East Los Angeles, the site of major civil rights movements like the Chicano Moratorium and the 1968 walkouts, is central to Mexican-American culture in Los Angeles County.
But to many people’s surprise, East LA is not part of the City of Los Angeles despite its proximity to other notable LA City neighborhoods with large Latino populations, like Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights.
East LA is an unincorporated community in LA County, governed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. East LA residents receive municipal services like garbage collection, police, and public works directly from LA County Departments.
That could change one day. In April, State Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo sponsored AB 2986, which if it passes, will look into the feasibility of East LA becoming its own city or a “special district.” Advocates of the bill are currently waiting to see if State Senator María Elena Durazo, chair of the local government committee, chooses to schedule a hearing for the bill, with a deadline on July 3.
“If this bill actually propelled the [county] supervisor to do the very study that the community has been asking her for the past five years, that’s a good thing,” said Carrillo.
The result might one day lead to there being an 89th incorporated municipality in Los Angeles County: East Los Angeles.
What’s the history of East LA?
In a span of a week in March 1968, over 15,000 students walked out of seven different high schools protesting concerns over curriculum, bilingual education, and the lack of hiring Mexican-American administrators. During this time, teachers prohibited students from speaking Spanish in class, Latino students experienced a 60% high school dropout rate and were discouraged from attending college. The Walkouts signaled a fight for civil rights and access to education for Latino youth across Los Angeles. The event is still considered one of the largest student protests in United States history, according to the US Library of Congress.
A couple years later in August, 29, 1970, more than 20,000 people marched through East LA for the newly established coalition: the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War, aka the Chicano Moratorium. Demonstrators protested the disproportionate number of Mexican-American troops drafted and killed during the Vietnam War. Although the demonstration was initially peaceful, the protests erupted in violence when the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) arrived, injuring many.
Three people died, including Rubén Salazar, who had recently become the news director of Spanish language television station KMEX after working for years as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. Salazar died after he was shot in the head with a tear gas canister by an LASD deputy.
Though East LA has a deep connection to these civil rights movements, and is one of the most populated single unincorporated areas with 119,000 residents, residents have no direct local government. They depend on navigating a byzantine county government to self-advocate for laws and services.
Challenges of living in unincorporated LA County
The LA County Board of Supervisors is not only the governing body in LA County, but each supervisor serves as a de facto mayor for all of the unincorporated areas in their district. Each district is unusually large with about two million residents. They include dozens of incorporated cities, distinctive neighborhoods in the City of LA, and unincorporated areas. The scale of the districts make it a challenge for unincorporated residents, like those in East LA, to reach their county elected officials to voice their concerns.
“A lot of my neighbors don’t even know that they live in an unincorporated community,” said Genesis Coronado, East LA resident for over 20 years. “So how do they know where to go for services? How do they know who to call and reach out to for services?”
Coronado worked as a poll worker in past elections. While doing this work, she noticed some of her neighbors, who also live in unincorporated East LA, went to the polls and tried to vote for mayor of Los Angeles thinking they lived in the City of LA.
It’s challenging to know where jurisdictional lines are drawn. There are not always clear physical boundaries or signage indicating where unincorporated areas begin and end, some communities can be as big as a few blocks and others, like East LA, are larger than other cities in Los Angeles County. This gets more confusing when residents’ US Postal Service mailing addresses reflect the city adjacent to them, rather than their own unincorporated community name.
“There isn’t a lot of education [from the county],” said Coronado.
Coronado and other community leaders have taken it into their own hands to inform residents about what it means to live in unincorporated LA County. The group, also known as Voice of East LA, has led workshops discussing the need for more transparency regarding their tax revenue and their dissatisfaction with the Board of Supervisors making “unilateral” decisions without much input from the community.
“We don’t have a local voice,” said Eddie Torres, interim executive director for the East LA Chamber of Commerce and resident for 66 years.
Torres told LA Public Press that for the past three years he has consistently tried to schedule a meeting with Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents the First Supervisorial District, which includes East LA. He said that the times he came close to speaking to Solis, her staff either canceled, rescheduled, or forgot about the meeting.
Proponents of AB 2986 say that the bill will give them transparency over how much revenue is generated in East LA, and how the Board of Supervisors prioritizes spending in the same area on services and programs in East LA. As of now, the county does not report the revenues from each unincorporated area, according to an official from the LA County Chief Executive Office. The county only tracks the cost of programming and services for the more than 100 unincorporated communities collectively.
Is incorporation the way?
If enacted, AB 2986 would direct the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) of LA County, a public agency that dictates local government boundaries, to create the East LA task force. The 11-member task force would meet quarterly and discuss the potential impacts of incorporating or becoming a special district, which is a limited local government that provides focused public services. They would look at whether East LA makes enough revenue to cover the costs, how the change could affect community identity, and ultimately submit a report with recommendations to the state legislature.
The bill states that East LA “lacks the municipal governance structure.” Becoming a city or special district will allow East LA residents to have a more local elected governing body, and be better able to “address local needs, improve public services, and enhance community development and engagement.”
Even without this bill, there is a process already in place for areas to incorporate. If unincorporated residents are interested in cityhood, they can circulate a petition in their community. If 25% of the registered voters in the area sign on, they can formally apply to LAFCO for consideration. LAFCO then prepares a comprehensive fiscal analysis to determine if becoming a city is economically viable. If found viable, LAFCO recommends cityhood and an election is conducted within the boundaries of the proposed city.
However, this bill skips this process and makes demands from the state, which displeases both LAFCO and the Board of Supervisors.
The LA Board of Supervisors, LAFCO, and several labor unions have openly opposed AB 2986. Supervisor Solis in particular has been very publicly opposed to the bill. The supervisor has an entire page on her website titled “A Bad Deal for East Los Angeles” dedicated to express her opposition that website visitors are prompted to visit from her primary website’s homepage. On this page lives an active petition encouraging people to submit letters to the California legislature against AB 2986.
The county says it will cost an estimated $5.1 million to comply with AB 2986, according to a letter from Fesia Davenport, who is the LA County Chief Executive Officer, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the county. The costs include $2 million for hiring consultants and disbursements made to relevant county departments.
Solis and Paul Novak, LAFCO executive director, said incorporation isn’t viable for East LA. Cities tend to generate revenue from property and commercial taxes but East LA is bounded by three major freeways, two big cemeteries, and single-family housing, which, they argue, doesn’t generate enough revenue to provide residents with essential services. If East LA becomes a city, Solis’s office argues residents might face steeper taxes and reduced services.
“It would be unrealistic to say that if [East LA] were to incorporate or even create a special district, that there’s going to be sufficient money to help cover these costs,” said Solis.
East LA has attempted to become its own city six times in the past 100 years, according to the LA Times.
The last time locals tried to incorporate East LA was in 2012. LAFCO conducted an economic analysis but found that it would have an initial shortfall of $19 million in general funds in its first year. The study attributes the shortfall to a change in state law that eliminated Vehicle License Fee (VLF) revenues from cities.
“We don’t think an outcome would be any different than what happened in 2012,” said Novak, LAFCO’s director.
But advocates say AB 2986 is not just about incorporation. The bill would involve a comprehensive study that includes “robust community engagement” and evaluates multiple options for what future governance in East Los Angeles could look like.
“This data is important to have to help us better advocate for ourselves,” said Coronado.
What’s next?
Since the bill was introduced, Solis has responded by sponsoring two separate motions at the county level.
The first motion directs county departments to report back in 120 days on county costs on two past incorporation studies, impacts of this bill on other county resources, and analysis on the viability of East becoming a city or special district. The motion also directs county staff to look into the possibility of forming a municipal advisory council, or a local town council, that could “represent comprehensive interests of the entire East LA community.”
In May, Solis and Supervisor Kathryn Barger (Fifth District) sponsored another motion, which would provide an annual report on services and investments made in unincorporated communities with populations over 10,000.
AB 2986 passed the state assembly floor last month with 62 votes in favor, 0 against, and 18 abstaining. The bill now has to be heard in the state senate local government committee before it goes to the state senate floor for a vote. However, Durazo has yet to schedule a hearing for the bill. If a hearing is not scheduled by July 3rd, the bill will die.
But even if this bill is not approved, East LA residents are hoping to push for better representation and transparency in their community.
“This is a long term organizing movement for us,” said Coronado.