Highland Park's battle with gentrification was a big story in 2014 (and doesn't show signs of stopping any time soon), but as the neighborhood gets pricier and pricier, where will the priced-out go searching, and where will the next batch of flipped houses with old-hat horizontal wooden fences be crop up? One likely possibility is Boyle Heights. (Another likely possibility is any Northeast LA neighborhood.) It looks like that foreshadowing fence has already arrived in BH, judging by this photo from Instagrammer mcabildo, in which she dubs it "the gentrification fence" and says she believes it's the first in the neighborhood.
Her original caption reads, "The gentrification fence is very horizontal, ubiquitous in Echo Park, but a new comer to #boyleheights I believe that this is the first such fence in #boyleheights. As luck would have it, I drive past it every single day as I travel down ... to see my ailing Pops. This fence says, 'i like the housing stock here but my neighbors are not people I want to interact with.' Fences in Boyle Heights are porous."
Banner put across from Mariachi Plaza against #gentrification. Hope they're talking about Eastside luv #boyleheights pic.twitter.com/1cSdCORHYU
— Erick Huerta (@ElRandomHero) January 1, 2015
Meanwhile, a new banner has been spotted flying over the renovated Boyle Hotel near Mariachi Plaza, echoing the "Gentrifiers go elsewhere" sentiment. Eastsider LA has a video today of the sign, which reads "¡Ya Basta! Boyle Heights Says No To Gentrification."
As big development projects spread into Boyle Heights from Downtown, the neighborhood has been watchful. Last May, the community reacted swiftly to a broker's bike ride that marketed BH as a less-pricey Downtown alternative and managed to get the ride canceled.
· New Year in Boyle Heights begins with an anti-gentrification message [ELA]
· Boyle Heights Freaks Out About Being Sold as the Next DTLA [Curbed LA]
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