E. Lakewood: Why all these vacant gov't lots?
Swaths of vacant, GOV'T land—crime hotspots—in E. Lakewood.
By Brian Maquena
April 14, 2022
EAST LAKEWOOD, CALIF. — In one of the city’s worst crime hotspots lies another eyesore, illegal dumpsites. But what’s curious is that vacant land where the illegal dumping occurs is largely owned by the government. With real estate prices so high and housing availability so low, that begs the question — Why the decades-long wait to build something?
The Lakewood Populist last year did a series of articles on the ever-popular illegal dumpsites plaguing the area between Roseton Avenue and Pioneer Boulevard, where the city has zoned a large portion of its congested housing over the years. This neighborhood and the one between Pioneer Boulevard and Norwalk Boulevard hold a large proportion of the city’s apartment complexes and near half the locations of homicides post-2000, per LA Times data.
Click here to see the interactive, homicide-location map.
But what’s curious is that between the small housing block of Roseton Avenue and Pioneer Boulevard are five large vacant lots that could hold businesses and restaurants in a neglected part of the city that has very little business opportunity to speak of.
Moreover, at least one resident has requested to build a single family home on one of the vacant lots but was told he could not since it was zoned for multi-family housing. That was years ago.
During a recent online search, the Lakewood Populist confirmed that four of the sites are owned by the government, although it is unclear which entity owns these lots. However, it should be noted that after the Lakewood Populist last year did three stories on the egregious illegal dumping—there were mattresses and couches all over the sidewalk (Broken window theory?)—the city eventually cleaned it up with its own crews.
Click the following links to read our past articles on the illegal dumpsites and the eventual cleanup:
However, there is still illegal dumping at these sites, particularly at the one near 206th Street and Pioneer Boulevard, the city’s most infamous illegal dumpsite. And, the overgrowth from the public easements still occurs on occasion, although nothing as bad as when the Lakewood Populist first covered the story.
The area is also ravaged by violent warfare: There has been three shootings within the past year at the corner of the neighborhood, Pioneer Boulevard and Centralia Street.
So what gives? Why are these sites being kept empty? And why, after this neighborhood has been ravaged by homicides and parking problems probably due to the majority of all of Lakewood’s apartments being stuffed into the two small adjoining neighborhoods — after all that, Why have these lots been slated for even more congested housing? (This all occurred before SB-9, when Lakewood suddenly found religion and converted against such congested housing zoning regulations.)
This part of Lakewood is also one of the region’s most diverse neighborhoods. The Hispanic and Asian populations, as well as the non-English speaking or bilingual speaking, populations are quite high. (See the redistricting data from the city’s contractor last year.)
There’s also a large black population even larger than what statistics suggest: the black population at the Hawaiian Gardens Apartments are more a part of east Lakewood than they are of Hawaiian Gardens. The white population is also still pretty significant further east, making what is now City Council district 5 a true metropolitan area in the diversity sense.
Here are the 5 vacant lot sites’ online data:
The Lakewood Populist will report further on this issue, although we are limited in staffing and are a volunteer news-producing organization.
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