Is Highland Park the Next Echo Park? Two 'Hoods Debate

Practically since the first 22 year old white kid just out of Sarah Lawrence walked into Taix, neighborhood-watchers have wondered about "the next Echo Park," i.e. which neighborhood will gentrify next? Highland Park has been an early and frequent contender (the New York Times called it back in 2009 and it's even in a song)--it has a huge stock of cheap bungalows that have attracted scads of flippers, art and music scenes, and the yuppie-friendly York Boulevard strip. Plus, the course of gentrification in the last couple of decades seems to be moving generally eastward. Last week, the LA Weekly ran a story called "Why Highland Park Is the New Echo Park". The piece appears to have been edited since it went up, but here's the gist:

Guys with unwashed hair and paint on their jeans complain about how Echo Park is becoming too gentrified, too much like our now-grown-up neighbors in Silver Lake...Someone actually complained the Gold Room isn't "dangerous enough anymore." Eavesdropping on these often drunken conversations, one name keeps getting thrown around as a solution to the existential dilemmas of the ultra-hip. "I'm going to a house eviction party in Highland Park tonight." "That doom-surf-rock band Sandy Pussy is playing out in Highland Park tonight." Echo Park Patch picked up on the story and asked its readers if it's true--"Is Highland Park the new Echo Park?" To date, 51 percent have said it is. Meanwhile, over on Highland Park Patch, editor David Fonseca says he doesn't like the idea that "Highland Park now provides a gritty urban playground for twenty-somethings who miss the days when living East of the Los Angeles River was a war story you could write home about." But he does admit that "As Echo Park's rents go up, Highland Park has undoubtedly become an attractive landing spot for the hip and young."
· Why Highland Park Is the New Echo Park [LAW]
· Poll: 57 Percent Say Highland Park Is NOT the New Echo Park [Echo Park Patch]
· Highland Park, Despite Changes, Is Not the New Echo Park [Highland Park Patch]