Building Downtown Los Angeles: The Politics of Race and Place in Urban America

Leland Saito, Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California will discuss his new book “Building Downtown Los Angeles: The Politics of Race and Place in Urban America”

From the 1970s on, Los Angeles was transformed into a center for entertainment, consumption, and commerce for the affluent. Mirroring the urban development trend across the nation, new construction led to the displacement of lower-income people of color, as city officials targeted these neighborhoods for demolition to spur economic growth and bring in affluent residents.

Responding to the displacement, there emerged a coalition of unions, community organizers, and faith-based groups advocating for policy change. In his book, Saito traces these two parallel trends through specific construction projects and the backlash they provoked. He uses these events to theorize the past and present processes of racial formation and the racialization of place, drawing new insights into the relationships between race, place, and policy.