…you know that resistance to gentrification is more crucial than ever. Thank you cops, for letting us know which side you are on.
As if we didn’t already know.
When Cops Favor Gentrification…
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Category Archives: gentrification
Fresco Community Market Is Worth A Visit
North East Los Angeles is full of wankers. Well maybe not full but teeming at the very least. They like to bitch and complain about how this area is great but if only it had this or that particular amenity they had grown accustomed to back in their old fancy community or generic suburb. Whenever I hear them whine (or mostly when I read their laments online) I want to poke them in the eyes, 3 Stooges style. Because for all that griping they are still never happy even when they get what they want. That seemed to be the case today when I finally visited this fairly new market in Hermon which was incredibly nearly empty of customers. Yes, I am arbitrarily going to use this visit to make some wild generalizations and to argue that catering to the monied hill people is a losing proposition.
A Sad Farewell, Requiem for a Palace, The Golden Gate Theater
This is the grand Golden Gate Theater of yesteryear. But grandeur fades. Icons wither, some more gracefully than others. The Golden Gate Theater in East Los Angeles, movie palace of my youth and once proud cornerstone of Whittier Blvd. Eastside culture, does not deserve to be remembered in this recently discovered undignified and disgusting state… Continue reading
Resistance Is Fertile: Hunger And Poverty Never Need A Permit aka ¡Fuck The Poor!
CicLAvia Boyle Heights Explorer Ride This Sunday
In case anyone hasn’t heard yet, the July Ciclavia has been canceled. As posted on their site, the need to expand is taking up all the time and resources so as to improve on the routes, safety for everyone, making it more pedestrian friendly etc. Read the blog post to find out what are some the things they’re working on for the Oct. ride, which includes an expansion into Boyle Heights and South Central. The two proposed routes are available for folks to check’em out and they look awesome.
As part of the expansion process, the Boyle Heights exploratory ride will take place this Sunday at 11 a.m. at Libros Schmibros !! Community residents, including myself, have been attending the expansion meetings and chiming in with our two cents as to what makes BH great and destinations and routes outsiders will enjoy when crossing over the river. The route expands starting at Boyle street taking all of 1st. street down to Lorena. On Euclid will then connect folks to Whittier Blvd. and end at Salazar Park, which turns into LA County. If you know BH, then you all the restaurants, historical and cultural landmarks that found all along this route. See ya Sunday and rsvp on the facebook event page for any last minute changes on meeting location or time.
Libros Schmibros
El Dedo: Brand X
I wish I had the time to be more articulate. Or the patience to be more patient. In these times of La Crisis and economic uncertainty I find that I have to economize on words: can’t be wasting them on any old thing. But believe me that I have words, big bags of them, waiting to get poured out in a flood of meaning when I can figure out how to fit it into my schedule. Just cuz I ain’t saying nothing don’t mean I’m not thinking stuff. Thoughts cross my mind at all hours of the day, sometimes making me laugh for no reason, sometimes getting me upset like a mofo at some joker that deserves it. At some point I will have to squeeze in a bout of insanity to my busy life just to mete out my version of comeuppance.
Until that fateful day arrives I’ve come up with a quick and easy solution to deal with this problem that keeps gnawing at me, and I’m gonna call it El Dedo. (Yes, The Finger.) What unifies this fine series of posts? Well, the fact that I will give the finger to people, projects, and papers that sorely deserve it! Isn’t that kinda petty and juvenile? But of course!
I am equipped to tolerate lots of abuse but I am sick of these posers moving to LA and a few month later deciding to rename the city, calling everything East of where they feel comfortable the “Eastside.” We were making some headway on informing these newbies that the Eastside has a long history in Los Angeles and that it begins East of the river but lately there’s been another skirmish in that battle with lots of naive offenders once again writing us off the map, thinking they can dismiss El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and Boyle Heights as being simply part of East LA. Nah fool, we ain’t having it.
The honor of the initial post to this series goes to that shitty paper with the even shittier title of “Brand X” which has been consistent in their renaming of the Eastside strategy, even though their mothership the LA Times thinks otherwise.
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.
No Rush Hour Turns on Soto/1st street
Part of me feels bad that I didn’t do this post the first day I noticed these new traffic signs last year. A bigger part of me could care less about people getting tickets for not paying attention to road signs. Now, another part of me started feeling like ok, maybe I should say something about the new “no left/right turn” during rush hour signs. And now another part of me is hungry, there’s just no winning. Continue reading
Casa del Mexicano in foreclosure ?
While I don’t have the time to fully look into this right now, school and college apps beckon, I still figured it’s worth mentioning to everyone, as it’ll probably go main stream pretty soon as well. La Opinion has done a few stories and reports that the center is in foreclosure proceedings from a loan taken out in 2006 and failure to make payments by the directors Martha and Ruben Soriano. A group calling themselves the Committee to save the Casa del Mexicano have been in talks with Jose Huizar to get the husband and wife outed from their positions and to save the center. There’s a bunch of drama going on right now and it’s hard to say what’s really going on because even La Opinion is having a hard time making sense of it. The place has seen a lot of bad days and it’s not in the best of conditions, despite the new murals painted.
Give those ghoulitos some candy!
These two Westside chicks screwed up and told a Chicano cabdriver they wanted to go to the Eastside and party but they were thinking along the lines of Glendale Blvd and Silverlake. Homeboy, like any OG Chicano, took them across the LA River to the real Eastside, to N. Main and Ave 19 site of the infamous “Club Silencioâ€- where to their chagrin and terror – they ran into “La Llorona de Los Angeles.” This La Llorona apparition sure is fine though. Nothing like the “White Lady†chillona, covered with green moss and stinking of LA River water that many of us chavalo’s remember. Cuidado you gentrifiers!
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Protesting Whitmans East L.A. Office
No one really likes Meg Whitman, for numerous reasons. So she got the bright idea to open up an office in East L.A. to ‘target’ the Latino community. Frankly, if you’re ‘Latino’ and are voting for Whitman, then your off your rocker. Her office has been picketed since day one and almost once a week by unions, orgs or people that just plain don’t like her. It’s become a regular thing, so much so that her office staff have started counter-protesting. It’s quite hilarious.
Rent Control Hearing
From the website Coaliton for Economic Survival:
LA’s Rent Control law is in danger of being undermined, resulting in tenants receiving major rent increases and potentially losing their homes. Turnout is greatly needed this Wednesday, SEPT 29 at 7:00 am, Room 350, City Hall at the City Council Housing, Community & Economic Development (HCED) Committee. We encourage you to get there at 7:00 am to ensure getting in the hearing room. Landlords will try to pack the room.
The HCED Committee hearing on the new rent control proposals could result in major rent hikes to tenants. Please attend this hearing to help SAVE RENT CONTROL!
For more information regarding this proposal, please follow this link: Coalition for Economic Survival Action Alert
Wednesday, SEPT 29 at 7:00 am
Room 350, City Hall at the City Council Housing, Community & Economic Development (HCED) Committee.
PDF link to proposal here.