Will the Gold Line bring the gold card to Eastside?

The Gold Line extension from downtown to East L.A. has long been hailed as a turning point for the predominantly Latino areas, "transit equity" for residents who heavily use mass transit but until now have had only one option: the bus.

But as the opening of the line draws closer, there is growing angst about how it will change development patterns in Boyle Heights and East L.A.

The construction of rail across Los Angeles over the last three decades has helped transform some neighborhoods. The area around the Red Line subway terminus in North Hollywood has become a hip arts and theater district with a growing skyline of loft and condo projects. The Red Line has also helped fuel the revival of Hollywood, with dense mixed-use developments popping up next to subway stations. The Blue Line helped foster downtown Long Beach's resurgence.

But the Eastside is different. Residents there have much more ambivalent feelings about gentrification than the neighborhoods to the west and north. Some have high hopes for the Gold Line, expecting it to bring some of the better chain shops -- Borders, Trader Joe's -- that have avoided the Eastside. Others are more suspicious, fearing that an influx of money and outsiders will change the area's character and push out the poor.

"I would love to have a yoga studio that's affordable," resident Sandra Martinez, 40, said with a half-guilty laugh. "The problem with a yoga studio is when that moves in, that's the end -- that's the definition of gentrification."

Even before the Gold Line started nearing completion, there were growing signs of change.

Read the whole story here.

--Hector Becerra

Photo: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[fred]

Sorry westsiders you opposed the light rail and now you have to wait till 2032 for the subway to the sea.

[Ken Alpern]

...and to think...the problem is GENTRIFICATION with light rail lines???

I thought the "problem" with these lines was that increased crime and neighborhood breakdown was the inevitable result...

So much for the conventional wisdom--and methinks that many a run-down and even a lively neighborhood adjacent to the Expo Line will have commercial and residential real estate values and the quality of life go UP as well...

[alex]

The whole reason for building rail is to stimulate real estate development along the route -- otherwise the political leadership and the real estate developers backing them wouldn't be so adamantly supporting it. Hollywood is the prime example of the beneficial effects of rail. There are plenty of other neighborhoods in this city also begging to get a rail line for this reason. Mid-City is one example. They want to replace the tawdry shops in that area with better ones and the local leadership hopes rail can help expedite that process.

But neighborhoods that aren't looking for increased development should beware. For one, proponents will tell you that they are providing an alternative to the traffic. But rail, because of the increased real estate development that follows causes traffic in the area to get far worse. A typical office building built directly adjacent to a rail line will generate more than five times more car trips daily than train trips. Yet developers routinely use rail as an excuse to circumvent existing building limits and as a result the buildings get bigger and bigger and the traffic gets far, far worse.

This may comes as a surprise to many of those of you that voted for Measure R, but rail advocates don't want traffic to get better. Bad traffic increases ridership of rail and it gives the advocates ammunition to build more rail lines. Rail built at grade has the added benefit of physically stopping traffic at every crossing. Worse, since these new skyscrapers bring cars and trucks to your neighborhood that never would have been there before -- the local pollution also gets worse.

But if you point out these little defects to the rail nuts, watch out -- they'll call you a NIMBY. After all, you have to see it from their perspective. They think Los Angeles is a giant train set in their basement, and your little tree lined street is just some lichen that needs to be moved to complete their layout.

[Dan W.]

The Gold Line will provide amazing benefits to these neighborhoods.

There is gentrification, which may happen over time. That should not be confused with economic opportunity. The improved transit options to these neighborhoods will increase economic opportunity.

I cannot wait till light rail and subway gets to my neighborhood on the Westside. Now that Measure R has passed, it can and it will.

[Marcos El Malo]

The Gold Line hasn't gentrified Highland Park, so I don't see why it would do so in Boyle Heights. Yes, HP has changed a little, with new hipster bars, etc., opening on York (not near the Gold Line). But not at all what I would call gentrified. (Contrast with Eaglerock, which finally, after 20 years, is "The Next Silverlake".)