The irony of gentrification

Re “Parking plan a threat to hipness?” Sept. 13

I had a good laugh after reading this article. The irony is that these residents are complaining about more money being less hip or parking meters being too intrusive when more than 15 years ago the original residents of Silver Lake -- mainly low-income Latino families -- were displaced or relocated as a result of higher and excessive rent increases when new “hip” residents moved in. Long gone are most of the Latino family-owned restaurants on Sunset Boulevard, to make room for trendy coffee shops. The Sunset Junction street fair, once free or on a donation basis, now charges admission of about $20, keeping low-income families from attending this “community” event. I think it is incredibly classist and racist that the effect of gentrification on low-income families was not mentioned in this article.

Rebecca Prine

Los Angeles