“It’s the new Beverly Hills East,” mused Darin Williams, owner of the security company hired in 1994 to patrol the then crime ridden hillside community. “Back in the 1990s shootings with fatalities were not uncommon,” said Williams. “You wouldn’t see a single woman out walking her dog at night. You’d be crazy.”
Susan Borden was one of the original Echo Park Security Association members who hired Williams’ company.
“Crime in the late 1980s was very high,” remembers Borden, who moved to Echo Park in 1979. “People had to decide if they were going to leave or do something about it. There was no middle ground at that point.”
Now in her sixties, Borden recalls drug deals and shootings on her street. It was the era before the Los Angeles Police Department had fully embraced community policing. Their support for the citizen program consisted of little more than yard signs and a pat on the back according to Borden. Most of the work fell on community volunteers for the dozen or so neighborhood watch beats. “It was a lot of work,” said Borden.
One resident floated the idea of hiring a private security company to patrol the area. Some were afraid it would be oppressive. Residents also did not want to be profiled. After addressing concerns, people were willing to contribute $10 each per month. The group added up the money and went shopping for a security service. They had enough to pay for one night per week. They chose Friday, the night with the most crime. “It was a huge relief to people,” recalled Borden.
By pooling their resources, these working class renters and homeowners were able to employ a high profile private security patrol, something only very wealthy communities were using, in their struggle against the pervasive lawlessness around them. Now there is the gang injunction, which makes it illegal for served gang members to associate with each other in public. Even so, crime in Echo Park, like Los Angeles overall, has declined every year for over a decade. With decreased crime comes economic development and gentrification in a town that has long been a welcome landing place for Mexican immigrants over the years.
“There has been a shift. I don’t think this is such a cheap area for recent immigrants anymore,” noted Borden. “So many people who were active in the 1990s have departed or moved away.”
When she arrived in town 30 years ago, she used to see women balancing bundles on their heads walking up the street, something she has not seen in years. Gone too are the ritual and ceremony of colorful motorcades, festooned with handmade tissue rosettes and paper flowers that would publicly present young women on their quinceañeras and newlyweds as they left the church.
That was an era when three generations all lived together in the same one-bedroom apartment and walked where they needed to go. Now that apartment is rented by one or maybe two people and they live nearly inseparable from their cars. Trendy eateries, boutiques and yoga studios have begun to appear in the business district of town.
“These things have definitely changed over the years. You don’t really notice until it’s gone,” reflected Borden. Ari Bessendorf, president of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council, defends the changes as something that happens everywhere.
“Yes there are people that have been moved out of apartments. This is economic level change. It is not racially motivated. People who are not involved with the planning process don’t understand it,” he said.
Bessendorf, a recent transplant from the East Coast, identifies himself as part of the yoga mat transformation too. He believes that public resources that were being used by lower income residents have been reduced due to federal budget cuts and theorizes that some of the people moving on are caught up in that.
He touts renovation as a positive thing. There is less graffiti. The strip on Sunset Boulevard is no longer a “drunken party zone.” He estimated that 30 to 40 buildings are sold and renovated each year but minorities are not being targeted even though they make up the largest group moving out of the city.
“All towns change. I came from Jamaica Plain, Boston, a diverse community in itself. It was founded by Puritans and since has seen many different nationalities move in and add to the history.”
Geoffrey Rhue, 52, and his fiancé, Joy Joaquin, 48, are a microcosm of the changes in Echo Park that see rents being raised and tenants having to choose between paying more or moving elsewhere. The pair has paid $1,500 per month to live in a single-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath home abutting a semi-wild corridor since 2011. Next month the rent increases to $2,400, an eye-popping 60 percent hike.
“There is no rent control on single-family residences,” laments Joaquin, who came to the United States from the Philippines as a teenager. Even though she grew up on Los Angeles’ west side, her heart has always been in Echo Park on the east side. “I live and breathe Echo Park. The best people live here, the real people,” she said
Rhue himself has been moved on twice before in this way, once from an apartment in Echo Park and once from Eagle Rock. He was lucky last time to find another place in Echo Park.
While their current rental agreement includes an option to buy, Joaquin doubts the owner is going to be selling. Their resolve to stay is firm. “Even with the rent increase, we are staying in this house,” says Rhue. “Echo Park is our home. We are staying.”
