The Importance of Place and Place-Makers in the Life of a Los Angeles Community

Abstract

This article looks at restaurants as urban forms of public space in which ethnic entrepreneurs act as place-makers. The author highlights El Nayarit, a Mexican restaurant in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, from 1947 to the present, as a nucleus of a community where racial, ethnic, class, and generational boundaries were breached. This restaurant and its spin-off enterprises also helped to define the neighborhood as ethnic space. In contrast, urban redevelopment and gentrification, beginning in the 1990s, have resulted in erasure of the area’s history and the sense of space in which ethnic identity and multiethnic bonds were once fostered.

Implicit revanchism: Gang injunctions and the security politics of white liberalism

“…During the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s, the Echo Park neighborhood was still known as a countercultural and bohemian enclave and home to actors, artists, and anarchists, but was now also being identified, if not derided, as a destination for immigrants from across Mexico and Central America (Molina, 2015). By the 1990s, as white residents fled the highest homicide rates in LA’s history by moving into the far western reaches of the San Fernando Valley, Echo Park retained its historic numeric majority of Latino/a residents and became popularly known as an entrenched gang territory.…”

The Multiple Meanings of San Diego's Little Italy: A Study of the Impact of Real and Symbolic Space and Boundaries on the Ethnic Identities of Eight Italian Americans

“…As Arreola (1995) has noted, "One of the strongest measures of American urban identity is the association of a city with a specific ethnic group and its landscape" (p. 518)-or a neighborhood with a specific ethnic group. An examination of Los Angeles provides some grounding when it comes to urban space and ties to ethnic communities: Southern California has, decidedly, an immigrant milieu that has been influential in shaping its cities and communities (Hawthorne, 2014b;Molina, 2015). In Los Angeles, more than a third of the population is foreign born, "a figure three times the national average" (Hawthorne, 2014a, para.…”

“…Shifting the focus to redevelopment practices, in Toronto's Little Portugal, we examine the trend of gentrification more directly in an effort to capture the impact of this contemporary practice on any given ethnic group. We begin with a common understanding of gentrification, offered by Molina (2015):…”

“…Ultimately, this is a discussion for future study. Molina (2015) has conveyed the notion that El Nayarit and its proprietor significantly shaped the neighborhood, stating, My goal is to reveal ways in which individuals and groups who do not work explicitly to subvert social norms can nonetheless be place-makers who leave a mark on the urban landscape for generations to come. .…”

“…A busboy wasn't a laborer here; he was the fellow with the great voice who sang with a trio; a waitress from another restaurant became a new woman, transformed as she replaced her uniform with a beautiful dress. (p. 83) In reference to the trend of gentrification, Molina (2015) has emphasized "the importance of recognizing and memorializing the place-makers who helped to shape the urban landscape of Echo Park and of other, similar places" (p. 100). The author has noted further, "If we fail to acknowledge and value these actors' roles, we risk viewing gentrification as merely an uncomplicated urban renaissance in which a new set of placemakers revitalizes a vapid cultural wasteland filled with crime and blight" (p 100).…”