University of Southern California

‘Junior Seau meant so much to me and many other Samoan youth’

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Junior Seau during a New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts game in Indianapolis, Indiana, November 15, 2009

Junior Seau wasn’t the first Samoan American player in the NFL, but he was considered a role model among many of those who followed him into pro football. Seau, 43, was found dead this afternoon in his Oceanside, Calif. home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Born in San Diego to parents from American Samoa, Seau was a star linebacker who in his career played for the San Diego Chargers, the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. In 1994, he helped lead the Chargers to the Super Bowl. He retired in 2010 but remained an icon in his hometown, where last fall was inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame.

He’s also one of a long line of Samoan American players in the NFL, several of whom followed Seau’s career path from the USC Trojans to the professional teams.

Among the many tributes that have taken place online in the last few hours, one message posted to Twitter by a younger NFL player of Samoan descent was especially moving.

Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a fellow California native who like Seau played for USC before being drafted by Pittsburgh, tweeted from his official account:

Here’s the extended message that Polamalu’s tweet linked to:

I am deeply saddened by the events that have transpired today. My heartfelt condolences and sympathy go out to his family.

Junior Seau meant so much to me and many other Samoan youth both as a player and person. Junior epitomized hard work and dedication to football and philanthropy.

He was a childhood hero of mine and honored to say, a good friend. Junior Seau will always be someone I look up to and will walk the path he paved for me and many other Trojans, Samoans, and athletes alike.

ESPN has compiled a touching series of other tweets from fellow athletes who are mourning Seau’s death today.

FILED UNDER: Junior Seau, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers, Seau, Troy Polamalu, University of Southern California, USC

April 24, 2012 | 3:21 PM | By Leslie Berestein Rojas

California in the future: Older, less crowded, more second-generation

Photo by sansceriph/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Same lovely scenery as ever, with a changing population

A new California population projection provides a glimpse into what California will look like in the future, a state that will be less crowded than once predicted, whose population will be older, and whose younger faces will be increasingly second-generation.

The new projection from the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy predicts a far slower growth rate than what was projected five years ago, when the state was expected to have 50 million residents by 2032. According to the USC study, that’s not expected to happen now until near the middle of the century, in 2046.

A large part of this slowdown comes from immigration slowing to a near trickle. While the percentage of foreign-born California residents rose dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, it’s now expected to remain steady at around 27 percent of the overall population through 2030.

Seniors will form a bigger share of the state’s population as Baby Boomers age, while the working-age population between 25 and 64 is expected to slow.

The bulk of what growth is seen in the working-age population – 98 percent of it, in fact – is expected to come from the U.S.-born children of immigrants. It’s a stark contrast to earlier years as the immigrant population was on the rise, when first-generation immigrants accounted for 80 percent of the growth in this age group.

As for those immigrants who are already here, more will be staying long-term. California’s share of foreign-born residents who have lived in the U.S. for 20 years or longer is expected to rise, making up roughly two-thirds of the immigrant population by 2030. At the same time, the number of newer arrivals is expected to keep dropping as the population becomes increasingly native-born.

The implications are big ones. A smaller population means less demand on infrastructure, good news in a financially strapped state. At the same time, there are other things to contend with that the report doesn’t get into: a shrinking foreign-born labor pool, more aging people to care for, fewer Californians overall of working age. And some interesting cultural shifts, already occurring as California becomes home to a growing number of families (albeit smaller ones, as the report predicts people having fewer children) made up of the descendants of immigrants.

The complete USC population projection can be downloaded here.

FILED UNDER: Population growth, Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, USC

April 13, 2012 | 5:33 PM | By Leslie Berestein Rojas

Two other murder victims near USC this year, both young men of color

Erika Aguilar/KPCC

Police tape at the scene of the murder of two USC students near campus, April 11, 2012

The intensive news coverage of the murder of two international graduate students from China this week near the University of Southern California is understandable: two young people, Wu Ying and Qu Ming, both 23, struck down senselessly in what seemed like a random carjacking or robbery attempt; the fact that both were foreign students far from home, possibly less than familiar with the dangers of their environs; the juxtaposition of a high-cost private university with its working-class surroundings; and the safety concerns for other students arising in the aftermath.

There have been other young people killed near USC in recent months, though not students. This week, as police described the crime situation surrounding USC, they mentioned there had been four murders in the area this year. There have been more homicide deaths in the larger area surrounding USC this year, but the two shooting deaths below were those closest to campus as seen in the Los Angeles Times’ Homicide Report, which maps homicide deaths in the city. One victim was Latino, the other was black. Both were young.

Jostin Sosa Ordonez, 17: Sosa, described as Latino, was killed Jan. 12 in Vermont Square, a neighborhood a short distance south of the university and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum complex, on the 4100 block of South Figueroa Street. From the four-paragraph story:

Sosa Ordonez was found shot several times on a residential sidewalk about 6 a.m., said Ed Winter, spokesman for the coroner’s office. Authorities were called and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Winter had no other information about the case.

Justin Ford, 32: Ford, described as black, was killed March 22, also in Vermont Square on the 4500 block of South Kansas Avenue. The way he died was tragically similar to what shooting victim Qu Ming endured this week as he sought help. From a seven-paragraph story:

Ford was seated in his parked car about 1:15 p.m. when an unknown person walked up and began firing a gun, according to an LAPD news release.

After the shooting, the assailant fled on foot.

Having been hit several times, Ford got out of the vehicle and ran to the back porch of a nearby house, police said. The residents called 911 and Ford was later pronounced dead.

Investigators believe the shooting was gang-related. No arrests have been made in connection with the case.

The shooter in the deaths of the two USC students this week also remains outstanding. The university has announced a $125,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

FILED UNDER: University of Southern California, USC, USC shooting

April 11, 2012 | 4:52 PM | By Leslie Berestein Rojas

How safe do you feel in L.A.? It depends on your race

Photo by Erika Aguilar/KPCC

An officer at the scene of the double murder of two University of Southern California students in Los Angeles' West Adams neighborhood, April 11, 2012

Angelenos needn’t brace themselves for another riot anytime soon, according to a new survey released today. But they don’t see life in the city the same way, with differences in how they perceive race relations, their safety, and other aspects of life depending at least somewhat on their race and ethnicity.

A couple of weeks ahead of the 20th anniversary of the city’s 1992 riots this April 29, Loyola Marymount University’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles has released the results of a survey that shows Angelenos to be generally optimistic about their hometown.

Asked if it was “likely or unlikely” that there would be riots or disturbances like those experienced in 1992 within the next five years, only 41 percent of 1,600 respondents said yes, compared with 61 percent during a similar survey in 1997. An overall majority also said they’d seen progress in race relations.

But broken down by demographic group, the responses are revealing. Asked if they believe the city in general, and their neighborhood in particular, is going in the “right direction or wrong direction,” black Angelenos were the most likely to say “wrong direction;” meanwhile, white Angelenos were more likely than others to say that racial and ethnic groups in L.A. are getting along “very well” or “somewhat well.”

Asked if they see Los Angeles as having become safer or not as safe compared with 20 years ago, 40 percent of black Angelenos saw it as “not as safe,” compared with 21 percent of whites, 32 percent of Latinos, and 36 percent of Asians. Meanwhile whites, followed by Latinos and Asians, were more likely to see it as having become safer.

Along the same lines, 43 percent of black respondents and 38 percent of Latino respondents said they feared that crime in Los Angeles had gotten worse; on the flip side, 41 percent of white respondents said they saw crime as less of a problem than it was 20 years ago. In a chart:

The responses are, or course, reflective of respondents’ experiences and the neighborhoods they live in. Just today in West Adams, a traditionally black neighborhood that has become increasingly Latino, police are investigating the shooting deaths of two students from China who attended nearby University of Southern California, shot as they sat in their car at around 1 a.m. The two victims, a man and a woman in their 20s, were both graduate students. Police told KPCC that while violent crime is down, four people have been killed in the area this year so far.

Perhaps not surprisingly, both black and Latino respondents in the LMU survey were the most likely to say they believed the city’s gang problems had grown worse, as opposed to improving.

On the bright side, in spite of continuing tensions in areas like South L.A. and Compton, where black flight has taken place while more Latinos have moved in, 44 percent of Latinos said that race relations between the two groups had improved, as opposed to 15 percent saying they had not. Black respondents were fairly split.

There’s more to the LMU survey, which touched on education, housing, employment and other quality of life issues in the city. It can be downloaded here.

FILED UNDER: Los Angeles riots, Loyola Marymount University, University of Southern California, USC, USC murders, USC shootings

February 1, 2012 | 4:27 PM | By Leslie Berestein Rojas

Study: In low income ‘food deserts,’ the kind and size of food stores matters

Source: University of Southern California

As Michelle Obama was promoting grocery store access in Inglewood today, the University of Southern California released a report illustrating just where it is that large supermarkets are most lacking in several large metro areas, including L.A.

The report makes a distinction between chain supermarkets, which provide lower prices and a larger selection, and smaller retail food stores, which there are more of, but don’t have the economy of scale to provide the best prices or freshest food. Even if there are food stores around, the kind and quality matters, according to researchers. From a USC press release:

“’Retail deserts’ is not an accurate label for many poor neighborhoods,” said Jenny Schuetz, a professor with the USC Price School of Public Policy and the study’s lead author.

“It’s not a matter of how many there are – there are lots of small ‘mom-and-pop’ stores but not many larger chain stores or supermarkets,” Schuetz said. “Having access to bigger stores could mean a larger range of produce and lower prices.”

The study mapped the grocery scarcity in two ways, taking in how many “supermarkets” (which include some smaller and medium-sized food retail stores, not necessarily large chains) there are in neighborhoods as well as taking a look at chain grocery-store employment, which indicates the presence of larger stores.

As it has been for years, it’s Los Angeles’ working-class black and Latino neighborhoods (some of which have become increasingly Latino in recent years) that are among the most severely lacking in grocery outlets, as seen on the supermarket map above. So are some of the San Fernando Valley’s poorest Latino neighborhoods.

In a mapped stretch just east of the 110 along the 105 Freeway, which corresponds on a county map to an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County and part of Compton, the supermarket-to-1,000 resident ratio is zero to .28. In an area that corresponds to the Sun Valley-Pacoima area, the supermarket-to-1,000 resident ratio .35 to .43. And because the “supermarkets” counted aren’t necessarily all large stores, these residents’ food access could be worse than it appears.

The report, published in the current issue of Regional Science and Urban Economics, can be downloaded here.

FILED UNDER: Food deserts, Michelle Obama, University of Southern California, USC

July 14, 2011 | 8:58 AM | By Leslie Berestein Rojas

Readers on Latinos buying ‘grandma’s house’

Photo by Irina Netchaev/Flickr (Creative Commons)

A post earlier this week highlighted a new USC report on the “housing swap” taking place in California between older white Americans as they sell off their homes in retirement, and the younger Latinos who are entering the market. According to the report, it’s thanks in part to these new homeowners that while California residents 75 and older have been selling their homes in large numbers, the state has seen only a one percent net drop in home ownership rates.

The headline asked the question, “Who will buy grandma’s house?” The reaction from some of the readers posting comments on KPCC’s Facebook page has been interesting.

Marc Ramirez wrote:

Yeah, yeah… coming to your neighborhood!

Jeff Musa didn’t seem to mind that, writing:

Today’s Latinos aren’t any different than yesterday’s Germans or Italians. Families. Values. Upwards. Education. It’s still happening and yeah, there were people scared of the ‘bad’ immigrants 100 years ago too, yelling at them to learn English already. It will be fine folks. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Bob Newman remarked:

The Garcias bought my parents’ house.

For Diane Correa, the report was a bit behind the curve:

Well I guess that’s a good thing since my parents are Latino & have owned their own home 50+ years.

And this from Laura Hessler, speaking for those trying to sell in this tough market:

As long as SOMEONE buys it!

The report was written by Dowell Myers ,a professor and urban growth specialist with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. Myers’ work has often focused on how immigration is transforming Los Angeles and Southern California.