ABSTRACT
The ideological differences have meant that the population has had to work through differences in the meaning of community and empowerment and the significance of class, ethnicity, and gender throughout its collective story. In the mid-1970s the completion of the transcontinental highway system, increasing environmental concern, and community protest led to a reappraisal of state priorities and put an end to the highway boom. In 1980 Route 2 Community Housing Corporation received funds from the City of Los Angeles in the form of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to begin the development corporation. The city Community Development Department that administers CDBG funds was skeptical of the project. The chaos associated with the rehabilitation inhibited community building in the cooperatives. As the coops emerged from the development phase in the mid-1980s and stability returned, community building became increasingly important. The time lost in solving the problem left the most heavily Latino coops in trouble.
