This Side of Paradise

"Decades of housing segregation and property covenants wedged much of Santa Monica's minority population into the Pico area's densely populated blocks.
"The Santa Monica Freeway, completed in the mid-1960s, sliced through the Pico district, eliminating hundreds of apartments and houses, and cutting the neighborhood off from the city's downtown and more prosperous northern sectors. The hard edges that resulted contributed to a sense of physical isolation."

The Los Angeles Times depicts the problems of Santa Monica's Pico neighborhood, home of Santa Monica College.