The Xentrification Situation in Boyle Heights

I like Cinthia Gonzalez because in her recent “Gentrification in Boyle Heights” post over at the rough rider blog, she broke down how she see’s the changes going on in Boyle Heights. Esos pinches hipsters !! So, La Curbed picked up on it and some pendejos started talking shit. FTP. So, then Southern California Public Radio picked up on it as well asking readers to chime in on whether BH is getting gentrified. And now everyone, including myself because when I hear BH mentioned my ears ring is talking about it. I think the L.A. Times just sent someone over to write a story too.  So, what do people think ? Is BH officially gentrified or as I have come to say Xentrified ?

Funny thing is that I have been working on a post to talk about xentrification but Cinthia beat me to the punch. Great job !! She has an awesome journalism teacher over at Roosevelt that encourages and pushes the students to write reactionary stories like this. As for what I think about the xentrification situation, well the place is pretty much going to those who have an active voice at community planning meetings, elders. I go to all these meetings about what streets are gonna get lights, speed bumps and stuff and all I see is elders. They want safe, nice looking streets for everyone.

At the same time, not to put anyone on blast, but any xentrification that is going comes directly from “people” like me. Yes that’s right, it’s an inside job. I tell hipsters about how awesome BH through this very blog and what do they do ? Blog about it as well and tell soo many people that we can’t have street vendors around anymore. But who are “people” like me you ask ? Well pretty much anyone that goes to art shows, goes to primera taza, drinks at eastside luv, goes on bike rides from mariachi plaza. You know, Xikano Hipsters.

Continuing to preserve Wyvernwood

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This Thursday, residents from Wyvernwood will be giving visual presentations on the importance of the community there. This looks like it’s going to be a great event because as the flier says, this is all from the residents themselves. If you need to catch up with what’s going, read Chuy’s 90023 blog spot about it. Here’s more from their statement:

The Wyvernwood Garden Apartments was developed in 1938-39 and was the first large scale garden apartment complex in Los Angeles. Determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, not only is Wyvernwood architecturally significant, but it also reflects the cultural heritage of the neighborhood, where the residents have created a strong sense of place and belonging. The original design intent has been realized, having fostered a close-knit, multi-generational community among its residents, many of whom have stayed for decades, intermarried and started their own families. As in many parts of the city, the apartments were racially segregated for decades, until the first Latina/o family moved in during the 1960s. Today, Wyvernwood is predominantly Latina/o.

However, residents are in danger of losing their homes. In January 2008, owner Fifteen Group announced plans for a $2 billion development that would replace all 1,100 rental apartments and over twenty acres of open space with four times the density, including new condominiums, rentals, retail and commercial space. Come out to show your support of the Wyvernwood community and participate in a unique event where residents will be sharing their own stories and oral histories through multi-media presentations. Comité de la Esperanza (an active resident group of 25 years) will lead a procession/vigil to the event starting at 6pm, which will begin on-site at Wyvernwood at 2802 Camulos Place (near 8th and Soto). The presentations will follow at 7:30pm inside gymnasium at the Costello Recreation Center (3141 E. Olympic Blvd). At 9pm residents will return to Wyvernwood in procession.

Cute? A story of MY fire escape.

Baby Rat w/feathers

Baby Rat w/feathers

I went by my girlfriend Noe’s place in Boyle Heights. It used to be my place, but I decided to move downtown.

My girlfriend loves everything and everybody. When I went to her place she was like, “Browne I have something to show you.”

So she takes me to the fire escape and shows me a baby rat. With feathers. I think some people call them pigeons.

“Isn’t it cute?” Noe.

I just sort of stare, she continues, “The mama was there and then there was an egg, so I couldn’t kick it out. It’s nature. It’s beautiful.”

An egg is not a bird, apparently she hasn’t been reading her pro-choice literature.

That nest and egg would have been on the sidewalk on the pavement if I still lived there. A sort of lesson to all of the other pigeons to stay off MY fire escape, but the universe works in mysterious ways and Noe lives there not Browne, so a lucky break for the pigeons of Boyle Heights.

Browne Molyneux

LA Eastside Outings: Taking Over, Part One

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A play about gentrification? Sounds like an outing for LA Eastsiders! We made our way across town to see if the play would live up to the hype. Did it? Read on…

First, a short summary of the play from the Kirk Douglas Theater website:

OBIE Award-winning solo artist Danny Hoch returns to Center Theatre Group with his riveting new work, Taking Over, a show that brings to vivid life the residents of his Brooklyn neighborhood.

In rapidly changing Williamsburg, the melting pot is boiling over with strained ethnic relations and economic tensions—and the threat of gentrification, which threatens to crush the city’s diversity. Hoch masterfully depicts this community in transition with compassionate and hilarious results.

Read more at the Danny Hoch website. Taking Over ends February 22, that’s Sunday! Oh, and don’t bother watching the opening night video clip on the Kirk Douglas website, lame.

Reviews below, more coming tomorrow…

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Mas Revolucion!

VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
Official Message from Department of Homeboy SecurityNorth Eastern Division, to the Eastside Front
This Latest Communiqué from the Headshopquarters of General Chavo!
→All Troops to Remain on Brown Alert!

  • Warm up the Armored Taco Trucks!
  • Alert the Fundamentalist Eastside Radical group “The Tacoban” (AL Pastor is Great!)
  • Load the Elote Launchers!
  • Confirm enemy spy sighting rumors- (Huell Howser)
  • Beware of infiltration by over-rated Westside Street art! (Shepard Fairy)
  • Lindsay Lohan sightings
  • Confirm rumors that someone has asked if the Tortilla Chips are “Organic” at El Mercado on First Street.
  • Aprehend any persons working on their Laptops while sitting in the patio at “El Tepeyac

In case of enemy invasion=retreat to the secret caves located in the Montebello & Rose Hills! General Chavo is to be Frozen Cryogenetically as a Giant Paleta de Nués to be thawed out at a future date!
Please Report immediately to command post if you observe any of the following suspicious activities taking place in the Eastside!:

  • Increased number of Dog Walkers on the Eastside and purebred doggy poop landmines
  • Sightings of baby strollers costing more than $9.99
  • 2 year olds wearing designer Dr. Marten’s shoes
  • Ask for Identification of anyone wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt
  • The opening of one-word named boutiques
  • Be suspicious of anything with the faux distressed look (highly redundant to E.L.A.)
  • If you are captured, eat this message cooked in a spicy Mole Poblano Sauce!End Message

I’ll give you a tour for 30 cents. The Bridges of LA.

Me and my friend BusTard were going to Alcanzando La Historia (a tour of the 4th, 6th, and 1st Street Bridges) put on by the LA Conservancy, but then we found out it was thirty dollars.

And in order to get the tickets I had to go down to smug SCI-Arc where everyone uses hyphens and parentheses for no reason and then I just was like, well how about I just do my own tour.

And killjoy, I mean BusTard was like, I’m not even doing this.

Don’t get me wrong I like SCI-Arc they are perfectly arty and shit. I love them and their little “I think interior design should be pragmatic. I made this kitchen slash bathroom while on a sabbatical in Amsterdam. My parents are quite wealthy you know, though I look as though I don’t shower. That is all for dramatic effect. So in my kitchen slash bathroom you take a shit and then the shit is put through this cleanser made from formerly used naturally clean apple scented ‘i care more the earth than you, so i drive a prius’ dishwashing liquid (20 dollars at Trader Joes) and slowly excreted into a mini kitchen garden as fertilizer, which vegetables and fruit you clean using your own urine, sanitized of course in a completely eco manner. I call it Re (U)-S-E/Re (P)-O-O.”

Re(U)-S-E/Re(P)-O-O
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