Gentrification in Los Angeles
By Ryan Barrios
A life lived within a lower-income neighborhood is always a big struggle, but some of us end up making it out of these, but it's only some at the end of the day. So for those living in low-income neighborhoods, that is all they know, living life paycheck to paycheck. So imagine the idea of wealthy, prominently white people moving into your low-income area buying properties and seeing your long-time neighbors get kicked out for not being able to pay their new 1800 dollar rent. This is the cause of gentrification, along with many other issues.
Fear for there home
Let us look at the area of South Los Angeles and how the long-time residents of the neighborhood fear for their homes. The specific location is "the Jungles" it is a well-known cultural space for the people of Baldwin Village. We learn that a long-time resident Gine Fields is part of the Empowerment Congress West Neighborhood Development Council and a new homeowner of a house she dreamed of having in Leimert Park as a kid living there. She expresses her fears of single-family homes and how they will be bought out and be replaced with luxury condos.
These fears of gentrification and displacement within lower-income neighborhoods have been a more significant issue. We can see this purchasing the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, which was sold to a corporate developer; this plaza had plans where the community would have bought it and turned it into a community center, allowing programs to be more available.
With all this, the area of Leimert park fears their neighborhood will lose all the cultural significance. This is a large community of black residence; this is their space there home. The fear also carries one to white people moving in and fearing that their black residents are up to no good, leading to the police being called on the long-time residence.
The Culture
As we know, the struggle of affordable housing in a low-income neighborhood is becoming very scares, allowing for the over development of fancy condos, price homes for rent, and the hipster shops opening done their block. It has made it difficult for a resident to stay and survive in these areas of safety, but the residents being displaced the art and culture that once belonged to these areas was also being washed away. We see this in Highland Park, a neighborhood filled with murals on all buildings, and we see the culture, the lives lived, and what the people stand for, but with the increase of gentrification, these murals will be taken down without notice. This is essentially erasing a communities culture right in front of their eyes, and for what because it doesn't fit your "hipster." image.
the importance
These areas are where I grew up; yes, there weren't the safest or cleanest, but the people near and around you cared for each other. These are communities with strong bonds with one another and the area they reside in. these are their homes, and for them to be stripped from them and be left homeless for economic gain is immoral. I grew up in lincoln heights; it is a friendly neighborhood these markets and stores that are owned by the people how lived there, and I saw the impacts of gentrifications their shops that have been there for a year just to be replaced with the white version of it and have to pay $10 for 2 tacos. But I know that all these neighborhoods have people that care and love for their communities, so they won't let it be taken away from them so easily.
work cited
Smith, Erika D. “Column: 'We May Lose This.' Despair over Gentrification Reaches New Depths in South L.A.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sept. 2021, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-24/post-covid-gentrification-fears-hit-new-high-south-la.
Gumbel, Andrew. “'Whitewashed': How Gentrification Continues to Erase La's Bold Murals.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 Jan. 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/26/whitewashed-how-gentrification-continues-to-erase-las-bold-murals.
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