Populations swelled in the 1980s and 1990s as newly arrived immigrants squeezed into homes and apartments, sometimes one family to each bedroom. To absorb the influx of children, schools added portable classrooms, switched to staggered schedules so that schools could operate year round and resorted to busing some students to distant campuses.
Now, armed with $11.7 billion in voter-approved bond money, the district is addressing the long-standing problem by building 150 schools, including 65 for elementary grades. The schools are concentrated in the neighborhoods once most affected by population growth, the same neighborhoods now losing children in large numbers. The construction, which is expected to run through 2012, began in 2001, just as gentrification began.
"We've been surprised a little bit by the depth of the declines," acknowledged Edwin Van Ginkel, the district's senior development manager. "But it's not happening at such a pace that we believe it's going to affect our planning."
He noted that even after several years of enrollment declines, the neighborhoods losing students remain densely populated and still have the largest elementary enrollments in the district. "We've got 1,400 kids in schools built for half that number. If there's gentrification that allows that school to go down to 1,000 kids, it may not be such a bad thing," he said.
The district's construction program has played a part in the decline by leveling apartment buildings and homes at building sites. The first construction phase displaced 1,500 households. A second phase may do the same.
But the school system's role is minor compared to that of the private sector. Would-be homeowners and investors priced out of other Los Angeles markets have been buying and fixing up properties in these long-undervalued neighborhoods, many of which offer views of downtown and pockets of charming architecture. Old apartment buildings often are rehabbed for a more upscale market or demolished to make way for new construction.
Citywide, at least 7,000 rent-controlled units have been lost to demolition and condo conversion since the start of 2005, according to records kept by the Housing Department based on self-reporting by building owners. Housing advocates say the actual number of affordable units lost is far higher.
"We've now decided the entire city is gentrifying, with some super-gentrification zones," said Tai Glenn, head housing attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. "Our work used to focus on cleaning up slum conditions. Now it's all about evictions."
