{"id":290,"date":"2016-03-18T23:10:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/?p=290"},"modified":"2016-03-18T23:49:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:49:51","slug":"tear-down-the-fence-young-people-fight-to-reopen-a-south-l-a-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/18\/tear-down-the-fence-young-people-fight-to-reopen-a-south-l-a-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Tear Down the Fence: Young People Fight to Reopen a South L.A. Library"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-color: transparent; display: block; max-width: 700px;\" title=\"audioBoom player\" src=\"\/\/embeds.audioboom.com\/boos\/4321351-bring-back-the-library\/embed\/v4?eid=AQAAAGFB7FZH8EEA\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCollege prep, not prison prep.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Francisco Martinez\u2019s motto, and it\u2019s printed on the back of his T-Shirt. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Martinez, 22, is a full-time college student studying respiratory therapy. But just a few years ago, he was on a different path. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At one point of my life it was hard for me to just get away from drugs and go hitting the books,\u201d he said. Martinez was in a gang, he was on drugs and had dropped out of high school. \u201cEven though I have family at home, I feel like I was alone,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there was a library or a youth center with guidance, I would have done perfect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now Martinez is 10-months sober and is working with the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC), a social justice group, to reopen Hyde Park Library in South Los Angeles as a community center. The library closed permanently in December 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-83 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library03-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Youth Justice L.A. gathered outside the library Monday to demonstrate. This is the group\u2019s second attempt to push the government to reopen the library as a youth center. According to the group, 40 police officers showed up to their previous protest at the library in 2011.\" width=\"481\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library03-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library03-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library03-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library03-400x267.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few dozen young people protested outside the shuttered library Monday and demonstrated what the space could be used for if it were to reopen. They held workshops, played games and ate El Pollo Loco in the parking lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the group\u2019s second attempt to show the local government what they envision for the abandoned library. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the group, a protest in 2011 turned into a four-block police lockdown. Around 40 police officers showed up as the group marched along Crenshaw Boulevard near the library, the group said. Police officers threatened to arrest them for trespassing. Protesters left without any arrests, but an eight-foot-tall fence went up around the library to prevent anyone from trespassing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Monday, a handful of police officers showed up and warned protesters not to trespass or vandalize the building hours before the protest started, said Oscar Moreno, a YJC organizer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe&#8217;ve been here for about four hours and we&#8217;ve done nothing but peaceful protest, but yet they feel necessary to be right there,\u201d Moreno said, pointing across street. \u201cThat&#8217;s our taxpayer money that should be going somewhere else instead of just having them looking over people who are protesting. They get funded but these buildings don\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organizers with YJC want the city to redirect five percent of its law enforcement budget to youth development &#8212; things like opening an after-school community center and creating jobs for young people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-86 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library06-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"Protesters want the city to redirect five percent of the city\u2019s law enforcement budget to youth programs.\" width=\"459\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library06-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library06-768x552.jpg 768w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library06-1024x736.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library06-400x288.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 459px) 100vw, 459px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melina Abdullah, an original founder Black Lives Matter, said the city needs to reconsider its development strategy and figure out an efficient way to improve all neighborhoods in Los Angeles, including South L.A. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat we have is a lack of will,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cA lack of vision in our political leadership.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She believes the city can easily improve the lives of Angelenos of color. \u201cIf they wanted to, with a snap of a finger, they could open that library, they could provide a youth center, they could do the things that are necessary to get communities up and running and viable,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abdullah said that change can happen, but city officials need a forceful shove in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe need to think about what kind of visions we&#8217;re going to push as a community,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cBecause a community has the power to push for something different.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Martinez is one of those people who will not sit back and wait for the government to respond to their requests. He does not want more people to go down the same path he did. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t want my sister to grow up and see the violence against police, against the community toward my people, toward black people, toward all kind of people, you know,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cP<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">eople should stand up and do something about it, instead of just laying back and watching everything that&#8217;s going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said he will not back down and got emotional looking at the fences around the library. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI see this fence right here, just reminds me of being locked up,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to keep you from doing something. That symbolizes there\u2019s always going to be something right there trying to push you down or push you back from doing something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-89 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library02-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"The Hyde Park Library closed permanently in December, 2004. The abandoned building has a 8\u00ad-foot\u00ad-tall fence wrapped around it to prevent people from trespassing. Graffiti lines the walls and grass grows through cracks in the pavement.\" width=\"479\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library02-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library02-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library02-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library02-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library02.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Martinez also said if he had the money, he would buy the property right away. He loves arts and music and imagines a wall of colorful graffiti and a music studio in his community center. And most importantly, classes to help people get away from addiction and go back to school, Martinez said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said people in his community have the potential to become the next doctor or the next president, but many people struggle to stay in school because nobody pays attention to them and nobody invests in them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Martinez hopes the phrase on the back of his shirt will one day become reality. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He wants to prove that he is capable of success and that he can improve the lives of the people in his community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-297 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library07-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Library07 (1)\" width=\"497\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library07-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library07-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library07-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library07-1-1240x827.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Library07-1-508x339.jpg 508w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cCollege prep, not prison prep.\u201d This is Francisco Martinez\u2019s motto, and it\u2019s printed on the back of his T-Shirt. Martinez, 22, is a full-time college student studying respiratory therapy. But just a few years ago, he was on a different path. \u201cAt one point of my life it was hard for me to just get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":364,"featured_media":291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11,19],"tags":[35,51,17,49,33,47,52,50,53,34],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}