Born of segregation and redlining, the near West Side has long been mostly Latino, mostly low-income. Redevelopment pressures are closing in, and neighbors are working to keep it affordable for some of the city’s poorest residents.
But they are also part of a broader affordability effort that in some ways is only now catching up to how history has treated residents of the West Side.
The work of growing the city, and adding a variety of housing, must keep in mind the families already living in established neighborhoods, said Veronica Garcia, the director of the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department. Tucked behind the iron bars of one window is a white sign with black block letters announcing what’s become a rallying call for some locals — “Mi Barrio No Se Vende,” My Neighborhood Is Not For Sale.
So when it began to seem like houses in the near West Side’s small boundaries were coming down every week, residents began to worry. But residents continue to protest a culture of code enforcement they see operating punitively instead of supporting residents’ well-being. Elected in 2021, Castillo ran on a platform to address the displacement concerns of the West Side, where she rents a family home a few blocks from the Esperanza’s Rinconcito. Castillo was among the residents attempting to compile early code enforcement data years ago. Since taking office, Castillo has provided lists of residences on the code enforcement unit’s radar to volunteer groups so they can offer help and has organized community cleanups.
She was among the residents appointed to a city code review committee who at lengthy meetings throughout the year worked to bring to the table the experiences of homeowners who had recently had their homes demolished. It was at a Wednesday meeting of the Esperanza Center’s social justice program — meant to empower community members through biweekly classes and lectures — that she reflected on the West Side as a borderland.
Down a different road, one on which the residents of the near West Side stayed quiet, some of the complex would have been bulldozed by now. “We don’t want people coming from other areas telling us how to live, what’s right, what’s beautiful, what it’s supposed to be,” Miranda said. From her small, cramped living room, Miranda tapped on her laptop while trying to help a neighbor deal with an outstanding bill. There are more of Miranda’s dishes in that neighbor’s kitchen than her own, she said.
Amid sustained pushback from the community, the housing authority in a surprising turn of events in January 2021 canceled its private partnership to raze and replace the courts.
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