ia have been identified with a host of environmental and economic-development issues, notably air quality; land use; social equity; sustainability, or long-term impact of environmental change; environmental regulation; public/private roles in transportation policy; and congestion pricing, or use of toll roads, ride sharing, and the like (Horan, Hempel, Jordan, & Alm, 1996).
Combine these issue fronts with the fact that between 1990 and 2000, the Hispanic population in the United States increased by 58 percent, from 22.4 million to 35.3 million, and that Hispanics in California accounted for 11.0 million persons and 31 percent of the Hispanic population in the U.S., with one million of the Hispanics in California of Mexican descent. In some parts of California Hispanics comprise a significant majority population. For example, in East Los Angeles, Calif., 97 percent of all residents were Hispanic as of 2000. Almost half (47 percent) of the entire population of Los Angeles was Hispanic (Smith, Ahmed & Sink, 2000). Smith, Ahmed, and Sink summarize the transformation of Southern California's Hispanic demographics as follows:
According to the 2000 census, Hispanics own 13.1 percent of all firms in California. About 40 percent of all of those firms earn less than $10,000 annually and 2 percent earning more than $1 million annually, with the median earnings at $155,200; the median income for all US firms is $410,600 (US Census, 2001). Nationwide, the percentage of Hispanic households earning $50,000 or more annually was 6% in 1998, the last year for which figures are available. Non-Hispanic white households in that position came in at 16.1% of the entire population (US Census, Ethnic, 2000).
The enormous growth in the Hispanic population of California has been accompanied by some high-profile political moves that appear intended to highlight Hispanic access to political and social benefits. For example, in 1993, Richard Alatorre was ap...