dk% trojan
Volume LXXXIX, Number 60	University of Southern California	Tuesday, December 16, 1980
Residents protest lack of ‘affordable housing’
By Kathy McDonald
Assistant Gty Editor
About 200 residents of the Pico-Union area, located a few blocks from the university, marched Saturday in a protest which urged an end to the demolition of old houses and called for the construction of new, affordable housing. Some of the disapproval is directed at the university, which has recently bought much of the area in question. Members of the coalition are especially opposed to the occupation by university students of Century Apartments, which was originally intended to be low-in-come housing.
In exchange for allowing students to live there, the university and Watt Industries, Inc., the contractor, promised to contruct 300 additional units of low-income housing on Vermont Avenue within three years.
More than half of the predominantly Latino marchers were children, led by Ismael Cazarez, a brightly-dressed Pied Piper of sorts who played jazz music on a flute. The marchers livened up the 12-block walk with chants of, "We shall overcome...The people united will never be defeated ..We want more housing."
The housing shortage began in 1969 when the city targeted the Pico-Union region as a key redevelopment area. Since then, the low-income people of the area, mostly minorities, have been forced out of their cheap housing and forced to find homes elsewhere. Usually, new houses are much more expensive.
Los Angeles does not have an effective housing inspection program, so the maintenance of rented houses is left up to the owners. Many landlords have let the houses decay. The latest city statistics classify more than 40 percent of Pico-Union housing as "deteriorating," while the citywide figure is 13 percent.
Because of the serious shortage, many houses have been partitioned to fit three or four families, with as many as nine people living in one room.
An example of this is the house at 1984 Park Grove. There is no electricity in this house, and the only heat comes from gas stoves with exposed flames. Some of the water faucets do not work, and others drip constantly. Water leakage weakened the ceilings, and portions of it collapsed, nearly hitting the residents in the unit»below. At one spot, a hole in an upper story floor overlooks the bathroom below. Two-inch cockroaches flourish in the damp environment.
This case was brought to the attention of the People United to Save Our Community and the Coalition for Economic Survival, two sponsors of Saturday's march. Now, after months of deliberations between residents, landlords and the two community groups, repairs are underway on the home.
People United to Save Our Community was organized by Javier Urena in 1976 when Pep Boys Auto Supply announced plans to tear down several blocks of housing near Washington Boulevard to construct a regional headquarters office building. The action motivated Urena to organize his neighbors and friends in protest.
(Continued on page 9)
Merry Christmas
The Daily Tro/an will now discontinue publication for the Christmas holiday. The next issue will be published Jan. 6.
Staff photo by Jannltar Bollar
YOUTH TRIUMPHANT — On an unseasonably warm December afternoon, the sun shimmers off the stone and brass fountain in front of Doheny Memorial Library.
Museum reflects L.A. culture
Students overlook importance
By Claudia Eller
The California State Museum of Science and Industry is one of the most culturally and scientifically significant institutions in Los Angeles. Yet despite its proximity to the university, students seem oblivious to its existence and indifferent to its importance
Pat Moore, the museum's assistant director of public relations, said he believed students do not frequent the museum because they are "busier than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs."
An estimated three million people per year visit the museum which is more than any other Los Angeles museum. However, Moore said many university students simply park their cars in the museum's lot, walk through the park, and pass by the museum while en route to class.
The majority of museum visitors are school groups, guided by docents (the Greek word for teacher). The children range from kindergarten to high school age.
Moore said most people come to the museum to view a particular exhibit which they have seen or heard advertised.
"People will see what they came to see and then get caught up in the museum totally and say, 'Gee, I used to come here as a kid and I forgot all this was here.' They begin to wander around and can't stop. They find that they've shot a whole day here, when they had only planned on being here an hour or two," Moore said.
It is, however, becoming more common for people to come with intentions of surveying the entire museum instead of coming to see a specific exhibit. Moore said this is because "the museum is free and as the buck gets tight, it’s a hell of a cheap date."
There is a small faction who would like the museum to change its free-admission policy to a paid-admission policy, the argument being if something is free, how good can it be? Moore said.
Opposing the proposed change, Moore said, "Some feel that if you charge a dollar then somehow that's suppose to show value."
The museum's wide appeal seems to be its story-telling approach in presenting information and the fact that it is an "alive, invoking experience," Moore said.
People have the opportunity to manipulate gadgets and play tic-tac-toe with an electronic computerized brain, start a jet engine, multiply numbers using lights, see and hear recordings of their own voices, and listen to their own heartbeats, to name a few.
"This is a hands-on museum where you push buttons and pull levers — you make things work by putting your hands on them. You won't see a lot of old bones lying around here because everything is current," Moore said.
The museum is a reflection of the positive sides of our society and is in no way exclusively geared for children, he added.
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University ranks 19th in acquiring federal grants
The university's national ranking among colleges and universities that receive federal grants has risen from 34th to 19th place during the past seven years.
The university received more than $42 million in federal monies for research and development purposes in that time.
Clark McCartney, executive director of Contracts and Grants, credits the rise in grants to the research conducted by faculty and staff.
Nearly 90 percent of funds given to the university come from three federal agencies.
The Health and Human Service agency contributes 54 percent, the largest contributor of the three agencies. The funds are directed
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STATUE PAINTED
Blues for Tommy
Vandals poured blue paint over Tommy Trojan early Saturday morning.
This was the first time the statue was vandalized since last February. In previous years, the statue has been vandalized three to four times a semester.
The vandals are unknown at this time. University Security found two sets of foot prints marked in the paint, which could have been left by the vandals. "But you can't assume anything," a security officer said, "they could have been left by passersby late that night."
Maintenance crews worked all day Saturday to remove the paint, thought to be left between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m., but needed special equipment to finish the job. Although workers removed most of the paint, the statue and surrounding ground was still covered with blue paint Monday morning.
"We're getting a steam cleaner to try to remove the rest of the paint," said Russell Solo-men, associate director of the Physical Plant. "We'll start (Continued on page 6)