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What's in a name? South LA may change to SOLA
A photo of Downtown Los Angeles from way up high looking north from South LA.
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Chris Valle Photography
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Nickerson Gardens, a 1054-public housing apartment complex in Watts, Calif, was built in 1955.
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Mae Ryan/KPCC
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The remains of Ujima Village, a 300-unit apartment housing complex built in the 1970s over a former Exxon Mobil oil tank storage facility at the site, which may have caused health issues and deaths of Ujima residents.
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Mae Ryan/KPCC
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Walls without graffiti are rare in LAPD's Newton Division in South Los Angeles.
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José Martinez/OnCentral
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Updated 1:05 p.m.: The public will get a chance to weigh in on an official nickname for South Los Angeles after Council President Herb Wesson referred the motion Tuesday to a neighborhoods committee, according to the Associated Press.
Under the motion, South L.A. — which was already renamed from "South Central Los Angeles" — could be called "SOLA" in addition to "South Los Angeles" in official city documents and communication.
The new shorthand would be reminiscent of trendy neighborhood monikers like "WeHo" and "NoHo," but Wesson said he'd like to give the public more time to comment on it first, AP reports.
11:21 a.m.: Third time's a charm? That's what the L.A. City Council is aiming for in its latest attempt to rebrand South Los Angeles.
Councilmember Bernard C. Parks, who represents the 8th district, introduced an amendment this month that looks to include the acronym SOLA on all city documents referring to South L.A. He says the nickname will reinvigorate the area south of downtown.
“They [the residents] see these other communities reinvigorated by these contemporary names. And they wonder, at times, why their community is lagging behind,” Parks told the L.A. Times.
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Parks said residents have expressed interest in the name change to him in passing. But they'll officially give their opinion at Tuesday night's city council meeting.
In 2003, the Los Angeles City Council successfully renamed the 'hood. All city departments were asked to discontinue the term "South Central Los Angeles" and replace the phrase with "South Los Angeles." Here's an excerpt from the motion:
Even though the area surrounding South Central Avenue is no longer predominantly an African-American community, the term "South Central" has followed the community westward and has a negative connotation following the 1965 and 1992 civil disturbances. Council District 9 and the Cultural Affairs Department have conducted public hearings on whether the area surrounding South Central Avenue should be referred to as "South Los Angeles." The general consensus from the public is that the South Central Avenue area should be referred to as "South Los Angeles."
The towering, 1.66-million-square-foot, Blue-Line-adjacent complex will include nearly 1,500 residential units in two towers over 30 stories tall, plus retail, a 208-room hotel, restaurants, and a grocery store. There's no doubt that SoLA Village, when completed, will dramatically alter the neighborhood, which until now has largely been ignored by fancy developers.
Gloria Walton, head of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, told The Times that she's unsure who will actually benefit from the name change and pointed to gentrification as a potential driving force. “We need a true focus group to see if this is what the residents want," she said.
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