Gentrification Strikes Back!

I just had my coffee and read this article from todays LA Times. I found it so hilarious I had to write to the editor. You can the view the article here.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-silverlake13sep13,1,3454034.story?coll=la-headlines-california

L.A. parking plan a threat to hipness? – CA Section 9/13/2007

I had a good laugh after reading this article. The irony is that these residents are complaining about ‘more money being less hip’ or parking meters being too intrusive when over fifteen years ago the original residents of Silverlake- mainly low income Latino families, were displaced or relocated as a result of higher and excessive rent increases when new ‘hip’ residents moved in. Long gone are most of the Latino family owned restaurants on Sunset blvd to make room for trendy coffee shops and the Sunset Junction Street Fair, once free or on a donation basis, now charges an admission of about twenty dollars, keeping low-income native families from attending this ‘community’ event. Before the residents of Silverlake begin to complain about the changes to their hip little city they should consider whom they displaced when they moved in and the impact they had. I say put a parking meter right outside their front door. I think it is incredibly classist and racist that the impact of gentrification on low-income families was not mentioned in this article.