Decades of disinvestment, redlining, and neglect have drastically decreased graduation rates, health outcomes, and lifetime economic opportunities for the residents of South Los Angeles.

In 2013, the Obama Administration made a promise to invest in historically disenfranchised, high-poverty communities throughout the United States. Within these urban, rural, and tribal Promise Zones, the federal government vowed to partner with local leaders to improve and accelerate safety, health, economic and educational opportunities and to address other priorities identified by the community.

In 2014, South Los Angeles saw an opportunity to examine and harness the economic impacts green infrastructure would bring to the region and decided to work together to capitalize on the revitalization opportunities transit-oriented development can bring to residents. South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone (SLATE-Z) was formed in 2014 with the purpose of gaining a Federal Promise Zone designation for South Los Angeles.

In 2016, President Barack Obama recognized SLATE-Z’s efforts and the Department of Housing and Urban Development federally designated its area of South Los Angeles as a Promise Zone. The South Los Angeles Promise Zone is 1 of 22 Promise Zones addressing high poverty in select urban, rural, and tribal communities across the nation.

Today, SLATE-Z serves as the backbone entity (e.g., convenor, coordinator, and advisor) for the South L.A. Promise Zone. To reach our goals, SLATE-Z works at the intersection of economic revitalization and environmental sustainability through five overarching and interrelated levers of change: Education, Jobs, Public Safety, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Transit.

"Transit Empowerment Zone" is in our name to reflect the economic empowerment opportunities and transformational impacts the expansion of public transit brings to historically disadvantaged communities.