SCO: Survived The Old Jordan Downs to Enjoy New Life in Cedar Grove at Jordan Downs

By: Michael Reel

Changing Our Narrative

A little over a week ago I went and checked out the brand spanking new Starbucks a day before the grand opening. To access the famed coffee house, which is located in Freedom Plaza, a new shopping development at the corner of Alameda and Century Blvd., I drove down 103rd Street passing a section of the Jordan Downs housing projects and David Star Jordan High School. At 103rd and Alameda I made a left and drove one block north and standing erect on the corner was Starbucks. I also observed several other national eateries, retailers and shopping outlets occupying space in Freedom Plaza. 

After peering through the windows of the Starbucks, I drove around the parking lot of Freedom Plaza. The plaza is located directly to the east of the Jordan Downs housing projects. The old and new developments are literally back to back. 

As I pulled out of the plaza parking lot I made a right turn and not back to my left. Several three-story structures caught my attention. I began to wonder, was this the new Jordan Downs? For years the rumor was the city was demolishing the old Jordan Downs, which have been a part of the Los Angeles landscape since the 1950s. 

Winding my way through the Jordan Downs projects to my right, still standing were the old all-brick housing units with fading white paint just above the green and brown grass. To my left, a group of young Latino men were standing on the sidewalk of the newly occupied structures. In my excitement and before I knew it, I was letting the driver’s side window down in my car. After speaking with the young men and making complimentary small talk about the new units, I asked the young gentleman who engaged me the most, would he be willing to do a brief interview about the new housing units? He agreed.  

The initial portion of my interview with SCO literally took place outside of his childhood Jordan Downs Public Housing home. We stood at the rear door of his family’s old unit, unit number 79/2243.

“I been living here since the ’80’s. I been living here all my life. I was born and raised right here in the Jordan Downs.” SCO then provides the street numbers the housing project occupies. “This is a section in Watts, man – 103 to 97th street, it’s all the Jordan Downs, it’s all the same thing, man.”

SCO wasted no time in describing what life was like for him as a kid growing up in the projects in Watts. “Growing up in the older projects was kinda rough, man. It was more black-populated than Hispanic – me personally, we kinda had it little rough growing up, you know.”

Growing up in the mid- to late-’80’s, crack and crime were at an all-time high in urban centers across the nation. Public housing projects were natural breeding grounds for both. 

“In this community, man, everything happens. Murders and everything over here. It’s changed a lot from where it was before. Everything is different now, it’s more peaceful.”

After speaking with SCO at the door of his childhood home we crossed the street for the remaining portion of our conversation. We stood adjacent to his family’s new unit, which is still located on the property of the Jordan Downs housing complex, owned and managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. 

The recently built affordable housing development bears the new name, Cedar Grove at Jordan Downs.  This is a Bridge Housing development.

“Right now they made these new apartments, they go all the way to the top. Everything is new,” stated SCO. As a lifelong resident of the projects SCO admittedly was taken aback with the new housing structures. “This is something we were not used to growing up in the Bricks (street name for the old projects). All we saw was brick walls, we really was not used to this new stuff right here. But everything is better, you know. New appliances – new everything, man.” 

In recent years we would hear that some residents occupying the old Jordan Downs were offered opportunities to relocate to other public housing developments in the city or low-income housing in order to make way for new housing.  

SCO, a Jordan Downs lifer, set the record straight. “No, that’s not the case. Most people are taking Section 8 to move out of the community. Some people didn’t like living here from the beginning, you know,” expressed SCO. “Most of the people that like to stay here, they all coming back to the new housing units. They give people opportunities. You can stay or you can go and file for your Section 8. A lot of people are going to Lancaster.”

I remember growing up in Watts a few years ahead of SCO; crime and crack were not as prevalent as it was during SCO’s childhood in the late ’80’s and throughout the 90’s, although life in most of the nation’s public housing still made for a difficult and challenging upbringing. 

According to SCO, crime has taken a downward turn. “Violence went down and right now we are about normal but not like it used to be, back in the day was more violent,” SCO reminded. “Every day you saw violence but now it’s more peaceful – you see more kids in the streets and you see more Hispanics as well. We’re all here together and people get along.” 

SCO credits the current peace in the projects to now being able to simply talk with one another. “We try to communicate with everybody – see what they on, so we can be peaceful with them. I say with them because I grew up with the black community, you know – I’m Hispanic myself but I grew up with the black community. I consider myself with them right now because I been here all of my life. I was born and raised right here.”

While admiring the newly built housing structures I wondered about the selection process. What were the requirements that had to be reached in order for tenants to be reassigned to the newly built homes? 

“We were kinda by the factory side and they basically used this first section to see what it was going to look like. It was basically by the Jordan wall and they needed that property. Actually my mom was one of the first people to move into the new apartments. I came from living right here to living on the other side.”  

A Jordan Downs resident occupying the older units or one of the new units is less than a half a block away from Freedom Plaza from our vantage point. As SCO and I discussed the new plaza I could detect pride in the young man’s voice. 

“They got Starbucks, Nike, Ross – they got everything now for the community,” exclaimed SCO. “Back in the day you would have to drive out – you would have to drive to Southgate to even get a cup of coffee or something like that, man. It’s a big change now. You see a lot of other people coming from Southgate to come to our community. It feels good now. Seeing something different!”

Seeing the change in the community and taking stock, SCO understands that with change comes new responsibilities. 

“Like I was telling you earlier, we are communicating with the Hispanics and other races. Back in the day it really was no communication with no other races. My responsibility I feel like is to bring everybody together and have peace in the community.  We lost a lot of structure. It was wild for a little bit but everything is back to normal. So my responsibility is to try to help the young people so they can keep this pace going instead of the bad pace that was going on back in the day.” 

In addition to being a proud resident of the Cedar Grove at Jordan Downs, SCO is a proud father and family man.

“I have a daughter, she’s 12 years old. It was rough raising her here, you know. She is my only daughter that I have over here. I always try my best to keep her away. They don’t live the life I use to live. I show them a different path. They don’t go to regular school – they go to private school and stuff like that. Just so they can see something different than what I’ve seen, you know. Growing up here was rough, man. I fought (police) cases and everything too. So me having a child myself made me change my way of living for myself. Made me think better as a man.

Being a father is different over here. You gotta watch your kids and sometimes you gotta watch yourself too – that’s how it is living over here.”

As I wrapped my one-on-one chat with SCO, I posed one of my favorite questions. What was his hope for the community of Watts and Cedar Grove at Jordan Downs? 

“We just hope for the best. We just want the best for our community and for our people that’s been living over here for the longest, you know.”