Here is the topic du jour from the Meta CookBook:
“For this session, I’m asking my fellow beer bloggers two related questions:
1. What do you want people in beer culture to be talking about that we’re not?
2. What do you have to say on the topic(s)?
“Beer” is its own subculture at this point. There’s an expected “look” and expected desires. Beer festivals are everywhere. Beer blogs flourish; indeed at this point there’s reasonable sub categories for them. New breweries are popping up at record pace; the US alone has more than 3,000. Big breweries are getting bigger, some are being purchased, some are saying that’s bullshit.
But we’re still fairly monolithic as a group. And there are a number of problems related to that tendency toward sameness. Not all problems related are personal, for example trademark disputes are becoming more commonplace as we all have the same “clever thought”.
We have such a good time with our libation of choice that sometimes we fear bringing up the issues we see.
Well, stop that. Air your concerns, bring up those issues. Show us what we’re not talking about and should be, and tell us why.
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Craft beer is sometimes linked, tenuously at times, to gentrification of a neighborhood. But I have yet to see (unless it is hidden like the proverbial needle in the haystack) any tackling of the topic from either an economic or sociological point of view.
But gentrification has struck me in two recent visits to Downtown LA’s Grand Central Market which has morphed into something quite different from what it was and will change more with Golden Road Brewing taking a spot amid the hip new food and beverage spots that have taken up residence in the icon spot near Angels (not so moving) Flight.
Now that may seem like a lament but it doesn’t have to be. The “G” word has taken a negative tone to some and even I am startled by the apparent speed of it all. I certainly don’t expect to see two millenials sporting colorful anime-eqsue knit hats and a rainbow mohawked dude on a drive down York Boulevard in Highland Park. I also don’t know how to respond when someone says they feel weird patronizing a business because of a perceived animosity from the old guard of the neighborhood.
The problem, in my view, follows the money. It is not the Golden Road’s or Eggslut’s or the trendy pressed juicery that is the issue. They are links in the gentrification food chain. The problem is the nearly inescapable fact that when [insert trendy eatery/pet boutique/brewery] appears a landlord starts bumping the rent or dreaming of mixed-use condos (‘cause we so need more of those in LA). There are seemingly no hurdles for those who want to upsell. Which shows a city that hasn’t learned from the history of how Dodger Stadium came to be in Elysian Park.
The lifecycle of gentrification starts with the ironic fact that the location is cheap. Storefronts can be rented for risky business ideas (cupcakes were big once, maybe mittens are next). A new brewery falls into that category. One creative begets another both in people and stores. But once the Gladwell-ian tipping point is hit those same ideas and people become priced out along with the neighborhood stores which were there the whole time. The old and new can’t co-exist, not because they don’t want to, in my opinion, it comes down to both being pushed out in the reach for higher returns on investment. Not because trendy place A doesn’t want to be next door to a family run Panaderia.
Eventually, the cool stores lose their cool and a winnowing takes place. The little coffee shop becomes a Starbucks. Then equilibrium takes hold and you end up with a street that is either vibrant with a mix of retail that rotates like a craft bar tap list or a street that reverts back to a more sedate path. The next creative class heads to the next cheap street and the process begins anew. It has happened in Eagle Rock, Silver Lake, Echo Park and other neighborhoods. And if the beer is good, each of the neighborhood’s ends up with their own community beermonger.
Grand Central Market is not a street or a neighborhood but a microcosm of both. I will happily check out the new Golden Road space and drink a beer or three there. Over the last year or more the market space now holds more attractions to me while to others it is not what it was or should be. Yes, something is lost. Sometimes to the detriment of the entire community but the new should not be hated.
No, what needs to be added to the gentrification equation is a way to help the business that has moved and that has to start with those who want to gain mo’ money. A form of gentrification pay-to-play. Force the developers by law or regulation that ties rent increases or building teardowns with re-location services. And not just a pamphlet and a handshake but actual realtor help. Actual Small Business assistance. Because it would be terrible for craft beer if it was considered part of the “problem” of gentrification. Or tied to one portion of the community and not for all who want to visit. Community is not just a word to many breweries and to be cut off from it would be tough.