This morning, Metro Los Angeles’s Board of Directors gathered to receive input and, eventually, vote on an option for the I-710 South expansion project. The highway runs through Long Beach and the cities of Southeast Los Angeles, an area already disproportionately burdened with high rates of unemployment, poor air quality, almost non-existent biking and walking infrastructure, and housing instability.
The option being pushed by Metro and their consultant team is Alternative 5C, which has appropriations for biking and walking improvements but stands to displace an estimated 436 Southeast residents and dozens more businesses, including the area’s only homeless shelter. For this reason, LACBC joined a whopping 85 others in submitting public comment.
We support our members and neighbors in the Southeast by opposing Alternative 5C, and any alternative that displaces low-income families of color to make way for air-polluting diesel trucks and increased motor traffic. This is even more crucial in a time when housing is scarce and and rates of homelessness are on the rise. A resident of Southeast LA said it best when they stated, “Imagine if a group of strangers got to vote on your displacement from the livelihoods you worked so hard to secure.”
Join our partners and learn the latest on Twitter: