Some members of Florencia 13, one of L.A.'s largest gangs, live a suburban, settled lifestyle with good jobs. But they are proud of their ties to the gang, which they call 'the neighborhood.'

Few gangs are under more pressure from law enforcement, but Florencia 13 remains a powerful and influential entity in a large, contiguous stretch of Los Angeles. In many places, it is virtually synonymous with the community itself.

As part of a plan to bring affordable housing to a gritty part of town, city officials want to relocate a metal finishing firm charged with illegal dumping.

Officials are in the final stages of negotiations that would lead to a large affordable-housing development in a troubled neighborhood - and the relocation of a long-criticized metal finishing plant.

A group of civic activists is preparing to offer bus tours of some of the grittiest pockets of the city, with profits funneled back into the community. Some of the particulars are raising eyebrows.

A nonprofit group plans to offer two-hour bus tours of some of the poorest and roughest areas of South L.A. and nearby neighborhoods, including gang territories, public housing developments and the sites of racial unrest.

A recreation area once claimed by gangs has been turned into a bustling community park with help from City Hall and the LAPD. But it took a former heavy-hitter in the local gang to close the deal.

Former and aging gang members, many of them parents, set aside their differences to turn South Park in South Los Angeles into a safe area for their children and the community.

Former and aging gang members, many of them parents, set aside their differences to turn South Park in South Los Angeles into a safe area for their children and the community.

Two schools, led by strong personalities, were supposed to collaborate on a curriculum. When the process collapsed, one of them won a bid to run the program and the other plans to appeal.

The city's plans to launch a full-fledged gang intervention academy are moving along, but the process has been derailed by competing visions - and the academy will open, at the earliest, a year later than City Hall had originally envisioned.

In a gang-plagued immigrant neighborhood, four children have in effect been banished by their family to another city -- not because of what they've done, but because of what they've seen.

In an immigrant pocket of South Los Angeles, four children endured so much suffering that their family cut them off -- exiling them, in effect, to South Gate.

Un sacerdote católico ofrece terapia de grupos a jóvenes con problemas que rara vez han compartido lo que realmente siente

El procurador de la ciudad de Los Ángeles quiere otorgarle a la policía el poder de arrestar a quienes pintan graffiti (taggers) simplemente por estar juntos con amigos, sin tener que atraparlos realizando la pinta. La propuesta contrae problemas constitucionales

En un complejo de vivienda empobrecido, un reflejo de la violencia del Sur de L.A. La violencia ha sido lo normal en el conjunto público habitacional Pueblo del Río. La criminalidad ha bajado y las autoridades esperan que las nuevas tácticas ayuden más en este esfuerzo, pero los tiroteos pueden todavía ocurrir sin aviso previo

Autoridades, grupos comunitarios y residentes intentan recuperar esta zona de la mano de los pandilleros, con un esfuerzo de gran envergadura que incluye operativos policiales, programas comunitarios y proyectos de desarrollo urbano.

St. John's Well Child and Family Center sees 50,000 patients each year, roughly 30,000 of them children. It has vaulted ahead of the healthcare debate, moving the focus from sickness to wellness.

Vaulting ahead of the political debate in Washington, St. John's Well Child and Family Center is bringing unusual preventive care programs to the poorest pockets of South Los Angeles, which -- among its other ills -- is a deeply unhealthy place.

South Los Angeles has a fascinating and tumultuous history. and 103-year-old Simon Redditt has been there for the last 67 years of it. Redditt sweated and picketed at the Firestone plant, danced and drank at Club Alabam in the 1940s and '50s and lamented the loss of jobs and industry in the 1970s and '80s.

A new supermarket could be a part of the fabled thoroughfare's rebirth.

In South Los Angeles, civic leaders open a new grocery store -- the first full-service supermarket to open in the neighborhood in at least five years, and the first step in a $150-million construction jag along an impoverished and troubled stretch of Central Avenue

An old-style "beef" between two South Los Angeles gangs has left three dead, including a 13-year-old boy, and threatens to undermine the marked progress that’s been made in reducing gang violence.

A 'trivial' dispute between two former allies turns deadly, threatening an area's turnaround.

L.A.'s city attorney wants to give police the ability to arrest graffiti 'taggers' simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act. The proposal raises constitutional issues.

Graffiti scars South L.A., where gangs use buildings, windows and even tree trunks to mark their turf and challenge rivals. LAPD Officer Oscar Gutierrez, whose testimony helped the city attorney's office win an injunction against six area gangs, explains graffiti in this slideshow.

At a charter high school on Manchester Avenue, a group of students - many of them gang members on probation - gather for unusual group therapy sessions under the watchful eye of a Catholic priest.

A Catholic priest offers group therapy to troubled teens who had rarely shared their feelings before.

Unity T.W.O., a high-profile City Hall contractor, was supposed to be a central part of L.A.'s gang-reduction efforts. But documents portray a troubled, overwhelmed agency.

Unity T.W.O., a high-profile City Hall contractor, was supposed to be a central part of L.A.'s gang-reduction efforts. But documents portray a troubled, overwhelmed agency.

Violence has long been familiar at the Pueblo del Rio public housing development. Crime is down and authorities hope new police tactics will help, but gunshots can still erupt without warning.

Pueblo del Rio, an aged public housing development off South Alameda Street, is a microcosm of what lies ahead for South L.A. — a renewed sense of optimism, tempered by deep poverty and sporadic violence.

In the wake of summer school cutbacks, the Summer Night Lights recreation program is seen as critical.

When Los Angeles school officials decided to cancel summer school, they inadvertently placed heightened importance on City Hall’s Summer Night Lights. The program will keep the lights on late at 16 parks this summer - and may be the only diversion for thousands of kids in South L.A.

Gang intervention is more critical than ever in South L.A. But by definition, it’s a messy line of work — and civic leaders are scrambling to turn it into a professional field.

Police have long been wary of those who act as liaisons between officers and gang members. Their delicate work is now seen as essential.

L.A.'s gang intervention curriculum is part self-help and part street smarts.

Across 14 square miles of South L.A., the LAPD has launched the state's largest injunction against six gangs. This area remains one of the most troubled pockets of the city. But change is afoot: gang violence is down, construction is underway and social services are expanding. The result is a dynamic neighborhood that belies public perception - a place with plenty of problems, certainly, but also bustling stores, a thriving ethnic-food industry, colorful worship ceremonies. Photographer Michael Robinson Chavez is spending the year documenting the rapid change.

Across 13.7 square miles of South L.A., police launch an injunction against six gangs. There are unusual suggestions of hope in the neighborhood: huge construction projects, families venturing back into parks once ceded to gangs. But violence still erupts in startling fashion, and the area is at a crossroads.

As a wide-ranging LAPD injunction restricts gangs on their own turf, seeds of opportunity are taking root in an area that has long felt marginalized.