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.
I like her too… As community we’ve all been talking about this issue and it’s so funny you mention you were working on a gentrification story but she beat you to it, I said exactly the same thing!!! (working on a video) which touches a little on the issues we we’re talking about yesterday…
On Cinthia, she had no idea her rant brought on so much attention, I just showed her the sites blogging about her post. She said she was riding through Echo Park and started noticing some similarities in her own community… from a teenager’s POV
quack…it makes me cry now with little chance of me laughing later :/
Well whether gentrification has occured or not, I do not know; I never lived in BH & rarely visit. And you’re right, her article is reactionary. It does not give much besides the fact that she does not want BH to become “Hipster nation.” I feel that altough you may dislike the hipster (whatever he/she is), the hipster is not the sole effector of gentrification. I know that their arrogant, ahistorical, insouciant air can rub us broke people the wrong way, but they are what they are.
It takes also property owners that only care for the bottom line and would not think twice to kick out current residents for higher-paying tenants. The crux of the issue is that housing in a capitalist society is profit-driven, not need-driven. Thus I feel that gentrification is in a way inevitable when a certain neighborhood becomes desirable to the upwardly mobile. Money talks, and bullshit walks. The irony is that some of the things that gentrification brings are actually things the curent residents may want: better grocery stores, better restaurants, better street conditions, less crime.
The balance as always is how to retain the current residents couple with better living conditions. A front against gentrification is really a piece-meal attack on capitalism and how housing, social-geography functions within it. Much creativity is needed to fight something that is a part of our current social system.
Julio, I’m not broke and hipsters rub me the wrong way, too. I could afford to move into a gentrified area. I choose not to. So there’s such thing as a disdain for gentrification and hipsters that isn’t rooted in being some kind of angry hater who’s low on cash.
Uh, we’ve been talking about gentrification since this blog started way back in 2008, it was one of the reasons this blog was started. See the first two years of the archives and you can find debate after debate about gentrification.
I don’t agree with a lot of your post Erick, I don’t have the time to get into it now but basically gentrification comes down to class and who has the money and access to property ownership and mobility. Gentrification is predicated on the DISPLACEMENT of a group of people. I don’t see many Chicanos displacing other folks in BH. They are just growing up and choosing to stay in their neighborhoods…finally!
As a partly white person living in a historically settled immigrant community (Highland Park), I have the same issue as Cinthia does to an influx of a new group, and I think one thing she should have put is her backstory, and why her reaction is so ‘reactionary.’ She lives in the Wyvernwood Apartments, which for most people, is the projects. The interesting thing is that with an influx of interested investors, there has not been an exodus of people by choice, but more by force. She and many of my students are facing eviction, by raising in rent and other such methods. This is why she would not be grateful or happy, because when she sees this outside influence existing in, but not really trying to coexist with, then she has a reason to be mad.
I think Random is onto something here, because what sets the gentrification of Boyle Heights apart is that it is not the kind of ethnic displacement you see in places like the Mission or Williamsburg. It reminds me more of the way young, educated Jews have been attracted to the Lower East Side and have opened hip businesses there, partly because of the allure of its Jewish past.
I’m not sure if Cinthia meant “white” when she said “hipster.” I agree with what Chimatli is saying about the difference being that Chicanos are deciding to stay in BH, except being at Roosevelt I see that there is a certain amount of displacement happening, because families are leaving Boyle Heights and the enrollment is dropping. The young people that choose to stay, come back or move in are not necessarily displacing these families, but for whatever reason there are fewer kids. Cities with fewer kids are usually pretty gentrified – San Fran, Cambridge, Berkeley, Santa Monica.
I think Chimatli is correct, but too sanguine. The reason why Chicanos are staying around is because gentrification is happening. It’s a global phenomenon, and it’s not quite clear why it’s happening – but I think it’s related to globalization and post-industrial society.
Julio, spot on as usual.
I understand that banks and developers working in conjunction with s-‘elected’ officials, plan out the future of certain areas many years before the people living there even know what is happening. I can say this having been at a public meeting where Huizar stated that the plans for the 1st Arts District was already passed years before he actually helped artists open up a spot.
(gentrification always starts with an art-district,zone,corridor,alley and artists)
They are implementing the various stages of gentrification.
This is an urban development plan that many cities emulate all over the world.
It benefits the elites as usual and ensures the status quo because it enrolls more people in keeping values that, as usual, benefit the elites.
So what do the the banks, the land owners, the developers and the politricians want?
They want Xikano Hipsters to open up their cool ethnic spots. They will even hook you up to make sure there are doors open with hip, young, smart, educated, trendy people of the local ethnic group. They went to college and came back home. I’m one of them.
That is stage one.
The next stage is to raise rents and get the poor folk out at the speed of a slow bleed, so no one notices. The Xikano hipster spots start doing better and better business as more folks exactly like them, support them. Some of them, bring their non local friends and show them what there is on this side of the river. These friends along with the Xikano hipsters move in (they weren’t locals returning from school) and some even buy. Now these new homeowners will also want their equity to rise and their property value to increase so they will vote for laws that improve the ‘quality of life.’ Xikano Mayberry, per se.
But then, stage three kicks in.
One by one each Xikano spot has it’s rents raised and threats of being kicked out become reality. Almost immediately others with more money are ready to move in and replace the Xikano spots. Again slowly unless you have managed to get this place have some coolness. Good music scene and bars.
(the only obstacle to great bars in BH, and we will see how this plays out very soon, is that all bars on 1st street are beer and wine. when the zoning changes or a bar opens on that strip with a full bar you will know its almost game over.)
A good music scene and good bars are the grease of gentrification.
This is all manipulated by the banks, developers, land owners and their s-‘elected’ officials; that smooth the people over with promises of no pot holes, tough on crime, and all that -while they plan how and where the Barnes & Noble will have its own building built to their cookie cutter specifications.
Its a plan. It’s been done in so many places.
Can we stop it?
Yes.
Somos Boyle Hts.
Boyle Heights is seriously facing gentrification on many levels…. Hipsters, Class, Race, Developers & Property owners, but I keep trippin off the Xicano Hipsters.
Ive seen Xicanos get out of college and become “conscious” and then do all the same things the middle class been doin and what the poor folk wanna be doin. The Movimiento becomes a trend of where to be seen with who and what u got on. Its the same things the mainstream does but in a “Revolutionary” way. Not everybody rockz it like that, cuz i seen sum down azz folk, but there are enough folk that are doin it like that and move outta what eva part of town they live in to consolidate themselves in a single community like BH. If everybody wants to move to BH, even if ur brown, then that kicks up the demand which brings speculation and prices up not far behind. Who suffers? The working class that arent visiting on a “Activists Passport”. If ur born n raised in the community u come back to, then there aint much to be said there, but Kudos and do ur community right! However, when u leave behind ur hood to get down with another hood cuz u dont like the “vibe” where u were born & raised then somethin is wrong there. This is especially problematic when we claim to be conscious cuz we should be puttin in time on the front lines of our home community where we know what needs to happen, but too often we head to the community that already has a movement up and runnin already. Im all for solidarity, support, and reachin out to the fullest, FO SHO ON THAT! But why do people who want culture, consciousness, and community gonna go move some where else for it rather then build it at home? Get dirty people! Do ur thang where u at! Thats just like the Raza that leave the hood to move in to some White peoplez community cuz they dont wanna put it time to make it work. I understand the fear and anger issue, especially when u got kids that u lookin out for, but when its only u and ur doin it cuz its easier and its cooler… that aint not Movimiento there!
Be inspired by other communities, support & hang out with other communities, but when its up to u… build in the community u know! Upwardly mobile brown college kids that used to be from the hood but now got an education and got opportunities on their table can seriously hurt poor communities of color when they move in so they can have a Cultural Exploration moment. The hood isnt nobodys space to experiment, not even if ur a person of color, cuz there sum real poor folk that got few opportunities and are just tryin to make it by and dont need nobody F’n up there community space. I know people may think they aint messin it up, but thats just it… they not thinkin!
I believe Gentrification is seriously deeply related to people with power like the developers, property owners, and the creepy hipster kids thats may or may not have money but usually roll with White privilege which gets them access and benefits in almost any case. However, if we as people of color are gonna handle this funkiness then we cant be blind to how privilege in other aspects of our identities may hurt the work that we are tryin to do in the communties we love, even though we may call it “organizing”. I already know that Rich White Folk are likely to be messin things up for me in my hood, so I dont need fashionably hip Xicanos movin in to cruise the hood and hit the cool spaces and socialize to build their “movement” cuz that aint no movement, thats just Raza trendyness. Im sure the same fits for BH. I know BH has its home grown organizers so it doesnt need any transplants, but it can use some love and solidarity from the communities we ride from. Live in ur community, secure property rights & renters rights for community members, buy from ur community shops, skip the corporate spots that kill community culture, build up ur community culture & movement and lend ur support to other communities. If we link up on this level then we dont gotta worry about each other and can focus on those people with all the money and power that we should really be targeting.
Dear Gentrification,
I read the article Cinthia wrote about gentrification and I understand her point but have to disagree with her. I want gentrification in ELA/BH/City Terrace. I am an educator who bought a home, is raising a family, and teaches in the ELA community. I am an educated Latino who wants to see the community thrive like it should. I don’t want to see vendors selling “stuff†on the street because that trash ends up on my lawn, who wants that? I want to take my kid on walks through the neighborhood and not run into kids tagging on schools, trees, and or sidewalks (that isn’t street art). I want to see more business in my community who cater to my needs. I would love to walk and get coffee or have breakfast near by instead driving to Eagle Rock or Echo Park. I would like to sit on the patio of a restaurant on Cesar Chavez and have lunch. I want to see OUR community reach its potential. But, I know it won’t unless more hipsters, educated, people with a sense of community move here! And the reason I don’t think ELA will ever be gentrified is because many folks who live here, don’t own, so they won’t take pride in the community. If they did, I don’t think I would see signs that are advertising businesses on the window of the houses I pass by…seriously. ELA is awesome, why do so many people want to make it look so desolate?
Boyle Heights may be hip, but Elysian Valley is waaayyy hipper. And a nicer place to live. No one knows about us yet!
I’m really sick of the word ‘hipster’. Its just a code word for affluent young white people. If that’s the group of people you don’t want in Boyle Heights just own your words and say it. Stop hiding behind a code word.
Chusma comes in all shapes, shades, and sizes. It has taken many years to clean up our streets. There is still alot of work to be done. Everyone is welcome to Boyle Heights. Just don’t disrespect, because we will kick you out. cHUSMA!, cHUSMA!…pst.!
Hipster, Xikano Xispter who gives a fuck it’s all bullshit. Where are these hipsters that come to BH disrespecting our culture, over paying for rent, kick out the poor and disrespect your abulela? Do they live on Chavez, Mott, Whittier? Give me a concrete example of where in BH this has happend? Like I mention on the RR blog I live a cross the street from a few and I don’t see how they’re messing anything up. This town used to be the most diverse area and now its one of the most segrigated. You know who I do see screwing this place up, the people who’ve been living here. (now I’m about to piss off a lot of people off but it needs to be said). Hipsters aren’t ruining our culture we are. I’m fucking tired of the woe is me the mans keeping us down, they’re screwing our people and ruining our lives. I don’t subscribe to that, it’s not hipsters or investors that shoot at us or sell our kids drugs. It’s not the landlord that scribes the windows of store, it’s not “the man” who throws his elote core and the rest of his garbage all over the streets. Xikano hipsters aren’t the reason why too many of our teens don’t graduate high school. This isn’t silverlake or echo park hipsters don’t live here, hipsters haven’t degraded our homes, culture or community. When you’re all ready to have a real serious conversation I’m all ears but until then stop scapegoating.
quack.
Chris L, I think the young, affluent white people benefit from the “hipster” description more than it obscures some kind of alleged reverse-racism by long time residents.
“Hipster” sounds harmless, like they’re cool, like they’re there to just be down with whatever is there. I just call them yuppies because that’s what most of them really are. I remember in the ’80s they used to always talk about yuppies taking over San Francisco, boy were they ever right. I think the term “hipster” is more propagated by the developers than anyone, to disguise the fact that it’s mainly young, well off people who are moving in, and there’s really very little “hip” about them.
I’m a middle class pocho and remember my mom taking us shopping to Brooklyn (before it became Cesar Chavez) and Soto in the mid 1980’s to early 90’s.
I haven’t been in the area in well over 2 yrs now.
why? because i have no need for the area it doesnt serve a need for/to me perhaps only for nostalgia sake and to grab a bite to eat.
I do have a couple friends that live in the area- the latino one lives near Soto and Chavez and for him its about convenience close to downtown and his job and the rents are reasonable.
The other friend is african american and lives in Lincoln Heights and he also lives there because of convenience and the lower rents.
Bottom line this whole gentrification thing is really a socioeconomic problem- the haves taking out the have nots and yes because we live in a capitalist country.
Everyone wants to be and do better in life.
I was born in City Terrace/ El Sereno area (in the low flat lands part not the hills) not too far from that Mc Donalds near CSULA.
I now live in Montebello and thats after stints in Santa Monica and New York City.
From what ive read online the most recent and perfect example of gentrification in the BH is that drug store that is replacing the Big Buy grocery store.
I am happy that there is a the near by metro goldline stop at Soto and 1st street- thats definitely a big catalyst for what some people call change i rather call it improvement.
anyways everything has a price and one has to decide if the benefit is worth the sacrifice.
– social responsibility
El Batmanuel says:
March 30, 2011 at 12:13 pm
This town used to be the most diverse area
…………….
Was this before or after The Battle of Los Angeles?
When the beach areas and foothills and large parts of the OC start worrying about how segregated they are then I will worry about how segregated BH is.
@RobThomas
Are you trying to say BH was not more diverse than it is today?
It is true, as pointed out on another blog, that Boyle Heights was heavily Jewish before it was heavily Latino. I have driven by an old temple out there. The Jews probably came on the heels of Asians and Okies and Arkies.
So does any group have a exalted claim to the territory?
So the consensus then is that BH is gentrified and/or in that very process right now, hipsters have nothing to do with it, it’s coming from all the money makers and shot callers like Huizar, landlords and banks, that well intentioned “community activist” end up bringing in more outsiders than actually helping the community and that when it comes down to things like this, I should pick my words more carefully. Gotcha.
I actually agree with ERH post, it will be Boyle Heights own native sons and daughters who change the demographics of the community. Typically first and second generation Americans are more prosperous than their immigrant parent and grandparents. They also tend to have less children. So recent immigrants that use to make up the large majority of residence of BH are decreasing, being priced out by their own children. As for hipsters or yuppies that are coming into the area, yup, thats the same upwardly mobile children that they grew up here. Its sort of ironic, that as community has seen improvements that it long desired, those improves threaten to push the traditional residents of the area out. Lets face it, it use to be that kids grew up and moved to an out laying suburb like Montebello, La Puente, West Covina, for safer street and better schools. The streets are safer than in previous decades and there are more school options, so there isnt as much need to people to move out. But considering there is a limited housing supply, there isnt as many housing options of new residents. We want people growing up in BH to be upwardly mobile, the sons and daughters of low wage working class are becoming teachers, nurses, and other middle class professions and having fewer children, changing the demographics of the area. I don’t think its for the worst. I think keeping the area the same as it was during the 90s would be worse. But i think these improvements have their unintended results. I tend to roll my eyes when people talk about gentrification of BH only because it doesn’t quite fit the traditional definition gentrification and using it bring incorrect connotations about whats going on. I like this arguments above, i do think that the community is divided on it. There are those who local residents who applaud what is going on. Where others feel threaten by the prospect of whats to come.
I wonder what the Japanese and Jewish families thought when all the Chicano families started buying up homes in their neighborhood and moving in? I wonder what the white people thought when the Japanese and Jewish families did the same? If only they had comment threads back then…
Neighborhoods belong to those who live there and want to make it a good place to live. If you want to stay, then stay! If you want to move, then sell your property (for a profit) to someone who wants to live there and move on to greener pastures. That’s what each generation has done. Why is it so controversial now?
The only people who really feel like they’re being “forced out” are the ones living in subsidized housing, paying $400/mo in rent, thanks to the generosity of all us taxpayers who pay market rate for our rent AND subsidize theirs. It’s not like all poor/working folks have access to that. So why do a few select families get that advantage?
Mexican-American Boyle Heights has a right to exist.
please read and learn from this paper
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:CqIKQLIw_qoJ:departments.oxy.edu/uepi/uep/studentwork/05comps/avila-hernandez.pdf+development+plan+boyle+heights&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg5N7-l0-XTIR8VVnH7KPmyeGsrh8IeYtcm-rh1v29BdmfpKwtgngKevvfKW3xhofEse34D9wuv3mTW8eh8CsPSU1vJ4quJdZtpW8J8VG7k_bcsirqwI-ImZyYDaV_j9Li5KuGj&sig=AHIEtbTiNrDF86AQXTNDadGVkrH_sTKC8w
page 49 begins the section on Gentrification
I think P-3000 hit the nail on the head with this comment:
“When the beach areas and foothills and large parts of the OC start worrying about how segregated they are then I will worry about how segregated BH is.”
The difference between what happened with the Jewish community in BH and what could potentially happen to the lower income residents that currently live there, is that the Jewish folks with money CHOSE to leave BH, they were not pushed out. The folks that couldn’t afford to leave or didn’t want to, they stayed. The Zellman’s on Cesar Chavez are an example.
The forces that affect or drive gentrification have to do with money and class and in Los Angeles, this is inextricably bound up in race.
It’s frustrating to read the comments that can’t see some of these nuances but then again, we are trained in this society not to.
@ p3000- I read that a couple of years ago. Just like you shouldn’t believe everything you heard don’t believe everything you read. I prefer to take in inormation think about it critically, fact check and make my own conclusion. I could write pages on her gentrification section but I’ll try and keep this short. She defines gentrification as high income people displacing low income people, this happens in 3 stages. 1. The purchase and rehabilitation of property, 2. The displacement of low income people and 3. New residents have a low tolerance for social services, old resident, faith and culture are displaced. She then says that gentrification often occur fast because developers are encouraged to build through tax break ( implying the rich are subsidized) and that all of BH is designated as a revitalization area. Give me a solid concrete example of where these 3 stages have occured in BH, not even the Wyvenwood apartments can claim that these thing have happend. It been years since an investment group bough them, no construction or rehab has occured and there isnt a group of people moving in the who are intolerant of the culture there. She then goes on to say the sears towers luxury condos and the new residents of those are the driving force behind the building of the hollenbeck police station because they demand more safety. 1. What sears towers lux condos that deal never materialized it was presumptive to say that the new resident are demanding anything and it’s flat out incorrect to imply they are the reason we got a new police station. She goes on to tell a story about how a El Salvadorian family was displaced by the gold line and how she met a “2 white guys… Dressed in hip vintage rocker look and looked no older than 25” walking a dog and how they obviously weren’t from the area because 1. They told her where they lived and 2. Dared to enter hollenbeck park at night. Then she implies that these are the typesof people who caused the El Salvadorians to lose their home. No matter if she was right or wrong this is just prejudice, she judged them by how they looked and where they walked their dog not based on who they were, what they believed never mind their intentions or attitudes towards the neighborhood.
However there’s one thing I do agree with her on “the real issue is that the community is entitled to revitalize their neighborhood through quality jobs that allow working class people to live out of poverty, quality housing that’s affordable, a college education, a clean neighborhood as well as medical care”. Like I said before this is the real issue that we should have 20+ replies on a blog about not hipster gentrification, spinning our wheels on hipsters doesnt get us closer to achieving social justice.
Rob Thomas said ” Mexican-American Boyle Heights has a right to exist” I absolutely 100% agree but so does a Mex-American, caucasian-American, Asian-American, African American Boyle Heights. No one group gets to claim this area and say that another cant live here. When I read all this anti outsider talk about who should and shouldn’t be allowed in Boyle Height it pisses me off because the true nuance to that argument is that the poor Latino community of Boyle Heights likes the way things are nice and segregated we don’t want out siders (other races or other classes) in our neighborhood all your going to do is screw things up for us. That stance is straight up prejudice and racist.
To all the citizens of LA and other area reading this blog and looking to live in Boyle Heights I say to you as a 3rd generation BH resident please come to our community with good intentions together we can solve The real issues facing us right now. There are many of us who want to see people of every class and race living side by side, we believe that diversity truly enriches the community. All ARE WELCOME IN Boyle Heights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll5uF05SV3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I’m just not buying the “whoa is me” defense of hipsters. Even if they are entirely oblivious to the concept of gentrification, it’s all the more reason for someone to enlighten them on it.
I have my doubts as to if there is really such thing as a hipster, yuppie, or any gentrification transplant that doesn’t, at least in their sub-conscience, know what’s going on, anyway. Our criminal justice system doesn’t accept the excuse of ignorance. It’s your responsibility to know the law. So, I wouldn’t blame a community organization or activist(s) for applying the same standard to people ignorant of the issues they take seriously.
If a person is unliked, I truly believe that they know why they are unliked. They just have no intention of changing what people don’t like about them, so it’s easier to pretend that they don’t know where the resentment is coming from. It’s an old game. And that is clearly the hole card of many arrogant gentrification transplants, and it’s transparent.
El Batman, we’re not attempting to equate the modern day gentrification transplant to the black person of Martin Luther King’s era with that link, are we?
Nope. Just countering the stupid idea that racial groups should keep their neighborhoods segregated, I believe the line from the fictional hollywood hero was something like ” we should keep our neighborhood black, just like the Jews, the Italians and the Mexicans…”
Just juxtaposing that with a speech from a real hero who fought for social integration, tolerance, justice and diversity.
The comment you left after that video link just screams of intolerance of whites. Replace the code words you used hipster, yuppie and gentrification with any other racial description and maybe you’ll notice just how horrible it sounds.
Well I apologize then, El Batman. Lord knows I wouldn’t want to offend white people. They have it worse than anyone in America.
Unlike the historical “Anglo” peoples who came to Los Angeles during the latter part of the 19th century and took power and instituted both legal and de facto segregation, the Mexican American communities always accepted other diverse ethnic peoples in thier communities and still do. The problem is that in the “Anglo ” ethnic makeup there always seems to be a sense of impatience, and entitlement when they gain enough population to start to organize and re-organize the communities they moved into. This almost instinctual drive to group and organize for thier own interests and cultural mores has been evident wherever they decide to reside after thier numbers are sufficient. I have witnessed this not only in Los Angeles where it has been referred to as “manifest destiny”, urban renewal aka building freeways for a better future aka working class homes in the way of progress and industry among various titles.
Sometimes starts with the local schools organizations being attacked (and always sold as a good thing for all ), local politicians and leaders slandered as croooked thieves and idiots, ect; ect; ect;
I have also seen this “anglo” organizational ferver take place numerous times in the small beautiful mountain pueblos of New Mexico where recent “anglo” population shifts have little by little taken over from the native population.
I heard recently from the lips of one so called friend, a recent anglo immigrant, who actually invited me to a meeting of other recent anglo immigrants in New Mexico.
The group was being organized to throw thier support behind a group of anglo politicians running for office against the incumbent Chicano political leaders.
This “friend” actually told me that thier efforts were to get rid of the old “Spanish Mafia” politicians.
It can and has happened here, be welcoming but on constant guard.
We need to unravel some of what’s going on, and break it down into the constituent parts: property owners, buyers, landlords, tenants. Behind each transaction there are factors like jobs, banks that provide mortgages, rental markets, and laws.
If you scratch past the surface, it starts to all look like zoning, city planning, redevelopment companies (that are being phased out), developers, and a lot of politics.
If you want to talk LA gentrification, it’s useful to look at some community histories.
Bunker Hill – that project started in the 1950s, and almost finished up a few years ago – some 50 years later.
Little Tokyo, which used to run from City Hall all the way down to 8th street. If you know LA, you know it’s mostly warehouses, some factories, and skid row. Well, that used to be a residential, mixed ethnic ghetto and also skid row.
Chavez Ravine. You all know that story of good intentions gone awry. An old community was torn down, considered blighted, and the plan was to build public housing there. That failed due to politics, and a few years later, the land was given to the Dodgers.
Chinatown – the 1870 race riots. The movement of Chinatown from Union Station to its current location in the late 1930s. (Note, this kind of displacement was possible because all the residents there were renters – the Alien Land Laws prohibited ownership.)
Olvera Street and how it became restored. The birthplace of the city was neglected until the 1920s.
South Central Los Angeles and the segregation of the city into the South, East, and West.
The desegregation of the westside, as African Americans moved westward, and the reaction of white flight. Also, redlining – not loaning to people moving into specific neighborhoods because of excessive churn in the properties and decline of property values. (A practice which actually causes prices to decline.)
The construction of the segregated gateway cities in the book My Blue Heaven. How did the gateway cities change from White to Black and Brown. (And lead to the creation of African American gangs.)
Consider GI Bill and VA home loan programs.
And last but not least, look into HOPE VI, and Aliso Village, which, more than the hipsterization of BH, is probably the biggest thing that is causing gentrification of BH.
aH crap i forgot to mention the big map:
http://www.crala.org/internet-site/Projects/Adelante/Adelante_Eastside_Map.cfm
Adelante is the big project to redevelop the eastside.
Note the project commenced in 1999 and is scheduled to run through 2030. But with this economic slump, it might be drawn out a little longer.
But the Governor proposes to to away with all the CRAs including the Eastside, so these project may never materialize. Furthermore, redevelopment in the Eastside may never come. This may help prevent gentrification, but this will also cause fewer affordable housing options to become available in the incoming years, which would could also fuel gentrification.