Gentrification in Lost Angeles
By Sergio Avalos
What is Gentrification?
Imagine living in one city your entire life that's rich in culture, diversity and community engagement while still maintaining affordability for lower class families to call their home. Now imagine that city being stripped away business by business, house by house due to rich investors and business owners causing rent to become expensive. What causes rent to become expensive? Living in a city filled with designer clothing stores and five star restaurants. This is a vigorous process called Gentrification. Gentrification is essentially the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper or middle income families or individuals, raising property values but often displacing low income families and small businesses.
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| Individual Protesting Gentrification |
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| Gentri-Flyer made in 2014 by Bana Haffar |
- According to an analysis done by Zillow Real Estate Research, Household income rose 25% while rents increased by nearly 53% between the years of 2000-2014.
- In 2014, Boyle Heights Beat wrote an article regarding a Gentri-Flyer (an advertisement that promotes gentrification) posted by a small real estate group in effort to "Improve" the area with better landlords and rebuilding the community.
- According to HousingLongBeach.org, The city of Long Beach lacks rent control which essentially means Landlords may increase a tenants rent as many times and as much as they would like as long as they properly notify you.
- HousingLongBeach.org also states that if rent is increased by under 10%, the landlord must give a 30 day notice, if rent is increased by greater than 10%, they must give you a 60 day notice.
Personal
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| China-Town, taken by Sergio Avalos |
Living in Los Angeles my entire life, I’ve seen many businesses and properties come and go. This has never been an issue until companies or wealthy business owners began buying up cheap property from lower income cities/neighborhoods. Being exposed to this earlier I’ve seen it affect many of my neighbors and family members who have had to move because they cannot afford their rising rent anymore. Having people essentially claim your city and kick you out is not only morally wrong, but it also destroys the culture in a city which is why it is extremely important to my community and I.
Gathering Evidence
The main objective for my call to action is to inform community members around me and Los Angeles about the negative effects of Gentrification and the interior/exterior problems that arise with it. I will also encourage community members to vote in local elections and attend city council meetings where you can voice your issues, concerns and resolutions for gentrification in the city as well as voting for city officials that do NOT support gentrification.
"Gentrification is definitely an issue in Los Angeles and even though I haven't really been affected by it, I've seen it in real life and know it exists. I mean, have you ever been down the street from skid row? There's literally hipster restaurants and a Whole Foods near it."
- Max Lee, 21
"Living in Los Angeles my whole life has definitely exposed me to gentrification and the negative issues that come from it. My aunt actually lives with us at the moment because her rent went up this year and she can't afford to live in Long Beach anymore."
- Jessica Cuevas, 19
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