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A plan to redevelop the more than 90-year-old Lincoln Heights jail fell through late last year, but the council member who represents the area is focused on rebuilding momentum to see the massive site become a community asset.
Council Member Eunisses Hernandez submitted a motion last week that asks several city departments to report back in four months on possible funding for projects at the site and a list of what needs to be done in order for it to be reused.
"This parcel of land is sitting vacant and almost entirely unused in the middle of a neighborhood with an unprecedented need for deeply affordable housing, community resources and economic development," Hernandez said when introducing the motion before city council. "My office will be leading the charge to finally demolish this jail and rehabilitate the land for use that will serve Lincoln Heights and the broader Northeast LA community."
This week I introduced a motion asking for a report on the steps and funding needed to repurpose the former Lincoln Heights Jail site. The jail was originally built in 1931 and had a long history of overcrowding, terrible conditions and mistreatment of people incarcerated there.
— Eunisses Hernandez (@EunissesH) May 13, 2023
The infamous art deco jail was interwoven with Los Angeles history in the first half of the 20th century. It held many of those arrested during the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943 and during the civil unrest in Watts in 1965. During crackdowns on the LGBTQIA+ community in the 1950s and 1960s, a significant portion of those arrested were sent to Lincoln Heights, which then created a separate wing for inmates from those communities.
It was known also for overcrowding. It was built to hold little more than 600 prisoners, but by the mid-1950s was holding more than 2,500, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. It was decommissioned in 1965. It was used on and off as offices for city departments and nonprofits until 2014, when lead was discovered in the building.
In 2016, the city put out calls for proposals for the nearly 147K SF site next to the Los Angeles River. By 2017, the city had selected a team led by Lincoln Property Co. and Fifteen Group. The duo planned a "makers district" with apartments, retail, manufacturing uses and public space. The property included a number of known remediation issues: petroleum in tanks below the structure, lead in the ground and interiors rife with asbestos would have to be dealt with before any major transformation could happen.
Hernandez's motion says that by late 2022, the development team had backed out. However, all the work that had been done in pursuit of its redevelopment put the city "in a unique position to start this process over with more robust community engagement and an eye towards healing the environmental and social harm this building has brought the Lincoln Heights community."
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