shares from the future development, government enforced displacement for private party economic gain is still unjust.

I guess there is precident for this - read African slave trade, Indian removal acts, disregard for Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, etc, etc. Apparently that precident trumps constitutional protections.

Much of ministry matches the description Jesus gives in the Gospel of Mark - of a farmer that daily rises and sleeps and works the land, and the growth comes through a somewhat unclear process of that daily labor [Mark 4: 26-29].Last night, though, I got to see some of the fruit of God’s work and God’s mysterious power in the live of one young man - Andy. I met Andy a year ago as he started coming to DEEP through the Gospel Choir. He is an athletic guy that ran track and love basketball who is majoring in business and wants to focus on music production. He was one of the original group of guys that started 2Deep - our men’s ministry.

Spiritually, Andy had grown up around the church and had some spiritual convictions, but got most of his cues from the world around him. But as he has stayed involved in the fellowship of Christians on campus and gotten more hungry for the Bible, his convictions have grown. I’d been noticing this in Andy and thought I would share with him about how proud God was of the ways he was growing and becoming more a man of God.

So after our fellowship meeting last night, I pulled him aside briefly, just to bless him. I shared a verse from Scripture that I felt that the Lord had directed me to the night before for Andy, from 1 Kings 2:2. It is David’s words to Solomon before he dies. At first Andy was a little confused - “How did I see that he was becoming more of a man?” When I shared the verse with him, his face lit up, with a smile from ear to ear. His face spoke not just of joy, but also of shock. He told me, “I can’t believe this because these past several months I’ve been feeling like God has been telling me that I’m becoming a man. And now this scripture that you are showing me is confirming that same thing. Wow!! God is really trying to do something.”

It was beautiful to see. And honestly, I was humbled by God’s sovereignty. I almost hadn’t shared the verse with Andy, thinking it wasn’t that important. Yet God had been doing a work in Andy that was bearing fruit and beginning to show forth that needed to be affirmed and confirmed.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by author Thomas Sowell attempts to examine the roots of social inequality. According to Sowell, race & racism doesn’t explain social inequality. Instead, he argues, it all goes back to culture - Southern redneck culture at that. Read the article.Even more worth the read is the post and comments from Rudy Carrasco’s blog. Rudy has a large blog readership, so the responses vary and are very engaging, albeit often very different. Check it out.

Below is my response to Sowell’s article