Same Neighborhood, Different Dreams
We all know that a solution to a big problem cannot be realistically executed in a matter of hours, that is why I am asking you to actually look into the problem that I am speaking of and propose a sensible resolution.
Dear Future President,
Los Angeles has surpassed California’s statewide official poverty rate, and will continue to do so if something does not change. Unlike most cities, in Los Angeles, one may walk down the street from expensive apartments and find tents set up that are intended to be houses. According to Census.gov “Los Angeles- Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area (17.6 percent)” this means that there was 17.6% poverty in these areas in 2013; it is now 2016 and the percentages have not improved enough. There is a deepening gap between the rich and the poor, and the little efforts being put into “solving” this problem have done nothing.
The problem directly affects me because I have witnessed the unnatural ratios of wealth in California. When I walk down the street afterschool, of my own neighborhood, I find myself staring at beautiful new apartments and houses. My family is currently looking for a place closer to my school and my mother’s work, but this has been deemed impossible since my mother doesn’t make enough to pay for the rising prices of a newly gentrified Highland Park. Ten years ago, this wouldn’t have been the problem, for gentrification is something new. Now, prices are rising and long-time house owners are getting calls asking them if they could buy their houses off of them.
Instead of kicking out the middle/lower class from their family houses and moving in those that make more money, the problem of homelessness should be addressed first. How can America let the richest families move into a neighborhood where poverty is still extremely prominent? It seems as if the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
The first step to solving this problem is to be realistic. Proposing something that can be done in a few days or months will not fully address the problem. There must be a plan implemented over a period of years, something that can correctly pinpoint the severity of the problem and successfully demolish it.
I hope that something is done about this major problem in the United States, so that our country can once again be seen as the great nation that it is capable of being.
Sincerely,
Karina H.