Long Beach : Civil Rights Group Joins Suit Against Building Ban
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The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund has joined in a lawsuit alleging that a recent ban on development along some of Long Beach’s major thoroughfares discriminates against the poor.
In a brief filed this week, the national civil rights organization and the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach said the moratorium in the 2nd District aims to “frustrate the ability of poor people to find affordable housing.”
The City Council has blocked construction of buildings of more than two stories along major arteries such as Broadway, 4th, 7th and 10th streets in the 2nd District, which takes in much of the waterfront between downtown and Belmont Heights.
Councilman Wallace Edgerton, who represents the district, has said such housing tends to “jam in a lot of poverty people” who are “overburdening” police and school systems and increasing crime dramatically.
The Long Beach Action Assn. filed the lawsuit in November, saying such logic is rooted in bigotry.
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