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Zhou and DiRago significantly update and advance our understanding of immigrant life in Los Angeles. One primary contribution: their insistence that older models of assimilation do not likely describe the new norm and that researchers should pay careful attention to the emerging patterns revealed by the Latinization of South L.A. and the emerging ethnoburbs of the San Gabriel Valley. I suggest that a fuller picture should also take into account how the asymmetry of Black-Latino exposure problematizes a sense of "shared fate" at the regional level. I also note the key role of social movements in promoting immigrant integration in the Los Angeles metro and suggest that the polycentric nature of the region requires that these movements develop a deeper reach into immigrant-heavy suburbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the influence of immigrant activism in the progressivism landscape of Los Angeles, California, where they were able to establish racial lines for community benefits agreements, job training programs and transit justice. Topics discussed include the influence of the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 on the city's political landscape, how the city's most undocumented immigrant workforce changed worker's living standard and the impact of the city's Proposition 187 on its immigrants, as well as inspirations it ignited that led to the city's progressive activism.

Objective. Although previous environmental justice research has focused on analysis of the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards on minority residents, few studies have examined demographic inequities in health risks among children. This article evaluates the demographic distribution of potentially hazardous facilities and health risks associated with ambient air toxics exposures among public schoolchildren in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Methods. We combine Geographic Information System analysis with multivariate statistics to compare enrollment and demographic information for students who attend district schools with the spatial pattern of land use, locations of toxic emissions and facilities, and calculated indices of estimated lifetime cancer risk and respiratory hazards associated with exposures to toxic air emissions. Results. District schools are more likely to be located in census tracts containing potentially hazardous facilities; however, these tracts actually have slightly lower cancer and respiratory health risks associated with air toxics when compared to other tracts in the district. Demographic comparisons among school sites indicate that minority students, especially Latinos, are more likely to attend schools near hazardous facilities and face higher health risks associated with outdoor air toxics exposure. Conclusions. These patterns of hazard exposure and health risk should be considered both in the process of siting new schools to house the rapidly growing regional student population and in remediation efforts at existing schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]