Sahra Sulaiman

The fact that the community has spent nearly 26 years waiting for this project to materialize is just one of many reasons that the County's vote to condemn the lots came as no surprise today.

The proposed project includes a six-story structure housing 180 affordable units, a public charter boarding school, a career technical education center, neighborhood-serving retail, community spaces, and a transit plaza.

A ten-year community-led planning effort paralleled the city's own process and shaped the final form of the South and Southeast community plans.

Who will drive the outreach? The question came from Metro Boardmember Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker regarding the proposal for a mixed-use project on two lots at the convergence of the Expo and Crenshaw/LAX Lines in South L.A.

The transformation of Crenshaw at Exposition - the gateway to a historic black neighborhood - apparently also includes the abduction of the entire black population by aliens... save one undoubtedly confused person who appears to be in cargo shorts.

She had had enough of hearing her community spoken about in offensive ways by well- (and not-so-well-) meaning planners and advocates, enough of giving 110 percent of herself only to realize a fraction of what she put forward was being seen as having value, enough of how disinterested those with power over what happened in marginalized communities remained in the larger picture, and enough of being tokenized.

The ability to isolate specific zoning changes along the river and see the shift toward lighter industry is a reminder that the city has yet to launch a meaningful dialogue with Boyle Heights about what it means to create an "Innovation District" on its western edge.

This Saturday, city planning will be hosting an open house at Boyle Heights City Hall offering residents updates on the Boyle Heights Community Plan.

"We have to ask ourselves, 'If this was any in other community being impacted like this...would they have been allowed to continue [to emit] these odors [that are] going out and affecting the community?'"

So much of what we do within this field is aimed at addressing vulnerabilities - including threats to health, safety, and overall well-being - in order to build healthy, resilient, inclusive, livable, and just communities and cities. And yet, all too often, those with the power and resources to influence debates on what constitutes a valid form of vulnerability or how it should be addressed themselves have limited experience with or knowledge of the wider range of intersectional vulnerabilities faced by just about everyone that is not an able-bodied heterosexual cis-gender white male.