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Towards a Greater Eastside: California Political Boundary Law and Southeast Los Angeles County

Abstract

In 2013, a South Coast Quality Management District report revealed that an Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon, California was emitting high levels of arsenic and exposing 110,000 nearby residents to an increased cancer risk.  After two years of investigations, inspections and more revelations, the US Attorney's office announcd that Exide would shut down and clean lead tainted soil from nearby communities. The pollution streched over six suburbs south of Los Angeles and illustrates one of the many maladies of political fragmentation in Los Angles County. As I describe in my paper, the fragmentation worsens socioeconomic condiitons and encourages pilitcal irrespoinsibility.  No government agency has been able to remedy the ill efects of problematic municipal  boundaries.

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