California town agrees to $6 million reparations deal

By MELISSA KOENIG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 01:37 EST, 14 November 2024 | Updated: 01:48 EST, 14 November 2024 A California city is set to vote on whether to approve a nearly $6million reparations deal with black and Latino families whose neighborhood was razed in the 1960s. Section 14 of Palm Springs, a one-mile tract owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, was destroyed by city officials to make way for commercial development in the mid-1960s. More than 230 structures in the neighborhood, where African American and Latino families built and rented homes, were demolished and burned by the city’s fire department between 1965 and 1967, the New York Times reports. It was one of the few places minorities could live due to discriminatory housing restrictions in place at the time, after a change in federal law allowed the tribe to lease the land for up to 99 years. Former residents have now accepted a $5.9million settlement, which the city council is expected to vote on at a public meeting on Thursday. It is also set to vote on a package that would include up to another $21million for housing, economic development and small business programs. The city had...