Housing in the ghetto has never been that bad in LA. Visitors from other countries have often remarked on how fine our "ghetto" housing looked, compared to their image of a ghetto. But there are other indicators--the murder rate, welfare dependence, drop out rate, standardized test scores, drug use and gang membership. I remember talking to a black woman from Louisiana years ago. She had come here with her husband to work during WWII. For her the fifties were a golden era. On hot summer nights in South Central she and her husband would sleep in the back yard. Now she has bars on her windows and never goes out at night, let alone to sleep.
But bad as problems are in the black ghetto, it's the Hispanic part of town where the greater problems are now. There are more hispanics than blacks and their numbers are growing much faster. Furthermore, because of the open borders, the promimity of Mexico, the new residents aren't assimilating. We're being assimilated to Mexican values, as shown by the looting that followed the Rodney King trial riots. Try asking someone these days about free speech and the first amendment. They don't know what you're talking about. Their attitude is no one has the right to say anything that offends me. So much for Jeffersonian democracy.