PRESS RELEASE- 600 to march on 7/29/08 - Wyvernwood Community
EL COMITE DE LA ESPERANZA
PRESS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EVENT DATE: 7/29/08
TIME: 5:30PM

Contact: Elena Popp 310/704-8785
Gumaro Ovieda 323/806-6291
Irene Garcia 323/867-3355


LOCATION: 2808 Camulos Place, LA, CA (Boyle Heights) and then March to Puente Learning Center 501 S. Boyle Avenue, Los Angeles, 90033 to attend a Forum sponsored by Councilmember Huizar and voice their concerns directly to the Councilmember.


Over 600 families, residents of the Wyvernwood Community in Boyle Heights, will gather today to voice their opposition to plans to demolish all 1178 units in the historic development and replace them with 4,400, primarily luxury units.


The proposed project, one of 26 development projects slated for the Boyle Heights community in the next 5-10 years, will result in the displacement of over 6000 residents, severely reduce the availability of affordable rent controlled housing, severely impact traffic and congestion, and catapult the gentrification of Boyle Heights.


The community of Boyle Heights faces massive redevelopment in the next decade. Boyle Heights is an area of the City that has been home to predominantly low income Latino families for the past several decades and is now slated to become the city’s next gentrifying neighborhood.


City Council member Jose Huizar has taken donations from the developer and prior to the last election refused to express either his opposition to the project or his support of the tenant’s position of no displacement and no rent increases. Councilmember Huizar refused to attend a meeting with over 800 residents to address their concerns.



The residents of Wyvernwood will march to the Puente Learning Center at ADDRESS where six of their members will address Councilmember Jose Huizar.


The tenants have vowed to fight against any development plans that will result in demolition of the historic buildings, displacement of any tenants, loss of rent controlled units or rent increases, loss of green space or have adverse impacts on traffic and congestion.

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thank you for posting this.
this is an amazing crime that will come to pass if the developers are
allowed to destroy this community.

do you all have a website?

This project will replace the current wyvenwood complex with more low income housing units than exist there now, as well as the luxury units. Please do not spread half truths in the name of stating your case, if your cause is so solid there is no need to purposefully leave out a major part of the story. The developer and councilman huizar have said this over and over and it is an essential part of the plan.

That being said, I think it is a good thing that this run-down complex is being replaced. The folks protesting are the same ones who'd be complaining about the slummy conditions of the current wyvernwood complex, what do they want? I lived in estrada courts as a kid and still have relatives there, the area should not be purposefully left a concentration of poverty. Community activists (including myself) from the area note the history of the area and how civic/private entities allowed it to decay and become a enclave of poverty, now these people are fighting for this area to remain the very thing they have complained about for years?

People, use your cabezas and realize that this project can help this homogenously poor latino community have a mix of incomes to help it rebound in amny ways. Gentrification can be harnessed and pushed in the right direction if done properly, ensuring the best outcome and environment for existing locals. So what do you want? A low income pocket of crime (barrio ocheros) or a nieghborhood that is both stable in its working class Latino character but possessing the amenities and mix of people that it used to have before whites and middle class chicanos abandoned it?

A few years back the complex was bought by a new owner who repainted the exterior and raised the rent significantly. The "community" in this complex should be treated fairly and benefit off the new development, protesting and acting dogmatic will not help their cause, they should be working with the developers and councilman to ensure they get treated properly. A long time ago this area had a mix of races and icnomes, and it was purposely neglected and became what it is today. We need to help restore the integrity of this community as well as preserve the current ethnic character.

Plus, this is the motherbarrio, no influx of a few yuppies can even begin to unravel the character of the area, they cant even gentirfy freaken echo park (which is much smaller and less established as a chicano motherland). Chicano culture is EastLos and Eastlos is chicano culture, and the influxz of a few wealtheir people can compliment this fact. Heck, the area is already recieved the gentrification of middle class Latinos inthe past few years because of the housing bubble, we need to help mold this intot he best outcome for current and future residents.

Please Please, put down your ego and shed the dogmatic, knee jerk "gentrification is bad" narrowmindedness. Part of the beauty of our culture and the character of Boyle Heights/East LA is its resilience and willingness to address issues from a pragmatic, working class standpoint. Which means rational and steady, like us poor folks who dont have tons of monetary wealth and resources do.

A huge IF.

IF this is such a good thing, one way to do it properly is to work with community in redevelopment plans- which it appears from everything I've read has not happened.

As such, I doubt your if holds.

This is also not a good deal if it displaces communities, which it apparently will.

Finally, as to boyle heights being the motherbarrio....
The Lower East Side was NYCs mother barrio. Check it out now.
Same goes for Chicago's Near West Side. Check it out now.

Good planning is possible. It doesn't mean trying to include upset people by talking to them on a message board that they probably don't even read.

It means working with them on planning. But this doesn't seem to be LA's style.

LA, there have been meetings with locals, although i agree that much is to be said abotu the outreach.

Secondly, did you read my post? i noted that even more low income units will be placed in the new development. If locals would try and connect with the developers (which I agree should occur vice versa) instead of trying to "storm the gates" they may be successful in getting the transition done inthe best manner for their interests.

And if you are comaring either hood you mentioned to East LA/ BH then you are not familiar with my barrio. It IS THE motherbarrio inthe US, the birthplace and permanent home of cultura in this country. And I still see the Nuyorican character in spanish harlem thriving. i think you do not know what you are talking about if you are mentioning those much smaller less established ethnic enclaves as some kind of proof that an infusion of differing demographics will destroy EastLos. It will not, and those that claim so are either ignorant of the community and its history, too dogmatic to think about it rationally, or merely trying to prove a point arrogantly. as someone with genuine concern for BH/LA who is progressive, I find theorically dogmatic liberalism to be quite frustrating.

even when ELA had a mix of folks it had a chicano character, it was the outflux of those "others' that sealed its problems as catastrophic and further made it a concentration fo poverty and it's associated problems.

Like I also said, i am fromt he community, and have spoken to many of these folks on the sitation. many of them seem to be pretty dogmatic and have their minds made onthe subject, what I am trying to do here is fix the misinformation.

Where in the plans does it say more low income housing then what exists now? What I read (though I have not read everything) it was less housing and mixed income.

Sure, we can debate the benefits of mixed income, but in other cities around the us, that's often (not always) a clear sign for gentrification.

The way this seems to be going down (from all I've read) is a top down, no-substantive community input, developer give-away.
Sell public housing cheap, displace people, and gentrify. Yes, local property owners, construction companies, designers and businesses benefit... But to see it as a win-win for all the residents of BH is really naive.


As for you motherbario concept...
Quaint idea, very quaint.
It shows a lot of pride in the neighborhood.
Dude, Lower East Side in NYC is huge, and all gentrified. It has a longer history of being a ghetto, and still, its now at best a cartoon of itself. Motherbarrio might be on someone's tshirt 15 years from now, a kid from the suburbs who never eat a burrito in his life. Not inately wrong, but.... gentrification happens.

Sure, gentrification can be a double sided coin- bad (some or all the neighborhood goes) good- (better schools, services, property values for those who stay.)

But destroying people's houses (some living there for 30 plus years) you gotta understand that a few "community meetings" very late in the planning process is gonna piss people off.

check out what appears to be wyvernwood's own corporate website.
660 low income houses. That seems to be down from about 1187.
Could be wrong, but this is what I figure from their own website.

http://www.wyvernwoodapartments.com/history/

Otherwise, your telling me they are building something entirely new, squeezing in an old age home and middle income houses in just 13 new apartment?

Or am I not reading something right.

Look, its ok to be critical of kneejerk gentrification fears, but don't ignore the fact that people will be loosing homes. That the planning was apparently undemocratic (want someone to take your home away without any real notice? I bet you'd be pissed.)

Thanks for the clarification LA, I was the misinformed one. I would hope the councilman finds it unacceptable to lose more low income units, and appreciate your info on the subject, I had gotten it wrong.

I am also familiar with the LES, but still think that comparison is not applicable. But that is another convo.

here's a link to a backgrounder on Wyvernwood

I agree with Art - the best outcome is some kind of development. In all the "nice" communities, there's some level of development, which serves to replenish buildings that aren't sturdy or not quite a good fit for the economy.

The problem is, the less $ the residents have, the less power they have to influence any development. And development is often a political process. A project this large is very politicized.

The residents, as a collective group, should have rights as a community. Mobilizing to create political power for themselves, as best they can, will help them retain some ability to stay in Wyvernwood even as rents rise.

The politicians in the area and in the City are basically liberal with left sympathies, but development is basically amoral with right/capitalist tendencies. Politics must be used to shape this development, because the people there simply cannot mount a defense with money.

If this protest group holds strong, they will be picked apart, with "deals", until the group is too tiny to be effective. In the end, these deals should, in sum, be greater than the "see-ya-later" plans the developers have had until now. That's just how it goes, but, it's not a bad outcome at all if the people get to stay and benefit from living in a mixed-income community.

There is a vanishing neighborhood just over the river. Little Tokyo is vanishing. LT is the main Japantown in the United States, analagous to San Francisco's Chinatown. There are now only 3 Japantowns in the country.

ELA and BH are too big, and immigration from Mexico too constant, to wipe out the community as the center of the culture, but, a few things can happen, and may happen:

Estrada Courts might be bulldozed, along with the historic Chicano Movement murals.

Chicano culture as distinct from Mexican culture, vanishes to the fog of time and dispersal of people to the suburbs.

Street vending will be banned.