#NNPA BlackPress
Panelists search for solutions to gentrification
WAVE NEWSPAPERS — Developers are rapidly buying up properties along the Crenshaw corridor in anticipation of the completion of the Crenshaw LAX Rail Line that will carry up to 16,000 commuters a day and is costing approximately $1.3 billion to build. A number of luxury apartments are in the process of being completed that have residents in South Los Angeles concerned as to whether the high-priced rentals will price them out of their neighborhoods.
By Shirley Hawkins
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — Developers are rapidly buying up properties along the Crenshaw corridor in anticipation of the completion of the Crenshaw LAX Rail Line that will carry up to 16,000 commuters a day and is costing approximately $1.3 billion to build.
A number of luxury apartments are in the process of being completed that have residents in South Los Angeles concerned as to whether the high-priced rentals will price them out of their neighborhoods.
Gentrification has become the hot topic and hundreds of people turned out Oct. 5 to attend a town hall meeting on the topic at the South Central Los Angeles Regional Center building on Western Avenue...
Four panels tackled the gentrification issue that included pastors, business and community leaders.
“The problem with gentrification is that there is inclusion that excludes us,” said Pastor Shep Crawford, who urged residents to collectively come together to voice their concerns to the City Council.
“We don’t want our people to be displaced,” Crawford said. “You just can’t come in here and kick us out. If we can all agree on some kind of movement to confront gentrification, then we can’t be stopped.”
Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said, “Each [proposed] development should have an inclusionary measure. If the city is going to greenlight a project, it needs to include units that are affordable.
“There’s got to be a political will to get behind it.
“The community needs to craft a comprehensive housing policy and there needs to be an increase in affordable units. The U.S. used to provide over one million affordable housing units a year and this has been reduced to 60,000.”
Pausing, he said, “There needs to be a moratorium. We need to stand up and say, ‘We’re not going to allow you to build any more luxury apartment buildings unless you include affordable housing. There needs to be a zoning policy here in the city of L.A.”
Morial said “New York City has rent control, which is controlled by a rent stabilization board. I would look at the New York City policy to see if it can be applicable to Los Angeles because they have cash and finance subsidies to build affordable units.”
Pastor Xavier Thompson of the Southern Baptist Church said that local churches need to come together and devise a comprehensive plan to tackle gentrification.
“We don’t just say ‘no’ to gentrification, we say ‘Hell, no!” Thompson declared. “When we are pushed out of our communities, we lose our voice and vote. We know that deals are being made in the backroom and the boardroom and we are being left out. If we are going to reimagine [our communities], you have to give us a seat at the table.”
Former NBA player and business owner Norm Nixon added, “From a political perspective, more tax dollars and rich people are moving into the neighborhood. You have to hold your politicians accountable in order to demand more affordable housing.”
Michael Lawson, president of the Los Angeles Urban League, said, “Developers are buying homes and businesses, but they have access to credit — and businesses are bought and sold on credit. Many of us don’t have that option, but we need to start buying property,” he said.
“There are projects in our community that are being greenlighted, but we are actively lobbying the politicians because we need their help,” he said.
“It’s important to know how even one dollar circulates in our community,” Lawson added. “A dollar in a Korean community circulates for 50 days, but a dollar spent in our community leaves in eight hours.”
Kevin Harbor, president of the UCLA Black Alumni Association who owns an information technology company, said, “My parents moved to Leimert Park in 1967 when I was 10 years old. As I grew up, the value of real estate in the area went up.
“When my children grew to house buying age, I found that they couldn’t even buy in the neighborhood I live in now. They were priced out. Our backs were against the wall.”
Pausing, he said, “Let’s get together and start buying stuff and passing it down. Then we don’t have to ask permission for anything.”
Brian Williams, vice president and chief operating officer for the Los Angeles Urban League, said that gentrification intersects with power, money, racism and classicism. “It is designed for us not to take advantage of the opportunities that surround us,” he said. “It is immoral to deny people housing. It’s a human right, but it’s bound up in a political issue of power.”
“I want everyone to Google opportunity zones and co-op opportunity zones,” said Beny Ashburn, who with her partner, Teo Hunter, owns Crowns & Hops, a brewery located in Inglewood.
“There are programs (to purchase property) that are not being introduced to us,” she said. “Developers are coming in and buying blocks of our community. They have bought up all of Century Boulevard.”
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose organization sponsored the town hall, said “There’s a problem in California with the lack of transparency. Developers are giving council people a boatload of money to build these developments.”
The organization founded the Healthy Housing Foundation, which provides affordable housing to individuals living with HIV and AIDS and also provides housing for the homeless population.
“A lot of our clients and employees had to move out of the city to afford housing,” said Weinstein, who added that the organization has purchased five hotels and is actively seeking another hotel to purchase in South Los Angeles. The rent for clients is an affordable $400 dollars a month.
“I felt [gentrification] was a moral outrage — that same as what happened (to clients) during the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s,” he said, adding that one of the foundation’s goals is to maintain and preserve communities.
“Overall, I would say that for a long time, the attitude was no development in South Los Angeles. But I think that’s changed in the last couple of years,” he said.
“People are moving back into the city and Crenshaw and Boyle Heights have become areas for prime investments. I attended an Urban League dinner a few months ago and I said, “If you don’t do something now, Crenshaw will be gone, and it looks like my words are coming true.”
“If the landlord wants to sell an apartment building, they should first ask the tenants if they want to put together their resources to buy the building,” said Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, a candidate for the Long Beach City Council.
“We have to start thinking, ‘How do I come together with my community in order to buy homes and commercial assets?’”
“If you have a self-directed [individual retirement account], you can spend money from that IRA to buy a business,” Harbour said.
“We’ve got to realize that this is a real fight between the haves and the have nots,” Harbour added. “There needs to be a paradigm shift so that we can work together. If we go in collectively and say, ‘You will do this,’ then they will do it. We need to figure out the solution and not ask for permission.”
The article first appeared in the Wave Newspapers.
#NNPA BlackPress
Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

By Lauren Burke
By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.
The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.
“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.
“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

#NNPA BlackPress
Congressional Black Caucus Challenges Target on Diversity
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Target is grappling with worsening financial and reputational fallout as the national selective buying and public education program launched by the Black Press of America and other national and local leaders continues to erode the retailer’s sales and foot traffic. But a recent meeting that the retailer intended to keep quiet between CEO Brian Cornell and members of the Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Task Force was publicly reported after the Black Press discovered the session, and the CBC later put Target on blast.
“The Congressional Black Caucus met with the leadership of the Target Corporation on Capitol Hill to directly address deep concerns about the impact of the company’s unconscionable decision to end a number of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts,” CBC Chair Yvette Clarke stated. “Like many of the coalition leaders and partner organizations that have chosen to boycott their stores across the country, we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted,” Congresswoman emphasized. “Black consumers contribute overwhelmingly to our economy and the Target Corporation’s bottom line. Our communities deserve to shop at businesses that publicly share our values without sacrificing our dignity. It is no longer acceptable to deliver promises to our communities in private without also demonstrating those values publicly.”
Lauren Burke, Capitol Hill correspondent for Black Press of America, was present when Target CEO Cornell and a contingent of Target officials arrived at the U.S. Capitol last month. “It’s always helpful to have meetings like this and get some candid feedback and continue to evolve our thinking,” Cornell told Burke as he exited the meeting. And walked down a long hallway in the Cannon House Office Building. “We look forward to follow-up conversations,” he stated. When asked if the issue of the ongoing boycott was discussed, Cornell’s response was, “That was not a big area of focus — we’re focused on running a great business each and every day. Take care of our teams. Take care of the guests who shop with us and do the right things in our communities.”
A national public education campaign on Target, spearheaded by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the NNPA’s board of directors, and with other national African American leaders, has combined consumer education efforts with a call for selective buying. The NNPA is a trade association that represents the more than 220 African American-owned newspapers and media companies known as the Black Press of America, the voice of 50 million African Americans across the nation. The coalition has requested that Target restore and expand its stated commitment to do business with local community-owned businesses inclusive of the Black Press of America, and to significantly increase investment in Black-owned businesses and media, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU, Black-owned Banks, national Black Church denominations, and grassroots and local organizations committed to improving the quality of life of all Americans, and especially those from underserved communities. According to Target’s latest earnings report, net sales for the first quarter of 2025 fell 2.8 percent to $23.85 billion compared to the same period last year. Comparable store sales dropped 3.8 percent, and in-store foot traffic slid 5.7 percent.
Shares of Target have also struggled under the pressure. The company’s stock traded around $103.85 early Wednesday afternoon, down significantly from roughly $145 before the controversy escalated. Analysts note that Target has lost more than $12 billion in market value since the beginning of the year. “We will continue to inform and to mobilize Black consumers in every state in the United States,” Chavis said. “Target today has a profound opportunity to respond with respect and restorative commitment.”
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