I avoid the freeways on my way to USC every day not only because they're overcrowded, unpleasant, and tense, but because my drive from Westchester to University Park allows me to commute through different stories. This is not just a "stop moving here, we have enough people" post. While that sentiment resonates and I agree that people should stop moving to Los Angeles, movement is more problematic within the culturally and historically rich neighborhoods with which LA is blessed to be comprised.
Los Angeles is home to some of the most unique architecture, art, and landscape of any city in the world. It's so geographically large that tourists often leave feeling disappointed because they didn't know where to go or understand how it'd be nearly impossible to go to Malibu and Long Beach and Hollywood in the same day. As someone who was born, raised, and lived all around Los Angeles county, I realized different cities and neighborhoods are like different worlds as you move around the nearly 5,000 square mile region.
Just as any large city--or like the United States as a whole--Los Angeles is home to beautiful and destructive history. Specifically gentrification has plagued and diminished the integrity of regions of the Greater Los Angeles Area for the last two and a half decades, and many homeowners and residents continue to speak out about its impact on their livelihood, safety, and generational stories.
Urban planning and real estate investors have become especially interested in some of the "hidden gems" of LA whose luster has not been hidden at all to those who have lived there for generations. Downtown LA, Silverlake, Hollywood, Venice, and the San Fernando Valley (east of the 101-405 exchange) are considered the most gentrified regions of Los Angeles according to urban planning research. These regions which, undoubtedly, are desirable due to weather, scenery, convenience, architecture, and transportation, have undergone an incredibly harmful transition that has completely shifted what once was authentic Los Angeles identity.
This identity was curated by history, and history is created and sustained by people (even though new residents and builders attempt to convince themselves that inanimate artifacts are the true representation of history). People don't just disappear, and this seems to mostly and only be acknowledged by people who's family histories are evidence for this cultural destruction.
Naturally, identities of cities change with a variety of fluctuations. Innovation, wealth fluctuation, environmental features or disasters, or politics can change the identity of a city or region. However, people tend to feel pride in their home and the shared experiences of their neighbors. This pride is persistent and resilient through policy, innovation, natural disaster, and any other major factors that bring change. The only way to successfully administer drastic change is by removing the people that uphold a culture that is inconsistent with those who are building new spaces.
Since attending USC, I have heard almost every single day some version of commentary about the "dangers of the neighborhood," about "not walking down the street at dark," about the "challenges of navigating through homeless people," or "that sketchy person that walks by." These statements are the exact verbal manifestations of bias and extermination that pushes people from the place where they feel safe and at home. The narrative for those moving to LA (especially for USC students and families outside of California) is overwhelmingly marked by a fear which usually presents itself in some version of "wow this is such an amazing school that little Johnny got into, but it's in such a bad area, I don't know if I want him to go there."
The bad area is always a fascinating statement that can usually be reflected upon with the simple question, "what do you mean by bad?" However, it's not just some amusing, harmless attitude, but in fact one that only perpetuates the greater goal of powerful and rich builders to make the area less bad by displacing people with no remorse or consideration under the guise of the "up and coming" neighborhood. Alternatively, citizens and local politicians from more affluent Black and brown neighborhoods such as View Park, Windsor Hills, Baldwin Hills, and Ladera Heights are attempting to maintain the integrity of their region despite intense pressure from builders and white movers to "integrate" into the communities. Pushing back against these pressures is not only a decades long fight, but also villainized by migrants from outside the region as "exclusive" or "unwelcoming."
It is paramount that people looking to move to or around the Los Angeles area do their due diligence to examine history, culture, and identity, but that in and of itself is not enough. Educating ourselves on history is only significant when we make active choices to speak up for the preservation and appreciation of culture, not on behalf of other people, but by silently projecting their sentiment from its original source. While diverse communities are important, they are only a positive outcome if diversification is mutually beneficial and chosen by the stakeholders involved - especially for those who have long, established histories in the place they call home.
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