View of downtown from South Central LA. (Flickr Creative Commons)

South Los Angeles---An employee at a Pico-Union restaurant looks around nervously. Asked what her biggest concern is, she hesitates for a moment. She then leans in and answers quitely in a thick Spanish accent, "Gangs. No one can help." 

Down the street, at a nearby Food For Less, Debora Battle reaches for a strawberry jelly jar at the very top of the shelf, but can’t reach it. Following complications from a liver transplant, Battle is forever wheelchair bound. The former Verizon Wireless employee’s disability forever changed the “way she sees the world.” 

Battle is greatly concerned with L.A.’s infrastructure,  "We need to fix the bumpy roads.  I come across uneven areas on the street where I can fall and hurt myself.  If that [infrastructure] changes in our community, it will make a difference, especially for the disabled and elderly."

The area known as South Los Angeles or South Central falls under District nine also known as Councilwoman Jan Perry’s district.  The district is composed of many who suffer from high poverty and illiteracy rates especially among Blacks and Latinos.One report says the poverty rate for Blacks is 24.6% and 31.3% for Latinos. 

Following interviews with residents of South L.A., gang violence, budget cuts, graffiti, and transportation/infrastructure were ranked as the top issues that were most disconcerting. As these problems have plagued the area for a long times, expectations are set high for councilmemebr candidates Ana Cubas, Mike Davis, Terry Hara, Charyn Harris, David Roberts and Curren Price.

This spring Councilwoman Perry’s seat on the council is up for re-election as is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s —a seat Perry hopes to fill. The mayoral candidate is credited with downtown revitalization, but not necessarily with developing the poorer neighborhoods. Her district now only covers the most impoverished stretches of  South L.A after the city council cut downtown of her territory, following her feud with president Herb Wesson. 

Throughout several interviews, residents stated that they did not know who the City Council person for their district was, nor did they know what City Council could do when it came to the city’s issues. 

“I would never walk around in this area. You look, and you see gangs have markings all along that street,” said music composer, Jason Acuna. 

Acuna believes that the University of Southern California is responsible for safety in the community not city council. 

“What are you or they [City Council] going to do?  Put up a big wall? I would imagine that the school is the one that should be protecting people,” said Acuna. 

For L. A. Trade Tech student, Katy DeLeon, graffiti is a key issue for the city.

 “I don’t know if they [City Council] can do a lot of help, maybe with regulations they could help a little bit. I think only community can fix it,” said DeLeon.

Ana Gallegos, the Director of Early Childhood Centers says the community simply does not have enough money.

“Recently we had a lot of cuts in the state where we were cut 35% so a lot of schools in the community were shut down. I think that a lot of our families, deal with a lot of housing problems,” said Gallegos.

Terry Hara, a Deputy Chief with the Los Angeles Police Department, and candidate running for District 9 believes that DeLeon is partially correct. Hara believes that the only way to alleviate some of the issues that residents have lies in a collaborative effort between the community and city council.

“I say let’s get back to basics, basics of educating the community," Hara said. "We have to educate people from the very beginning and tell them to take pride in where we live."

Despite attempts to reach Councilwoman Perry for an interview we were not able to receive a response. However, the Councilwoman’s website, outlines her measures and plans to improve the city.

Deputy Chief Hara believes it takes more than an office to reach residents: “Jan Perry has worked closely with the downtown development. I’ve seen it change a lot with more residences and businesses, which has taken a lot of time, but at the same time I think that the attention for the voters that put her in office needed to have more attention. They didn’t get the same attention that downtown got.”

Debora Battle disagrees, “I think Jan Perry is very prominent throughout the community. Perry has been around for a long time and I used to work with her. She’s a good asset to the community,” said Battle. 

The City Council and Mayoral Elections will take place on May 21, leaving seven candidates for the Ninth District scrambling to familiarize and create initiatives to improve the South L.A. community. 

Reach staff reporter Meng Meng here.