Los Angeles, Poverty and Street Gangs

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the current conditions in L.A. regarding poverty and violence to that of the 1930s. The writer of this paper reviews and discusses author Upton Sinclair's perception of 1930s L.A. in his novel "Land of Orange Groves and Jails." This paper explores the strong lure of street gangs on L.A.'s youth as well as the high cost of living and lack of affordable housing for the working class citizen. This paper also gives a brief biography of Upton Sinclair's political aspirations.

From the Paper:

"The Mayor has endorsed the LA's BEST program, Better Educated Students for Tomorrow. The program is designed to give students ages 5 to 12 a place to hang out during the critical hours after school. The program costs parents nothing and insures that children will not get mixed up in the gang network. In a press release dated Feb. 23, 2006 the Mayor reported that the program has decreased the dropout rate by 20 percent. This is a statistic based on 6000 kids that were in the program for three years and 6000 kids that were not in the program."

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