Blogging Social Difference Week 8: Bus Route 232

232 Bus Route 

This week I took the 232 Bus from Long Beach to Wilmington. This bus took me through Long Beach and Wilmington. I chose to pass through these locations to examine the lower class communities along the highly polluting ports of LA and Long Beach. The many cargo ships that pass through the port are a source of pollution, and in addition many other polluting industries are located around the two ports. I believe that the clustering of lower class and minority communities around the port is due the the “class” side of the debate detailed in the Elliot and Pais reading; that is, that low-income minority communities emerge around environmentally-degraded sites because of lower property values.

I began by waiting at the Long Beach Transit Mall for the bus. This is a transit hub serving Long Beach, and the end point for the Metro Blue Line. Downtown Long Beach itself is fairly nice, a business district with a thriving bar scene and restaurants. The bus takes me north on Long Beach Boulevard towards Anaheim Street. The bus contained a mostly hispanic clientele throughout the trip.

The bus made a left on Anaheim. What I saw in Long Beach from Long Beach Boulevard to the LA river is a fairly economically deprived area. However, there were still businesses thriving there. The bus then took me across a bridge over the LA River. Long Beach west of the LA river is “West Long Beach” and directly north of the port. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods and very close to polluting industries. The median home prices for these two areas of Long Beach, 90810 and 90813, are $234,000 and $208,000, respectively. There weren’t many business seen here on this street other than industry. There were also a few strip clubs, which I’ve also usually noticed in Downtown LA. North of Anaheim there were more residential zones.

Industrial area near the Port of Long Beach

Wilmington continued this trend. There were other industrial areas seen besides the port. I believe I saw a refinery and also close by I saw a pile of what looks like sulfur. The area containing the east of Wilmington and west of Long Beach also had a lot of salvage yards. The industrial part of Wilmington gave way to an area of mostly shops and a few grocery stores. This lasts until Figueroa. Most of the signage in Wilmington was in Spanish.

Spanish Language Signage

Mapping LA tells me most the residents of Wilmington are Hispanic, and that approximately 44% of the residents are foreign born. In addition, asthma levels for children who live in communities around the port is about 21.9%, compared with 15.6% in Los Angeles. This leads me to believe that this is a destination for new Hispanic immigrants, drawn by lower property values in an environmentally degraded area. This exemplifies the argument detailed in the Elliot and Pais reading.

The bus made a right on Figueroa and then another on PCH, which allowed me to see some of the housing first hand along Figueroa. There were many small single family homes and a trailer park. I’ve driven the rest of Anaheim Street many times before, and past the 110 Freeway there is another large refinery.

A neighborhood along Figueroa Street

The concentration of highly polluting diesel ships, oil refineries and other large scale industry create a high risk area around the Port. The low income communities around there are at higher risk for pollution-related maladies than other areas surrounding. In addition, the areas are a destination for new immigrants drawn by the lower rents. The revenue created by the 6th largest port in the world is contrasted with lower class communities surrounding it.