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i think the most serious gentrification has been near downtown los angeles. skid row adjacent areas are bustling with younger artsy types, bohemian even.
Highland park also has seen a lot of change, their mainstreet particularly. .
While I haven't lived in LA long enough to know what areas like Echo Park, Highland Park and Eagle Rock were like before they gentrified, being from Oakland-a city where rapid gentrification has changed its look, feel, and demographics-I have an eye for what gentrification looks like in its beginning stages.
A few years ago I moved to South LA in the "King Estates" neighborhood around the Exposition & Western intersection. When I moved there, the population was exclusively Black and Brown. Right before I moved (around the summer of 2012) I noticed more and more students and Whites in the area than before. While USC is only a couple miles away, I've been told that students historically don't venture too far west of Vermont. Slowly but surely there seemed to be more Whites buying homes in the neighborhood, and more students renting places, particularly in the area between Normandie and Crenshaw. All of this coincided with the opening of the new "Expo Line" that now runs through the heart of this neighborhood. While the area is still predominately Black and Latino, it's questionable of how long that will last. The combination of the Expo Line extending to Santa Monica, downtown becoming more and more trendy, people looking for historic homes at good prices, and USC's growing influence in the area, I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years, the small, independently (and minority) owned shops and businesses along Western Ave become hipster spots.
I moved to El Sereno after that, and can tell you that unfortunately, that neighborhood will be gentrified for sure. It's sad, really.
Last edited by CityGuy88; 01-03-2014 at 04:50 AM..
Right about Culver, I live in walking distance just north of venice in palms and I always say Culver is so boring to me. Downtown Culver is popping though. Yeah Echo park pops up in my mind when I think of gentrification in LA.
Off of Venice Blvd in Culver it seems they got gentrification going with an established bar scene: Big Foot West and Oldfields. Still fairly priced rent too and more desireable than say Mid City or parts of Hollywood.
Downtown Culver is a DWI trap so I tend to avoid it unless I can crash in the area. I like the run of the mill type bars in Culver instead.
While I haven't lived in LA long enough to know what areas like Echo Park, Highland Park and Eagle Rock were like before they gentrified, being from Oakland-a city where rapid gentrification has changed its look, feel, and demographics-I have an eye for what gentrification looks like in its beginning stages.
A few years ago I moved to South LA in the "King Estates" neighborhood around the Exposition & Western intersection. When I moved there, the population was exclusively Black and Brown. Right before I moved (around the summer of 2012) I noticed more and more students and Whites in the area than before. While USC is only a couple miles away, I've been told that students historically don't venture too far west of Vermont. Slowly but surely there seemed to be more Whites buying homes in the neighborhood, and more students renting places, particularly in the area between Normandie and Crenshaw. All of this coincided with the opening of the new "Expo Line" that now runs through the heart of this neighborhood. While the area is still predominately Black and Latino, it's questionable of how long that will last. The combination of the Expo Line extending to Santa Monica, downtown becoming more and more trendy, people looking for historic homes at good prices, and USC's growing influence in the area, I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years, the small, independently (and minority) owned shops and businesses along Western Ave become hipster spots.
I moved to El Sereno after that, and can tell you that unfortunately, that neighborhood will be gentrified for sure. It's sad, really.
Really? Doesn't seem like it is really on the gentrification radar right now.
Really? Doesn't seem like it is really on the gentrification radar right now.
I think it will gentrify for a a couple of reasons: For one, almost all of Northeast LA is experiencing gentrification with El Sereno being one of the few neighborhoods that has not. Also, its location between the San Gabriel Valley and Downtown is definitely becoming a selling point for folks. When I moved there, there were a couple of newer buildings in the neighborhood that were gated and had security cameras. I lived in one of those buildings (though I am not gentry nor did I assert my idea of what the neighborhood should be on the people who've lived there for generations) and it was incredible to see how White the building had become relative to when I moved in. While most of my new White neighbors were more or less young artists, there were a few in my building who drove Audis and cars of similar class. I used to walk around the neighborhood and would notice some houses with gated porches, and with what looked like White singles, artists, students etc. sitting on them.
While there's nothing wrong with Whites-or anyone for that matter-existing in a neighborhood, I think it is telling when you have Whites of a certain class moving into a neighborhood. What does it mean that there are now security cameras on buildings in neighborhoods where the people who've always lived there have survived without those cameras? What does it mean that White artists and hipsters now live in a neighborhood that has been home to People of Color for generations? I remember living in West Oakland in the 90s when nobody thought the handful of White artists and musicians would change the look (and affordability) of the neighborhood. Now those people look in hindsight and realize how wrong they were.
Even though crime is at historic lows in LA, and once dilapidated neighborhoods have turned into upscale areas (Oakwood Venice, Hollywood, and many more), does anybody miss the old days of LA? THe danger, the intrigue. The grittiness. The possibilities for fun. And perhaps most importantly, the affordable housing.
Yes I miss how it was when I used to cruise Hollywood and West L.A. during the 1970's-80's. It was so unpredictable. You never knew what you might run into! Lol... But it was in a fun exciting way as opposed to all scary-freaky like today. And true, things were more attainable, and it hadnt yet become a trendy place that people just want to be associated with merely for the prestige or novelty.
I grew up in the Culver/Del Rey area and crime is most definitely down. Incomes are most definitely up, though I don't think the demographic has changed drastically. There are more white families buying property with their parents or renting rooms out to others in my old neighborhood. I used to see this more with filipino or latino families that were lower on the socioeconomic food chain.
I do miss the olden days a bit, but I'm getting a taste of the past in my new neighborhood. The old ice cream trucks everywhere, the sound of police sirens, lol.
I'm a fan of gentrification, in general, because it tends to happen in neighborhoods that are run down, dirty, dangerous, with low pride of ownership. New residents care about protecting their investment and care about improving the conditions.. pick up trash, clean up graffiti, call police for suspicious activity, have security cams to deter crime, have money to spend which brings new stores, restaurants, etc. New residents, on average, tend to be more politically active which can help a neighborhood with improved parks and services.
Many people poo-poo these "gentrifiers", but I find that typically is because the long-time residents pre-judge and make false assumptions about the gentrifiers... much more so than the gentrifiers do about the long-time residents. Read recent articles about gentrification in Highland Park, where long-term residents are doing their best to make newcomers (who have just as much right to live there as anyone) feel unwelcome: from a slew of disparaging wifi names, to anti-gentrification graffiti.
I'm a fan of gentrification, in general, because it tends to happen in neighborhoods that are run down, dirty, dangerous, with low pride of ownership. New residents care about protecting their investment and care about improving the conditions.. pick up trash, clean up graffiti, call police for suspicious activity, have security cams to deter crime, have money to spend which brings new stores, restaurants, etc. New residents, on average, tend to be more politically active which can help a neighborhood with improved parks and services.
Many people poo-poo these "gentrifiers", but I find that typically is because the long-time residents pre-judge and make false assumptions about the gentrifiers... much more so than the gentrifiers do about the long-time residents. Read recent articles about gentrification in Highland Park, where long-term residents are doing their best to make newcomers (who have just as much right to live there as anyone) feel unwelcome: from a slew of disparaging wifi names, to anti-gentrification graffiti.
In a way I understand where they're coming from. That's one of the most settled neighborhoods in L.A. with a lot of multigenerational families. That area and the other northeastern neighborhoods were completely unaffected by the riots. The locals stayed in that area through thick and thin. Now they're being driven out of their neighborhood by outsiders. Also, the more recent new arrivals don't try to fit into the culture of the longtime residents and in many cases are openly antagonistic to that culture.
(Hmmm...I'm sounding like Fastfilm....should I be worried?)
Gentrification's a net plus for neighborhoods. But there are downsides.
God I am so sick of reading these pearl clutching victim posts by the poor poor brown people that are being driven out of their neighborhoods by the mean colonizing white people. As a white person who lives in Los Angeles, a city that is just barely 27 percent white, I have nothing against any person of any race or cultural background until they start with false rhetoric of reverse discrimination. When I hear this crap I just have to let you have it!!
For general informational purposes, it bears mentioning that Highland Park, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Mid City, Westlake, and most of LA's beautiful grand older neighborhoods were conceived of, designed, financed and built by white people in the first place. Everything cycles and whoever doesn't like it can move to a place that is 100 percent their race so they don't have to mix with anyone else. Just know that as long as you live in an American city of any significance, you will need to get better at getting along peacefully with all people of different races. In my opinion, WHOEVER can afford to own, have pride in, and take care of their property and neighborhood, deserves to live and prosper in that neighborhood NO MATTER WHAT THEIR RACE.
Lincoln Heights is gentrifying at record speed but still manages to be more than 80 percent Latino. Why? Because it is gentrifying with LATINO MONEY. Koreatown is gentrifying at an even faster rate and is well over 50 percent Asian. Same for black people in Culver City. There are many more examples like this. So to everyone who is bashing and scapegoating white people for being the central culprits in gentrification, I think you should first shut up, then educate yourself more honestly..... And if you don't like your lot in life, do something to improve yourselves, raise your income, and maintain your property both materially and financially instead of blaming others OF EVERY RACE who are better at this than you are.
And PS, I live in an area flanking downtown and do not own my place. In fact I rent it from an Asian landlord. I love all my neighbors and none of us are the same race!!
Last edited by IlluminatedLA; 01-03-2014 at 11:37 PM..
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