In this collection of provocative essays, the contributing authors shed light on a number of initiatives and projects addressing the challenges faced by South Los Angeles.

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Is South Los Angeles on the mend? How is it combatting the blight of crime, gang violence, high unemployment, and dire poverty? In provocative essays, the contributing authors to Post-Ghetto address these questions by pointing out robust signs of hope for the area's residents―an increase in corporate retail investment, a decrease in homicides, a proliferation of nonprofit service providers, a paradigm shift in violence- and gang-prevention programs, and progress toward a strengthened, more racially integrated labor movement. By charting the connections between public property and the health of a community, the authors offer innovative ideas and visionary strategies for further urban renewal and remediation.

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Essay authors are Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, Andrea Asuma, Edna Bonacich, Robert Gottlieb, Karen M. Hennigan, Jorge N. Leal, Jill Leovy, Cheryl Maxson, Scott Saul, Josh Sides, David C. Sloane, Mark Vallianatos, Danny Widener, and Natale Zappia.

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“Twenty years after the rage and flames, a wonderful, always surprising tour of that garden of hope known as South Los Angeles.” —Mike Davis, professor of creative writing at University of California, Riverside, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

“Refreshingly original and eclectic, this thought-provoking collection of essays sheds needed light on the ongoing promises, problems, and possibilities that characterize the dynamic neighborhoods of South Los Angeles. Josh Sides and the authors of Post-Ghetto call us to reflection and to action. This collection is sure to be widely read, discussed, and debated for many years to come.” —Douglas Flamming, professor of history at the Georgia Institute of Technology, author of Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America and African Americans in the West