Major flood would hit Los Angeles Black communities disproportionately hard, study finds
Cristiano Zanin, 31, stands in front of his family’s apartment complex along with his 4-year-old son, Jaden, at their home. The family moved into the building after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area in 2005.
Maggie Koerth-Baker, Los Angeles Times
Randy Ritchey, president of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, stands in front of his new office at the Capitol in Los Angeles on June 11, 2011. The organization’s new office is a sign of changing times for the state’s largest environmental and grassroots advocacy group. LOS ANGELES — Randy Ritchey, president of the association of community organizations for reform now, is not ready for a new term of office.
When the association’s president’s predecessor died in March and Ritchey was asked to become a leader of a new political party, he said he was in “a bad emotional place.” But “the decision was made,” he said.
But Ritchey said the group is a “huge success.” He’s seen community residents make political campaigns, build small businesses and influence the local environmental movement. “My own personal challenge is trying to figure out how to keep it going,” he said.
In one of its first big test cases for the new California Clean Water Act, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on April 1 voted to approve a resolution that declares water the county’s “lifeblood.”
The resolution, which the board’s staff circulated last month, is the first action taken by the board in response to what some call the “mega-drought.” But the resolution’s backers say it will provide a much needed framework for an ambitious water plan that could make Southern California’s water resources the most efficiently managed in the nation.
Water is central to county residents’ lives and livelihoods,