There Goes the Neighborhood

With skyrocketing rents, neighbors like Madonna and the fact that even Grandma can find it without a Thomas Guide, it’s obvious the once quaintly bohemian Silver Lake/Los Feliz area is about as alternative as, well, alternative. So where next? A few urban seers predict tomorrow’s hot ZIP codes. --Mark Ehrman

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BILLY SHIRE

Owner, Wacko/Soap Plant

North Hollywood or East L.A. There’s nothing else left. NoHo has been on the verge for a few years. The area around Lankershim Boulevard where it meets Vineland Avenue, and farther up by the railroad tracks, at Chandler Boulevard, where the city is actually underwriting some multi-use stuff. I’d like to see something happen in East L.A. There’s a lot of young Chicano energy. It’s a no-money-but-lots-of-energy kind of a thing.

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DOUG LIMAN

Director, “Swingers” and “Go”

I see it continuing to move east. If I were doing [“Swingers”] now, I would do it downtown. It’s my favorite part of L.A. There’s a diner on Alameda, north of the 10, or I would make the Pantry their hangout. Also, the Giant Penny, an old department store that’s been out of business, has just opened again, and any place within two or three blocks would be the cool place to live.

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FRED SANDS

CEO, Fred Sands Realtors

Mt. Washington, for sure, where a lot of behind-the-camera people live--the guy that won the [Oscar for] best sound, for “Titanic,” Mark Ulano. A lot of screenwriters, a lot of politicos--Gloria Molina, Antonio Villaraigosa. It’s a secluded, countrified area, a lot of historical houses. There’s a 34-acre natural park that was just acquired by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. People who live there don’t care that it’s an area that most people either haven’t heard of or have a negative view of. They kind of like that.

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LAURIE PIKE

publisher, Glue magazine

Koreatown. There’s this Indian store on 3rd Street and Alexandria Avenue where you can get weird treats, like fennel candies that taste like Good & Plenty. You have the H M S Bounty bar, which the hipsters have discovered. And a fabulous bar called the Escape Room, great because the hipsters have not discovered it. It’s on the ground floor of a retirement hotel, where these 70-year-old people come down in their slippers and order drinks. The kids are moving here in droves.

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GRONK

Artist

Go east, a neighborhood like Alhambra, around Main Street, or Monterey Park, near Atlantic Boulevard. You’ve got the best food in the world--I think food is the No. 1 one criterion of an adventure. These places have bookstores, coffee shops and places for people watching. And, occasionally, you’ll run into someone who is talking to a fire hydrant.