Many Wilmington residents, including myself, often criticize the lack of city-wide improvements in our community. Some of the most important things that come to mind are renovating our schools, youth centers, social services, housing, and downtown – among other things. The CRA, Community Redevelopment Agency, is a is a public agency that lays the groundwork and provide the preconditions that enable private investors to revitalize a community.

They hold monthly meetings every second Tuesday of the month at the Senior Citizen Center at Banning Park, where the community is encouraged to attend and listen to all of the projects being proposed. Public meetings are created to attract the widest possible community input. Community residents only have 2 minutes at the beginning and end of the meeting to give suggestions. The CRA/LA had an application process for stakeholders to be part of the Wilmington board. Members are suppose to be the people who represent the best interest of Wilmington resident.

On this board resides a diverse group of people ranging from one young person who doesn’t say much at all, a couple of older white Wilmington residents who make up 1% of the population in Wilmington, and other representatives like church leaders, small business owners, real-estate agents, etc.What’s my point? The fact is that the majority of people representing us on that board do not represent the real Wilmington community, who are Latinos, low-income families, youth, immigrants, etc. There is an obvious disconnect.

Because of this, it is important that we take advantage of those 2 minutes they give us at the beginning and end of the meetings to inform them of what we really need in our communities. We do not need private companies and better parking, we need our teen center to be remodeled, our downtown to be improved, junk yards to be banned, and refineries to provide us with better sources of energy to stop killing us with all their pollution. Although the focus of the CRA/LA is to create enable private investors, the city provides so many services that are not present in Wilmington. There needs to be a more balanced idea of what the needs in Wilmington are. 

The next meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, July 22nd, 6pm-8pm at the Sr. Citizen Center. Please try to attend; if we don’t speak out nobody else will.

Check out this link to see what construction projects are being talked about for Wilmington http://www.crala.net/internet-site/Projects/LA_Harbor/index.cfm