The real estate legacy

The late August confrontation outside the 60-unit Marmion Royal apartments in Highland Park marked a flashpoint in L.A.’s slow-burning drama over income inequality, cultural identity, housing affordability and neighborhood preservation.

With its rents and real estate prices rising dramatically in recent years, Highland Park has become the latest front in the wave of gentrification that has swept nearby communities such as Echo Park and Atwater Village, uprooting working-class Latinos from neighborhoods they have called home for decades.

“Highland Park is now ground zero, not only in L.A., but in the whole country,” said Peter Dreier, professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental College in Eagle Rock.

“Hedge funds, private equity, and lobbying firms are gobbling up properties all over the country,” he said. “They buy buildings for speculation. There’s enormous pressure on landlords to get rid of tenants.”  In some cases they are using strong handed tactics.

In the first half of this year, 20 multi-family buildings changed hands in Highland Park, five more than the same period last year, according to the real estate data firm CoStar.  Many of those buildings are rent-controlled, limiting raises to 3% a year and requiring owners to pay relocation fees to anyone evicted for renovations. 

After taking advantage of local property owners - Planning commission members Donna Choi,  Johan Diel, Christopher Arrelano, and Greg Shoop have moved on to greener pastures and positions of higher pay within government.  At least they haven't been indicted yet.