Harbor Gateway called a ‘valley of death’

This 1984 Times art­icle chron­icled the death of Linda Jef­fer­is, who suffered a fatal heart at­tack while driv­ing the thin strip of the Los Angeles city lim­its that con­nects South L.A. to the har­bor. Be­cause that area be­longs to the city, Jef­fer­is was forced to wait for far away LAFD res­cuers to ar­rive, even though county sta­tions on the oth­er side of the bor­der were closer.

The delay in med­ic­al ser­vice promp­ted Dr. J. Mi­chael Cri­ley, head of car­di­ology at Har­bor/UCLA Med­ic­al Cen­ter, to call the area the “val­ley of death.”