What annoys gentrifying hipsters the most? When other, slightly different gentrifiers show up and ruin their exclusive party. Check out this post from that fairly new music store in Echo Park called Origami, they need your support to take back some bar:
OK, I have lived in Echo Park for about 9 years. I use to frequent the Shortstop about every other day back when they allowed dancing…The place was fucking amazing then. Lot’s of cool art kids, punks, and dub heads…Once the dancefloor got shut down, we started to frequent the bar less and less. We found ourselves hitting the Gold Room for free tacos and a shot with all the old Latinos, which was kinda sketchy at times- I’m pretty sure few white kids dared venture in back then…Once the Shorty got it’s dancefloor reopened we started to go back. But it just wasn’t the same. It had this bridge and tunnel feel to it… it just seemed to take on this USC college crowd thing.
Now how funny is that? And they even managed to throw in a “bridge and tunnel” reference, which I hear is a New York thing (nah, really?) but I wouldn’t doubt if they start using it with some more local connotations, what with all our bridges and new tunnel. I wonder if they’ll also get called out for bringing up race issues, just as Chimatli was for her story of how Echo Park had changed since before the gentrification started? Besides this brief mention, I suspect not. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly care about any of those bars and if they manage to Take it BACK, well good for them. Vanquish the B&Ts! But I think I’m just going to sit on the sidelines while they “make it cool” again, crack open a beer, and watch this comedic battle unfold. Ja. Ja.
If this wasn’t so hilarious, it’d be pretty fucking sad. Or is it the other way around?
wasn’t the short stop a cop bar long before all the gentrifying started?
Meh. Most of these will try to start families and move out to Orange County, Moreno Valley, or some other valley on the peripheries of the L.A. area when they get tired off all the noise from the young ‘uns.
The other evening I went to the shortstop and walked into a knife fight!!!
An echo park hipster danced in a circle around a silver lake hispter,the latter grasping a small but still ominous pocket knife.
After the incident, the bartender explained how the fight had sparked from the silver laker – telling the echo parker that silverlake was more Eastside then Echo Park.
Oh the pains of gentrifying the gentrified.
LOL, yeah it was a cop bar. Maybe the cops will try to “take it back” from the punks by beating them up. It’ll be just like the old days.
I don’t think these gentrifartists move out – I’m demographically almost one of them, though I don’t go to their bars. Basically, we can’t afford to move far away because commute costs are high and concentrations of skilled mental and service work tend to be in big cities. (I mean besides teaching, health care, and other necessities, which exist everywhere. The other work, like media, arts, tech, research, tends to concentrate in cities.)
Moreno Valley and the IE are unemployed and foreclosed. It’s sad. The Greatschools ratings out there are the same or worse than the LA nearby suburbs, LA magnets, and some LA charters.
Gentrification is the forces pushing poor people to the periphery and pulling the wealthy and middle class toward the city. It’s a global trend, not just in the US.
Some of those forces are the city government, by the way. Others are larger public policies or trends. Some are things like rising fuel and infrastructure costs, and the increase of telecommunications (and its unexpected concentrating effect on management and finance).
In France, there were these riots a few years back, and they were concentrated in the suburbs – the banlieues – where the city concentrated public housing and unemployment. Their society is still segregated, and the people in the suburbs tended to be Arab and Black.
Here, there are real estate “investors” (a euphemism for absentee landlords) who are buying up in Palmdale / Lancaster at low prices, to rent out houses at around $1000 a month. They will allow section 8 renters. The City will see an opportunity to turn housing projects into market rate condos, or shift existing section 8 recipients out to the desert.
Hahaha, that’s funny Chavo. Short Stop is pretty awful, but Clifton aka Soft Touch(Transistor/Funky Sole/ French Kiss/Revolver etc) and DIA (Bang, Underground, Sonic, Club Bleu etc) spin on Sundays; highly recommend it if your into funk, soul, and sixties, except you’ll have a bunch of gabachos around you going into epileptic seizure.
“…hitting the Gold Room for free tacos and a shot with all the old Latinos, which was kinda sketchy at times- I’m pretty sure few white kids dared venture in back then…”
Hahahahahaha! Yeah, those OLD Latinos are so sketchy. The phrasing says a lot, no?
I found this annoying review of the Gold Room on Yelp:
The Gold Room is a real east side dive bar and definitely not for everyone, but I love this place. Neon lights. Soccer on the television. Latino hits on the jukebox.
It feels kind of like a Tijuana strip club and they give you free tacos, free popcorn, and one dollar shots of Tequila. The crowd is mixed between Angelenos and Echo Park hipsters. A lot of people get scared before they even go in here, but all the bartenders and waitresses are super friendly. And they have ridiculously oversized large breasts. Which in and of itself is funny.
I’ve been known to drink too much tequila and scream “La coo ca racha” loudly from the back of the bar, so please accept my apologies in advance.
———————-
SOrry to everyone.
Meh. Most of these will try to start families and move out to Orange County, Moreno Valley, or some other valley on the peripheries of the L.A. area when they get tired off all the noise from the young ‘uns.
_______________________________
Oof. Here’s hoping they do that, instead of just staying put, starting their little “green,” PC family with their Prius, and calling the police with noise complaints ever 5 minutes.
Total new word/category:
GENTRIFIRONY
They give the guy free tacos and he still rips the place and calls it a Tijuana strip club. All class. The next time a guy comes in and starts singing La Cucaracha, they should put a little special sauce in his taco.
BEWARE HIPSTERS!!!!!
I didn’t like the Shortstop back when THEY liked the Shortstop. It seemed like a weird phony Scientology kids hang out. We saw Jason Leigh there a few times with his ‘we used to be skaters but now we’re artists’ kinds of friends.
And look, I just read what I wrote and was immediately annoyed by it.
Can’t we just say we all annoy each other pretty equally and leave it at that?
LOL @ Sherrie!
Leaving it at that is a tactic that sometimes works.
why even go to echo park when you have redz on 3rd. and breed. dive bar, with lots of tequilas, big breasted bartenders and a jukebox with los bukis
Rolo,
Thanks for not giving the correct location ro Redz bar. Because as soon as I hear someone scream “La Cucaracha” I will personaly deport them back across the river. The LA Eastside is a very welcoming community, look at all the diverse people living there.
But, Don’t think the Eastside will become your next Tijuana/Disney adventure.
Puro Eastside
Gold Room story: Guy drinking a beer at the Gold Room gets called out, goes outside and shoots the pendejo who called him out dead, then goes back inside and finishes his beer while the cops swarm around outside looking for him.
Short stop story: I remember the gun lockers from when it was a cop bar. And getting stares ’cause I’m not a cop.
Could somebody tell me what “a bridge and tunnel feel” means?
LOL @ your Onion link, Caxcan.
“…pushing out young white professionals, some of whom have lived in these neighborhoods for as many as seven years.”
Ha ha ha.
I heard Marcelino’s in Lincoln Heights (North Broadway) is a cop bar. I’ve never been there because I’m afraid of cops and they probably serve crappy beer.
I second the LOL at caxcan’s link, I fogrgot how much I like the onion!
RE: Robthomas’ comment
I recently had some fucken hipster POS try and one up me on La Curbed because he has lived in MacArthur parque for 7 years (cuz I schooled him on his gripes about illegals), how humurous!
Believe me, Art, I’ve seen it. On this blog, whenever there’s a thread on the topic, and they come out of the wood works. Remember when that guy said that calling him a hipster was the same thing as a racial slur? They’re equating their condescending lectures and attempts at “dialogue” with the locals to the civil rights struggle, now.
Art, it was Woolsey, right?
soledadenmasa,
Yeah, thats the fool. I actually appreciate many of his comments as he is intelligent, but the vato’s a totally arrogant prick who often puts his foot in his mouth.
I hate these mofo transplants acting like they can pontificate to some native how things are, when they are totally disconnected with the reality of the city, my city. Curbed is annoying, but informative and often entertaining, too bad they dont have some raza (or whatever im supposed to call ourselves) to add a non entitled douchebag viewpoint.
PS, gracias carnale for keeping them in line on the site, same to Browne!
Back in 2000 I had a friend who lived just up the street from the Shortstop & he told me it was a cop bar. I went there a year ago & it sucks.
That’s it.
The End.
What the hell I can understand to some degree the animosity towards hipsters but to cast such a large generalization towards these so call outsides confirms your ignorance. This neighborhood doesn’t belong to you anymore than it does them.And your condescending tone isn’t ant different from those your criticizing. I get your point about the locals/natives being treated as second class citizens and often dismissed but that goes both ways. Some natives feel they own these parts and are often too willing to express that point. Also some are not willing to communicate with anyone that does not share there ethnic background or even acknowledge them. Believe me I understand the notion of not trusting outsiders or those in authority but it gets ridicules. Too often the experience of dealing with government agencies and society the regards strangers as a whole to be not trustworthy ,has filtered down the generations long after one has immigrated here. Look I am an immigrant myself and I know the pitfalls and struggles of adjusting to a new country and culture without loosing ones identity but I also know that I am part of a larger society and that regarding others as outsiders or not belonging is ignorant and counter productive. It doesn’t mean we must role over and take it up the ass but rather be due diligent in our efforts to have a strong vibrant community
rew3, I don’t see the sweeping generalizations here that you’re describing. From what I can see, the comments are criticizing behavior, not entire groups of people. A “hipster” does not describe anyone of a certain race, religion, or even any specific economic class, does it? Hipsters are people who purposely move into bad neighborhoods, be them working class, middle class, upper middle class, or rich, just to say they did. They have no real intentions of improving the conditions of people who have lived in the area for sometime, and in fact seek to push them out of the area. From what I can see, commenters here are criticizing people with this particular mindset, and that’s not a sweeping generalization, it’s a critique of a specific behavior.
rew3,
We are criticizing idiots that go around yelling “La Cucaracha”. I know Latinos that would also yell “La Cucaracha”, and that is why I do not go out with them.
What is being criticized ,more or less, is a lifestyle, that can be described as Pseudo Bohemian; it fails to contribute to the community (the entire community, pre-existing along with the newly introduced), which displaces (economically) and ignores (with development) those who have resided in the area for quite sometime. And if the residing demographic is addressed, it has been done so with a quality of novelty, an aesthetic aspect of a bar (i.e “with all the old Latinos, which was kinda sketchy at times…”) bearing a negative connotation or insincere/superior indulgence in the “culture”. This may seem over analytical, but to not recognize 3rd generation bigotry/prejudice, with all seriousness can be considered as such, is ignorant. Furthermore, you can not negate an entire history of discrimination and displacement, which has been practiced here (US, SoCal, Los Angeles, against people of color, and or sometimes financially disadvantaged) for so long. Echo Park is in an advantageous locale, near downtown and the freeways but not as expensive as Santa Monica or somewhere else within a similar price bracket, so, its appeal can be understood. But just because an area is desirable, doesn’t mean we can disregard those who already inhabit the area by buying or pushing them out. Did we say tough shit to the Native Americans? Kind of, but that was obviously wrong. This is a different situation, understood, but you can abstract the reasoning to be applicable here. Take a look at the demographic which 826 LA EAST generously supports with their programs, and you can grasp a better idea what the larger part of the community is.
(AND FOR ANYONE WHO IS GOING TO REBUT THIS, PLEASE AND I MEAN PLEASE, DO NOT COME AT ME WITH SOME RELATIVIST OR FREE MARKET BULLSHIT; I BELIEVE IN BOTH, BUT TO A DEGREE. ALL ITS BEING ASKED IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND CONTRIBUTE, RATHER THAN IGNORE AND TAKE)
Gansito Point well taken. I for one was not ignoring the economic social and historical displacement which too often occur in this area. Nor do I dismiss or discount the history regarding race and the poor in this city and this nation as a whole. As I mentioned I don’t care for anyone who isolate or ignore a person because of his/her economic,social or ethnic standing. I know history all too well and understand the ugly treatment those in these communities have been treated; but that is not what I was commenting on. Many people move here for various reasons and I get the lack of involvement some seem to choose. People who disregard the contributions that those in the neighborhood have done are clueless and don’t deserve any defending. Some come here from a bubble of a sheltered life devoid of contact or interaction with anyone outside there social or economic background. Too many times we bring our own prejudice to a situation or towards someone due to conditioning. That is a two way street and that is what I was commenting on. I have had countless conversations over the years with people who make broad generalizations about ethnic groups and social status. I find it offensive and often born from ignorance. The demographics of a particular area often illicit certain responses and blinds us in seeing a person but rather a group. Too often we put on blinders or bury our heads to the facts around us. We often make sweeping judgement calls based on 2 dimensional assessment of a person or social group. We judge based on our uniforms. Is that a hipster, a banger, a cracker, a nigga ?
rew3, sorry, I just don’t sign on to your conclusion, that both sides are being ignorant in the whole gentrification debate. I’m seeing far more ignorance from the gentrification implants, or “hipsters”.
Well lets agree to disagree. I myself have experienced it first hand and know of others who have. It doesn’t excuse those who move into an area and completely lock them selves off from the community which existed before them. There is still mistrust that affects peoples ability to trust anyone not like them. We have reached out on several occasions to many people and have been met with cold shoulders. I know were a lot of it comes from and many people have good reasons and experiences historically not to trust anyone outside of their social economic background. But I have lived in just about every region in this country,the northeast, midwest,northwest and the southwest and what they all have in common is that they are very regional. the beauty of LA is it doesn’t have many of the same hang ups; that doesn’t mean it isn’t here but on a different scale. My wife who teaches ECL teaches students from all over the world and we host kids from several countries. I have found in my experience that families from social economic background with limited interaction with outsiders or with a limited educational background have a distinct distrust for anyone not like them. Many of this is conditioning from their countries of origin which give them many reasons to not to trust it or anyone outside there knowledge base. They are loving people and are extremely loyal to family and friends. But it becomes a hard nut to crack sometimes when you reach out and are sometimes met with no response. I realize this may sound a little personal and a bit generalized. But many of us who have moved here didn’t come to dismiss the community as a whole and have made efforts to work with local officials,schools,and organizations. They will be those who come for other reasons and I will not speak for them but I still contend that there is a mistrust and resentment to these so called outsiders, hipsters. I have a question for you. What was the demographics of Northeast La 40, 50 years ago? I submit it was a large Jewish,Irish and Italian community who moved to the valleys and other regions of LA. Now we can argue why the demographics changed. White flight played a big role in many of the changes as people of color began to move into the area. This phenomena happened all over this country and there is no excuse for it. It was out of for the most part pure ignorance and racist attitudes. But we can not make the same arguments for those moving back into these areas. Some are naive as to there presents here and some have not contributed as much as they could. But I believe that these young families, artist,and gay couples have been painted with a broad brush by some on this post.
rew3, I’ve experienced it first hand, too. From my experiences, and definitely from reading the blogs in cyberspace on the topic, gentrification implants and hipsters are far more ignorant than locals. I’m not talking about you personally. Just referring to most cases.
Rob, I don’t take it personally and thanks for that. I realize we are both making somewhat the same argument I just don’t believe that it comes from the implants as a rule. They are just more visible and stand out more. But I agree these blogs do tend to bring up some issues and underlying feelings amongst the discussions. Merry Christmas to you and all.
Oops meant to say I just don’t believe that it comes exclusively or primarily from the implants as a rule.
I don’t think poor people and immigrants have a monopoly on insularity and parochialism. What’s “white flight” if not insularity in motion?
alienation, Who said poor people and immigrants have a monopoly on insularity and parochialism? I know what white is; thats why I mentioned it. I also mentioned living in several regions in these united states and know all too well how people operate.Black,white,rich,poor,educated and uneducated all exhibit these traits no one person or group has a monopoly on this. I would hope any thinking person would realize thats what my point is.
“What annoys gentrifying hipsters the most? When other, slightly different gentrifiers show up and ruin their exclusive party.”
looooooool hahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!! I love it, that is tooo funny!! I wish they would gentrify my hood, that would be funny its like a make over. They do tours of my hood now though, it was in the LA times, I know some of you read about it, what people will do for a dolla these days. I aint hating make yo money. I think if South LA were to become like echo park, which i doubt it can or ever would, todo hipsters would be getting robbed and killed on a weekly basis.
Oh yeah and the shortstop I tried to go there once and felt out of place, I didn’t like it. I thought it was a Dodger fan hang out that’s why I went, but it was too exclusive for me, I tried to get a water so I can mingle and jazz about some dodgers politics and was not served nothing and I felt like everyone wanted me to leave haha maybe it was in my head either way it wasn’t for me, as most dwntwn bars are. Ill stick to sneaking into la boom or club addicted where its puro joy division and smiths.
It’s not in your head Eijah, it’s for reals. 😉
(They do tours of my hood now though, it was in the LA times). The hood as you so lovingly call it doesn’t belong to you anymore than it does these so call hipsters. I rest my case.
rew3,
What exactly is your definition of the phrase “this neighborhood belongs to me”? If your point is that few folks own property, then yes, LA’s working class areas are genberally 2/3rds renter occupied and have a high rate of absentee landlords.
Otherwise hoods do belong to people when they inhabit them for long periods of time and establish themselves as a tangible aspect of the community’s fabric. Its called creating a sense of place by personally being involved in the dynamics of the community, it is also what most policymakers define the word “community ” to define. when people live somewhere long enough that they take some ownership and pride in the neighborhood they live in.
Of course having one’s hood belong to them does not in any way entitle them to not want to allow another demographic to move in, it does entitle them to be concerned about a new demographic’s inclusion having negative consequences on the existing community. Especially when that is the precedence, and the returning demo are often the children of those who abandoned these same places a half century ago.
But I dont get your dogmatic chant about “neighborhoods not belonging to anyone”, they sure as hell belong to plenty of people. And that is a good thing, it is what spurs communities, local ownership and a sense of local pride and comraderie. I think the lack of people thinking their hood “belongs to them” in LA’s working class areas is the major reason why so many things have deteriorated there (in combo with institutional neglect), on the flip side I think newbies making a hood “belong to them” by integrating into the exisitng dynamics is also an excellent development on the eastside. Yeah a lot of folks here gripe about annoying hipsters, but I and many others also feel that these newcomers are more than welcome and will/are/have become an important facet of any community when they come with humility and embrace the local goin ons. It is unfortunate that it seems like the more annoying jerkish newcomers seem more numerically abundant than the cool folks who genuinely beomce the community, much like it seems like there are more hood folks who dont take owenrship of their communities.
rew3
Hell Yeah! I lovingly call it the hood, what should I call it, or let me rephrase that, what would you like me to call it?
And no it doesn’t belong to them they come through here on buses my ninja. They don’t get off them. It likes the hoodlywood tour of the poor and drug dealers.
And the hood never belonged to me, nothing ever belonged to me except for the clothes on my back. Shit the hipsters and tourists (or who ever is in charge of these tours) can have south la, I can care less, they don’t got to deal with me, they gots to deal with the gangsters! so i know that wont last long……………………………………….. And what makes it worse is they have some florence fool doing the tour like if that is going to convince people like its more real or some ish. Like he is really going to break it down, “so over to your left you have where we set up shop, and to your right we raped and smoked some youngster” yeeeeeah riiiiight, its only a matter of time before that fool catches one. And I didn’t read the other posts just chmtl cuz it had a happy face by my name, geah!
art. If you read my earlier post and knew what I was talking about. You would realize I was not disregarding the community as a whole or dismissing ones sense of pride. All I know is it smells alot like what happened in the south, northeast and various regions of this country.No there is no cross burning but it may have well be. Now of course I am not making the leap to the attitudes and bigotry which the cross burning symbolizes but rather the idea that suggest you need to stay out and you do not belong. At what point does one seas being an out sider or new comer; 5 years,10 years 20 years. Who makes that call? No they are not using fear as a factor towards the so called outsiders but segregation is segregation. As to Elijah’s comments and assessments he proves my point. I am not going to comment on the tour idea but I can only say I find it offensive .I could care less what you call the neighborhood (hood) who cares all I was commenting on was this notion of ownership. One does not have to own property to have a sense of pride in a community and you sure don’t have to live in it for years to appreciate its appeal and civic duty. The comments that I refer to don’t seem to fit the criterior which Art seems to be arguing and most seem just rants based on pure conjecture and ignorance. As to the points made to those who fail to contribute to the community as a whole screw them they are not worth defending.
In the pre civil rights south, the church was the only place where blacks could congregate and speak freely, and even dare to express political views. Don’t mean to downplay your plight, rew, but I think you and your hipster buddies have it a little better. I mean, you have LA Curbed!
rew3,
I get your points, but are you really comparing local Latinos complaining about gentrifiers with pre civil rights segregation?
Maybe Im wrong, and if so Im sorry, but they are not the same or even within the same league of comparison. My own grandparents came back from WW2 decorated heroes only to be banned from moving in to certain communities. I myself have been pulled over and physically beaten by cops claiming that I “didnt belong there” in the freaken 1990s (glendora, covina and monterey park pds).
Im sure some douchebag from Aves or whatnot has attacked some hipsters, but those incidents are infrequent and probably dont have much precedent. Most brown/black folks realize that attacking a white or more wealthy demographic means all hell coming down on your community. While on the other hand segregation and race based harassment of minorities by whites (or the gatekeepers for whites and the wealthy) went on unpunished, and to the contrary was merely re-enforcing exisiting social practices.
I guess Im preaching to the choir as you seem to be on the same page as me somewhat. But comparing segregation to some chicanos moaning about hipsters is a pretty far stretch.
“and you sure don’t have to live in it for years to appreciate its appeal and civic duty”
This is why they made the gang banging bus tour. Tourists can take a ride down florence and appreciate the appeal and the civic duty of the people. After the bus ride you’re practically considered a pillar of the community. and everyone lives happily after all…