Diversity in Local Politics Overview This paper explores the limits and potentials of ethnic and racial coalition building in Los Angeles. The demographic changes that have occurred in Los Angeles during the past twenty years have been extraordinary, both in scope and diversity. The area has witnessed a literal boom in population growth, increasing from 7 million in 1970 to 8.8 million in 1990. (US Bureau of the Census) However, it is the dramatic change in ethnic and racial …showed first 75 words of 3441 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3441 total…above; Also by Oliver and Johnson, 'Interethnic Minority Conflict in Urban America: The Effects of Economic and Social Dislocations,' Urban Geography 10 (1989): 449-463. Ramos, George and Tracy Wilkinson, 'Unrest Widens Rifts in Latino Population,' Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1992. Sonenshein, Rafael J., Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles (Princeton: NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993). US Bureau of the Census, Census of Population and Housing. (Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census, 1970).