Hector Tobar argues that despite the well-documented ills of gentrification, under the right circumstances it can eat into long decades of racial segregation. Eastern Los Angeles may be a prime test case.
In addition to displacing poorer people, gentrification has been accused of hallowing out cultural enclaves. Hector Tobar has a slightly different take: "In Highland Park, as in other Latino barrios of Los Angeles, gentrification has produced an undeniable but little appreciated side effect: the end of decades of de facto racial segregation. It's possible to imagine a future in which 'the hood' passes into memory."
Tobar acknowledges that white gentrifiers have been known to price out people of color. However, he argues, "For all the fortitude and pride you’ll find in Latino barrios, no one wants to live in a racially segregated community or attend a racially segregated school. The impact of segregation on the self-image of the segregated has been amply documented [...]."
The nature of modern gentrification, and modern cities, might sometimes allow integration to trump displacement. From the article: "But the demographics of greater Los Angeles have shifted so much — Latinos are a plurality in both the city and the county — that it's impossible for gentrification to erase Latino culture in Highland Park. The new non-Latino minority will live, for the foreseeable future, in a majority-Latino community."
FULL STORY: Viva Gentrification!
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