West Adams on the Down Low
Monday, July 23, 2007, by jwilliams
[Sort of relevant, but not really: Marvin Gaye's former home in West Adams via 1912 Bungalow]
The gays have conquered another neighborhood. Blogger Jasmyne Cannick has pronounced her neighborhood, West Adams, the official neighborhood of gay blacks in LA. Eschewing the overpriced and completely gentrified territory of West Hollywood, black gays have taken root amongst the old Victorians around USC and west, thereof. Via the blog:
I kid you not, most of the staff at my local Starbucks are Black lesbians. Very cool. Most of my friends live in or near West Adams, and they’re Black and gay. When I walk in the neighborhood I am always seeing gay stickers on cars. Then there’s the fact that the oldest Black gay nightclub is right here too, Jewel’s Catch One. Seems awfully gay to me. Add to that, everywhere I go in my neighborhood, I see family.
Please tell me where the gay Japanese/Chinese/Korean neighborhood is going to be so I can get there early. And DON'T say Little Tokyo -- there are 3 X times as many caucasians down there as there are asians of the non-cauc persuasion.
What does "completely gentrified" mean? Too many white people? Too many gay white people? That market forces make it impossible for black lesbians to move in?
We should just give everyone their own Oklahoma and be done with it. That would be very cool.
No, I'm not; and #7 I don't know what "hils" is and how one can be as gay as them, but if you're going to be a douche try not to have have typos at the same time.
ah' I love how Curbed can mix racism and homophobia into the title of any article. Because we know all gay black people are on the "down low" oh yea real classy Curbed!
If anyone follows the comedy "Girlfriends" on the CW, last season Joan (Tracee Ellis Ross, Diana's daughter) bought a home in West Adams. Joan made a big deal about her boyfriend being smart for buying in a neighborhood that gays are moving in to. And of course, the gay black neighbor stops in while they are working on the house.
When a sitcom talked about the "Gay Black West Adams" thing last Spring, you know CurbedLA is really behind with their news.
Smart money always buys where the gays are buying, but only when "the gays" are buying in substantially underpriced neighborhoods. Between USC students and professors needing housing and the lovely Victorian homes of historic West Adams, the real estate there hasn't been underpriced for quite some time. Are there enough wealthy black lesbians to really make a significant change to West Adams?
Also, I'm guessing that while the "smart money" is willing to follow gay white men / "urban pioneers" (I know, that phrase is so wrong on so many levels) into traditionally non-white neighborhoods as the start of gentrification/reverse white flight, I'm not sure black lesbians would have quite the same effect on the local real estate market.
I'm pretty sure "the smart money" is investing out of state at the moment.
I bought a home in -- um -- WeAd for $650,000 about 11 months ago; after some not very expensive remodeling (about $30K worth), and just got it appraised at $800K. Obviously, god only knows if I'd get that amount at a sale or if my experience could be generalized, but that's feeling pretty good, given the general state of the LA RE market. But more importantly, it's a great neighborhood with great neighborhoods, a big and beautiful house, and it's relatively fast to downtown and the westside.
Can we stop this New York broker name nonsense? It's "West Adams." We're not talking about an unwieldy name like "Triangle Below Canal" or "Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass" that needs to be abbreviated.
Thanks Pete, I never knew what Tribeca and Dumbo really were (other than funny sounding names)! I totally agree with you too, I'd like to think that we can handle three sylables without breaking a sweat.
The employess at her local starbucks is supposed to be endemic of a larger trend in "West Adams"? Huh? Uh, hello... "West Adams" is a huge area and is comprised of more than a dozen neighborhods (Harvad Heights, Layfette, Angelas Vista, Western Heights, Jefferson Park etc, etc, etc).
FYI - The Marvin Gaye house is in the Western Heights HPOZ. Current owners are in fact gay, however neither is black.
Current owners are in fact gay, however neither is black.
This reminds me of that scene from St. Elmo's Fire when Rob Lowe goes to dinner at his girlfriend's house (Mare Winningham) and her mother says something about so and so's new neighborhood "Only two Jewish families, (now in a hushed voice) but very wealthy."
#12 Thanks for pointing that out once again. Does curbed know what "Down Low" even is? Then think about it and figure out why you titled the article this way? Ridiculous.
Curbed's use of 'down low" was genius! To quote Wikipedia, "Down-low or on the down low is a slang phrase. It is often used to refer to something that is secret or hidden."
Did anyone KNOW that West Adam has a black gay population? No, not really, not the mainstream at large. Therefore, it makes total sense. Sure, there are signs of diversity being celebrated that a trained eye could spot, but to your average American West Adams is not quite Chelsea West, Black.
Who cares who lives there....who robs, sells drugs, and defaces the property there? Whats that ethnic breakdown??? Thats still a sketchy hood with crappy life support.
I think the offense, #21, was taken at the stereotypical idea that black people can't be gay and can only be engaged in gay, eh, stuff on the "down low" a common slang term from back in the dark ages describing such behavior.
I thought it was a clever pun, but then again I'm a white 'mo.
What black gay she-male studio executive secretly has a historic home in West Adams that she/ he "disappears" to with paid companions during office hours?
Good for the black gays. They certainly get no love in WeHo and WeHo is so totally played out it's not even funny to joke about anymore. It's is about time gay people ditched their 70's stucco ghetto and landed en masse in much more interesting places. Is this, finally, the start of the end for Weho?????
Hey adventurous gay people, when West Adams gets too hip there's some lovely victorian housing/old neighborhoods just east of DTLA on the western edge of Boyle Heights, get to work!
Oh sorry #28...I'll get back to reality...unicorns, rainbows, cotton candy, magic castles, and jelly beans...all over this city all the time..and lots of happy juice and whipped cream with a big cherry on top!!! Is that better???
The title was not clever in the least. Regardless of any motive at double entendre, it is sourced from the very much current slang term that maligns black gay men as sexual deviants in complete denial of themselves.
I find this neither clever nor genius, but rather a crude (and yes, offensive) attempt at racial humor. Oops, I forgot it wasn't patently racist because it was *meant* to be funny. My bad, homie!
Eagleeye, have you heard of projection? Saying some makes you want to puke isn't exactly getting you the congeniality award. Hopefully you'll make up for it in the swimsuit contest...
SEMPRINI.. I'm doing opera on stilts for the talent downtown LA near the bathrooms for my talent section... then I'm gonna set the world on fire when I toast marshmallows off the Gehry glass!
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