Preparing land for Mercado del Barrio
2011
Chicano Park Day
2011
Beginning to Uproot
2010
Brent Beltrán, resident at El Mercado
2013
Georgette Gómez, EHC Associate Director
2013
Touring future community garden site
2013
No Retrofitting
2010
Corner of Logan Ave & Cesar E. Chavez
2010
Construction of El Mercado housing unit
2011
Future Barrio
LOCATION: Begin at Newton & Cesar E. Chavez and walk east around the Mercado or Chicano Park.
ABOUT: For this last track, I invite you to enjoy El Mercado del Barrio. The 2012 opening of El Mercado—an event 20 years in the making—demonstrates how the community, city planners, and commercial developers can negotiate the development of a mixed-use space. It also seems to make the case that development doesn’t have to result into gentrification with all of its uncomfortable baggage. Redevelopment can in fact contribute to a form of regeneration.
In Barrio Logan, at least for the moment, urban development has not only caused a regeneration in Chicano art and culture, but it has given rise to a new generation of activists. Considering the increase of the Latino population, what isn’t getting removed from the barrio is Chicano-Latino-Barrio culture.
Listen as Brent Beltrán and Georgette Gómez, the new generation of Barrio activists, discuss the work it has taken to steer development towards making life more livable while maintaining local culture. The two also highlight the difference between gentrification and regeneration in the barrio.