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Property outlaws in the Southland: The potential and limits of guerrilla urbanism in the cases of arts gentrification in Boyle Heights and street vending decriminalization in Los Angeles

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A Correction to this article was published on 26 September 2019

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Abstract

Los Angeles has recently been the site of two notable cases of guerrilla urbanism. In one, street vendors formed advocacy groups and a coalition with allies that lobbied city council and overturned a citywide ban on their activity. In another, several Boyle Heights community organizations deployed confrontational tactics to close art events, galleries, and coffee shops to counter gentrification and displacement. This article compares these two cases to find the key role that urban aesthetics and design play in rewriting the dominant spatial order under contemporary conditions of immigrant urbanism. We propose that property outlaw theory from property rights law literature helps us understand the potentially productive role of guerrilla urbanism and its implications for urban design practice. Additionally, spatial and temporal parochialism, and defining the boundaries of what constitutes “the community” are important factors in the efficacy of guerrilla urbanism practice. These cases’ insights can help equip designers to more mindfully practice urban design, knowing the important role that aesthetics play in a larger property rights regime reconstruction project.

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Change history

  • 26 September 2019

    This article was erroneously published in Volume 24, Issue 3 (2019) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41289-019-00086-6. The article is now included in the special issue ���Guerrilla Urbanism���.

Notes

  1. This is certainly true in the context of Boyle Heights where, as of 2016, the median household income was $33,421 and the rate of homeownership 23.7% (USC Price Center 2018).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Wendy Chung and Luis Gutierrez for research assistance and key informant interviews, as well as the participants of the 2015 symposium, Contesting the Streets 2, who helped develop some of these concepts, particularly Saskia Sassen and Margaret Crawford. See http://slab.today/2015/09/contesting-the-streets-2/.

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  1. Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, Lewis Hall 312, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0626, USA

    Jonathan Crisman & Annette Kim

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  1. Jonathan Crisman
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Correspondence to Jonathan Crisman.

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Crisman, J., Kim, A. Property outlaws in the Southland: The potential and limits of guerrilla urbanism in the cases of arts gentrification in Boyle Heights and street vending decriminalization in Los Angeles. Urban Des Int 24, 159–170 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-019-00086-6

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