Making Our Neighborhood: Redlining, Gentrification, and Housing in East Hollywood, a panel series bringing together life-long elders of East Hollywood with local journalists Jimmy Recinos (Jimbo Times) and Samanta Helou Hernandez (This Side of Hoover): The panel series highlights Black and  Japanese American history in East Hollywood, historic policies against home and property ownership for non-white communities in the area, and their relation gentrification currently impacting immigrant communities in the neighborhood. The series concludes by highlighting current efforts against evictions in East Hollywood, growing homelessness in the area, and city planning with increased community participation. 

Leading up to the panel series, a coalition of groups collaborating with Jimbo Times and This Side of Hoover will launch an arts and information-sharing campaign for the event, inviting residents and small business owners in East Hollywood—including Filipinx, Armenian, Latinx and Thai businesses—to engage with the series’ topics and RSVP for each panel event. The coalition’s art and information-sharing campaign will also focus attention on the previously “redlined” areas in both Silver Lake and East Hollywood. 

The panel series, scheduled to take place from March 4, 2021 through March 18, 2021, will feature a range of community members, from former and longtime multi-ethnic neighbors, to current residents, community groups, and local leaders for immigrants’ rights, including Chanchanit  (Chancee) Martorell, of the Thai Community Development Center.

The first panel, on March 4, 2021, will focus on the historic redlining policies by the federal and municipal governments that affected areas like East Hollywood, the internment of Japanese Americans, and solidarity between Black and Japanese Americans in the area formerly called “J Flats.” The second panel, on March 11, 2021, will highlight gentrification of the Virgil Village area, and will focus on the importance of documentation as a tool for preserving the community’s history. The third and final panel, scheduled for March 18, 2021, will center the future of housing and urban planning in East Hollywood.

Panels will take place on March 4, March 11, and March 18 at 6:00PM and will be available in both English and Spanish languages. Participants are invited to ask questions, find resources, and learn more about the past, present, and future of the community to gain a deeper understanding of the place they call home. Event registration can be found at: EastHollywood.Eventbrite.com

*see Everbright for additional series events