Echo Park: Gentrification In The United States

Echo Park, one of Los Angeles’s most well-known neighborhoods, was once associated with gang violence in the 80’s and 90’s. The crime rate in the area was to the point that many people would not dare being caught walking out after dark. Nowadays, people do not fear walking in the streets of Echo Park after dark. This new sense of safety in Echo park can be contributed to its nightlife scene characterized by Indie music venues and trendy bars. You may ask yourself how this change came about? The answer is gentrification. Gentrification is the restoration or improvement of run-down urban areas by the middle class to accommodate their way of life and is prevalent all across the United States in cities such as Portland, Seattle, and Atlanta to

Gentrification makes way for safe neighborhoods that were once considered to be unsafe because of crime. Areas such as Echo Park, East LA, and Bed-Stuy, once notorious for being some of the most dangerous places in the United States are now safer than ever because of the changes brought by gentrification. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “…gentrification can cause an initial increase in crime because neighborhood change causes destabilization, although in the long run gentrification leads to a decline in crime as neighborhood cohesion increases.” (2016, HUD USER). The arrival of new members of the community and the changes they bring creates unrest in the form of crime. There is displeasure amongst the original members of the community towards the changes going on around them and they begin to act out in response to these changes. As the community comes together as a whole, the crime rate begins to drop. But, how does the community come together when the original community members were so opposed to gentrification? Most of the original members of the community are driven out. Once they are gone, any tensions between the two groups practically disappear because members of the pre-gentrified community are greatly outnumbered by the new members of the community. The lower crime rates are created for the new members of the community as many members of the pre-gentrified

There is always a group of people who will not budge when this change comes about and refuse to relocate. Through their determination to stay in their community, they somehow manage to pool their resources to afford the luxuries associated with gentrification. They get what they want by staying where they have for probably most of their lives and they also get to enjoy these new luxuries brought to them, but at the cost of losing their culture. Newbery writes, “Established tenants struggle to afford rising rents, forcing them to move… as residents scatter, long-established cultures fade.” (2016, Newbery). Many of the communities affected by gentrification are predominantly Black or Latino, and the people that bring along changes caused by gentrification are typically White middle-class people. The reason for the loss of culture is because the middle-class culture dominates over the culture of the pre-gentrification community. The middle class might take aspects of other cultures and include it into their own culture, but they never lose their culture. In a sense, the Black and Latino cultures are being appropriated by the White middle-class. The remaining people of color in the community post-gentrification are forced to conform to middle-class culture. If they resist the middle-class culture they risk being looked down upon and considered as outsiders within their own