[CPEO-BIF] Ujima Village, Los Angeles, California

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ujima Village, a onetime urban oasis, closes down
Tainted soil forces the shuttering of the complex in the South L.A. 
area. Of more than 250 families who called the complex home, only 14 
remain. Tenants say the county is mishandling their relocation.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Los Angeles Times
April 17, 2009

Charlene David walked through her ghost town last week, past empty 
driveways, rusting playgrounds, abandoned basketball courts, the 
overgrown community garden, the management office that closed months ago.

This is what remains of Ujima Village, a sprawling complex of mostly 
government-subsidized apartments in Willowbrook, an unincorporated area 
of Los Angeles County south of Watts.

The county, which owns the complex, still pays to trim the lawns, but 
the 34 buildings that once housed more than 600 people are nearly all 
shuttered. David was among the first residents when "The Village" opened 
in 1972, and she is among the last. Only 14 families remain. "We decided 
we would stay united until the end," said David, 65. The retired county 
worker stood in front of the apartment she shares with her husband, 
surveying the abandoned community center, its laundry, fitness and 
computer rooms full of cobwebs.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere17-2009apr17,0,7924127.story

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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