Years later, there are still affordable places to eat and shop for groceries in Highland Park, including Food 4 Less, which now has a decent organic produce section, the cleanest Super A Foods on earth, and smaller, quainter stores like Feli-Market Market, which manages to squeeze everything from tomatillos to birthday cakes into their tiny corner on Figueroa and Avenue 54. Jammy Torres in front-of her Hadassah Hair Salon. She opened her hair salon in 2012 and moved six years later to Chatsworth, where she could afford to rent a house.
A Franklin High School graduate, Torres grew up in the neighborhood and remembers seeing a local fruit vendor gunned down in front of her elementary school on Monte Vista Street around 1993 when she said it was a dangerous place to live. “I think prices are intimidating, and they’re not very welcoming to the locals,” said Jammy Torres, 36, the owner of Hadassah Hair Studio on York Boulevard. Those who’ve lived in Highland Park for generations agree it’s safer than it was in the 90s when gang activity was at its peak, but it’s no longer affordable for many-or even recognizable in certain respects. While everyone feels differently about gentrification, depending on their political views and individual privileges, the undeniable problem is that not everyone benefits equally from increased investment and sudden media and developer interest in a neighborhood. Higher-end restaurants are often seen as a precursor to greater gentrification, a process research and advocacy nonprofit Studio ATAO define as: “when a previously dis-invested neighborhood changes significantly due to investment and development in the area, often in conjunction with the arrival of more affluent residents.” favorites like Follieros, Chicos, and Las Cazuelas.
Nowhere is this truth more palpable than in gentrifying neighborhoods like Highland Park, where newer restaurants on Figueroa Street, like Hippo and Cafe Birdie, tend to attract a wealthier, whiter demographic than O.G. Food has the power to unite us but also divide us.
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