The LA Times tripled down on becoming seen as "irrelevant" by much of its geographic market by republishing this opinion piece whose premise is basically "You driving is also racist of you." It presumes that demographics rather than geography and topology were the primary determinant of where LA's freeways got built, handily forgetting that neighborhood demographics change over time.

He told me it largely comes down to the shameful history of Los Angeles County’s low-income communities of color being torn apart to make way for freeways — a history that has been extensively documented by The Times. Today, many residents of the county’s whiter, more affluent neighborhoods — who were often able to keep highways out of their own backyards — commute to work through lower-income Black and Latino neighborhoods bisected by the 10, 110 and 105 freeways and more.

“It’s not like commuters are coming in and shopping in those communities, patronizing restaurants,” Boeing said. “They’re just driving through to get from one side of the city to the other.”

Well NO SHIT, POINDEXTER! These neighborhoods are well known to be dangerous shitholes, and even the gas stations right off the freeway ramps don't meet any rational standard of risk/benefit for people who don't already live or work in the vicinity.

Half a century ago, the term "White flight" was well established to describe the phenomenon of HOW AND WHY these neighborhoods were abandoned by the white people who built them to BECOME the ghettos of color the author whines about today. Nobody had to pipe up and SAY that "White people should stay the hell away." The riots and crime rates did all the talking.

www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2023-03-09/white-drivers-are-polluting-the-air-breathed-by-l-a-s-people-of-color-boiling-point