Wonderful, yet sad story. I am Tracy Lyon, son of Beach Lyon, Jr (known as Cub Lyon) and grandson of Beach D. Lyon Sr. Our family owned the market for 3 generations, until my father and partner sold to Ira Yellin in October 1985. I remained on as General Manager and minority co-owner until 1993, when I was forced out due to my allegiance to the Tenants and their mistreatment. Many tenants were kicked out and forced to leave to make way for "upper scale" businesses. As a result, the market floundered with empty stalls and failing businesses for 15 to 20 years. I knew your Grandfather well. The market was founded on the hard work and sweat of people like your Grandfather. I knew many Tenants who knew my grandfather and father. We were all "family." I tried to keep that alive, but was forced out due to my beliefs. We are coming up on 100 years celebration. Maybe I'll be invited back by the Yellins.

Wow sorry for your loss your Grandpa was a good person kind hearted I remember I had a $1.50 he told me that's fine and still sold me food and told me have a safe Journey no one has ever told me that till this day. I know it's him I remember his store stall

Wow did y’all notice how both the grandma and granddaughter talked nicely of the cheese stall and the guy who runs it essentially said, “oh well it’s too bad if they get pushed out some other business could thrive better” 🤦🏻‍♀️

Gentrification is not only "symbolic" is very real when the cost of living suddenly hikes up while your income remains the same.

Gentrification is a give and take thing. I remember that up until about tweny years ago, the Downtown LA area was literally dying. My paternal grandmother worked in the bargain basement at the downtown Bullock's department store and I remember a lot of what LA looked like in the early sixties. Everybody, including my parents, both of who grew up in the Cypress Park/Highland Park area, wanting to move to the LA suburbs because lower income people were moving in with little or no English skills and, with them, the gang activity which almost destroyed certain places. My dad worked for the then Pacific Telephone in the Watts area of LA County when the Watts Riots actually happened in the late nineteen sixties. I was working at Disneyland when the whole Rodney King thing went down and there have been several attmpts to push new jobs and better things into the LA South Central area that haven't worked. Gentrification though, mainly along the new Expo and Gold LIne extensions, is pushing the families that used to live in those areas out. Gentrification happens almost everywhere, especially with globalization. I've read that it's going on in London, England with most Londoners not being able to afford to live in the city any more.

I had not been to the Grand Central Market in like a year. It just broke my heart to see so many of the businesses being driven out. People who have worked so hard on those businesses should not be treated that way!!!

I stopped going there because it really changed. It went from small shops selling produce to hipsters opening up shops selling overpriced foods. It's more like a large cafeteria than a market.

I will never go there again. Haven't been for years now since the gentrification.

Welcome to Los Angeles. It's not just happening in downtown, I've noticed it in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Highland Park, Echo Park, Eagle Rock and Pasadena.

A great film. As someone who lives in DTLA I've seen and spoken to many of the GCM vendors who just don't see how they can stay afloat. In this film you show an ice cream stand that was next to Eggslut which they have now left due to the huge rent hike. There are talks about bringing in a gelato shop. Once again thank you for this.

wow. i grew up going to the central market every saturday with my family. and yeah i noticed a shift of people when i went there a couple of moths ago. very hipster like. and we sort of talked about gentrification in ethnic studies and yeah this is pretty interesting. wonder how it will look like in a couple of years. especially since los angeles is predominantly hispanic, you know, its what made the grand central market feel like home. people who can speak the same language as you. things are changing and i don't know how to feel about it :0

Dang the memories I had at the grand central market, it’s not the same anymore 🙁

This film is excellent! Actually was just looking at neighbourhoods before I move back to LA , and stumbled on this. Great to see a fellow South African producing such thoughtful work. 🙌🏽

RIP Grand Central Market

Hey Dylan, really enjoyed this piece. Would love to see more on DTLA. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for making this. Very thought-provoking, good job.

Nice work, Dylan. Fascinating story and of course well told! :)

I used to go there often back in the 90's.

I used to live down here and was shocked when I went a few weeks ago. It's nice to see it look cleaner but also disappointing to see that my 5 dollars won't go very far anymore and that the old residents didn't deserve a clean place to shop. I used to come out with a watermelon, onions, 3 big baskets of strawberries, mangoes and all kinds of stuff for literally under 5 bucks for it all. I understand maybe some of the reason it was so cheap was bc there wasn't so much glitz and glam and pretty packaging. The 9 dollar spent on juice could have previously bought all the produce needed for Thanksgiving meal. The problem with gentrification is that it makes things more convenient for a population that already has things more convenient. It's not like there aren't plenty of pretty places and shops that have popped up downtown already. People don't have a problem with pretty shops but they have a problem with the we need it all mentality. The irony with the new spots is I bet the workers can't even afford to buy the food they're selling bc I doubt owners pay a reasonable wage with rent being so high...

Thank you. That was really well made.

every time I go there, I would buy and support the Hispanics business and never going to stop!

cool video, keep up the great work!

Congrats on making over 100!

Interesting perspective you don't often hear when people speak about the renewal of this area. Perhaps a key difference between what is happening in Los Angeles now vs. traditional gentrification is that, as described by the USC person, middle class people move into a neighborhood and fix up the homes, etc and prices go up, lifting the entire neighborhood. This is not the case, from what I am able to decipher. DEVELOPERS are buying up large inventories of residential(apartment buildings) and commercial real estate and creating high income/high priced housing. Rents are being raised and people are forced to move out. Where are they going? Is there a direct connection between this process and the big increase in the homelessness crisis in DTLA?

Great documentary, thank you.

10:18 Wow! A "new business?", no bub you are squatting on someone else's land.

I remember as a child purchasing fried shrimp and french fries in a brown paper bag at Central market. 😁

I miss the meat vendors that sold the non traditional pieces of meats like chicken feet, heads, and tripas. GSM has just turned into a Foodie Mecca. It's just indoor lunch trucks. I'm glad Ana Maria's is still there. I remember as a kid, they had an A&W with frosted mugs. It's just sad.

If you dont own the building, forget about it. Even with gentrification, its ruthless out there!

Very tragic piece. thank you for sharing.

This is now three years ago, is there an update? I haven't been there in two years since I had to move away for a job.

I have a comment on the mole not being bought by Americans and that the Hispanic people only buy it. This is the time to innovate and expand because they can't depend on old school Latino ladies to buy mole. They need to make mole more sexy and market to younger people

Claudia Armendariz .. she's outstandin her grandfather i'm sure he's so proud of her .

Any update as to what happened to the place in 2019?

Its Happening Here is Santa Ana & Anaheim (Orange County) , But I look at it this way, We can all De-Gentrify Our Communities, By Education, By Empowerment & Working Towards Social Justice. They Have only woken us up, Now its time to ACT!

I try not to look at gentrification or the young hipster or middle to upper class peoples and the business that cater to them as one evil entity. My issue is the lack of empathy, the lack of inter connectedness between different cultures, and the lack of authentic cultural production. I think these type of foodie business at its core, and I think young americans in their twenties as a whole are affected by an idea of image and radical consumerism. In other words, young people are buying into this idea of having to be beautiful and stylish and at the same time consume in such a way that gives value and worth in their lives that I believe is unnecessary and soulless.

What’s the music?

Damn! Me and my micro business can never survive this!!!

are they still in business today?

so sad :( That is what I remember the most and it's changing...

well-done bro

Very nicely done, Dylan. A friend turned me onto the film. Would like to talk to you more about it...@wendycarrillo

I use to go there when I was little I can't believe that mostly all of the Mexican stands are all gone.

I much preferred the way Grand Central used to be. Not everything needs to be modernized and fancy. The new market has no character. This comes from the ultimate snooty person too.

That is so sad I am 50 yrs old I remember going there as a very young child I went back a few mo the ago and it lost a lot of its luster sad.

I grew up taking the red car from s central to grand central & then from E Los Angeles. There used to be many cultures represented in that time in the 50s into the early 70s. I remember the Italian Sausages, pastas, Croatian marketers, Jewish foods, etc. Then I saw the Mexican families bring in their specialty foods, that I often bought while I was on break or after work as a clerk for the Broadway. My single mom worked at Clifton’s. I empathize with the cultural shift & the feeling of being outsiders in your own place that you were historically there. I began to feel like I was the outsider by the way I would be ignored when shopping there after it culturally changed. I look very Irish. We need to be more tolerant of one another. On the other hand, being financially displaced is even harder when you put your life into a business.

San Diego is one of the worst cases of gentrification Ive seen. I fear my neighborhood is next

Good job,thanks grand pa,RIP

This is actually so sad...i hope i get to see chiles secos before its too late...

The displacement of the long time vendors was a deliberate and concerted effort by the owners of the property that houses Grand Central Market, Ira and Adele Yellin. Do a google search on these people, who they are, where they come from, and who and what they support. They are savvy (arguably sleazy) business people and filthy rich. Wealthy in itself is not a bad thing. But I would reckon they know a thing or two about displacement and shitting on people.

Sad to report that Chiles Secos quietly went out of business (April 2023) most likely due to Covid and the changing climate of the market's customer base.

Wasn't there a really good Chinese resteruant by the entrance i remember going in the 90s 2000s

born and raised in LA. I see things changing by the second. it's so bittersweet, the rich deep Hispanic culture that runs through the veins of Los Angeles is slowly being replaced by new, young, hip, money. some of the new venues all over the city are great but don't have much depth or flavor, no pun intended, like the older ones exude. times change, and so do the people.

thank you for humanizing the issue.... i felt the professor was slightly conservative but then again it is USC....

Hispters you been warned STAY OUT OF MY LA!!!

R.I.P China Cafe😢

This is heart breaking 😔 I grew up going there to buy fresh peanuts with my grandpa it’s not the same ,I thought we went for the quality but in true reality it was the community we would stop and talk to many of the vendors

Beautifully done. I am using this in my classroom to introduce the concept of gentrification to my 8th grade LAUSD students. They have no clue about the concept really, but this is something they will be able to relate to from what they can observe from their own lives and landscapes. It is something they need some background knowledge for writing their Common Core District Interim Assessments.

Y all need to watch South park's episode shtipitown, it sums up all of this. Lmao

The grand central market is not the same

Lets talk 'Gentrification'....Haight Ashbury...so expensive that i shop elsewhere and all the really cool clubs/bars are way gone....Hayes Valley...once so ghetto, i was scared to go there now so expensive that i cant' afford to go there....And the list goes on and on.....

The FIRST thing to go should be the restaurant with the boiled or baked GOAT SKULLS for sale as food ! It totally crashes the vibe of the whole place.

but my question is: how are these people moving downtown able to pay $35/lb for pork chops?

I used to shop there in the late 80s and 90s everything was cheap and poor people could eat well. Now almost everything is expensive. The city should find a place where these shops could still do business

I used to go there all the time food is Bombay

I can see, EVERYTHING IS VIBRATIONAL... and why I'm not as "professionally" successful. You know as most of my friends achieved in the 'rat race', or had once achieved. Although now, it's all shutting down. But my friends sure loved me and I did well from all my experiences.. Like many say, being 'awake' sure won't get you too far financially, be prepared to live modestly. I'm fine with that... And I sense my friends with me to this day, no matter how many miles apart we are... Cuz they knew, I just couldn't tolerate deceit, especially traitors. Its in my eyes, and it often meant confrontation, 'fight or flight', both.... It wasn't always a polished response, I'm 'no slick rick' here, I like it that way, authentic... My friend, a first generation' Latin American' René, growing up in the Southeast barrios of Los Angeles, he used to say "Mike's like a Carrie(🎥the original) only a dude!" I had that instinctual thing built in me "All the wicked sh*ts", I sensed them. He felt it was a much needed attribute in Southeast, Los Angeles. The artificial Constructs, I can feel its 'workings', I'm very audible and everything is vibrational for me. I had epilepsy/small seizures for 11 years, 20-40 of them a day, just the edge of my entire body, on the right side. (not now), They were exhausting. And I had auras, so location and placement of my body in safest places and situations, for motor seizures, shortly arriving, were key. I learned survival skills I had to master them, I even boxed at Hollenbeck police department, it was to try to keep us out of trouble. I stopped having them at age 22. And much like those seizures, people's misdeeds have auras... This kind of awake has its many challenges... It often looks vulnerable, it tempts folks to see how real it is. You know, "Is he for real???" Take advantage of someone who has that sincerity of 'raw truth' in their eyes, or just dumbfoundedness to the wicked ones. Like my friend René used to say. "Like "Carrie"🎥, only a dude..." My carnal's mother Mary Fuentes, used to see me in her rearview mirror, while she was driving, and would abruptly pull the car over. It didn't matter if it was a busy street. And she'd start kissing me, a combination, of "oh 'pobrecito' "poor baby". That, and she loved my blue eyes. She said they were intense but vulnerable. They can unnerve people, so folks like me learn to look elsewhere. But then you might get accused of being 'spacey'... Oh well.. I've always been the only gringo, around Hispanics. Even when I was real little, and we lived in the San Joaquin Valley and Kern County CA, before Los Angeles. When I say lived (I mean in the same house)with a family of all Hispanics. My dad was the union rep for his factory, lots of Hispanics at the corrugated box plant he worked at. He'd have to travel sometimes for union functions. So all our friends, really they were our family, they were Mexican/Cuban. It was a different vibe then, we all loved each other so much... I haven't owned a tv or been to a movie in 14 1/2yrs, so all illusions are shattered for me, and I have no use for them. And I never was one to watch others live their lives on tv or movies anyways. The 'Heisenberg Effect' is very real, 'observation' on a scale unfathomable to many at one time, but now, extremely possible to so many of us. And to many of us its the way it is. I have felt observed my whole life, but it's okay... I came of age in 1977, at 14, and 1979 was the most exciting year of my life. And then the decade ended. Everything was growing really dark, but the 1980's were decent years for me. I mean, the world was definitely growing so incredibly 'base' & wicked by design, a Masonic ending to this tale!!! The 1990's got creepy... But then the music got interesting again.. Then the music got formulated, 'dark or dull' once again, it's all vibrational. Vibrationally, I know this nation has to end, it's too sick... I am not a comfort creature, it's nice, but it's not why I'm here... I'm the most 'present' I've been in a long time. I used to work for the music industry, and one of my bosses, used to say, "He's going to be a great older man!" So now I am an older man, so bring it on, all of it!!!

I'm not into the stupid peanut butter and jelly stand and the like, but it's nice to have some variety. When I went to GCM 13-15 years ago it was all latin food, a lot of deteriorating stands and a lackluster environment. I like latin food but there was no real variety. We live in an international city, we should have variety in the historic downtown marketplace, it should cater to all of the communities in the city.

Can we say $15.00 minuim Wage

Where do Native Americans fall then? 😪

Boycott DTLA cheese and eat Dodger dogs instead.

Used to go there often in the 1990's when I worked downtown. Went again for the first time in years two weeks ago. I knew there was some gentrification, but OMG. Don't the people who own it know who shops there? Or is it all yuppies and Gen-Xrs now?

Mole, El Chavo Restaurante, se fue!

This is so sad!

The only constant in life is change. Everywhere I've lived has changed radically since I left there. My childhood home is unrecognizable. Why should some areas be exempt from this? It's the law of supply and demand. People are migrating all the time, going where the jobs are, going where things are more affordable. You can't stop this. Everything will continue changing and people moving around and an area going from one culture to another to another as it has throughout human history.

I wonder when South Central and East LA will get gentrified. XD XD XD

People should should leave well-enough alone

Daaaammm i miss them good ol marketa central days now its all fkn dilly dilly hipidy dipidy gentries changed everything ....

😢

So, if i take an old 69 VW bug, and restore her to pristine, is that gentrification or is that making something shitty look really cool? I think gentrification is a buzz word that makes the working class feel deprived of whatever it is they are deprived of...

GRAND CENTRAL MARKET IS NOT THE SAME

Times Change

8:31 "You see all these American people coming in and they don't buy anything......." Yeah, those damn Americans!! lol

That’s a straight out lie it’s just greedy people that’s all it is greatness and it’s so sad because those people are young right now but you have to remember in 10 years how old they going to be and what if things don’t work out the way they wanted to because somebody gets tired of their greediness and they’re high prices and opened up a shop next to endorse the prices were some of those people should just raise the price is just like them to pay the rent but it’s disgusting because it just keeps going up and it’s not even worth it

And where do the fifty-block radius of homeless fit into the new downtown vision? The "new" financial gains do not seem to truly benefit the entire country. Another way is possible...

it's so much better now, revitalized and full of so many entertaining yummie food options that we didn't have before. Be more open minded guys. Nostalgia wont' fill your stomach. support these adventurous small businesses bringing you new food options!

great video!!! love it ! i already starting a youtube channel i would love your support!!!

Before WWII, the latino area of Boyle Heights was east of Evergreen. Don't start talking nonsense over how long the latino culture has been in Boyle Heights. Anything that makes White Fence and Primera Flats leave, and every other LATINO gang, I am for it.

Now that’s what I call capitalism baby! 👍

ALL THEY SEE IS MONEY

Gentrification? hahaha yeah right.

I grew up in that place. In the early 80s when living in illegal Lofts. We use to do are shopping at the Market. Now it Hipster BS

I’m only watching it again for that white fine chick in red dress blond

Grand Central Market was originally a high end market for the rich, living in nearby Bunker Hill. These businesses were "displaced" by businesses catering to working class clientele in the 1950's and 1960's. Just as the working class changed the dynamic of the area 50 years ago, the area is changing again. Why is this a problem?

Lmao. You think this is bad, go to smorgasburg.

Gentrification is good in the long run, im working class and was pushed financially into the moveing into the country:) best thing ever for me and all working class people should enjoy the country that has more to give then the city. But also this is good as this is a cull! Think of it all the doers "working class" moveing inland to country leavening all the upper class posh to the cities which most are on the coast:) Earth Quakes and Pole Shift with Tsunamis:) :) :) :) i hope the upper classes know how to swim am hold their breaths ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa Gentrification saves those who truly matter and are not useless.

DTLA wants to be NYC so bad. DTLA is just 4 blocks!! LOL. Its a joke!

It's so much worse now. The market has become more gentrified.

how about some riots like in 1992 to show them that #LAisnotforsale

Gentrification is inevitable..lol..

*Enjoying the socialist taxes, business regulations, expensive time consuming permit approval processes of various origins yet?* You deserve what you vote for. Tax your property "for the greater good," and the government will seek to maximize it's gains to pay for welfare via taxing households which can most afford them which tend to be where opportunities of gainful employment are.