I was in downtown LA this weekend. I hung out in my old neck of the woods in the Artist District. Before Covid, gentrification was beginning to set in. The area was becoming lively with new businesses popping up. Then Covid hit. One of the lasting symptoms was closure of many of the businesses. The area hasn’t really recovered until recently.
I noticed a number of trendy restaurants opening up. The area is becoming cool again. There are still some shuttered storefronts, but it’s only a matter of time before open signs will hang from the doors again. Yet I’m torn. A part of me is glad about the resurgence of the area, my old neighborhood that I called home for over a decade. At the same time, gentrification continues to drive up rents and property values, squeezing out the locals that once called it home.
One of the local family owned restaurants was a victim of shady real estate owners. The beloved restaurant had been around since 1950 and was a staple of the neighborhood. The real estate company stopped depositing their rent checks so they could claim the restaurant was behind on rent and ultimately began eviction proceedings. All this because the current lease agreement was below market in the newly gentrified area. It’s difficult getting behind expansion and neighborhood upgrades when shenanigans like this occur.
Over the years, real estate developers built luxury condos in the area as well. This pushed up rents in the surrounding area. Artists work/live lofts must have been subject to increases as well as developers began upgrading these downtown lofts for new upwardly mobile buyers. Although they still refer to the area as the Artist District, I wonder how many artists actually live there now.
I left the local neighborhood coffee roaster, coffee in hand. I passed by many of the newly opened restaurants and peered in the windows. They look pretty cool, I have to admit. And that’s where my mixed feeling lie. Then it dawned on me, one of my favorite graffiti murals was no longer there. It was painted over for a cleaner restaurant look. I am a little sad to see it go. Part of me understands, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Yes, that mural gave the area a little grit and maybe that no longer matches the evolving space. I miss it, still the same. I’m bracing myself because at some point I may not recognize the neighborhood at all. When that happens, it will be too indistinguishable to call home and that will be a sad chapter closing for me. It’s just a matter of time. The train has left the station and there’s no stopping it. I’m just going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Collective Soul released The World I Know in 1995. They sing about the good and bad feelings that life in the city evokes.
“There was still some grit and dirt to New York City,” he said in a Songfacts interview. “Especially around Times Square and Union Square back then. I literally walked out of the room, took a two-hour walk around New York, and just absorbed and observed from the highs and lows of what society was offering in the greatest city in the world.
Back then, there were still homeless people living in cardboard boxes. Then, somebody pulled up in a nice limousine, with fur coats on, and walked right by.
Just to be in that big city, I was looking at what the good was, what the bad was, but also, you don’t know what good feels like until you feel bad. You don’t know what bad feels like until you feel good. So, I was trying to use that whole imagery and using it with New York City as I walked around.”
It sounds like a similar walk as mine. It’s difficult to fully celebrate or mourn changes walking through a living breathing city. Because there’s no such thing as utopia, light and darkness will always exist. It feels like a balloon. You squeeze one side and the other side inflates. You squeeze the other side, the opposite effect happens. Squeezing in the middle, both sides balloon up. There’s no escaping it. Collective Soul is right. It’s just the world we know.
So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
While the tears roll down
‘Cause it’s the world I know
Oh. It’s the world I know
–
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Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on
I drink myself of new-found pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why
Are we listening?
To hymns of offering?
Have we eyes to see
Love is gathering?
All the words that I've been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding
Into one, into one
So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
While the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know
Oh. It's the world I know
I drink myself of new-found pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why
Don't know why
So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
While the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know
Oh. It's the world I know
Yeah, I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
While the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know
Oh. It's the world I know
I had to google gentrification! Yeah that sucks! Let the old stay old, and full of character!
I used to love this song.
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I like the patina on things, too…!
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It’s always a little sad when a nostalgic memory doesn’t match reality anymore. It’s even worse when gentrification squeezes out artists and long-standing businesses in the area in the quest for the almighty dollar. Love your analogy of squeezing a balloon! That describes the mixed emotions perfectly.
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Thank you!
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There’s a neighborhood in Miami that’s like that.. was going through a big artsy focus and bringing in of business, and then Covid +DTJ tanked those efforts. Had really hoped it would finally change.
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It’s funny… I’m by no means artsy, but I’m drawn to it. Maybe I really admire in others that I don’t have myself. Too bad about the Miami neighborhood. Hope it makes a comeback
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I hope so. And there’s something to what you say, in that it can be refreshing to counter one’s usual stream. I do think you’re artistic though, in the ways you bring your posts together, musical in their writing a lot of the time.
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Thank you!
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Nostalgia gets us all at some point. Gentrification can make neighbourhoods better and push out the ne’er-do-wells but it can also destroy history and as you point out historic family businesses.
Living here in The Cotswolds it comes in a different format with mega rich people from London coming here and buying up village houses and cottages to either use as a second home or to rent out on Air BnB. They have no regard for the people who grow up here and maybe want to settle down near their parents or how their inflated purchases push up house prices so they are beyond the families that live and work here.
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We have the same issues here as well. Real estate prices have skyrocketed. I’m not sure how new home buyers can afford it. Plus, high air bnb traffic is not very pleasant. They may not have as much regard for the neighborhood as the locals.
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This is true and also the transient nature of air bnb means the neighbourhood loses that connection that allows people to connect n thrive
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I’m reading on Wikipedia about rioting over housing rights in Spain. The increase in cost of housing driven by corporations buying up income property (long term and short term both) and other factors is sending people into the streets. They’re angry at tourists, angry at government officials who allow the elderly to be evicted, there’s signs that say ‘being a landlord is not a job.’ (My Mom’s a landlord.) What I think is really happening is the rich are consolidating their hold on everything worth having and the poor are being literally left out in the cold.
As I’m reading this all I can think of is America, where we’re following exactly the same patterns. It’s a limitation to the benefits of capitalism for sure.
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Housing is so expensive these days. Both rent and home ownership. It seems there’s no escaping it. I have no idea what the solution is.
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I believe the party line is weHope you have access to shelter and too bad if you don’t.
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When I visit home I still can’t get over the changes. It seems there are more businesses popping up, it doesn’t feel personal anymore.
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I totally understand what you’re feeling.
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I forgot just how much I love, love, love this song.
Your mixed emotions on gentrification apply here in DC as well. Some of the new businesses and the reno of old row homes is exciting…but then you can hear the ghosts of past inhabitants mourning the loss of memories they held dear. It’s a conundrum, for sure. I prefer the renos that have retained the character of the original building. A lot of people have remained true to that concept and I wish there were more.
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I totally agree. I actually really like the renovated industrial buildings that are converted to lofts. High ceilings, brick walls, open space. Part of me says that we need new business brought in for these residents. And I don’t feel as bad in this situation because these are converting vacant industrial buildings into livable spaces and not pushing out existing locals. At least not directly. But it does raise rents and property values in the surrounding area. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing.
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Dude, that totally sucks. Always someone hustling for the quick buck and too bad that they paint over a mural someone poured their heart into and that’s been part of the village vibe for a generation. Seems like it’s happening all over. My boyhood beach town in FL is unrecognizable and my back-up place, down on the NC coast, had been “discovered.” Damn.
Great song choice to go with the subject! 😎
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