Santa Monica wants to make amends for pushing out Black families

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Selena McDonald Brunson and Charles E.A. Brunson hold baby Donald A. Brunson, the first African American child born in Santa Monica, in a 1907 photograph taken on the Santa Monica Pier. Members of the Brunson family later lost property in Santa Monica when the 10 freeway was built. Photo courtesy of Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives.

Santa Monica bulldozed homes to build the I-10 freeway in the 1960s. Now it’s offering displaced families or their descendants affordable rent as reparations. 

Dangerous levels of lead exist in the soil underneath Santa Ana’s Logan barrio, a Grist investigation found. Activists blame the city for deciding to zone it as industrial nearly a century ago.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District hasn’t been able to meet because some residents and trustees aren’t masking up. Now they’re considering meeting online.