By Nicholas Jimenez
Gentrification is not that good because this requires the cost of East Los Angeles’ communities to inflate in price.
Gentrification is when wealthy people move into and improve poor communities.
This leads poor areas to experience an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses.
This has become a common phenomenon in many communities in California, like East Los Angeles.
Many caucasian people who pursue living in East L.A. attempt to significantly impact the community in a positive way.
Many times, the community will not allow them and criticize them because other community members would rather keep the integrity of their community the same.
This happened in my neighborhood a few times.
The city attempted to control one side of my street, not allowing pedestrians to park their cars.
The community came together and fought with the city’s decision to block off the street. The city had a meeting with people in my neighborhood and realized that the community hated the rule due to the lack of parking spaces.
The lack of parking spaces in the neighborhood is a big problem and the city attempted to make it worse.
After witnessing my mom fight for street parking to be kept the same, I realized that many wealthy people want to update the East L.A. community.
Around East L.A., gentrification is happening because of many new laws being passed even though many never hear about them.
In East L.A., many new homes that are being built or renovated are out of the price range of most low-income citizens.
The home value prices rise every year and will continue to grow through gentrification.
I appreciate how wealthy people want to help the community look new, but don’t understand that people just want their community to remain the same.
The communities are filled with people who have lived in East L.A. their whole lives. So when city council wants to pass new rules or when new homes are being sold for a higher price, it just makes the community feel as if they are not being heard or thought of when making these decisions.
The city is worried about how the community thinks it needs to change or what to put in place.
Any community in East Los Angeles would come together, decide what issues to face first and assist those who need assisting.
People can request the city to fix the parking problem in their community, or how to fix the sidewalks in the community.
There are good intentions to better the community, but city council does not realize those same people want to have a familiar environment.