LA Marathon: The Gentrification Route

The 2010 route for the LA Marathon should have been called the "gentrification march". The route winds from the newly trendy Echo Park, through the recently trendy and now expensive Silver Lake, and up into Hollywood. From there, it goes to West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, then goes a bit downscale into areas where houses still cost around a million dollars.

In past years, the route wound through both wealthy and working class areas like Pico Union, Boyle Heights, Koreatown, and Hollywood. This time around, their idea of "working class" are areas favored by westsiders as the new westside, and with a few exceptions are seeing rent inflation.

I guess when the real estate bubble bursts, people don't want to run through the collapsing parts of Los Angeles.