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Huntington Moneyworth III, Esq
2011 Aug 25, 6:31am
In other words, a sewer tank is improving into a sewer pipe. It matters not. The people living there will continue to be shat upon by the likes of me.
It is cute and also peculiar when parts of the underclass views themselves as gentry. I makes me think of a midget dressed in a dark tail coat and an Ascot. Like a wee little man trying to be bigger than what he really is. I chuckle every time.
You would be lucky to see a single used 10 year old BMW in a day back home. Out here people drive them like they're Ford Escorts- except they're all brand new.
Have you ever spent time in LA? There are not that many BMWs in the Bay Area. Compared to LA, many more people drive Fords and Toyotas here.
Places can easily de-gentrify too when shit hits the fan. There were parts of the Bay Area that were getting better until the economy went south. Same in LA.
This is all natural though. There are neighborhoods in SF that used to be majority Irish many years ago that are majority Latino now. There are neighborhoods in many east coast cities that used to be black and now are white, and some that were white and now are black. Even somewhere like the Bayview in SF had some housing going for $600K or $700K during the boom. Not any more.
Some of the gentrification factor in places that can't really grow very much physically is driven by economic growth. I don't know if there's a way around that.
Places can easily de-gentrify too when shit hits the fan.
This was certainly true with Downtown San Jose for many years.
This is another one of those issues I spend a lot of time thinking about. Perhaps its because I grew up in a fairly poor, rural area around lots of extremely poor people who lived in trailers and in some cases old school buses. We were squarely middle class so even though we weren't poor we were not well off either. But that being the case one of the first things I noticed when I moved away and to larger metro areas- first on the east and later west coast- was the stark differences between the poor areas and wealthy ones in these areas. The people who were poor were really poor. Those that had money had LOTS of money. You would be lucky to see a single used 10 year old BMW in a day back home. Out here people drive them like they're Ford Escorts- except they're all brand new.
But after living in the Bay Area for 12 years the one thing that seems clear is that the area seems to slowly but surely gentrify over time. The East Bay neighborhood I live in has changed in the 8-9 years I've lived here. It was still somewhat middle/working class when I arrived but now its most definitely gentrified- complete with cute little stores, coffee shops, and other tell-tale fixtures of gentrified living.
I can't really explain why I feel this way but a lot of this in some ways bothers me. Its like these areas are putting on little acts- taking little bits here and there from what used to be an area and re-inventing it into some sort of charming yet somewhat fake interpretation. All in an effort to create a squeaky-clean, if not dull and safe place.
And then there are "transitional" areas. Places that we all know 10 years ago were not safe to walk around in at night and sometimes even the middle of the day. But now everyone talks excitedly about how its now "Transitioning". The thing is what is it transitioning into? Is this always a good thing? With this transitioning comes the desired gentrification that basically means those that used to live there no longer can afford to do so and thus one person's interpretation of "transition" is different from the other because on one side of that argument means someone will have to move.
This isn't a Bay Area-centric thing. Even now when I go back home to NC there are cities and towns that have become gentrified- partially catering to the sea of Northeastern transplants and retirees- who want that gentrified experience. Its everywhere.
Anyway... I'm not sure where I'm going with this but perhaps some of you have your own thoughts about it. Sorry for rambling.