DOCUMENT: West Adams - Auto repair, the small fish, and the irony of whitewash.

DOCUMENT: West Adams - Auto repair

Yesterday, I met a potential buyer for the building I live in. Nice guy. He was about my age. We had a short conversation about surfing and the recent and rapidly increasing changes in West Adams.

That said, it is becoming more and more obvious that I am dead center in the heart of the newest economic muse for investors & speculators of the housing market. On the one hand, it feels nice to have new art galleries and coffee shops pop up in the area. My neighborhood could be the next Venice or Silver Lake. Soon enough, it is going to be cool to live here. Perhaps, I'll be one of those guys that says "yeah, I lived there before it was hip". Or not. On the other hand, I must pause for a second and recognize that despite my skin color, higher education and good salary, I'm still a little fish in this pond...

...but to survive, I must keep swimming.

One thing I love about this place is its character. West Adams, like most old neighborhoods has its roots in a period of a growing middle class of about a century ago. In fact, this used to be an affluent place to live in. Check out "Uncovering Los Angeles’ Forgotten Neighborhood" by Jordan G. Teicher.

The beautiful old houses, the greenery and old tree lined sidewalks, the churches and ministries in every corner, the store fronts, auto repair shops and that community feel that I remember as a kid in Puerto Rico, still thrive here. People know their cashiers and bag boys, and neighbors talk to each other at the grocery store.  Businesses still make a living among friends and neighbors. Something you probably can't say about places like Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice anymore. BTW, I lived on Abbot Kinney in 1997/98 "before it was cool to live there, but not early enough to be one of them super cool artists from decades before when it was really cool, and dangerous to live there".

Here's the ironic part, despite the fact that Venice is 64.2% white people with a median household income of $67,647 according to a 2008 The Los Angeles Times | Local study "Mapping LA", and West Adams is only 2.4% white and the median household income is $38, 209 crime (in the last six months) is almost twice as much in hipster Venice than it is in West Adams. Property crimes alone and four-fold. Hmm!

When you look at the cost of housing after a neighborhood has been gentrified, specially as we have witnessed on the West Side, one can only assume it is a safe and happy neighborhood. Why wouldn't you? People with money live there. Right!  

But while fancy coffee houses, tailored jean shops and high priced bungalows and modern homes may be the magic dust that glitters over such a neighborhood and some people make a small fortune, while investors just rack it up , it seems that the unaddressed social issues not only remain under the surface, but may even compound after time under the whitewash that is gentrification.

DOCUMENT: West Adams_20150719

I have been living in this area for about 3 years. Already I've been noticing some changes. Not that I'm an expert or anything, but about 10 years ago the thought occurred to me: "people can't keep coming to Los Angeles and commute in from a continually expanding periphery. They'll eventually have to come back in."

So, according to Anthony Bourdain gentrification goes something like this. In a neighborhood were mostly immigrants and low income families live, and were rents are usually lower than average,  first come the craftsmen and artists followed by the hipsters. Then a handful of galleries and coffee shops open. After that, the middle class is attracted to the area by it's artsy, eclectic feel (just look up Echo Park and Silver Lake), and the rents skyrocket, leaving people that have been living in these areas for generations no choice than to move out. It all culminates with a quick one-two punch, a banh mi / cup cake shop combo open up next to each other followed by a deadly body blow of a Whole Foods (check out Lincoln/Rose in Venice CA). 

I've known people who lived in this area way longer than myself, so by no means do I consider myself a trailblazer. I'm also neither a an artist, nor consider myself a hipster. I have no tattoos and wearing "product" on my hair doesn't really help that much.

 That said, in addition to the recent new businesses like Delicious Pizza / Delicious Vinyl, the art gallery across the street and the fact that I recently saw a white girl with blue hair walking a poodle and a man mowing the lawn with an electric lawnmower, I'll say West Adams is somewhere between stage 2 and Stage 3 of this transformation. I believe the crucial surge will occur when the Expo Line hits the Ocean in a couple of years.

My intention is to capture the minute details of this transformation of West Adams Blvd. between La Cienaga and Crenshaw Blvds. with emphasis between Crenshaw and La Brea for as long as I live in the area. 

Some of the following posts will include photos taken in the past 3 years along with current ones.