A prominent national publication has offered up a new nickname for the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington, though it’s likely one local officials would prefer to ignore.
Photojournalist and Angeleno Pablo Unzueta wrote about and photographed “Southern California’s pollution corridor” for The Atlantic, dubbing the area “Asthma Boulevard.”
Numerous residents of the area, which includes the enormous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the third-largest oil field in the U.S., told Unzueta about breathing problems such as asthma and high rates of cancer.
“Over the past few years, California has made efforts to regulate its dirty air,” Unzueta wrote. “But Los Angeles has among the most ozone and particulate pollution of any U.S. city. According to new data, 41 out of the 45 reporting counties in California received an F grade for particle pollution, including most counties in Southern California.”
Unzueta makes the case that the port and other industrial uses drive some of this pollution, resulting in negative impacts on Wilmington residents.
Unzueta also ties a recent spike in some asthma cases to the backup at the ports during the pandemic, during which semi trucks idled in residential neighborhoods at all hours of the day as they waited to pick up cargo that was being unloaded and clogged up small streets.
Citing a report by Grist, Unzueta notes that “the 50,000 people who live in Wilmington, mostly people of color, experience more pollution than up to 90 percent of California.”
Residents told Unzueta that they’ve noticed the harmful impacts in their community, including an uptick in cancer cases.
“It’s one thing to hear people are dying of cancer,” one resident said. “But when the people are real, it goes to a whole different level.”