SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Consumer Watchdog, Food & Water Watch, DWP ratepayers and other advocacy groups rally today in front of City Hall to urge the Los Angeles City Council to fire DWP ratepayer advocate Fred Pickel for selling out ratepayers instead of protecting their interests. “Pickel is an energy consultant whose bread has always been […]

BY JASON MCGAHAN At twilight on Tuesday at Hollywood and Vine, two Mexican men in dark mariachi suits strummed and tuned the strings of their guitars. They were flanked by a crowd of two dozen protesters who stood shoulder to shoulder and held up signs outside the W Hollywood Residences. A few news crews filmed. A few reporters scribbled […]

By: Zohreen Adamjee (FOX 11) – Fourth generation mariachi musicians like Luis Valdivia played in the middle of Hollywood Blvd Tuesday … to protest, hoping their landlord, who they believe lives near Hollywood and Vine, could hear them. “I’ve been living there 21 years,” said Valdivia. The residents of an apartment complex one block from Mariachi Plaza say rent recently […]

by Ruben Vives, Contact reporter No week is the same for Moises Hernandez, a full-time mariachi guitarist and part-time college student. At the end of a good one, he will have earned about $600. After a bad one, maybe $400. Then there’s the $370 he and his wife spend on monthly bills. In January, Hernandez received […]

by Ruben Vives | July 29, 2017 Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar spoke out Friday against the vandalism and race-based tactics being used against art galleries and a coffee shop in Boyle Heights amid gentrification concerns, saying the actions were “unacceptable” and would not be tolerated. Huizar said he shared concerns about displacement and rising costs […]

In a state where house prices are twice the US average, artists and developers are feeling the ire of a growing movement to ‘defend our homes and our culture’ Friday, July 28, 2017 by Rory Carroll Half a century after the summer of love and hippie harmony, California is experiencing a summer of loathing and hipster-bashing. Not […]

by Saul Gonzalez/KCRW ^play here For a first time visitor, Anderson Street in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood looks pretty gritty and industrial: old brick workshops, small factories, and a steady rumble of delivery trucks driving by. But step inside some of the old, soot-stained buildings and you’re in a world of high-end art, with […]

by Josie Huang ^play In the expensive housing markets of northern California, a growing number of cities are making it tougher for landlords to displace tenants by requiring they justify their evictions. Now Los Angeles, with its own housing affordability crisis, may follow their lead. The City Council’s housing panel on Wednesday advanced a proposal […]

We write this in hopes that more artists will finally break with their sense of exceptionalism and consider the roles they play in the gentrification process. By: Heather M. O’Brien + Christina Sanchez Juarez + Betty Marin LOS ANGELES — We are Betty Marín, Heather M. O’Brien, and Christina Sanchez Juarez, and we met through […]

BY JASON MCGAHAN A coffee shop that opened last week on a busy commercial strip in Boyle Heights has prompted days of protest from groups opposed to it as a symbol of creeping gentrification in the neighborhood. A crowd of activists set up a picket line at the entrance to the shop on Thursday, urging would-be […]