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    Season 1 · Episode 2

    Gentrification in Real Estate

    ZADAN with Steven Lopez

    · 1:40:34

    The conversation

    Steven Lopez, a realtor working in Highland Park and the rest of Northeast Los Angeles where he grew up, describes how the area went from boarded-up storefronts to bars, galleries and a restored 1920s bowling alley. He lays out a model for helping longtime Latino homeowners renovate with a construction loan and his help instead of selling cheap to flippers, walks through a 1920 bungalow once owned by Mary Tyler Moore, and remembers learning photography in Venice High School's darkroom.

    The harder part of the conversation is how some neighbors see him: as a threat. Steven explains why gentrification took hold in Northeast LA but meets resistance in Boyle Heights, where even new art galleries are read as a warning sign, and points to differences in homeownership between the two areas. ZADAN, drawing on the social media department he built at his day job, pushes him toward daily posts, a 300-photo content plan and a personal brand. They close on where Steven's tagline came from.

    Topics, with timestamps

    Pick a time to start listening right there.

    1. Highland Park then and now
    2. Stevie Nicks and Night of a Thousand Stevies
    3. Mac Miller, addiction and Steven's painting years
    4. Helping Latino homeowners renovate instead of sell
    5. A Venice High darkroom and a hippie photo teacher
    6. Turning 300 photos into a year of posts
    7. Giving value away and staying first in mind
    8. Renovating Mary Tyler Moore's former bungalow
    9. Why some neighbors see Steven as a threat
    10. Boyle Heights and the fight over art galleries
    11. Building up, not out, before the Olympics
    12. ZADAN's weekly show lineup and agency work
    13. Making the case to a skeptical neighbor
    14. The story behind "Which hill do you live on?"

    Worth hearing

    • Steven's parents enrolled him in a magnet program that bused him to Venice High School, where a photography teacher pushed students toward emotional, challenging pictures over cute snapshots.
    • Rather than an investor paying an owner $500,000 for a worn house and reselling it for $950,000, Steven wants owners to take out a construction loan and keep that value, with him as consultant, realtor and project manager.
    • The bungalow he was renovating dated to 1920 and was growing from just over 1,000 to more than 1,300 square feet with a new master suite.
    • Steven says homeownership was much higher in Northeast LA than in other parts of East LA, which he sees as one reason the two areas reacted so differently to gentrification.
    • He argues Los Angeles hurt itself a century ago by filling the land near downtown with single-family houses and now has to build up.
    • ZADAN's content formula is two months of photos, a month of writing captions, and a scheduler that posts them daily for close to a year.
    • Steven's tagline came from consoling a couple who lost a bidding war in Mount Washington by reminding them that LA has a lot of hills.

    ZADAN's original episode notes

    In this episode of the podcast, Steven and I jump into the concept of gentrification and how it aligns with culture and the overall values of the people in the areas. We talk about his journey through the country, and how his perspective has led him to Highland Park where he is on a journey to improve his neighborhood.