Please tell me about Highland Park (Los Angeles, Pasadena: house, neighborhood, theatre)

[A1Lexo]

Most of York from the 50's on up is great and now trendy.

[kendylyoung]

As a native of Mt. Washington and Highland Park, I find the hip and trendy parts of Highland Park both awesome and hilarious- but that's just my jaded view.

Highland Park is not your typical suburban idea of "safe"- but it would be a mistake to dismiss a wonderful living experience based on a cliched and sanitized ideal of "safe".

HP is a vibrant, multi-cultural and economically diverse place. Working class people live side by side with professors at local universities and the urban hipsters mix it up with the old, third generation residents. Local and family business are the norm- the Gastro Pub you mentioned was started by a neighborhood guy who wanted to be able to bike to a place to get a great cup of coffee.

When you get here, do not miss Gelco's- this is a place to get 1000's of different sodas from around the world.

[rotorholic]

Originally Posted by behindthescreen

Isn't Highland Park where the Avenues gang is located and they were assaulting all blacks who were trying to move in the neighborhood?

HP is horrible, I can't believe some members are painting a pretty picture of it. Its infested with drug users and gang members, I lived there for over 10 years. The you tube video posted shows the real HP.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by rotorholic

HP is horrible, I can't believe some members are painting a pretty picture of it. Its infested with drug users and gang members, I lived there for over 10 years. The you tube video posted shows the real HP.

Things have changed since you lived there.

[rotorholic]

Things have not changed too much since my last visit 4 weeks ago, My mother still lives up ave 64 and church st near Pasadena BUT still HP.

[JohnG72]

Though I couldn't locate a break down of Highland Park itself, heres a PDF with statistics from Northeast Station that includes Highland Park. The last column shows a comparison with this year to date vs 2009. 40% reduction in violent crime, 16% reduction in property crime. The differences when compared with the numbers of the early to mid 1990's are staggering.

http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/noeprof.pdf

I'm not saying Highland Park is perfectly safe. Its not. But its no longer a warzone. This operation a couple years ago really took the teeth out of much of the crime activity:

Los Avenues | Avenues gang bastion is demolished - Los Angeles Times

Really, the property values in Highland Park have pushed up fairly high. It looks a LOT like Silverlake did around 1999/2000 where Silverlake had previously been over run by gang crime in the early 90's, but then it became a trendy area once the violent crime diminished.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

Though I couldn't locate a break down of Highland Park itself, heres a PDF with statistics from Northeast Station that includes Highland Park. The last column shows a comparison with this year to date vs 2009. 40% reduction in violent crime, 16% reduction in property crime. The differences when compared with the numbers of the early to mid 1990's are staggering.

http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/noeprof.pdf

I'm not saying Highland Park is perfectly safe. Its not. But its no longer a warzone. This operation a couple years ago really took the teeth out of much of the crime activity:

Los Avenues | Avenues gang bastion is demolished - Los Angeles Times

Really, the property values in Highland Park have pushed up fairly high. It looks a LOT like Silverlake did around 1999/2000 where Silverlake had previously been over run by gang crime in the early 90's, but then it became a trendy area once the violent crime diminished.

The actual roots of Silver Lake's later gentrification were related to the 1992 riots. Silver Lake was almost untouched by the riots unlike many other communities. The artsy, proto-hipster types and the rockers from Hollywood moved there in large numbers because of the riots bringing Hollywood to its all time low. This had already been going on for years but accelerated due to the riots - which not only spared Silver Lake but which also spared Echo Park. EP had major gang issues back then but the gangs in EP unlike some places kept the rioters out rather than participate in them. This also applied in Eastside neighborhoods such as Highland Park.

I lived in Silver Lake in the early '90s. There was more crime in general south of Sunset (not just gang crime) but it definitely had less crime at that time than any area bordering it with the exception of Los Feliz.

ReL Highland Park, it used to be a pretty bad neighborhood and now it's semi-safe as a whole. But its history's different from Silver Lake. Silver Lake was extremely racially/ethnically/economically mixed and heavily gay in 1990. Highland Park was a poor and working class Latino neighborhood in 1990, it was not diverse or known for diversity, nor did it have any gay history.

[SlowMotionApocalypse]

You can buy heroin at Figueroa & Avenue 61.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by SlowMotionApocalypse

You can buy heroin at Figueroa & Avenue 61.

Oh wow, thanks for the tip

[saybanana]

Having lived in Highland Park (HLP) for the over 25 years, I have seen many changes. It is not the 90s HLP. It is getting better every year. People do walk on the streets, ride bicycles, push their strollers, walk their dogs. There are some streets which seem more scary than others, but it really depends who lives on that street. They are the ones who screw up the reputation for others. Generally speaking, north of York is safer. HLP has always been a working class neighborhood with smaller houses on small lots. For those who have lived here a long time can tell you which areas they think are scary. Others might disagree. Try to get to know your neighbors. Our neighbors called the police when they saw a strange truck and burglars in our driveway when we were away. They left before the police came.