Research Article on The use of The Red Line in Boyle Heights

In this paper, I will examine the use of redlining in Boyle Heights, CA from the 1930s – 1960s and its influence on the creation of public housing projects. Boyle Heights, is located just East of Los Angeles’ downtown central business district and is considered to be one of the earliest residential communities in Los Angeles. Beginning in the 1870s, developmental activity within Los Angeles began to sprawl due to the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad which connected Los Angeles to other metropolitan areas.

By 1875, Boyle Heights comprised certain infrastructure such as streets, a main line water supply system, and a horse-drawn streetcar system which was used to connect its residents with the city-center of Los Angeles.

Prior to the development of public housing projects, Boyle Heights was a blossoming working, middle-class community with a population which represented first and second generation immigrants. During the latter quarter of the 19th century, railroad developments by the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroad companies brought forth an opportunity to spur new developments within the fringes of city centers.

Streetcar suburbs became increasingly popular, and were developed largely after the civil war. In its simplest form, electric street car companies, such as the Los Angeles Cable Railway, purchased undeveloped tracts of land along streets stemming away from city centers then laid tracks along the property lines and then resold the land as suburban subdivisions for profit. With the advent of streetcars becoming increasingly integrated into urban settings, an acceleration of residential development and growth swiftly followed.

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This, in part, transformed Boyle heights from a lightly populated district, into a densely populated full-fledge streetcar suburb towards the turn of the century, which catered to some of Los Angeles’ most prosperous and affluent households. Although elite members of society resided within the neighborhood during its developmental years, the growth during this time slowly began to be accompanied by middle and working class households who were seeking an suburban escape from the busy city centers. The newly created public railway transportation system allowed these people to remain a feasible distance away from their place of employment while enjoying the benefits of suburbia in Boyle Heights. In order to support the neighborhood’s rapid growth, lumber and brick factories soon entered the area to keep up with the increasing demand for single-family housing: the area where these factories were concentrated were commonly referred to as the “flats” (CRA/LA, 3).

Most workers who were employed in these factories oftentimes lived within the community of Boyle Heights thanks to its relatively low price for small, single-family dwellings. The demographics of the 1920s Boyle Heights community resembled a melting pot of different races and ethnicities such as Jews, Hispanics, Asians, Russians and African Americans. In fact, leading up to World War II, Boyle Heights was considered one of the most racially heterogeneous communities throughout the whole Los Angeles Area, often resembling “multicultural harmony” (Watanabe).

Contrary to other neighborhoods at the time, restrictive covenants, racial steering, and other discriminatory housing strategies were never implemented broadly throughout Boyle Heights prior to the great depression. “In contrast to the older, mixed ethnoracial communities in East Los Angeles, developers using land North, South, and West of downtown used class-and racially-restrictive covenants to limit access to their new neighborhoods” (Redford, 8). Developers and residents oftentimes used restrictive covenants to keep people of color away from certain neighborhoods by prohibiting a buyer from selling a home to someone of a different race while racial steering was used by realtors in order to help guide white home seekers to one neighborhood and minority home seekers to another.