by Garrison Frost

If there's one thing you hear about people in Los Angeles, and about people in the beach cities in particular, is that nobody is actually from here. There's an assumption that everyone is a transplant who was either born in another part of the country, or at least another part of the state or county. This assumption portrays living in the beachs cities as a reward, a sign of success for those who were raised in lesser climes. And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing to give one pause. It's a nice place to live and not everyone gets to live here. People who do should be proud of themselves and what they?ve accomplished.

However, there is a downside. Just 10, 15 or 20 years ago, the beach cities were attainable for middle class people. You didn't have to be rich to buy a house. You only had to have a good job that gave you a moderate about of luxury. The area was full of aerospace employees, pharmacists, accountants and small business owners - middle class professionals. It was these people who built the town and made it what it is today. But if you're a middle manager in the aerospace industry today, good luck buying a place in Manhattan Beach. Same if you own and operate a fairly successful clothing store. Same if you're making $80,000 at a downtown consulting firm. Nothing new here. That's just what the area has become. Those middle class wage earners who were lucky enough to have bought early and kept their properties certainly aren?t complaining. For many of these people, their homes have gone up more in value every year than they've earned in that time. They're sitting pretty.

While this is a great thing for those who are now of retirement age, this isn't so great for their children. These kids, born to middle class families and now in their mid-20s to mid-40s, have effectively been priced right out of the area. Sure, there are a few who have managed to cling to their home, but many others have simply had to move away to find a place to raise their families. This isn't because they're not successful. This is just the price the community pays when it changes from an upper middle class town to a haven for the wealthy in one generation.

Ask any 35-year-old who was born in Hermosa Beach. This isn't anything new to him. Even if he's been fortunate enough to hang on, he'll tell you about the legions of friends who are now living in Torrance, Orange County, Silver Lake or even out of state.

So does this have an effect on the community? It'ss hard to say. Certainly few are complaining that these cities are lacking a group of home-grown Generation X-ers. But one can envision this hurting each of these cities in a subtle but significant way, and that's in the loss of people who have the kind of commitment to an area that only comes from growing up there. Transient, or adoptive, populations can express tremendous loyalty, but it's possible that they won't go the extra distance to preserve things of historical value, for instance, or invest in the infrastructure of a community that they only live in, but of which they don't necessarily claim ownership. One sees this in the tearing down of old houses and the ditching of old promises.

Two examples of this have cropped up of late in the beach cities, both concerning Manhattan Beach, which is certainly the most expensive of these communities. The first example is the recent defeat of a parcel tax intended to circumvent predicted school budget cuts. One has to think this would have had an easier time at the polls if there was a larger population of people who had lived in the city their whole lives, come up through the city's school system themselves and felt a stronger sense of ownership. The other is the recent decision by the Manhattan Beach School Board to stop allowing children from north Redondo Beach to attend the much closer Mira Costa High School rather than travel all the way to Redondo Union High School. People will argue this point, but it's possible that this move wouldn't be possible if more Manhattan Beach voters had been around 10 years ago when certain assurances were made to the people of north Redondo Beach, people who might remember that the area's leadership closed a north Redondo high school to the benefit of Mira Costa.

Whether this kicking out of our youth is still happening is open to discussion. Children coming of age today in the high-priced beach cities aren't being raised in middle class families, and will probably have a lot more opportunities than the children of the previous generation. Good for them. Let's just hope that when their parents help them make the down payment on that $800,000 starter home on the Avenues in Redondo Beach that they remember the kids just a few years older who are now living in Phoenix.

(July 1, 2003)

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