Conditions of Blight Central Area.1947. Community Redevelopment [cover title].

(LOS ANGELES; URBAN RENEWAL)

Published by City Planning Commission, Los Angeles, 1947

About this Item

First edition. Quarto (8 1/2 x 11 inches). [47] leaves printed on rectos only including 14 full page sociological maps (tuberculosis cases, lack of sanitary facilities, dwelling units in need of repair, etc.) and 11 full page photographic illustrations of life in the blighted areas. Original black wrappers printed in silver, original brads. A very good copy.This book was issued to address the recently passed California Community Redevelopment Act. The California Community Redevelopment Act of 1945 (later called the Community Redevelopment Law) aimed to catalyze private investment by allowing a city or a county to designate ?blighted? areas and establish an RDA, which could raise capital for infrastructure improvements by issuing bonds against future tax revenues. The RDA got to keep the difference between the original property tax revenue and the revenue from the improved property (the ?property tax increment?). These funds were used to pay off the bonds and capitalize the RDA operations overall. In 1947, the blighted area was South Central Los Angeles or in the words of the author; "In order to determine where blight exists, the seventy square mile central area of Los Angeles, bounded by Western Avenue on the west, the city boundary on the east, Imperial Highway on the south, and a continuation of the line of Franklin Avenue on the north." Within this grid were Chavez Ravine, Watts, Manchester, Florence and other communities. In the beginning it seems the City Planning Commission is trying to sell legislators on the tax benefits of having these areas become non-blighted (e.g. residents of blighted areas contribute $4.25 per capita but the same area cost the taxpayer $7.11 per capita for services police, etc.). But by the end it seems they were trying out scare tactics by showing photographs of the grinding poverty in these areas. While the Commissions intentions were very noble-"the policy of this State [is] to protect and promote the sound development and redevelopment of blighted areas within this State and the general welfare of the inhabitants of the communities in which they exist by remedying such injurious conditions through the employment of all means appropriate for that purpose-the reality fell far short. The areas continued to be blighted and eventually erupted in social unrest in in 1965 and 1992.

Seller Inventory # 74692

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Conditions of Blight Central Area.1947. Community Redevelopment [cover title].
• Publisher: City Planning Commission, Los Angeles
• Publication Date: 1947