Racialized Spatial Imaginaries and Spatial Reordering in Los Angeles: 1973-1993

• In Event: 574 - Regular Session. Urban Sociology

Abstract

Macro- and micro-studies of gentrification processes impacting communities of color less often consider how social construction of race and racism works in tandem with gentrification to ossify racial inequality and white supremacy through seemingly innocuous policies and practices. Despite colorblind and post-racial ideologies espoused in majority-minority cities like Los Angeles, I utilize archival material from the Tom Bradley administration papers (1973-1993) and weekly newspapers to analyze how the first African American mayor and his multicultural administration maintained disparate power relations between city hall and a historically segregated Boyle Heights barrio. Attentive to racial formation in a post-Civil Rights era, I follow how optimism from a post-Chicano Movement and progressive planning period became incorporated into local state rhetoric seeking to advance growth policies supporting the revitalization of downtown.
I identify two competing racial imaginaries, the local state imaginary and barrio the barrio imaginary, which present two competing value perspectives of Boyle Heights. Focusig on two state-led projects, the local state imaginary helps understand the ways progressive planning temporarily viewed the Mexican barrio as a neighborhood for economically vulnerable residents, and, later in an Eastside Economic Development Report, a coveted residential area for future affluent residents given its proximity to an increasingly redeveloping downtown. The local state imaginary viewed both projects within a historical arc privileging exclusionary practices by the local state. Such studies are critical in understanding current gentrification cases like Boyle Heights by highlighting the ways race and space have been historically constructed through evolving practices- including majority-minority urbancities.

Author

• Alfredo Huante, University of Southern California