For decades, Los Angeles redefined itself as a spectacle of the entertainment industry. In Building Downtown Los Angeles: The Politics of Race and Place in Urban America, Leland T. Saito chronicles the collaboration between municipal officials and growth interests in developing the downtown space to attract more affluent clientele. Parallel to this development were the working-class neighborhoods that growth interests labeled as “blighted” and “slums” and that these projects targeted for destruction. Through this deliberate targeting, working-class communities served as a site for emerging coalitions rooted in an array of neighborhood organizations, unions, and faith-based groups. These two trends become the focal point through four major projects in Los Angeles: the Los Angeles Convention Center, Staples Center, L.A. Live, and a proposal for an NFL stadium. Saito settled on these spaces as “major contributions to gentrification” and vital points of contention by growth interests and community organizations.
While many...
