Losing the “Gayborhood”

Is America losing its gay neighborhoods by out-pricing young gays or have gay men and women simply changed their tastes and preferences?

(Photo by Roobs)

Every once in a while I read an article about how traditionally “gay” neighborhoods have been becoming “less gay” or, to use some creative journalists phrase, “the graying of gay neighborhoods”.  One that has come up more often than not has been the City of West Hollywood; a 25 year old self governing city West of Downtown Los Angeles that has served as Southern California’s gay mecca. (Note: I am a resident of the City of West Hollywood).

Is this true?  Are gay meccas becoming less gay as property values rise and straight families enter with their minivans and lattes?  Many in West Hollywood would probably say yes.  But I am not entirely sure.

The following excerpt comes from the website Curbed LA:

With West Hollywood elections coming up, both candidates (three council seats are opening up), and residents are taking the opportunity to vent, particularly about development. KCRW’s “Which Way, LA” recently covered the fight, interviewing John D’Amico, a candidate for city council, and former planning commissioner for the city, who believes that the current regime is more interested in catering to developers–and their “$1 million condos” than creating an that allows younger gays to afford to move in. West Hollywood losing its culture has been an ongoing theme for quite some time. [Which Way, LA]

Again, is this really the case?  Are gay neighborhoods really becoming less gay or, perhaps, are they merely reflecting the current state of the gay community in American society?

Confessions of a Third Generation Latino: Common Space

This is the fifth and second-to-last post in my series.  The last post focused on my time in college.  This post transitions my views into the real world.

Common Space

While still at Cal, I tried to spend my last years studying and preparing for my graduation but i still found myself involved in the struggle between my identity as a Latino but struggle to find a place where other Latinos would also accept me as part of their community.  But I didn’t feel as alone as i once had.

After reading so far into this blog, you may feel as if i beleive their are only two faces of the Latino community.  Those in my position and those not.  However, this would ignore the many shades in between.

Both while at Cal and after graduating, i was working for a law firm in a nearby city.  The supervisor there was a very attractive older Mexican woman who, like me, was third generation.  However, unlike me (and for whatever reason) she had gone a route that i very well could have myself.  Her attitude towards the Latino community was actually one of annoyance and disdain.  She felt that with her education and skill-set that she had actually surpassed what being Mexican was all about.

It’s interesting to think about because in order for her to feel as she did, she accepted the basic premise of “being Mexican” that i heartedly deny.  This is that there is a specific way to “be Mexican”: That Mexicans are low skill, low salary earning people with little hope of potential. Any advancement by a Mexican was not actually an improvement of he or she as a Mexican but, instead, a disregard of their Mexican self in place of a White-American self.