Gentrification From the Inside: Steven Lopez on Northeast LA
Introduction
Steven Lopez sells homes in the part of Los Angeles where he grew up: Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, El Sereno and the hills between downtown and Pasadena. It was his first podcast, and the talk keeps returning to an uncomfortable position. He is a Latino realtor who likes what has happened to his old neighborhood, and some of his neighbors see that as a threat.
Boarded up, then booming
Around 3:28 Steven describes the Highland Park of his childhood as "burned out, bombed out, gangs, boarded up." It was rough enough that his parents put him in a magnet program that bused him across town to Venice High. After eight years in New York he came back to bars, galleries, restaurants and the Highland Park Bowl, a 1920s bowling alley that had been boarded up his entire life and now runs about $75 to $80 an hour. He does not hedge: "I know gentrification is a very controversial topic. I love it though." Around 1:01:31 he explains why Highland Park turned first. York Boulevard and Figueroa were lined with unused retail space, and around 2008 his friends started texting him that they had signed leases in the neighborhood he grew up in.
Renovate instead of sell
His business idea (around 14:52) is aimed at longtime Latino homeowners who may not know what their houses could be worth. The fast play in a hot market is an investor offering $500,000, more than the owner paid, then remodeling and listing at $950,000. Steven wants the owner to take out a construction loan instead, with him as consultant, realtor and project manager, so the added value stays with the family. The project he walks through around 46:11 shows the work involved: a 1920 California bungalow of 1,022 square feet that Mary Tyler Moore owned in the early 1960s. A new master area adds about 300 square feet. The hardest part for clients is the contractor stage, and that is where he wants to stand in, because "I speak their language."
Why some neighbors see a threat
ZADAN raises the hard part around 59:54. Northeast LA, Steven explains, has been mostly Latino since the early 1900s, with Chinese and Vietnamese families the next largest groups. Across the river in Boyle Heights the reaction to change has been far sharper, a line in the sand that amounts to "don't cross the LA River." What breaks his heart is Aliso Village, an old brick warehouse district where galleries have moved in, because some longtime residents read even new art as a sign that gentrification is coming. He wishes they would see a gallery as a place to get a muralist in the family shown. Steven is excited as an artist and as an Angeleno, then hears some version of "you're still Latino." His honest answer is that as a kid he was embarrassed to live in such a bombed out neighborhood.
Owners and renters
Around 1:08:04 Steven offers a reason the two areas split. He only recently learned that homeownership was much higher in Northeast LA than in other parts of East LA, and he describes it as almost like two tribes, one that bought houses and one that expected to rent forever. ZADAN takes a blunter view. Fear of losing your home makes sense, he says, but Steven's model is about making the home better, and in his opinion the change will come either way, so residents are better off putting their culture into it than watching from the sidelines. Steven agrees that the change itself "literally cannot be stopped." Asked around 1:24:08 what he would tell a skeptical neighbor, he gives an answer he admits is a little crude, and the core of it is this: "There's no reason for you to live in such disrepair."
Up, not out
Around 1:11:15 Steven argues that Los Angeles is unusual among major cities for having so much low density housing right next to its center, the result of building single family houses a century ago when land seemed endless. Now it has to build up. He lists what was already underway in 2018: three subway lines, an LAX expansion, new downtown high rises, a new football stadium and a remodeled Coliseum, all running toward the Olympics.
Conclusion
The episode ends on the story behind Steven's tagline, "Which hill do you live on?" (around 1:37:03). It came from a couple who lost a bidding war for a house in Mount Washington. He told them there are a lot of hills in this city and they would find another. For a realtor working inside the same change his neighbors worry about, it is a hopeful line, and a reminder that who gets to stay is still being decided one house at a time.
Listen to the Related Episode
"Gentrification in Real Estate" with Steven Lopez