Boyle Heights and Gentrification: A Tale of Two Possibilities ~ An Editorial

Photographer: Daniel Aguilera

We must hold real estate developers accountable for responsible development. I present a strategy for Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, CA in my first published editoral in the debut issue of the Brooklyn and Boyle newspaper: Boyle Heights and Gentrification: A Tale of Two Possibilities.

Originally titled: Boyle Heights is Not for Sale

As I walk the streets of Boyle Heights, I see our people, I feel our energy of a neighborhood in motion. You can't help but sense the vitality of a community embracing itself in rediscovery. Despite the tumultuous Real Estate market, property prices have increased in value but they have not priced us out or pushed us out. We are still here. We are reviving, rejuvenating and taking back our neighborhood and showing the rest of LA the beauty of Boyle Heights.

I see families walking together hand in hand at night and get a tingly feeling of gusto as I see the newly wed couple: the father with his young wife and their infant crossing the street at 10pm, where else in LA do you see that? Only today in Boyle Heights.

Photographer: Daniel Aguilera
I also see new construction activity, shiny new storefronts, and the newly revamped state of the art hospital, White Memorial. I'm not a native to LA, but I have heard the horror stories of the old hospital, before one of our own, Oscar de La Hoya, decided to give back to his community, because it also needs to be about giving back to the community. Oscar helped make the hospital into an institution that could actually service our community.

The best part about the change that is going on here is that there is only a tinge of the dreaded baggage that gentrification tends to pack. New businesses are coming to the community and improvements to existing businesses are also being made. Property values were on the rise before the whole housing market crashed, but the people who have grown with the community and which the community has been their lifeblood are not being pushed out in the way that gentrification has impacted other communities in growth and in need of renewal and improvements. The new middle class people who are coming to the neighborhood are for the most part people who had grown up in the neighborhood and had left and that are now returning on their own accord.

Call it nostalgia or simple economic sense the neighborhood kids are coming back to the neighborhood now that they are all grown up. Boyle Heights is nourishing itself, to ensure that the kids and grand kids of the abuelitos today will continue to want to come back to the neighborhood, and spend their money in the neighborhood. If you want a nice dinner there are places to go now, the amenities are here, there are choices now, there is no need to have to deal with traffic to have a glass of wine when Eastside Love is just right around the corner.

We are undergoing a renaissance and the Boyle Heights renaissance is inclusive, the community is holding change accountable. Gentrification should be about discovery not about greed and displacement, and our rejuvenation is about discovery and making our community better. Sure there will be sour deals, but you as a community member need to speak up if you suspect and see injustice otherwise you are just part of the problem. If we are not going to fight for our neighborhood who will? We know what we most need, so let's make it happen, don't let the evil part of gentrification seep through our streets. We have kept this community alive for so long don't let big money come and taunt us with perceived goods—Question and Verify. Remember the examples our abuelitos and abuelitas have already set, it is not just about us today, it's about our survival, it's about our success, it's about our future, it’s about the future of the neighborhood.

This is our neighborhood, this is our home. We can not become sell outs, we can not let our neighborhood sell out. Gentrification will take the best of our neighborhood if we let it. Lord lead us not into temptation: let us hold our politicians accountable; let us hold businesses accountable; let us hold institutions accountable; let us hold ourselves accountable. Let there be a transformation but let us not lose our essence.