Issues of gentrification resurface as construction for USC’s newest Health Science Campus building begins
The new research facility in North Boyle Heights will continue despite a year of backlash from local residents.
By Samantha Lee
October 01, 2024, at 5:58PM PDT, read on site.
The Los Angeles City Council approved construction for USC Keck School of Medicine’s newest research facility, “The Discovery and Translations Hub.” The decision, finalized on September 19, had been protested by several activist organizations who appealed earlier this year. The go-ahead was won in a 13-1 vote.
The mammoth construction project will erect a 200,000-square-foot, seven-storey research facility equipped with a lecture hall, café, biorepository, medicinal chemistry lab and an array of collaboration and meeting spaces, according to the university.
Prior to the vote, the council rejected the appeal which outlined concerns from local community members who worried that the structure, that is set to be built along the west side of Keck’s existing hospital adjacent to the Lincoln Heights and Boyle Heights neighborhoods, would contribute to the continued gentrification of East and South L.A.
According to the UCLA Urban Displacement Project, Los Angeles County exhibited the highest rates of gentrification with the number of gentrified neighborhoods increasing by 16% between 1990 and 2015. The data further illustrates that East and South neighborhoods are experiencing a rapid increase in housing costs.
Though not directly displacing any local residents, activists’ primary concern with the 7.9 acre expansion was that the new facility would increase enrollment capacity at the Health Sciences Campus, impacting traffic congestion, parking availability and housing prices for the surrounding community, as stated in the appeal. Adding to a decades-long battle against USC’s growing footprint, locals are angered that the University is bringing about an influx of affluence into their neighborhoods and pricing them out.
Last November, about 50 protestors took to the streets of East L.A. to oppose this same building during its early stages of proposition. Anti-gentrification coalition members emphasized they felt USC was not prioritizing local residents, Annenberg Media reported.
In 2017, community members resisted the construction of the USC Village. The new development, which today houses various multinational corporations such as Target and Sephora, ceased what was historically a public resource to the surrounding community by displacing local businesses and tightening restrictions on public access, the L.A. Times reported. According to Annenberg Media, nearby residents expressed that USC’s efforts fell short, citing that the $20 million donation made to L.A.’s affordable housing fund did little to bandage the $650 million wound the Village made to South L.A.
Pamela Agustin, the coalition director of Eastside Leads, one of the organizations involved in the appeal, says there is more to USC’s impact on its neighbors.
“Everybody has a story of how they’ve been negatively impacted, whether it be their neighbors have been priced out, real estate listings for new apartments being marketed only to students, how job opportunities that were sought at the Health Science campus were not given to local residents, workers who are part of the National Union of Healthcare Workers who say that USC has been a bad employer or our labor partners who organize the shuttle drivers,” Agustin said.
When asked whether the university could repair its relationship with the surrounding community, she said, “There’s just so many negative impressions that community residents have towards USC. If the university really wanted to be a good neighbor, and really wanted to understand how it could move beyond that soured experience, they should meet with us. Of course they should sit down. But instead, they don’t. They haven’t.”
Balancing the operations of one of the country’s wealthiest universities with the needs of one of Los Angeles’ lowest income neighborhoods is difficult. According to USC Lusk Center for Real Estate data, the median household income in Boyle Heights is $32,463, significantly less than the median L.A. County household income of $56,196. For this disparity to become equitable, Augustin expressed, “what [locals] are asking, and have been asking the university, is to provide community benefits, provide services that really meet the needs of existing residents.”
The university responded to the grievances of the community regarding the building in a statement.
“USC appreciates the Los Angeles City Council’s approval of the Discovery & Translational Hub (DTH) and rejection of the appeal of the project. This milestone is another important step toward community health equity aimed at reducing unacceptable health disparities in Los Angeles. The DTH’s approval is the result of over three years of collaboration with community partners, health advocates, and labor. With this approval, we can now accelerate the planning and philanthropic efforts to bring the DTH to life.”
Dr. Thomas Buchanan, the dean of research at Keck, said the university is dedicated to providing programs that discuss public health and the school’s research findings for the local residents.
“Those interactions, in my personal experience, have been met with a lot of really positive excitement about the possibilities of doing things that are going to improve people’s health… We get a lot of federal funding, and that federal funding should benefit everybody,” Buchanan said. “Our hopes and our plans are that [the DTH] will lead to advances in medical discoveries that will lead to advances in medical care and practice that can promote prevention and treatment of a lot of conditions that affect our surrounding communities.”
To Agustin, that is not enough.
“Eastside Leads is not disputing that the university has existing programs, but are they actual programs that come from conversations with residents of the needs, priorities, fears that they have? Our answer is no.”
Agustin said the solution is accountability, conversation and a reparation of damaged trust between the community and the university. Despite Buchanan’s proposed community benefits, Augustin said that, in the past, these goals have not been met and there have been no penalties for the university.
“[DTH] is designed to make patients’ lives better, to improve life through better health, and research is the way the university does that,” Buchanan said in response to the pushback against the construction. “That’s what we all come to work for. Some of us do it through patient care, some of us do it through education, some of us do it through research.”