The Los Angeles Times published a pair of incendiary articles this week in which coffee plays an integral role in the conversation about gentrification.
Ruben Vives reports on the ongoing gentrification controversies embroiling the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. The latest site of conflict in Boyle Heights is Weird Wave Coffee.
Anti-gentrification forces spent weeks trolling the coffee house on Instagram before and after it opened June 15. They held protest rallies outside the business, holding posters, including one that read “… White Coffee” and included an expletive, and another that said “AmeriKKKano to go.” They passed out fliers with a parody logo that read “White Wave.”
The protests of the coffee shop shift slightly the site of anti-gentrification political action away from art galleries. The Los Angeles Times has documented previous actions in August 2016, November 2016, and February 2017.
A day later, columnist Robin Abcarian began an examination of gentrification in the neighborhood of Venice with an anecdote about a short drive to a Blue Bottle coffee shop on the popular Abbot Kinney commercial corridor. The op-ed is a strongly worded response to Wall Street Journal analysis published earlier this month finding evidence that the neighborhood's building envelope has been shrinking as its popularity grows.
Alissa Walker, among others, responded to Abcarian's anti-development stance on social media.
Read the full story: A community in flux: Will Boyle Heights be ruined by one coffee shop?
The Racial Complexities of Gentrification in L.A.
In some Latino neighborhoods, the gentrifiers are also Latinos. The result is a complicated mix of culture, change, and resistance.
Left-NIMBYism and COVID-19
The events of the past year shows that the law of supply and demand applies to urban housing, and that gentrification can, in fact, be subdued.
How Broken Planning and Development Processes Hobble the Potential of Neighborhoods
A stinging critique of the public review process in New York City.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
Satanic Place Names
From streams and lakes to valleys and canyons, I mapped more than 1,000 places named after the Devil.
California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO resigns after $600,000 scandal
Under Ian Choudri, the authority used taxpayer dollars to fund first class flights and trips to nightclubs.
Want to study the Missouri River? Soon, you may need unanimous approval from 10 states
Legislation would require 10 governors’ permission to study or build projects moving water outside the basin.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority