You’re Special Just Like Everyone Else

In the past two months, I’ve seen as many articles by gay men who are trying to explain why all gay men are seemingly obsessed with their physical appearance, specifically their physique.  The first article I saw was back in mid-July from the internet site Gawker, entitled, The real reason gay men don’t get fat.  The most recent article was written this week for a blog called Hommemaker.  Orlando Soria writes Why gay men hate their bodies.  Both articles make the unremarkable announcement that gay men are (wait for it), into physically fit bodies.  And not only are they into physically fit bodies they are, in fact… (drumroll) concerned with their own physical fitness.  Shocking, I know.  The main problem with posts like these, from my perspective, is less on the content and more on the stereotype and over simplified statement it makes about the gay community as a whole.

Does The WeHo Mayor Think Gays and Families Don’t Mix?

West Hollywood has been a haven for the LGBT community  since its incorporation in 1984.  Though it has always been identified as a pro-LGBT city and area of Los Angeles County (what I like to call the Castro of LA), it has never enjoyed an official designation.  On August 18th, the West Hollywood News (aka: WeHo News) reported that the West Hollywood City Council voted to direct staff to begin looking for ways the city can begin to officially identify Santa Monica Blvd. between Doheney Dr. and La Cienega Blvd. as “Historic Boystown”.

The desire to name the strip as “Historic Boystown” has not been without controversy.  First, the Lakeview neighborhood in the City of Chicago has long been known as “Boystown” before West Hollywood was even a city.  The decision to identify a part of West Hollywood has spurred a debate between cities over who is the “real” boystown.  But now the West Hollywood Mayor, John Duran, has added himself with a gaff to the WeHo News.

The Identity of West Hollywood

As a an eager young politico, I followed West Hollywood’s recent city council election last month with great interest.  However, as my previous post may have suggested, I was a little turned off by some of the rhetoric coming from the opposing candidates.  I thought the rhetoric implied that the LGBT community in West Hollywood was a monolithic group all moving the same direction with the same tastes and preferences.

As it so happened, my final report in a physical planning class I am taking at UCLA offered me an opportunity to explore a question I have had since moving to West Hollywood in August of 2010.  I could sit and argue that there is another group, another community in West Hollywood that was being ignored in this grandiose messaging but I could not prove it.  My final report for my class was on precisely that.  I sought out to prove that there are, in fact, two distinct communities within West Hollywood as evidenced by the physical environment.

I have pasted a clip from my introduction below.  Please feel free to download my report (15mb).  Critiques and counter-arguments are welcomed.

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?

Irv’s Burgers, West Hollywood

I have a Yelp account and love trying places and writing a review about it later.  It’s one of my nerdy guilty pleasures.  This blog was never set up to serve as a supplement to my Yelp account.  However, walking back to my apartment today I stopped at a hamburger stand who’s distance can be measured in hundreds of feet away from my front door.  The Place is called Irv’s Burgers and, at a risk of over-selling this… it is the BEST hamburger joint ever!!!

Now, before any of you local foodies comes screaming at my blogger door, I admit I am exagerating just a tad.  I’m sure we could find a burger with a little more flavor and who can really argue with the foie gras burger?  But so much more goes into a “hamburger stand” than just the burger itself.

Irv’s is an epic win; a hamburger stand serving up some real tasty burgers and fries at a decent price and the service to boot.  Less than will not only $8 gets you a cheeseburger, fries and a coke but the rediculously nice staff working the stand itself.  When I arrived there was one man ahead of me.  But the woman at the counter, pictured in the far left of the photo here waved and said “hello” to me with a big smile on her face.

The man in the photo took my order.  Another equally happy person who just seemed rediculously thrilled to be working the stand and thanked me for coming and placing my order.  He also brought out my food as well.

When my innocent looking plate arrived, I almost immediately began to rip open the paper wrapping my burger when my eye was pulled in to a most unusual print on my plate.  At first I thought there was some kind of smudge on my plate.  But wait… that’s not dirt.  It’s a message.  Sweet Jesus, had all this time of eating meat; killing one innocent animal after another for the benefit of my taste buds caught up to me?  Was this a poltergeist of the bovine kind?  No!  It was “thank you” message.  No Really.

Written on my innocent hamburger holding vessel was a note from the staff: “Just for you.  Enjoy! ^_^”  I was so taken back by the diabetically induced sweetness of the message that I didn’t eat the burger for a good sixty seconds.  Once I got over that I later did to discover was this not only a very friendly and happy establishment but a place that can serve a tasty burger.  Great proportion of meat, toppings and bun and the fries were served fresh and hot.  Mmmmm….

I strongly recommend Irv’s to any burger lover in Los  Angeles or anyone visiting.  Whether locals like it is beside the point.  This type of stand and this type of service is so rare in any part of the country that to even fathom it in a place like Los Angeles (WeHo) is astounding and special.  The staff working here are so nice and so clearly happy and in love with the stand and their work that no matter what you are doing and no matter how much you love or hate your job, you can’t help but feel that your job is not nearly as rewarding as theirs.

This is the kind of place that is truly worthy to be preserved.  We so often get bogged down in counting the years of a place as a qualifier for preservation.  But what we should not forget is that preservation is not simply to remind us of what we once had but to help us feel good about where we are going.  I don’t know about you, but I felt really good about myself after having a burger at Irv’s.  Only thing that could have made it better was if I was given a little gin and vermouth.

I, Roobs, hereby declare Irv’s the BEST hamburger stand EVER!  Irv’s, for the win!

Welcome to West Hollywood

As you all are no doubt aware, I have packed up bags and moved shop from the Bay Area to Southern California.  I will be attending graduate school at UCLA for my Masters in Urban & Regional Planning.  I’m really looking forward for classes to start and, in the interim, have been settling in my new apartment in West Hollywood.

Los Angeles never comes up as a city that is easily walkable.  And for good reason.  It’s not just the “car culture” of LA that influences this, though it does exist.  The physical layout and urban design of much of the nations second largest city requires a car to get around.  What other cities call neighborhoods, to Los Angeles, these geographic areas are sometimes the size of cities themselves.

Just The Facts

West Hollywood is a young city, both literally and metaphorically.  Once a neighborhood of the vast City of Los Angeles, “WeHo” as it is now referred, was incorporated in 1984 and had a population of 36,500 back in 2006 (US Census, 2006).  This 26 year old city also boasts a very young population, with the median age of residents around 40 years old with around 32% of residents between the ages of 20 and 34 years old (US Census, 2000).