There's Basically No Way Not to Be a Gentrifier (Liberty: to rent, neighborhood)

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by ferraris

Better stew over it for a week and write a blog post about it making a bunch of assumptions instead of simply asking your new neighbor what happened and going from there.

Obviously it is great to have outlets like this but I don't understand how columns like these contribute to anything positive. But I guess that it the writer's thing.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by RogersParkTransplant

I think it's rather that newcomers need to meet their neighbors halfway.

Bingo! Be a good neighbor, try to live your life without disrupting the lives of other neighborhood residents (which you should do anywhere you go), and as far as I've concerned, you've satisfied the Mainstream Progressive Social Contract. I imagine you and your family make it a point to strike the right balance.

It's naive to pretend that gentrification-based development doesn't often favor newer, more affluent incomers at the expense of longer-term residents. That said, neighborhoods change--sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse--and no one group should have a monopoly on any place. I think that overall, gentrification is more positive than negative, but it's not an unquestionable force of good, and it's never a cure for poverty.

Slightly OT: those Boyle Heights radicals are bonkers, and clearly don't represent most longer-term neighborhood residents. I also think they're banking on the fact that the artwashers they're trying to scare off are scared senseless of physical confrontation and don't carry weapons. And that may be true for the most part. But one of these days, they're going to go after someone who packs heat and isn't afraid to defend themselves, and it won't end well for anybody...

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Paul2421

Obviously it is great to have outlets like this but I don't understand how columns like these contribute to anything positive. But I guess that it the writer's thing.

You don't see how they contribute anything positive? This reeks of "talking about racism is divisive".

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by gladhands

You don't see how they contribute anything positive? This reeks of "talking about racism is divisive".

Not really. I think there is definitely a racism problem but labeling your new neighbor and putting up arbitrary boundaries based on a stereotype is just as much the fault of the author and perpetuates the problem. I am talking specifically about this article. The writer is trying to use an isolated police incident to justify shaming their neighbor for something that is a commonly accepted practice, calling the police when you believe there is somebody breaking the law.

don't you live in shadyside? lol

[RogersParkTransplant]

Originally Posted by Paul2421

Not really. I think there is definitely a racism problem but labeling your new neighbor and putting up arbitrary boundaries based on a stereotype is just as much the fault of the author and perpetuates the problem. I am talking specifically about this article. The writer is trying to use an isolated police incident to justify shaming their neighbor for something that is a commonly accepted practice, calling the police when you believe there is somebody breaking the law.

don't you live in shadyside? lol

The point of the blog entry is that the black community relates to police differently than the white community. Meanwhile the author is being transparent and thoughtful about his own flaws and his own discomfort with his new neighbors. I think the fact that you (and others here) jump to taking sides, and then turn around and try to invalidate the view of another poster based on where they live, is pretty troubling.

But really it's the comment posted at 10:16am that has made me decide to just walk away for a little while. There's a fair bit of demonization in the comment itself, and apparently the poster has never noticed white people who have loud drunken street parties or blast loud music from their cars. Funny how that goes.

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by RogersParkTransplant

The point of the blog entry is that the black community relates to police differently than the white community. Meanwhile the author is being transparent and thoughtful about his own flaws and his own discomfort with his new neighbors. I think the fact that you (and others here) jump to taking sides, and then turn around and try to invalidate the view of another poster based on where they live, is pretty troubling.

But really it's the comment posted at 10:16am that has made me decide to just walk away for a little while. There's a fair bit of demonization in the comment itself, and apparently the poster has never noticed white people who have loud drunken street parties or blast loud music from their cars. Funny how that goes.

i don't think i'm the only one that sees the irony of telling newcomers to keep an area uninhabitable while living in a certain area. i appreciate your points on the article though. i didn't see it that way.

[wpipkins2]

Loud drunken street parties are not limited to black folks in the inner city. Loud music thumping in the trunk is not exclusive to the hood either. Black people are more social than most and that may make some uncomfortable.

We have an ice cream truck that comes around daily. My only complaint is the litter left behind afterwards. Since these are children I simply talked to the kids and placed a small trash receptacle at the edge of my driveway.

Balls, bikes and kids damaging my flowers........I went from planting annuals to Hardy perennials. Perennials can withstand balls, children, and bikes.

[wpipkins2]

New windows sound proofed my home as well.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by RogersParkTransplant

.... white people who have loud drunken street parties or blast loud music from their cars. Funny how that goes.

really? in this town? once a year maybe.

i wish i could hear Code Orange from a pittsburgher's car stereo instead of that bull**** hip hop that shakes the street lights from a mile away.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by RogersParkTransplant

The point of the blog entry is that the black community relates to police differently than the white community.

He choose a poor example though, since he does not know what happened to cause his white neighbor to call the police.