I mean, we were there a whole year, organizing and helping,” he explained.īut in the end, they lost the court case and the families who couldn’t pay the $1,000 rent increase were kicked out. “I thought the Arroyo Sweep that I saw in the Arroyo Seco was probably the worst thing I’ve seen, and then I went through this whole process with the Marmion tenants. Then, Urquiza watched as nearly 60 Latino, working-class families were evicted when a developer named Gelena Wasserman bought the Marmion Royal apartment complex not far away.Īt that point, Urquiza knew he had to get more involved. Many who were living in the encampments, Urquiza said, were evicted previously from nearby apartments that were purchased and renovated in and around Highland Park. He shows pictures he took of the homeless sweep of 75 encampments along the Arroyo Seco River. The year Urquiza calls the peak of gentrification and displacement in Highland Park.
“The folks that I worked with out there and telling stories with, they’ve made it real,” Urquiza said.
John Urquiza started as a photographer documenting the struggles of the community facing gentrification in Northeast Los Angeles, but over time, the stories started to change him. This community was once known as the “Beverly Hills for Latinos.” Now, the Hispanic population in Highland Park has dropped by about 20% and the people who were born and raised there say gentrification and new developments are displacing them. The Northeast Los Angeles Alliance has joined forces with several community groups to try to stop this development and several others just like it across the region.People born and raised in Highland Park say gentrification and new developments are displacing the Hispanic population.Another new development planned in Highland Park has several community groups banding together to fight what they are calling direct and indirect displacement across Northeast Los Angeles.Highland park was once known as the “Beverly Hills for Latinos,” but the Hispanic population in the neighborhood is dropping.
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