Where L.A. riots flared, a housing boom

Since the 1992 riots left more than 50 dead and more than 1,000 buildings destroyed, "South Central" Los Angeles has conjured such violent imagery of racial strife that in 2003 the city council deemed its very name pejorative.

Now, to the surprise of many, developers are turning the lots of South Los Angeles into the city's latest housing boom - erecting new apartment complexes and condos where abandoned factories and homes once stood.

In many ways, the changes taking place here differ little from what is happening in New York's South Bronx or in the neighborhood surrounding the Cabrini Green project in Chicago. A heated housing market, federal tax credits that have turned blighted buildings into good investments, and the changing lifestyles of residents who opt to give up gated communities for more square feet and a shorter commute have spawned interest in some of America's toughest neighborhoods.

Yet this is not a typical gentrification tale - at least not yet.

Even though more for-profit developers are seeking opportunities in South L.A., the majority of what they are building now is affordable housing. They have conformed to the realities of the community in other ways, too, in some cases negotiating peace with disparate gangs employed at their sites and holding meetings with community members leery of projects on the rise. All this is fueling hope that tides are turning in parts of South Los Angeles that have long been neglected and left as among the nation's worst.

"People are driving by every day asking, 'What's going up here?' They want an application right then," says Ebony Steppes, working a shift as a security guard on a construction site where a 66-unit apartment complex called Las Brisas is on the rise. "This is the first big building in our neighborhood. It was a blessing to get this."

Since 2001, some 1,500 units of housing - 1,000 of which are in redevelopment areas - are under construction, approved, or in the pipeline in South L.A., according to the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. While that is far less than development in other parts of the city, such as downtown Los Angeles, the CRA says that is only because of its later start.

"While other areas [of Los Angeles] are becoming pretty well saturated ... and are reaching their peak now, South Los Angeles becomes the new land of opportunity," says Kiara Harris, a CRA spokeswoman.

AMCAL, the company that is developing Las Brisas and will soon break ground on market-rate, for-sale homes nearby, has been one of the groups pioneering revitalization in South Los Angeles. President Percival Vaz says that many developers thought they were "crazy" when they first began seeking land in the area eight years ago. "A lot of the market-rate developers still think we are crazy," he says.

Indeed, though "South Central" has officially been renamed South Los Angeles, some of its tougher qualities still plague pockets of this community, which was once an industrial center and has long been home to immigrant minorities. By day now, streets that are lined with single-family homes and tidy yards are quiet. But many in the community say gangs run the nighttime.

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