LA Weekly articles on gentrification

Photo by Rena Kosnett.

Pretty hard hitting. "Welcome to Gentrification City", and "The Evidence Room: Five Signs You're Gentrifying." The "Five Signs":

-- Ornamental grasses.
-- Subtrim.
-- Horsetail.
-- Artists. Visual artists are a double-edged symbol of economic transformation. Artists are the proverbial canary in a coal mine, entering low-income corners of the city and testing the difficulty of living in a place with high crime and no amenities. “They go in and take the risks of living in a dangerous neighborhood, where the rents are cheap, then pacify it for the real estate people,” said David Ewing, a community activist in Venice, which many artists have fled as rents skyrocket. Artists send a second message once they start leaving a neighborhood, showing that reasonable rents are vanishing and wealthier tenants are moving in. Witness the loft rentals being converted to condos east of downtown Los Angeles, or the migration of artists and writers from Silver Lake and Echo Park to Highland Park and El Sereno.
-- Gelato.

Index Keywords: neighborhood-change-gentrification