Happy 9th Anniversary from JIMBO TIMES!

From my newsletter this morning:

On Saturday, August *19th* at 7:45 AM, JIMBO TIMES turned 9! 🥳

Cheers! If you’ve already donated to my fundraising campaign for the anniversary, thank you so much! If not, I can now confirm that each supporter who makes a donation of $10 or more will get 5 Los Cuentos stickers in the mail, which go well on laptops, microphones, and much more.

To keep up with the campaign, make sure you’re following J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast via Apple and Spotify. And thanks again to the people of Los Angeles for helping to make it all happen.

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J.T.

**This has been updated from an incorrect date noted in an earlier newsletter for the 9th anniversary of JIMBO TIMES.**

THIS LAUSD TEACHER IS BEING SUED FOR ALLEGEDLY TEACHING ANTI-SEMITISM

A second special edition episode with Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona. Guadalupe is the daughter of migrant farm-workers and hails from Oxnard, California, among other communities in the Southwest. She has been an Ethnic Studies, English, Social Studies and Journalism educator for 24 years and has taught in California, Arizona and Texas. She is currently an Ethnic Studies Teacher at Roybal Learning Center just outside of downtown Los Angeles as well as the chair of the Association of Raza Educators (Los Angeles chapter), co-founder of XOCHITL Los Angeles, a member of Ethnic Studies Now Coalition’s Coordinating Committee, and a founding member of the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Coalition.

(1:21) Lupe Carrasco Cardona
(2:42) Lupe’s 24 year career as a teacher and educator
(3:23) Inspiration to become a teacher
(4:59) A serendipitous connection to the late, great mayor of San Fernando, Cindy Montañez
(6:18) Connection to farm-workers, including Cesar Chavez in the Central Valley
(8:40) Coming from Oxnard, California, where farm-workers pick through strawberry fields
(12:11) Lupe’s role in passing California Assembly Bills 2016, 101, and 1460, which together require ethnic studies be taught at California high schools
(14:01) Organizing with students, parents and teachers at the grassroots level for ethnic studies
(14:45) Organizing after Tucson, Arizona’s 2010 ban of Mexican-American studies
(17:28) The lawsuit filed against Lupe and her colleague for teaching ethnic studies
(24:45) Lupe’s reaction to the lawsuit’s filing in 2022
(28:42) The irony of accusing an indigenous teacher of being antisemetic
(31:09) How to support Lupe and Theresa this upcoming Thursday, December 14th
(32:04) Educational rally outside of the Federal courthouse at 1st Street in DTLA
(34:17) Lawfare against communities of color is likely to continue, yet we (have to) persist
(35:40) What Lupe would like to get out of beating this case

You can also learn more or keep up with Lupe’s Cuento on Instagram: @lupe_teaches_ethnic_studies.

To make a one-time donation to my fundraiser for the 9th anniversary of JIMBO TIMES, please do so through jmbtms.com. To support the production of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, please check out my PATREON.

J.T.

Aerial shot of Los Angeles City Hall

IT’S MONEY OR PEOPLE POWERED: THE CHOICE IS YOURS

In this special edition episode with Council Member Hernandez of L.A. City Council’s 1st District, we discuss upcoming rent raises in 2024 and their impact on housing insecurity in L.A.; we also discuss voting against the police budget earlier this year, new funding sources for the L.A. Ethics Commission, the race for new leadership in Council District 14, and more:

(2:53) Rent hike this February 2024
(5:07) The rent hike’s effect on Council District 1
(7:35) A message to the housing movement about the politics behind this decision by L.A. City Council
(9:50) Voting against the police budget for 2023 – 2024
(13:13) Purchasing the Mayfair hotel in Westlake/MacArthur Park area to house folks from Skid Row
(17:02) Hosting Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program as an alternative response to people experiencing crises in Los Angeles
(19:51) The Crisis and Incident through Community-Led Engagement (CIRCLE) program in Los Angeles
(21:59) What if LAPD budget increases went to more human responses to mental health crises?
(24:19) Turning the old Lincoln Heights jail into a new community resource
(26:48) Measure J’s progress in L.A. County since being approved by 2.1 million voters in 2020
(29:37) Independent funding for the L.A. City Council Ethics Commission
(31:39) Expanding L.A. City Council as soon as 2026, potentially
(34:50) Reconnecting MacArthur Park without displacing people in the area
(39:23) Partnership on the project with L.A. Metro
(40:41) Endorsing Ysabel Jurado in Council District 14 and dual-endorsing reverend Eddie Anderson and Council Member Hutt in CD-10
(43:22) CD-14 has the highest number of evictions and has millions in discretionary funds
(45:08) Joining a short list of elected officials in L.A. and California calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

To make a one-time donation to my fundraiser for the 9th anniversary of JIMBO TIMES, please do so through jmbtms.com. To support the production of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, please check out my PATREON.

J.T.

exterior entrance of residential building

In Case You Missed It: Making Our Neighborhood, the Magazine, is back!

In January of this year, City National Bank (CNB) was fined $31 million by the U.S. Justice Department, which successfully argued that from 2017 to at least 2020, CNB consistently denied Black and immigrant applicants in Los Angeles County for home loans at a significantly higher rate than white applicants. Additionally, according to the Department’s briefing:

“City National only opened one branch in a majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhood in the past twenty years, despite having opened or acquired 11 branches during that time period. And unlike at its branches in majority-white areas, City National did not assign any employee to generate mortgage loan applications at that branch.”

The event underscores how important it is for communities to assess the enduring legacy of redlining in our cities so that more people like those Black and Latino applicants can account for their part of those $31 million. To this end, it’s my pleasure to announce the return of Making Our Neighborhood, by Samanta Helou-Hernandez and J.T. the L.A. Storyteller.

In March 2021, we published Making Our Neighborhood: Redlining, Gentrification and Housing in East Hollywood, making nearly 300 copies available for order online and selling out in a little over two months. Today, we’re thrilled to announce at least 50 new copies of this labor of love. Like before, copies of Making Our Neighborhood will be available on a first-come, first serve basis through jimbotimes.com.

Making Our Neighborhood: Redlining, Gentrification and Housing in East Hollywood (2021).

Why bring back the magazine now?

Since the magazine is not handled or owned by a major publication company, copies of it are not easy to come by, so over the last two and a half years we’ve had to gently turn away folks interested in purchasing a copy. This second run is for those folks, as well as for others who’d like to take a peek into the rich stories that make our neighborhood.

Our surprise second-run is owed to the generosity of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, which recently held the first official exhibit honoring the stories of the Albright-Marshall family and their Japanese American neighbors in the J-Flats neighborhood adjacent to Virgil Village. The magazine will be available at the same price it was during our first run at $35.

Whose stories are featured in the magazine?

The magazine features original reporting by both of us, including articles on some of our first encounters with gentrification along Virgil avenue, as well as with terms such as “redlining.” It also features photography from This Side of Hoover and Jimbo Times, and a 4,000 word essay from J.T. on future efforts for housing in East Hollywood.

What is gentrification? And is it still affecting neighborhoods today?

According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC): “The term ‘gentrification’ was first coined in the 1960s by British sociologist Ruth Glass (1964) to describe the displacement of the working-class residents of London neighborhoods by middle-class newcomers. From its inception, gentrification has been understood as a form of neighborhood change, resulting in the displacement of incumbent residents of one social class and culture by another more affluent class, linked with an increase in property values.

Today, neighborhoods across L.A. continue facing gentrification as extremely low-income–and much less–public housing remains out of reach for the vast majority of residents, thus leading mostly to new, market-rate housing, especially in formerly redlined areas, that is entirely unaffordable for working-class people and thus ultimately another instrument in pushing them outwards.

Protestors with the L.A. Tenants Union march against gentrification and rent hikes in the Pico-Union district.

Who is the publisher behind Making Our Neighborhood?

Our magazine is independently published by Samanta Helou-Hernandez and Jimmy Recinos, also known as J.T. the L.A. Storyteller. All funds go towards supporting our ongoing work as journalists. 

J.T.