To the editor: Neighborhood appreciation and integration aren't exclusively bad, but you wouldn't know that from reading the Times' coverage of gentrification in Leimert Park. (“Do you want to sell your house? In historically Black Leimert Park, the question provokes fear and anger,” January 30)
Articles often appear in this newspaper highlighting the seemingly terrifying threat of a neighborhood becoming diversified. And who are the villains? They should be structural forces larger than all of us, but that's too abstract.
Instead, the blame falls on the young, new, and often non-black middle-class families (like mine) who had the audacity to think that we could ever try to own a relatively modest home in the city in which we grew up.
It's a superficial shot. In a city where the median home price is more than a million dollars, most of us live within the confines of absurdly limited options, regardless of race.
My family moved to Leimert Park three years ago and we love it here. Our entire interracial and interfaith block is in a WhatsApp group where we communicate regularly. Last summer we held our second annual block party, headlined by two long-standing black families and one new non-black family.
However, your articles do not address this. Rather, they exaggerate the notion that families like mine are outcasts.
People will continue to move to Leimert Park or wherever else they can because there simply isn't much housing in Los Angeles. So maybe it would be better for everyone to receive articles that elevate this community as we evolve. My experience is that good things are happening here.
Hanna Mark, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Leimert Park residents aren't the only ones harassed by real estate agents and developers.
I live in a predominantly white area and the hassle of purchasing my property has increased to the point of exasperation. I receive text messages, phone calls (which I no longer answer) and several emails a week. I even had a couple knock on my door wanting to buy.
It's like they don't take “no” for an answer. The offers are comical due to their low numbers.
I think it's simply a change in business practice, and aggressively unpleasant behavior has become the norm. This also happened with properties I had in another state. The real estate business has adopted the attitude of telemarketing.
Kathy Schmitt, Hemet
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To the editor: I'm also sick of real estate agents coming to my door.
I have been in my house for 33 years and I am not selling it. It's paid for and I like it. I added this to my voicemail: “If you're a real estate agent, please stop calling.”
I would never deal with anyone who cold called me or just showed up at my door. I now have a sticker above my doorbell that says, “There are no lawyers and I will not sell my house.”
Jane Wilkens, Monrovia
