| Watts | |
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| — Neighborhood of Los Angeles — | |
| Watts' most famous landmark: Watts Towers created by Simon Rodia | |
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Watts
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Watts
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | County of Los Angeles |
| City | City of Los Angeles |
| Government | |
| • City Council | Janice Hahn |
| • State Assembly | Isadore Hall, III (D) |
| • State Senate | Roderick Wright (D) |
| • U.S. House | Laura Richardson (D) |
| Area[1] | |
| • Total | 2.0 sq mi (5.2 km2) |
| Population (2000)[1] | |
| • Total | 34,830 |
| • Density | 17,350/sq mi (6,698.9/km2) |
| ZIP Code | 90002 |
| Area code(s) | 323 |
Watts is a mostly residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California.
Contents |
The area now known as Watts is located on the Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant. As on all ranchos, the principal vocation was grazing and beef production.[2]
With the influx of European American settlers into Southern California in the 1870s, La Tajauta land was sold off and subdivided for smaller farms and homes. In those days each Tajauta farm had an artesian well. The arrival of the railroad spurred the development of the area, and in 1907 Watts was incorporated as a separate city, named after the first railroad station, Watts Station, that was built in the town. The city voted to annex itself to Los Angeles in 1926.[2]
Along with more European Americans, Mexican and Mexican American railroad workers ("traqueros") settled in the community. African-Americans came in later and many of the men were Pullman car porters and other railroad workers. Schoolroom photos from 1909 and 1911 show only two or three black faces among the 30 or so children pictured. By 1914, a black realtor, Charles C. Leake, was doing business in the area.[2]
Watts did not become predominantly black until the 1940s, as the Second Great Migration brought tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, who left segregated Southern states in search of better opportunities in California. During World War II, the city built several large housing projects (including Nickerson Gardens, Jordan Downs, and Imperial Courts) for the thousands of new workers in war industries. By the early 1960s, these projects had become nearly 100 percent black, as whites moved on to new suburbs outside the central city. As industrial jobs disappeared from the area, the projects housed many more poor families than they had traditionally.
Longstanding resentment by Los Angeles' working-class black community over discriminatory treatment by police and inadequate public services (especially schools and hospitals) exploded on August 11, 1965, into what were commonly known as the Watts Riots. The event that precipitated the disturbances, the arrest of a black youth by the California Highway Patrol on drunk-driving charges, actually occurred outside Watts. Mobs did the most property damage in Watts in the turmoil.
Watts suffered further in the 1970s, as gangs gained strength and raised the level of violence in the neighborhood. Between 1989 and 2005, police reported more than 500 homicides in Watts, most of them gang-related and tied to wars over control of the lucrative illicit market created by illegal drugs. Four of Watts' influential gangs— Watts Cirkle City Piru Bloods, Grape Street Watts Crips, Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, and PJ Watts Crips—formed a Peace Treaty agreement in 1992 following just over 4 years of peace talks which were initiated in July 1988 with the support of the local community. The spokespersons for the groups taking part in the peace talks were Twilight and Daude.
Twilight and Daude photos from the 1988 Peace Talks press conference were printed on the front pages of regional and local newspapers and their interviews with TV news crews were on every news channel. In the months and years to follow Twilight would appear on National TV talk shows, radio talk shows and speak at several college and university campuses. Both Twilight and Twelve received death threats due to misinterpretation of newspaper articles by their peers, many of whom would join the peace movement in the months and years to come.
After four years of peace talks the Peace Treaty would be drafted and then agreed the day before the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The pact supported by a community based education initiatives and private investments from prominent members of the community e.g. Jim Brown continues to contribute to the decrease in gang related death in Watts and the greater South Los Angeles area since 1992. Key hallmarks of the pact continue to influence life in Watts to date, with colors and territory having little to do with gang-related crime.
Beginning in the 1980s, due to gentrification, those African Americans who could leave Watts moved to other parts of South Los Angeles and suburban locations in the Antelope Valley, the Inland Empire, The San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, and the San Joaquin Valley. This process, which some call black flight, was part of the increasing gentrification of Non-white inner-city communities implemented in the 1980s, in a journey typical of the larger American society. The black population in Watts has been replaced by successor migrants, primarily Hispanic immigrants of Mexican and Central American ancestry, as well as a smaller proportion of Ethiopian and Indian ancestry. This process of gentrification accelerated after the 1992 riots.
In addition, there has been a net migration of African Americans out of California to return to the South in a New Great Migration. From 1995–2000, California was a net loser of African-American residents. With new jobs, Southern states have attracted the most black college graduates since 1995.[3]
Neighborhood leaders have begun a strategy to overcome Watts' reputation as a violence-prone and impoverished area. Special promotion has been given to the museums and art galleries opened in the area surrounding Watts Towers at 1765 East 107th St, near the Imperial Highway and suburb of Lynwood. This sculptural and architectural landmark has attracted many artists and professionals to the area. I Build the Tower, a feature-length documentary film about the Watts Towers and their creator, Simon Rodia, provides a history of Watts from the 1920s to the present and a record of the activities of the Watts Towers Arts Center.
Watts is bordered by the cities of South Gate on the east and Lynwood on the southeast, and the unincorporated areas of Willowbrook on the south and Florence on the north.
The district's boundaries are Firestone Boulevard on the north, Alameda Street on the east, Imperial Highway on the south, and Central Avenue on the west. Principal thoroughfares through the district include Santa Ana Boulevard; Compton and Wilmington Avenues; and 108th Street. In addition to buses, mass transit is provided by the Blue and Green light rail lines of the Los Angeles Metro system, at the 103rd Street/Kenneth Hahn station on the Blue Line and the Imperial/Wilmington/Rosa Parks station where the Blue and Green lines meet.
Watts is split between ZIP Codes 90002 and 90059.
As of the 2000 census, total population in the district was 34,830. Ethnically, 60.8% of residents were Latino American, 38.0% African American, 0.6% European American, 0.1% Asian American, and 0.6% other races. The median household income stood $24,728, one of the lowest in the city of Los Angeles. Per capita income stood at $6,681; 49.7% of families and 49.1% of individuals were below the poverty line.[1]
Watts Neighborhood Council 10221 Compton Avenue, Suite 106A, LA CA 90002 Phone: 323.564.0260
Los Angeles Fire Department Station 65 (Watts) serves the community.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 16 (Watts) serves the community.
Los Angeles Police Department operates the nearby Southeast Community Police Station.[4]
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the South Health Center in Watts.[5]
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation operates the L.A. Watts Juvenile Parole Center.[6]
The United States Postal Service Augustus F. Hawkins Post Office is located at 10301 Compton Avenue.[7] On January 24, 2000 the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate presented a bill to rename the Watts Finance Office as the Hawkins Post Office.[8]
Watts is located in Los Angeles Unified School District's Local District 7.
Its local secondary public school is David Starr Jordan High School, which includes a math-science magnet component.[9] It has a student body of 76.5 percent Latinos, 23 percent African Americans and 5 percent other and, according to its website, is "located in a high crime area."[10] Its athletic teams are known as the Bulldogs. The adjacent Simon Rodia High School is a continuation school for students who cannot attend Jordan.[11] has sixth- through eighth-grade students.[12]
Youth Opportunities High School, part of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps,[13] is also located in Watts, as is 109th Street School.[14]
Compton Avenue Elementary located at 1515 E. 104 Pl next to Markham Middle School educates students grades Pre-K-5th.
There are 4 more elementary schools 1 on Watts ave named John Ritter Elementary Pre-K-5th, Grape St. elementary, Florence Griffith-Joyner Elementary and Weigand Ave Elementary School.
There is also a fairly new public charter school named Jack H. Skirball Middle School located in Watts. It is located at Avalon and 115th St. After only one full year of operation, this school has become the highest performing middle school in the area, based on 2007–2008 API (Academic Performance Index) scores.[15] Currently, approximately 250 students attend the school in the sixth and seventh grades. Currently, there are no athletic teams, but the mascot of Jack H. Skirball Middle School is the Spartan. In addition, King/Drew Magnet High School on 120th. Costing over $62 million to build, resurrected in 1999, with Golden Eagles as their mascot.
YouthBuild Charter School of California is a charter high school that operates a site in Watts for 16-24 year old students seeking a high school diploma.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates many area Catholic schools.
San Miguel School provides a Catholic education for about 200 students from preschool through eighth grade. Most of the families come from Latin America. Many parents cannot pay on time, according to The Tidings online.[16] Verbum Dei High School is also located in the Watts area. Another Catholic Elementary school is St. Lawrence Brindisi which is also K Through 8
Los Angeles Public Library operates the Alma Reaves Woods – Watts Branch.[17]
Watts received its first library service in 1913 when temporary space was designated in the city hall for a library. In 1914 the library moved into a newly built Carnegie library. Los Angeles annexed Watts in 1926, so the library became the Watts Branch of the Los Angeles library system. In 1957 voters approved a library branch bond, and a 3,600 square feet (330 m2) Watts Branch opened in 1960. In 1991 the Los Angeles City Council approved a measure, backed by the Friends of the Watts Branch Library, the Fifteenth District Council Office, and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) of the City of Los Angeles, to build a new library as a part of the 1.3 acres (0.53 ha) Watts Civic Center. 1.3 million dollars from Proposition 1, the branch library facility bond issue of 1989, funded the construction of the new Watts library. On June 25, 1996 the city council voted to name the library after Alma Reaves Woods Watts, a woman in the community who encouraged reading and library usage. James C. Moore, AIA & Associates designed the current Watts Library, which opened on June 29, 1996.[18]
The William Nickerson Recreation Center, operated by the City of Los Angeles, is located in Watts.[19] The center, which acts as a Los Angeles Police Department stop-in center, has a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, unlighted indoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, a lighted American football field, lighted handball courts, an indoor gymnasium with weights, a picnic table, and a lighted soccer (football) field.[20]
The 109th Street Recreation Center, a city facility, is located in Watts. The center, which acts as a Los Angeles Police Department stop-in center, has an auditorium, a lighted baseball diamond, lighted indoor and outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a lighted American football field, an indoor gymnasium with weights, an outdoor gymnasium without weights, a lighted soccer field, and lighted tennis courts.[21] The 109th Street Pool is a seasonal outdoor unheated located in Watts.[22] In June 2008 a group of young men attacked a manager there, forcing the city to close the pool for a short period of time. When it re-opened police were stationed there.[23] The pool, located between the Nickerson Gardens and Jordan Downs public housing complexes, also lied between two competing gangs in 2008.[24]
The 27-acre (11 ha) Ted Watkins Memorial Park, a county park, is within Florence-Graham in unincorporated Los Angeles County, adjacent to Watts.[25][26] The park was named after Ted Watkins, the founder of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC), in 1995. The park has lighted baseball/softball fields, a children's play area, a community recreation room, a computer lab, a gymnasium with a stage, picnic areas, a skateboard park, a soccer (football) field, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and toilets.[26]
People (non residents)
| Florence-Graham, California | Walnut Park, California |
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| South Los Angeles | Watts, Los Angeles | South Gate, California | |||||
| Athens, California | Willowbrook, California | Lynwood, California |
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