Is Gentrification Ruining Los Angeles or Saving It? LA Weekly Article (Freedom: renting, to buy)

[StreetLegal]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

I guess he's a wasp that does sting!

This WASP will be spending his super bowl Sunday with his very good friends and neighbors from El Salvador. They've got more equity in their place than I do and they've used a portion of that to purchase abuela a nice house in El Salvador.

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Everyone's gotta make a living. At least I can acknowledge it's morally questionable, while you think it's great. You don't care about the hard working person of color whose family lived in a neighborhood for generations to be be kicked out by developers who want to move in lazy techie yuppie.

Neither do you. If you actually cared then you would make your living doing something else. It's the pot calling the kettle black. You have no right to point the finger at anyone.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

Neither do you. If you actually cared then you would make your living doing something else. It's the pot calling the kettle black. You have no right to point the finger at anyone.

I'm in real estate finance and there's many sides to the job. The reason I said I work in this field is to show I know what I'm talking about. I don't agree with the developers and landlords but since they aren't doing anything illegal, well, outright illegal, what am I supposed to do.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by StreetLegal

Please. You are a hypocrite and are trying to point fingers at me. Nicely done.

I never said it was a great thing to kick people out of their homes. I do think the positives of gentrification outweigh the negatives. But that does not mean I am against doing more for those who are vulnerable and need help. For my entire 20's I worked fulltime for non-profit organizations that worked on homeless issues while many of my fellow college graduates went to Wall street or law school.

If it were up to me this country would look a lot more like Sweden in terms of social safety net. That said, there are smart and effective ways to do this and there are dumb ways. Gentrification should be left to market forces with better/more Section 8 vouchers for the working poor and elderly.

So you're a WASP who went to the Ivy League who was afforded every opportunity and luxury, and your peers went on to Wall street or rich law firms, while you chose a moderate life in a nonprofit, 40 hrs a week with a decent salary and benefits. If I was in your shoes I would have done the same. Those law school burnouts might make 160k year initially but to have no life? While you made maybe 50k but had a cushy job. Sounds good to me.

[hittheroadjack]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

Los Angeles needed gentrification. Without it this city would have ended up like it was portrayed in Predator 2. Pricing out low-income residents sucks, but them's the breaks. Too much low-income housing leads to more crime and more slums.

So where are the low-income, and ghetto people going? What areas?

[StreetLegal]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

So you're a WASP who went to the Ivy League who was afforded every opportunity and luxury, and your peers went on to Wall street or rich law firms, while you chose a moderate life in a nonprofit, 40 hrs a week with a decent salary and benefits. If I was in your shoes I would have done the same. Those law school burnouts might make 160k year initially but to have no life? While you made maybe 50k but had a cushy job. Sounds good to me.

Stop making assumptions that are completely untrue. I attended public university here in California and grew up a middle class kid in the San Fernando Valley. No trust fund kid here (would have been nice though). Took my first job as a teenager in high school and have been working ever since. The reference to Wall Street was more of a metaphor for seeking to maximize personal wealth in the private sector.

[bpeeps]

Originally Posted by StreetLegal

And you are an active participant in the displacement since you stated you work for landlords/developers in the business. Why did you sell out?

Apparently I've repped you too much recently. So I'll just note it here.

[StreetLegal]

^^^^Thanks Bpeeps.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by StreetLegal

Stop making assumptions that are completely untrue. I attended public university here in California and grew up a middle class kid in the San Fernando Valley. No trust fund kid here (would have been nice though). Took my first job as a teenager in high school and have been working ever since. The reference to Wall Street was more of a metaphor for seeking to maximize personal wealth in the private sector.

Maximize personal wealth... and maximize personal misery and stress. Don't sound so self righteous when you made a common sense choice.

[StreetLegal]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Maximize personal wealth... and maximize personal misery and stress. Don't sound so self righteous when you made a common sense choice.

Had a long day Disgruntled?

Sleep well tonight so you can be ready to get back to work on Monday and do the dirty work for those real estate tycoons who want to throw grandma in the street just so they can buy their 10th house...