[dionidium]

The language of gentrification (and of housing in general) is deliberately emotionalized in this way and I think it’s a real impediment to thinking clearly on the subject.

I don’t want to evict anybody. I want people to make the totally banal and normal year-over-year decision about where to live that literally every human being has made for all of human history.

We don’t “roll in” and make them leave. We roll in and make them a market offer that they can accept or decline.

And, crucially, I’m proposing the sort of development that makes rents lower, not higher. (Incumbents always win this game, anyway. Don’t feel sorry for incumbents.)

What you don’t get to do is stop progress because of nostalgia. Short of that, I have no desire to make anybody live anywhere.