In Highland Park, gentrification kills swap meet

The Highland Park indoors swap meet shut down due to gentrification. 

By Alfredo Santana. 

It’s been a year and about two months since the Highland Park indoors swap meet shut down and its 15 or so tenants were forced to vacate after a new developer, in lieu of the gentrification wave, purchased that property, along with several commercial units located in the same block.

Only two shops have opened for business under the new ownership. One is a coffee shop that began operating about six months ago, The other is a clothing store, which opened its doors within the last two weeks.  Both small businesses mostly cater to white adult residents.

I asked the manager of a liquor store, located next door of what once was the bustling swap meet, if he knew about the terms of the land acquisition, whether the former tenants received 30, 60 or 90-day notices to quit, or had long-term rent contracts that forced the new real estate owners to negotiate a settlement. “All I know is the new owners want to refurbish the place to have new, modern looking rental spaces,” he snapped, without revealing his name.

Indeed, construction crews stripped the old walls and ceilings down to bare wood studs inside the units, and covered the outdoors with plywood to block the view from pedestrians on the 5600 block of North Figueroa Street. Scaffoldings dotted the façade for months, and workers primed and coated with a layer of new white paint the units facing the commercial drag.

Now the empty structure is an eyesore to the community.

I knew some of the former tenants. I stopped to buy clothes, to repair my watches or to purchase backpacks for school or work. All were immigrants from Korea, Mexico, and Central America who hired Mexican Americans and black folks to provide security, and to pitch their wares.

At the entrance, a common fixture was a black or a Latino security guard who stood to watch and to greet customers. Sometimes, tattooed guys without uniforms sat on metal folding chair to backup tenants in case scoundrels snatched goods hanging from the partitions.

At least 25 to 30 jobs were lost in this swift move, in addition to the livelihoods of several families.

I’ve found the monthly stall rents fetched between $450 to almost $1,000 to the previous owner. 

Another micro business employee told me the new owners in the block paid almost $10 million for the properties, a price similar Engine Real Estate LLC unfolded almost a year ago to buy half a square two blocks north. The aftermath of that transaction resulted in the departure of several local businesses, including the local EGP newspaper, because the rents almost quadrupled.

Los Angeles First District councilman Gil Cedillo’s field office is located in the corner across the street from the swap meet premises. He told EGP his office was “concerned” with the displacement the new comers instilled, but has done little to cap this phenomenon.

The gentrification onslaught has also lured poor white folks searching for jobs, or to run other errands. When I asked the liquor store employee about the fate of the swap meet tenants, I noticed several white young males entering the shop to buy cigarettes, small bottles of whiskey or to pickup lottery tickets. 

Last August, during a march of commercial and residential tenants, the participants surrounded Cedillo’s office and urged his staff and the city of Los Angeles to write rent control ordinances that address skyrocketing rents. 

They also asked the new owners to learn about  the 38% poverty rate of residents in Highland Park, and to streamline rents in synch with these residents’ income. Affected tenants also want the city council to limit the issuance of new permits for shops that fail to address the presence of low-income dwellers.