At its best, the story of the L.A. theater district tells one of renewal in a place that’s been hard to please. Over the past three decades, it has become home to a dizzying array of theaters and a new wave of independent productions. Even as the city’s population has grown by 50% in the past decade, many theatergoers say they feel like they can never get enough.
The talk is of theaters, but lately, the district’s revitalization has also focused on its residents. Here, the number of available apartments, the range of dining options and the surge in house-hunting have shot up dramatically. And the contrast with the city’s nearby communities, the sorts of places where not too long ago, art-loving Angelenos could find a comfortable middle-class life, has sharply increased.
The big picture here, says [the Los Angeles Times’] Michael Goldstone, is that “if you go to the corner of Hollywood and Highland or you go to La Brea, you’re not just going to see a tourist, you’re also going to see a bunch of people living there.”
Maybe. But what’s striking to many Angelenos is that the neighborhood’s transformation is happening in the middle of the city. And as many residents who weren’t downtown before have discovered, it’s not easy to find a one-bedroom apartment at $1,200 a month.
Take real estate agent Jerry Fornohoff, a native Angeleno and an active member of the Theater District Association. When he started his career in L.A., he lived on the lower east side, a close-knit community that’s known for its arts and entertainment.
“There wasn’t anywhere I wanted to live. You couldn’t find an affordable place,” he said. “But then I realized that what was happening in the theater district was really transforming the city.”
Since then, Fornohoff says he’s watched rents in the surrounding neighborhoods skyrocket. In the past year, the average rent in the West Hollywood neighborhood was about $2,300 a month, up from about $1,400 in 2006, according to Zillow. The average price of a two-bedroom rental in Hollywood was $2,400, up from $1,800 in 2006 be359ba680
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