Gentrification in Los Angeles
Throughout the entirety of this year, gentrification has been a major topic in most of our discussions. We have read, listened to podcasts, and discussed this topic for a while now and I to dive deeper to see the root problems of gentrification. We as a class have also learned about the effects it has on lower class communities. The podcast, There Goes the Neighborhood, talks about gentrification in various areas of Los Angeles and interviews the local people from those areas. During our last urban lab we visited Frogtown where gentrification can be seen as a problem for residents or an "up and coming" area for real estate.
While visiting Frogtown I saw how the area had changed since I was little and I am wondering if any of you have ever witnessed the transition of a neighborhood from a "dangerous area" to a place of "prime real estate"? How does gentrification affect local residents and their lifestyles and if applicable how does it affect you? Finally, what are your opinions on gentrification (do you feel it is more of a problem or as something that changes an area for the better)?
I’ve lived in Echo Park for my whole life, and it’s definitely undergone a complete transformation from when I was younger. When I was little, it was definitely still seen as a “bad part of town”– my parents moved there bc it was affordable and they liked that it was a fully working-class neighborhood with a distinct cultural identity, but they told me that a lot of their friends were super confused about why they would want to move to an area that was still generally seen as “dangerous.” Echo Park was depicted most often as the site of a lot of crime and poverty, and even its pop culture representations (for example, it was the setting of the TV show Harry Bosch) generally involved some grim, foreboding violence or hardship. A lot of the fear surrounding the neighborhood was influenced by racism and paranoia about gang violence. My friends’ parents used to seem sort of uncomfortable driving through the neighborhood, and sometimes made comments about the difficulty of the drive or how they’d never really been in the area so it was confusing. Now, though, the opposite is true– the neighborhood is considered trendy and hip, and a lot of Poly people go there to spend time at the lake or go to concerts. Gentrification has kind of overwhelmed the community– a lot of the old stores and restaurants are gone, replaced by the kinds of coffee shops and artisanal boutiques and even fast-food restaurants (ex. Chipotle) that never would have been here before. As a white person, my presence in the area is definitely part of the problem– but because my parents and I moved here a decade before gentrification started in earnest, I still feel more connected to the pre-gentrification neighborhood than today’s version, so I’m not really sure where I stand within the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe institutions and businesses that I spent time at as a kid aren’t here anymore, and there’s no longer any kind of fear or stigma attached to Echo Park from an outsider’s perspective. Inside echo park, though, I think there’s a new fear: the fact that the neighborhood is disappearing, being replaced by trendy young white people who see it as a blank canvas. I don’t think their intentions are bad; while developers might be trying to exploit the area, I think new residents are just looking to buy into what seems like a cutesy, arty neighborhood. That’s not to say it isn’t naive or over-simplistic, though; a lot of people don’t mind gentrification in Echo Park because it’s seen as urban development, part of the natural life cycle of any city. I think there’s a distinction to be made between sustainable, grassroots development (like increasing the number of locally-owned businesses, building nicer housing that’s still available to past residents, or making nicer parks) and gentrification, which is changing the demographics of the area. So yeah, I’m against gentrification and I’ve been thinking about it for a long time since it’s happening around me, but I don’t really know what the solution is.
While a neighborhood I have lived in has never been the direct subject of gentrification, I certainly have experienced it just for the simple fact that I live in Los Angeles. After visiting Frogtown and reading about how different artists are beginning to utilize the neighborhood’s prime real estate for their studios, I realized that an artist my family is very close with had been a part of that move - and did such around 6 years ago. I remember that he had always talked about how “even while the neighborhood is dangerous, it’s perfect for a studio” and feeling some sort of sense of fear when I visited because of what I had heard - even when it really wasn’t that bad at that point. Still, I’ve noticed how neighborhoods such as Frogtown in Los Angeles have changed even over just the last couple of years as spots that have shed their “dangerous” titles to the ever-so-trendy spots to open up the next coffee shop or yoga studio that attracts the residents moving into the new, modernly designed apartments sprawled out in each gentrifying community.
ReplyDeleteI, of course, believe that gentrification affects the residents of the areas being gentrified in ways I couldn’t really imagine - from being moved out, to not being able to afford new restaurants/places of hangout, to even not feeling welcome in their own neighborhoods. Regarding my own opinion on gentrification, I believe that it always differs. I mostly believe that it is a bad thing because of how it affects families who have been living in areas for a long amount of time and now have no place to go, but I also understand, based on some podcasts/discussions we have had, that some members of the community can actually benefit from it.
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ReplyDeletePersonally, I haven’t witnessed a necessarily “dangerous” area turn into a “place of prime real estate”, but I have witnessed gentrification in general. Especially since a decent amount of my friends live in the Highland Park/Mt Washington area I’ve seen how much the neighborhood has changed. Within the past decade, many new “trendy” restaurants/snack places have opened up making the area much more attractive. With the addition of various boutiques, thrift stores, and food trucks, Highland Park, and more specifically York Ave, has become the epitome of gentrification. I found this video of the gentrification in Highland Park that is interesting to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aURID4J4uZc
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, within the last 40ish years, Pasadena has also gone under major gentrification. From being known as the local Skid Row, Old Town is now a commercial hub. With high-end stores and shops, Old Town is definitely catered to a specific type of person. Additionally, with the opening of Arclight in 2010, Old Town saw a rise in number of visitors and as more shops continue to open, the number of tourists will only increase. Here’s a brief history of Old Town: https://www.oldpasadena.org/about/history-of-old-pasadena/
Finally, regarding my opinion on gentrification, like Lux, I think it varies depending on where it is and what's happening. If families are being forced out of their homes and local businesses are being shut down, then gentrification is not a good thing. However, if there is no harm done to any of the initial residents, then I feel like the community can sometimes benefit from gentrification.
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ReplyDeleteGoing off of Sophie's point, I think that people disregard how much Pasadena has undergone gentrification. While the changes have been fastest/most prominent in LA proper in places like Highland Park, Echo Park, Frogtown, DTLA, etc., there are areas around my house that have also become gentrified. Washington Blvd between about Lake and Allen was known for being a huge hub of Armenian, Latino, and Korean businesses/churches, but it has definitely gentrified. Near my house there has both been an influx of the "trendy" gentrification e.g. the Lavender and Honey coffee shop, Seed Bakery, or Bacchus Kitchen, but also increases in chain businesses like Domino's. (Bacchus Kitchen actually reminded me of the Cosa Buona affair in There Goes the Neighborhood, because the new owners kept the old, cool-looking Lebanese Kitchen sign and just changed the top from "Lebanese" to "Bacchus.") To be fair, many of the older businesses were notorious for money laundering etc (like these bakeries that would never have anyone in them and sometimes even fake cookies in the display cases but would still manage to stay in business for years). But I still wonder how the communities in my area have been impacted by the gentrification.
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in Pasadena for as long as I can remember, I feel like I’ve been shielded from seeing gentrification in action (probably because Pasadena is already so elitist). But then again, there are actually parts of Pasadena that we at Poly, as the frequenters of Old Town, the Rose Bowl, and the Paseo, don’t really ever consider. Particularly in the north, Pasadena is home to lower class and primarily minority neighborhoods. I just read a Quora thread that referred to the 210 as “the local DMZ” because it divided the poorer northern part of Pasadena from the wealthy areas. And though I haven’t heard or read about much happening in those poorer areas in the way of gentrification, I assume that’s just that naiveté and/or obliviousness that I mentioned earlier.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have no reference point, I can imagine that Frogtown used to be very different. As my group walked down the bike path to Spoke, we passed a complex of beautiful offices overlooking the path and the river where young women typed on laptops, both inside and outside the ample window space. The building was obviously new, and it was a striking departure from the Frogtown that longtime locals had described in the article we read to prepare for our urban lab. The influx of young creatives is, to me, a clear indicator of shifting neighborhood makeup and wealth distribution.
Personally, I think gentrification is an issue but I also believe that progress, which is basically inevitable, can be positive if we can find a way to allow everyone to partake in it equally. I’m not sure how that would be possible, but my first half-baked instinct might be some sort of rent control in combination with the building up and beautifying of neighborhoods so people aren't forced out of their homes??
I was born in LA, but when I was 5 years old I moved to Charlotte, NC and lived there until I was 10. Los Angeles got expensive at the time and before my parents chose to leave LA temporarily, they were deciding between Charlotte and Atlanta, Georgia. We had friends in Atlanta and my parents knew we would either end up one place or another. Atlanta in 2005 was still not particularly the “safest” city. Safety was one of many factors that helped navigate where our move would be and ultimately we chose Charlotte. If you look at Atlanta today, it is a much more gentrified city. More businesses are opening, more white people are moving in, Emory University is becoming more and more popular, the entertainment industry now thrives there, professional sports teams are now creating more revenue, apartments and condos are being erected and even rappers who come out of Atlanta are doing things in their communities that the city benefits from (Migos, Gucci Mane, Donald Glover). Everyone wants to get their hands on Atlanta as it grows more popular by the years. Today, when travelling to Atlanta, I am typically there to visit my mom while she is directing on a set. My mother definitely feels more comfortable with me going out, exploring and running errands in and around Atlanta; however, this is not something that would have been necessarily appropriate even thirteen years ago.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the last question, I want to be frank. Gentrification is most definitely an issue as we have been repeating over the course of the class. There are times, however, when the multiple discussions of gentrification sicken me. It honestly makes me feel weird to know that we are living our privileged lives and coming to Poly to simply just “talk” about gentrification rather than actually doing anything about it. I know people who are directly affected and it hurts to think about everything we could be doing with our time to advocate for those who need help. While I don’t know precisely what that might look like, I have noticed that we talk about gentrification A LOT. Perhaps we can dedicate time to at least discuss what we can do to better understand gentrification and our role in it. Not a criticism, just an observation.
From just the time I started high school to now, my neighborhood, and the neighborhoods around my neighborhood have completely changed. Obviously this gentrification was happening long before I started paying attention to it ( which speaks to my privilege for sure), but I have really seen it take off in the last couple years. North east LA, specifically highland park has totally changed from when I was younger- like Sophie said there's now all these trendy vegan restaurants/coffee shops, vintage stores, bars, music venues etc. Subsequently, house values have skyrocketed and people have moved into the surrounding areas like Lincoln Heights, Mt Washington, Cypress Park etc. A lot of my neighbors recognized this and pretty quickly decided to sell their houses. We've had 4 new neighbors on my street just this year.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have a weird relationship with gentrification. And tbh I'm constantly confused about where I stand in relationship to gentrification. For one thing, I've lived in NELA all my life, and my parents moved here in the late 80s so while I'm sure they displaced someone somehow in their move, it still sorta feels like this is where my family is "from." And when Highland Park started to gentrify, my family definitely went to "check out" the new restaurants and stuff so we contributed to that in a sense. But at the same time, we never stopped going to the places that we've known forever (most of which are better anyways haha) and we are very wary, especially recently, of how and where we spend our money. Also, and I'm not trying to call anyone out, but something I was thinking about was how in middle school, whenever I would hang out with friends it would never be in my neighborhood, and then as I got into high school, and as my neighborhood changed, my friend group also "randomly" began to expand where we hung out. So I think that's sorta interesting- why are we more comfortable in certain environments? What is making gravitate to certain places and not others?
I've lived in the same house on East Altadena Drive, a predominantly upper-middle class neighborhood, my entire life. It was only within the past couple of years that I recognized the drastic geographic segregation of Altadena marked by Lake Ave, and discovered that I truly didn't know the vast majority of my city. My parents were initially drawn to Altadena because of its affordable yet old Hollywood-esque houses hidden in the foothills - the type of romanticized LA dreamscape we've talked about in class. On North Lake new businesses like Cafe de Leche, a novelty coffee shop frequented by new, millennial neighbors, and the recently renovated Ralph's serve as examples of gentrification in Altadena. I'm sure that at some point my block was gentrified in order for it to have become what it is today, but I don't know enough about its history to provide in-depth detail.
ReplyDelete@Cole Gentrification certainly poses an issue in LA, but I'm wondering how it could be avoided? I see gentrification as an inevitable byproduct of city-living - that it's a matter of regulating it as opposed to stopping it. I want to echo your call to change the way we discuss gentrification in class. Maybe we can talk about Prop 10.
I personally have not witnessed the transition of a neighborhood. I think gentrification affects local residents and their lifestyles because they become displaced. There are plenty of definitions of gentrification. For example, the displacement of residents is one. Another perspective is gentrification as a process of renewal. Another explains gentrification as a change in a place’s character. All in all, gentrification can be defined as an overarching “neighborhood change.” Gentrification can begin when the price of city housing decreases to the point where outsiders buy homes to convert it to a higher value. The wealthy search for neighborhoods near the city so they do not have to drive as far. Once gentrification begins, neighborhoods often are portrayed as family friendly to attract more people, which increases the speed of the process of gentrification.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are a lot of pros and cons, I think gentrification has cons that outweigh the pros. As an influx of different classes enters a neighborhood, increases in rent and property lead to changing the lives of the less privileged by evicting them. Moreover, when one redevelops the architecture of a certain area, we possibly lose the historical importance of the older buildings. The uniqueness that a community has is also lost through gentrification because the neighborhoods all serve to a certain demographic, therefore the neighborhoods become monotonous. In addition, local businesses are affected because as more businesses enter a gentrified area, competition increases which leads to small businesses facing bankruptcy. Finally, I believe gentrification destroys the “culture” of an area. People lose their homes, and therefore the sense of community is lost between the residents.
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ReplyDeleteI have lived in Pasadena my whole life so I cannot say I have personally experienced my neighborhood turn from a "dangerous area" to a place of "prime real estate." However, I do have a close friend who lives in an area that was once deemed a "dangerous area." Since I was five years old, I would often visit my friend who lives in Echo Park. While in recent years house prices may have over doubled and a local coffee shop (The Fix **Now the Pollen) opened down the street, it was a different story thirteen years ago. When I was six, I remember my friend's mom telling us we couldn't be on the front lawn at night. While I didn't think about it then, Echo Park was no place to grab a coffee and walk your dog. Before the renovation of the Echo Park Lake, it was a hub of criminal and gang activity. However, after five years, and the restoration of the lake with the help Mayor Eric Garcetti, Echo Park's house prices began to increase at an alarming rate. Additionally, gang activity decreased, and the lake became a place of leisure and activity for families.
ReplyDeleteWhile these recent changes in Echo Park's community are amazing, many residents are now having difficulty paying their rent and are forced to move out. In 2015, my friend's neighbors were forced to move out due to the rent doubling in less than two years. While there is still economic diversity in Echo Park, it is becoming less apparent every day. The rapid development is ultimately forcing hundreds of families out of the community. If it were possible to slow this development down, the time would be now.
I have lived in Pasadena my entire life, and like most people see it and like most of my classmates have said, Pasadena is like a bubble, therefore, I haven't really actively witnessed gentrification around me (though I know it has happened). I know a lot of people have talked about old town, and while that is a very important topic in terms of gentrification and change, I don't want to keep saying the same thing. I think something else that is also really important to talk about is Lincoln Ave. I'm sure most of us have seen/been to Lincoln, the trendy cafe/restaurant that seems to have revived that street with hipsters and millennials looking for a place to take pictures of their aesthetically pleasing food. I'm not going to be dishonest and hypocritical and say that this street has undergone gentrification and I have nothing to do with it because I have been there and have partaken in changing this area. The Lincoln restaurant is owned by the woman who also opened Little Flower Company, a place with a similar vibe but in a nicer part of town. I read an article that talks about gentrification potentially becoming a real threat with the opening of Lincoln, a trendy restaurant with a customer demographic of primarily wealthy white people in a neighborhood that is predominantly African American and Latino. Alfredo Resendiz, a man who was interviewed for the article I read, discussed how he held a "Gentrification Conversation" in his neighborhood in regards to the opening of Lincoln; he said he wanted to just sit down an talk about it– something other neighborhoods often avoid. I think that's honestly where it starts. He said that he has been to the restaurant many times and that going isn’t necessarily what’s causing the problem of gentrification and unwanted change. The problem is that no one talks about it or is aware of their participation in it. I think it would be interesting to see how much the threat of gentrification would decrease if more people accepted their involvement and tried to increase their knowledge on the subject– if more people had a “Gentrification Conversation.”
ReplyDeleteGentrification reminds me of the idea of whitewashing. We change something that is ethnic or other and we wash it out. This frequent process has changed our reality and we have become accustomed to it. Living in Pasadena has whitewashed my eyes, and made me think that gentrification means progress and development. I see Lake Avenue adding new trendy places that lack a sense of otherness. While driving on the street you notice the type of people responsible for creating this environment, wealthy elites. I think gentrification appeals to forward thinkers who seek the advancement of society and overlook what we are losing. Should we search for a new direction and what would it look like? After multiple discussions, I have grown weary and would like to explore external/internal factors in relation to gentrification. I believe this conversation is informative but lacks effectiveness in change. Awareness is the first step, now we must continue.
ReplyDeleteI have always lived on the border between Pasadena and San Marino, but I spent the majority of my time as a child split between my grandpas house in Burbank and my mom work, Occidental college (and where I went to preschool). As for Burbank, I remember it as an lower class immigrant town with not very many nice shops—I remember a bodega that I used to buy lottery tickets at with my grandma, a dingy foster's freeze, and an elementary school surrounded with a wire fence that always seemed to be empty. I have been going there every Sunday since I can remember, and I have noticed a gradual change in the types of stores I see. There is now an Urban Outfitters, a movie theater, and an entire street that is usually quite busy on the weekends. I have seen an influx of white people in the community and a recent lack of the immigrant neighbors I used to see.
ReplyDeleteAt Occidental, as Rachel said, the area of Highland Park and Northeast LA has had one of the most drastic changes that I have seen in terms of gentrification. There are new vegan shops, bars, art galleries, ice cream shops, donut shops (donut friend!) etc.. I have no doubt played a role in gentrification and I think most of the students at Poly have as well. I enjoy the occasional outing to donut friend or Kitchen mouse or any of these new hipster shops...I mean who wouldn't? They are so goddamn aesthetic. I'm fortunate enough to live in a place and be in a situation where the negative aspects of gentrification don't affect me. And to be honest I don't know what I can do to try and not be part of the problem. Should I boycott these new businesses? Are there people we can contact? I think Cole definitely has a point. We've done so much talking about gentrification, but I feel like none of us actually know what to do.
I cannot say that I have personally seen a neighborhood go from a "dangerous area" to "prime real estate." However, I have a friend, who like many, lives in Highland park. I do not visit his house often, but I have seen the changes that Highland park. The prices in the area has increased dramatically, and the area itself has become more wealthy, with brighter street lights to illuminate the area. Before, the area was more sketch, and the store prices were much less, unlike now. I also noticed how the park near the LA River was extremely nice and well maintained, however, the neighborhoods around it were much less nice, with dirty mattress on top of a box with a broken bird scooter in it. The area is undergoing gentrification, and it will be interesting to see how the neighborhood changes as time progresses.
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