Transit-Oriented Development and Equity in Latino Neighborhoods: A Comparative Study of MacArthur Park (Los Angeles) and Fruitvale (Oakland)

Gerardo Francisco SandovalAssistant ProfessorPlanning, Public Policy and ManagementCo-DirectorCenter for Latino/a and Latin American StudiesUniversity of Oregon

July 16 2015

STRUCTURAL PROBLEM

• Redevelopment’s contradiction : “Improvement” of marginalized areas frequently displaces current residents.

• Historically large transportation infrastructure projects have lead to disruption/destruction of low-income communities of color. • Cut them off from opportunities• Displaced people from homes and neighborhoods• Physically/spatially separated neighborhoods (freeways)

• Investigating how TOD in MacArthur Park and Fruitvale served as a catalysts for redevelopment efforts

• Risks and Opportunities

PURPOSE OF STUDY

•We know very little of the benefits TOD brings to low-income communities of color.

•Hence, the purpose of the study is to better understand how TOD shapes the revitalization efforts occurring in low-income Latino communities where TOD is a major factor in revitalization efforts.

•Aim of study it to provide a comprehensive description of these two projects to help transportation planners better understand the possibilities that TOD has in revitalizing low-income Latino communities without widespread displacement.

Site of MacArthur Park subway developmentSource: McCormack, Baron, and Salazar, current developers for the subway station site.

MACARTHUR PARK BUILT CAPITAL: SUBWAY STATION AS THE CATALYSTS FOR NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION

DIFFICULTIES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

LATINO IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOODMACARTHUR PARK – LOS ANGELES, CA

Foreign Born & Place of Birth2013 Census

Foreign Born: 63%

Naturalized Citizen: 11.4%

Not a Citizen: 51.6%

Latino By Specific Origin

Guatemala: 29.2%

Mexico: 32.9%

El Salvador: 9.3%

Demographics2013 Census

Population: 31,169

Density: 51,880 people sq./mi.

5.4% - White 1,681

77.4% - Latino 24,110

4.0% - African American 1,246

12.4% - Asian 3,867

0.2% - Native American 47

Pop. Growth (2009--2013): -2.0%

0%

5%

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15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

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45%

Entered before1980

Entered 1980 to1989

Entered 1990 to1999

Entered 2000 orlater

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Immigrant Year of Entry to U.S.MacArthur Park vs. City of Los Angeles, 2009 Census

MacArthur Park

Citywide

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2013) Social Explorer Fact Sheet—Table SE:T1, SE:T14, SE:T133, SE:T15; U.S. Census Bureau (2009) Table B05005

FRUITVALE BUILT CAPITAL TRANSIT VILLAGE1991 BART unveils construction plans for a multistoried parking structure at its Fruitvale station.

Community opposes plan and BART agrees to have the Unity Council as nonprofit real-estate developer to lead the revitalization around BART station.

Funding from 30 different sources: (total cost - $52 million) Community Block Grant initial alternative development plan

$185,000 (UC Berkeley involvement) US Dept of Transportation for plan development $470,000 DOT/BART - $6 million City of Oakland - $16.5 million Debt - $27 million Equity (Foundations) - $3 million

Unity Council Formed out of 1960’s activist, led by Chicana activists,

Latino pan-ethnic umbrella, strong ties in neighborhood.

LATINO IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOODFRUITVALE – OAKLAND, CA

0%

5%

10%

15%

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45%

Entered before1980

Entered 1980 to1989

Entered 1990 to1999

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Immigrant Year of Entry to U.S.Fruitvale vs. City of Oakland, 2010 Census

Fruitvale

Citywide

Demographics2013 Census

Population: 49,930

Density: 16,915 people sq./mi.

9.3% - White 4,632

44.9% - Latino 22,428

17.8% - African American 8,902

23.2% - Asian 11,588

0.5% - Native American 242

Pop. Growth (2009--2013): --3.9%

Foreign Born & Place of Birth2013 Census

Foreign Born: 43%

Naturalized Citizen: 15.6%

Not a Citizen: 27.4%

Latino By Specific Origin

Guatemala: 4.5%

Mexico: 33.9%

El Salvador: 3.1%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2013) Social Explorer Fact Sheet—Table SE:T1, SE:T14, SE:T133, SE:T15; U.S. Census Bureau (2010) Table B05005

PROJECT FEATURESThe MacArthur Park Apartments METRO Project includes:

Phase I: Completed in 2012

90 affordable apartments

15,000 square feet of retail

100 commuter car parking spaces

24 bicycle parking spaces

Phase II: Future development

82 affordable apartments

The Fruitvale Transit Village Project includes:Phase I: Completed in 2004

47 mixed-income residences

40,000 square feet of retail

74,000 square feet of community services

150-car parking garage

Bike Facility (200 bikes)

La Clinica Community Health Center

Head Start child care

Senior Center Facility

Arise Charter High School

Cesar Chavez Public Library

Phase II: Future development

275 mixed-income apartments

LITERATURETransit Oriented Development Mixed-used development; development that is close to and well-served by transit, development that is conducive to transit riding

(Cervero et al. 2002) Compactness; pedestrian-and cycle-friendly infrastructure; public and civic spaces near station; stations as community hubs (Dittmar

and Ohrland, 2004) TOD as public transportation investments linked to heavy rail (subways) that aim to encourage housing surrounding the transit station,

and investing in public amenities adjacent to the station.

Transportation Justice Struggles over public transportation helped spark modern civil rights movement (Bullard and Johnson, 1997). Justice (racial justice) to three categories (Bullard and Johnson, 1997). : Procedural inequality: where attention is given to processes by which transportation decisions take place (Who is involved in

decision making?) Geographic inequality: focuses on the distributive spatial impacts (positive and negative) of transportation investments (or

disinvestments) (Where are these projects located?). Social inequality: the distributional impacts of policies on various population groups related to transportation decisions (Do TOD’s

just contribute to displacement?). Hence, transportation justice deals with the distributional impacts of transportation decisions and the inequality that exists between

transportation nodes that impact low-income communities and communities of color because of their marginalization.

Emerging Transportation Justice Debate related to TOD’s in low-income neighborhoods (Displacement/Gentrification/Revitalization) (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2000; Wander, 2008; Soursourian, 2010; Powell and Graham 2002; Bullard and Johnson, 1997; Stolz, 2002;

Kennedy and Leonard, 2001; Sandoval 2010).

MAIN RESEARCH QUESTIONS•How might low-income Latino communities benefit from large-scale TOD projects?

•What are the risks to these neighborhoods if TODs are linked to neighborhood revitalization?

•And what are the neighborhood characteristics that exist within Latino communities that can help mitigate those risks and create more equitable outcomes?

COMMUNITY CAPITALS FRAMEWORK

• Flora and Flora, 2013

• Assets based approach in rural communities.

• The community capitals framework helps us understand the context in Latino immigrant communities and how their neighborhood characteristics reshaped these TOD projects.

• Built capital: TOD projects as catalyst• Financial capital: diverse retail Latino small businesses and informal capital• Political capital: progressive Latino politicians; networked CBO’s• Cultural capital: as a form of neighborhood resistance and maintenance of identity

via placemaking.

MACARTHUR PARK POLITICAL CAPITAL: CBO’S AND LOCAL LATINO POLITICIANS’ ADVOCACY FOR COMMUNITY BENEFITS

•County Supervisor Gloria Molina stops initial TOD

•Councilman Ed Reyes and CARECEN initiate day labor center

•Ed Reyes fights for Affordable Housing with Land Use Power

•Councilmen Mike Hernandez and Ed Reyes advocate for street vendors

•Immigrant rights public rally’s

Source: Mama’s Hot Tamales web page

FORMALIZING STREET VENDING

“You cannot romanticize street vending, you can not do that, if you do that you run into problems because a lot of people do street vending to barely survive; that is not a way to make a living. But you cannot criminalize [it] either. Meaning that in this economy, in a society, in this particular time, there is a role for street vending and you should not criminalize that, you should spend your resources on public safety and on other elements of crime, rather than focusing on street vending”.

- MTA Planner

The street vendor problem The Sidewalk Vending District

initiated 1994; approved 1999; discontinued 2005

MAMA’S HOT TAMALES AS MEDIATOR FOR STREETVENDORS

• Helping vendors maneuver city bureaucracy

• Getting vendors to comply with new regulatory mechanism

• Turning program into a micro-enterprise project

Competition from other informal vendors Loss of spontaneity and adaptiveness to market Maneuvering bureaucracy

MACARTHUR PARK POLITICAL CAPITAL: IMMIGRANT RIGHTS RALLY’S

MACARTHUR PARK CULTURAL CAPITAL: NEIGHBORHOOD RESISTANCE AND PLACEMAKING

•Cultural Celebrations and Parades•Feria Agostina•Central American Independence

•Transforming Public Space into an Active Park

•Oscar Romero Plaza

Pictures: Kelly Main

“For Central Americans, it’s the Central American capital of the world, because there is no real capital in Central America, a region composed of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. But here in Los Angeles, you find the Central American capital of the world as a living community, including Garifunas [African descendants in Central America]”

(Salvadorian Community Leader, Neighborhood interviewee, summer 2006).

CENTRAL AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

Picture: Kelly Main

“Now my job was to hold cultural events in the park, so you’re bringing in something they are familiar with in their homelands and really try to have this overall type feeling that people come to stroll through the park to enjoy a tamale or raspada or whatever they are selling. To be able to sit in the park and enjoy entertainment from their country, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, try to really keep their roots to Latin America”

(Neighborhood interviewee, winter 2006).

MACARTHUR PARK: FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE PUBLIC SPACE

Picture: Kelly Main

Picture: Gerardo Sandoval

MONSIGNOR OSCAR ROMERO PLAZA

MACARTHUR PARK: LATINO PLACEMAKING

FRUITVALE POLITICAL CAPITAL: CBO’S AND LOCAL LATINO POLITICIANS’ ADVOCACY FOR COMMUNITY BENEFITS

Unity Council Established 1964 Combination of gaining community input and participation,

collaborating with local officials, and using its federal connections to help secure funding and support. “stewards of the community” Took 11 years to built the transit village “We had to be bulldogs and push for the transit village”.

Arabella Martinez CEO of Unity Council, formerly worked under President Carter’s Administration

(strong federal contacts)

Strong leadership style and vision and connections with local political leaders

Councilman Ignacio de la Fuente Fought for community benefits in the neighborhood Strong ties with labor movement and La Clinica

FRUITVALE FINANCIAL CAPITAL: SUPPORTING LATINO SMALL BUSINESSESTOD’s key impact in the Fruitvale District was the revitalization that occurred on International Blvd.

TOD opened pedestrian access to International Blvd from the BART station.

Initially, businesses opposed the TOD because of worries of gentrification but the Unity Council addressed these worries via extensive community outreach.

“The Transit Village Project was a catalysts that took store fronts and businesses along International Blvd from 40 percent occupied to 98 percent today”. – Local politician

Business Improvement District (BID) Started in 2000 Businesses vote to renew their tax Yearly budget of $325,000 Graffiti removal and clean up, educates merchants on best practices in

accounting, marketing, and business plans.

FRUITVALE CULTURAL CAPITAL: LATINO PLACEMAKING

Paseo Connected the BART station to International

Blvd via TOD Plaza within the Paseo Mercado also helps keep Paseo vibrant A direct sightline to St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral

Dia de Los Muertos Brings thousands of people into the

neighborhood Dance troupes and musicians – individual altars

and memorials to commemorate the dead.

REDEFINING EQUITY“I'm trying to broaden your definition of equity. Like, for example, equity is having wonderful facilities for poor people. Equity is having really good parks and recreation facilities. Okay? Equity is about having your streets clean regularly. And, so in terms of commercial and retail, it means that people have more...a greater diversity of goods and services and there's more competition because there are more stores. They don't have to go out of the neighborhood to shop. And many of these are minority-owned establishments.

So if kids can play in the park instead of the streets, because before it was safer for them to play in the streets than in the parks [because of gangs], that's equity.

So you have new parks, you have new schools, you have new medical facilities, new senior centers, new childcare facilities...you name it. And, umm...that has not resulted, at least as far as I can see, in people being pushed out of the Fruitvale. And the other part of it, I guess people are safer. I mean, not only are the streets cleaner...but they're safer. There's still crime, but Oakland is full of crime in the flatlands. So, umm...so I think on balance I would say on the equity situation, I think we did very well”.

-Fruitvale Community Leader

EQUITY AND LATINA PARTICIPATIONLatinas played key decision making roles in TOD’s Gloria Molina in LA Arabella Martinez in Oakland

Latinas as protectors of the Barrios “Between Arabella and me, Latinas, and most of the businesses along International Boulevard are Mexicanos. So you have the big mouth Latina leading the organization and you have the Mexicanos[accentuating the “os,” for males].

Ha, ha, ha, ha, capital OS, right, so there was quite a bit of tension there. I didn’t have time to play the subordinate Latina. Right away they wanted to criticize”. - Fruitvale Leader

•TOD projects need to support the endogenous forms of cultural, political, financial and built forms of capital that exists in these neighborhoods.• MacArthur Park

• Local politicians and CBO’s advocated for affordable housing.• Established a Mercado where informal vendors would sell their goods and also supported the Street Vending District.• The neighborhood had strong CBO’s with a long history of activism dating back to human rights issues in Central

America.• Latino placemaking served as a way to celebrate cultural presence (festivals, Romero Plaza, Latino small businesses)

• Fruitvale• Arabella Martinez’s leadership and political connections were critical. • The Unity Council also had legitimacy in the community because of their long history of providing social services in the

neighborhood.• The Unity Council supported existing small businesses by established the business improvement district (BID) and were

also able to convince the International Blvd businesses to support the TOD.

CONCLUSION: TOD PROJECTS CAN BE CATALYSTS FOR TRANSFORMING AND REVITALIZING LOW-INCOME LATINOCOMMUNITIES

TOD projects need to rely on more bottom-up participatory forms of decision making and activism in neighborhood.

•MacArthur Park• A Top-down redevelopment project that broke down and was resurrected by local politicians and CBO’s. • Most neighborhood activism centered on gentrification concerns• Network of CBO’s collaborated to push for neighborhood agenda as opposed to one CBO like in the Unity Council in

the Fruitvale case.

•Fruitvale• Process was a top-down political process by well established and connected community development corporation

(Unity Council). • The Unity Council had decision making power.• The Unity Council provided opportunities for community input and participation.• Direct outreach to Latino small businesses was crucial to revitalize International Blvd.

EQUITY OUTCOMES

Encouraging diverse local small businesses

Regional public transportation (Rail

and Bus Rapid Transit)

Affordable housing

Social services provision (medical,

education, childcare)

FUTURE CASE STUDIES: LATINO TOD’S AND URBAN REVITALIZATION •MacArthur Park, Los Angeles•Fruitvale Transit Village, Oakland•Aliso/Pico & Mariachi Plaza, East LA• Barrio Logan, San Diego

QUESTIONS?