There Goes The Neighborhood

Looking at the brightly colored Mexican corner stores, you wouldn't think my neighborhood was once populated by Greeks, Serbians, and Croatians. My neighbor, an elderly Serbian woman, is one of the few remaining people of the now desolate European population who once resided in my neighborhood. The area is now plagued with rim shops, Mexican restaurants, corner stores, tamale stands, and paleta carts. With new neighbors comes a new social and economic norm. Stores and restaurants cater to the needs of the incoming culture.

In my neighborhood, there are few homeowners now and more residents who pay rent to landlords. During the summertime you can hear squeals of barefoot children running through sprinklers on the front lawn, while family members gather to eat and party until the early morning hours. And no, they don't bother to wait for the weekend, Tuesday night is good enough for them. Meanwhile, the elderly Europeans stay inside their fortresses with the blinds shut and the gate locked around their perfectly edged grass.
Cars with over-sized mufflers, loud bass that rattles the windows, and new shiny rims, blaze down the road listening to Mexican banda or mariachi (trumpets, guitars, etc.) music for the whole street to hear and set off car alarms.
Bells and horns sound from the elote (corn with toppings) and paleta (something like a frozen fruit bar) carts as the men push them down the middle of the street.

The question is: What gives way for a new group of people to come into a culturally established community?
The generation dies, and their children move on to other things. Homes go up for sale and new families move in. When that starts, it influences the others of the same culture to follow the lead. It makes the residents less likely to stick around to see the neighborhood change. It's almost always true that cultures flock together. People stay in their comfort zones. In some cases, you'll get the rare opportunity to find a great mix of cultures all in one neighborhood. But most likely, you'll find the cultural makeup to be pretty biased.