Jordan Downs

Denise Penegar puts a little extra effort into the teenage girls, the ones who've dropped out of high school to care for their firstborns. Don't be afraid, the outreach worker tells them. Come down to the housing project's community center, get your GED and some job skills. Change your life. "I was one of those girls," said Penegar, now 51 and still living in Jordan Downs, the Watts housing project where she was born. Sometimes, she imagines how different her life might have been if someone had knocked on her door when she was 17, caring for her first baby.

Roshawne Mackey walked into the Jordan Downs community center clutching a pink pamphlet from a funeral over the weekend, her face like stone. Her niece had been 11 - a diabetic who wasn't given her insulin shots. The dozen or so women in the parenting class listened as Mackey described how the little girl used to make backpacks out of cereal boxes, how she'd adored Hello Kitty. Mackey's expression remained stoic, but tears slid from her eyes. Within minutes, most of the other women were crying too. Across from Mackey, Veronica Hale put her head down on the scratched laminate table and wept for her 4-month-old girl, who had recently died in her sleep.

Craig McGruder tilts his head to hear a plea for help in the heart of Watts. "I've got trouble," says a guy who used to run with the Grape Street Crips. "Been thinking about doing some dirt. Thinking about robbing so I can get my kids the school supplies they need. " McGruder understands trouble. He'd grown up with most of the men meeting in this white-walled community center on a midsummer night. Some had been dealers who'd sold him crack when he was at his lowest, skulking around Jordan Downs, where he'd been born in 1962 and never much left.

Craig McGruder tilts his head to hear a plea for help in the heart of Watts. "I've got trouble," says a guy who used to run with the Grape Street Crips. "Been thinking about doing some dirt. Thinking about robbing so I can get my kids the school supplies they need. " McGruder understands trouble. He'd grown up with most of the men meeting in this white-walled community center on a midsummer night. Some had been dealers who'd sold him crack when he was at his lowest, skulking around Jordan Downs, where he'd been born in 1962 and never much left.

The redevelopment of the infamously grim Jordan Downs housing project in Watts moved one step closer to reality with the announcement last month that the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles had selected two developers to map out and execute a plan for a new community. Not that anyone should pack their bags yet, either to move out of the barracks-like 700-unit structure or to move into the envisioned urban village of subsidized housing, market-rate apartments and retail stores that would replace it. The list of further steps that must be taken is long and challenging.

About 40 tenants at the Jordan Downs public housing project gathered Saturday to hear about city plans that could dramatically change their lives -- a proposal to tear down the tarnished Watts complex and replace it with a modern "urban village" with apartments, stores and restaurants. Residents met at the Jordan Downs recreation center to hear about the ambitious, $1-billion proposal that could include as many as 2,100 units, with both low-income and market-rate housing.

Was I mistaken, or did I see yet another group seeking segregated housing? ("Segregated Housing Sought at Jordan Downs," Metro, Sept. 10). Here we go again: Not all African-Americans are arsonists and murderers. The one neighbor who, reportedly, tried to help the Zuniga family, and who might be the only individual able to provide an eyewitness account, is black. I had hoped we were done with this madness. There is already segregated housing for individuals who commit unspeakable crimes like burning people alive in their homes.

In theory the proposal to sell the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts to private developers sounds good. Developers would buy the deteriorating public housing in exchange for lucrative tax credits. The housing authority would get millions for a new rent-subsidy program for poor people. But in practice the rundown apartments would be a hard sell.

Barry Smith, 56, caught my attention Tuesday morning when he stuck his head into a dumpster at the Jordan Downs housing complex to dig for recyclable containers. When he came up for air, I asked if he'd heard the latest scandalous news about the spendthrifts at the Los Angeles Housing Authority. No, said Smith, he'd been busy scraping to get by. So I told him about the newest outrage. Not only did the housing authority board quietly agree to a $1.2-million payout to the chief they fired last spring, Rudy Montiel, but an audit by City Controller Wendy Greuel and a report by KCET's "SoCal Connected" have revealed lavish travel and dining expenses, as well as perks for employees, including $4,500 spent on Land's End sweaters.

A recent editorial ("Really Show the Man Around," May 31) in your newspaper indicated that I should take note of the problems and opportunities in the Jordan Downs housing development and their implications for broader housing policy reforms. I have spoken with Assemblywoman Maxine Waters and other outspoken advocates of public housing tenants in Los Angeles, and I share their concerns and intend to promote broadened tenant involvement, resident management and homeownership opportunities for the residents of Jordan Downs and other housing developments throughout the country.

Denise Penegar puts a little extra effort into the teenage girls, the ones who've dropped out of high school to care for their firstborns. Don't be afraid, the outreach worker tells them. Come down to the housing project's community center, get your GED and some job skills. Change your life. "I was one of those girls," said Penegar, now 51 and still living in Jordan Downs, the Watts housing project where she was born. Sometimes, she imagines how different her life might have been if someone had knocked on her door when she was 17, caring for her first baby.

The redevelopment of the infamously grim Jordan Downs housing project in Watts moved one step closer to reality with the announcement last month that the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles had selected two developers to map out and execute a plan for a new community. Not that anyone should pack their bags yet, either to move out of the barracks-like 700-unit structure or to move into the envisioned urban village of subsidized housing, market-rate apartments and retail stores that would replace it. The list of further steps that must be taken is long and challenging.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I spent this past week at a little-known gem down in South L.A. Its past is long and winding. After a police stop turned violent, sparking riots that tore through Watts in 1965, a group of churches transformed an old furniture store on a fire-charred street. They created the Watts Happening Coffee House, and amid an explosion of pride and creativity that rooted in this corner of the city during the '60s, it became a smoke-filled community hub. "It's one of the only decent things we have in Watts," a young man is quoted telling city officials in a Times' story published in 1966.

Los Angeles' housing authority board chose developers Thursday for a $1-billion effort to redevelop the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts, a crucial step toward revitalizing one of the city's poorest and most violence-plagued neighborhoods. The plan calls for knocking down the 700-unit project whose name has become synonymous with urban blight and replacing it with a larger "urban village" of up to 1,800 new homes, stores and a park. More than a third of the units would be reserved for families now living in the dilapidated two-story buildings, many of whom pay little rent and have lived in public housing for generations.

Barry Smith, 56, caught my attention Tuesday morning when he stuck his head into a dumpster at the Jordan Downs housing complex to dig for recyclable containers. When he came up for air, I asked if he'd heard the latest scandalous news about the spendthrifts at the Los Angeles Housing Authority. No, said Smith, he'd been busy scraping to get by. So I told him about the newest outrage. Not only did the housing authority board quietly agree to a $1.2-million payout to the chief they fired last spring, Rudy Montiel, but an audit by City Controller Wendy Greuel and a report by KCET's "SoCal Connected" have revealed lavish travel and dining expenses, as well as perks for employees, including $4,500 spent on Land's End sweaters.

Los Angeles police Thursday identified a 56-year-old grandmother who was killed by officers in Watts after she allegedly tried to shoot relatives and failed to drop her weapon. Brenda Williams was struck by rounds fired by three Los Angeles Police Department officers Wednesday night near the Jordan Downs housing project. She was one of three people in officer-involved shootings — two of them deadly — in less than 24 hours. Neighbors said Williams recently moved into the neighborhood in the 10000 block of Anzac Avenue.

The 20-year anniversary of the beating of Rodney King passed pretty much unnoticed in Jordan Downs. I visited the Watts housing project this weekend because I was curious about King's legacy in a neighborhood where, 20 years ago, everybody seemed to know someone who had been roughed up King-style by the cops. Was King a hero or a hapless victim? Had the events set in motion by his videotaped beating ? from street riots to police reform ? changed life much in this beleaguered corner?

Security forces imposed a clampdown and officials warned troublemakers of consequences as calm was restored Wednesday in southern Jordan after several days of tribal violence. The clashes began Monday in the Maan governorate after the death of two people during a fight among workers at a water project, official media reported. The troubles quickly escalated into a wider dispute between rival clans and widespread rioting. The independent Ammon News website Wednesday quoted a security source as saying 50 people had been arrested.