Moving Black to The Neighborhood
The Plan (Road Map)
After spending most of our adult lives living in neighborhoods that were predominantly white, my wife and I decided to move to a neighborhood where we would feel comfortable and connected. After a three-year search, we chose Leimert Park, the neighborhood where my wife grew up.
Leimert Park met all of our criteria including a large African American presence, rich cultural history, relative affordability, architectural richness (Spanish revival style homes), and tree lined streets. We also wanted our home to be close to public transportation, not too far from the beach and have plenty of shopping and entertainment choices nearby. Lastly, we crossed our fingers and were very hopeful that we would have good neighbors.
THE STRATEGY (ADAPTING)
To get reacquainted with the neighborhood before buying, we attended the Cherrywood-Leimert Block Club meeting after coming across a yard sign invitation. Once there we loved the multi-generational participation and energy in the meeting and the community information being shared. We attended two additional meetings and walked several parts of the neighborhood which confirmed to both of us that we were making the right choice in choosing Leimert Park. In a word, even though we did not know anyone personally in the block club or in the neighborhood, it felt like we were coming home.
The housing market was pretty fierce and very competitive, so we developed a strategy. Instead of competing with other bidders from the Westside and ourselves when making offers on houses we liked, (playing the multiple counter offer game), we decided to come in with our best and final, giving the seller a 48-hour window to decide to take it or leave it. This strategy flipped the script on the market, giving us the power and flexibility to quickly move-on if we didn’t win the initial bid. This freed us from getting hung up emotionally or time wise on a house whose likely final price would be outside our comfort zone. Our strategy worked like a charm, with the icing on the cake being we were that rare buyer it turns out that reversed the trend of gentrification, as we replaced a white family in Leimert Park with a Black one.
THE OPPORTUNITY (FEELING BLESSED)
We were fortunate enough to be in a position to put our money where our mouth was so to speak. Many of our friends lamented the displacement of black people and culture as gentrification accelerates across the country’s urban landscape, but do nothing to address it even if they could afford to. This displacement caused by owners aging out, renters being priced out (because their wages have not kept up with rent increases) resulting in many people of color selling their family home and renters having to move-in with other relatives or risk becoming homeless. It has also led to a one-way migration to far flung suburbs or even moving out of state, never to return. We consciously wanted to in our small way reverse that trend. Hopefully showing others they could come home too.
The family we bought from had two young school age children whose father fretted about the safety of the neighborhood and what his kids would be exposed to in local schools. Translation, the neighborhood did not turnover fast enough for them to feel comfortable enough to stay any longer than the three years they had already invested and they were not interested in solutions like, Public, Private, Parochial or Charter Schools.
On the other hand, their financial investment did pay-off as they reaped a nice profit on their way to Westlake Village and the homogenous generic 80’s style homes of suburbia, with the perceived comfort and safety of being a member of the majority in the neighborhood, something ironically that we sought when we targeted Leimert Park.
THE EXPERIENCE (THE REAL REAL)
Once settled, we attended Neighborhood Council meetings, supported local shops, vendors and farmers markets. We also engaged and met our immediate neighbors, walked the neighborhood, voted in the neighborhood council and city-wide elections and took on many projects in and around our new home including picking-up trash on the parkways, alleys and streets. One of the best parts of moving to the neighborhood was waking up in the morning and seeing people that looked like us just walking up the street and going about their business. I know that seems a little odd and maybe trivial, but when you’ve lived in areas where you were the 0.006 percent of the population, believe me you come to appreciate the little things in life that bring comfort. Yes, comfort.
We have met some great, generous and dynamic people on our street and the surrounding blocks. People, that are warm, smart, caring and invested as we are. But like anywhere else we’ve also met some not so friendly people including the since departed “settler” across the street and the “Karen” next door. Before I tell you our experience with the “Karen” I want to describe what we’ve observed and experienced and what I mean when I use the term “settler.” Yes, what I am describing are some of the white people that have moved into Leimert Park in recent years.
The “settler” is a person that moves into an area they are unfamiliar with either culturally, historically, or demographically. They moved here because they were priced out of their preferred area, speculated that this area was a good financial investment (because it’s been historically undervalued and provides a better return on their investment) or they are a cultural explorer looking for an adventure to sample and then move on from. Most of these settlers move-in and then out when their financial gain/goal has been met or they have had enough “adventure.”
Other “settlers,” also known as “Karens” possess a strong sense of entitlement. Instead of integrating and taking part in the neighborhood rhythms and hues, they import their friends and their kid’s playmates from whence they came. Careful not to allow them to go to school or play with other neighborhood kids. They build horizontal barriers, i.e., fences, tall shrubs, vegetable gardens in their front yards and put up “no trespassing signs” on their gates. Kind of like circling the wagons in “Indian Country.” Basically, they hunker down with a bunker mentality, not willing to integrate but waiting for re-enforcements of their kind to arrive. In some cases, they also attempt to impose their will on their immediate neighbors.
An example of this is asking but in reality, demanding they be allowed to install a fence with locking gate across their driveway and attaching it to their next-door neighbors’ home because they felt “exposed” and would feel “safer” once it was erected. Essentially feeling entitled to annex an additional 4 feet of their neighbor’s property, requiring the neighbor to ask for permission for access to augment their comfort. When this demand was declined, they then applied pressure and stress by, spreading ill-will to other neighbors and attempting to weaponize the police by making false claims. Sound familiar? Fortunately, the experiences described above are very much the minority and only written about to provide a full and accurate description of our experiences in Leimert Park and the very real fear some long term residents feel.
THE REALIZATION (REALIZING THE VISION)
All in all, we are super happy that we moved Black to the neighborhood! That is why we have decided to get further involved in the neighborhood by establishing the Leimert Park Neighborhood Association (LPNA). It is an organization that is laser focused on the opportunities and issues that face Leimert Park specifically. Some people have embraced it as a good thing while other’s ask why do we need another neighborhood group?
To those who ask why, I say while there are several Block Clubs, Councils and Groups that are doing good work, it dawned on us that we could harness these efforts, and avoid fragmented and uncoordinated inefficiencies that sometimes-de-rail best efforts and intentions by letting everyone know what everyone else is doing in the neighborhood in as real a time as possible. A kind of flattening of the social, political and community hierarchical landscape. What LPNA seeks to do is bridge the gap of communication between all the different groups, liaising in the neighborhood, leveraging, resources, time and effort and getting the attention, action and positive results from within the neighborhood and from our elected officials without fear or favor.
My wife and I are strong proponents of community involvement and diversity of ideas that are actionable. We begrudge no one, no matter what their background, culture, lifestyle or ethnicity is, if they want to embrace, integrate themselves, or bring positive ideas and solutions to Leimert Park. There are plenty of opportunities to make our neighborhood shine even more. Hopefully through LPNA we can get many more neighbors (both long-term and new) to engage and contribute to what we’ve termed, “The New Golden Age of Leimert Park.”