| I don't know about San Francisco because I live in Oakand, but I know there are lots of wealthier (like people who can afford $600+/mo in rent) people moving in who are hurting my neighborhood. I try to mitigate the harm I'm doing, but know I'm one of them too. We don't acknowledge other people in the street. We draw arbitrary lines between "scary" people and "less scary" people, but in reality are using race and class markers to make those decisions. And we treat somewhere between "the scary few" and "everyone not white" as if they don't exist. We don't shop at local shops and restaurants, we leave the area to go to restaurants that either appeal to their class background or their racial comfort zone. I'm not trying to place blame, or say we are "classists" or "racists". As someone who tries and often fails to do the opposite, I can see how hard it is. There are real dangers to be afraid of. It's not easy to walk into a barbeque place where you're the only white person and have that be your Date Night go-to spot. That said, I think a lot of people moving out here aren't even trying to understand what it's like having a different class of people move into your neighborhood and "walk among you" as if you don't even exist, terraforming the space you struggled in your whole life with a snap of the fingers. I know San Francisco is a different place, and it's more white, which changes some of this stuff. But in the Mission I know there are similar things happening in Latin@ neighborhoods. People who have been living in those neighborhoods for decades who were central contributors to that place are being pushed out to the East Bay and elsewhere because they can't afford rent. Maybe it's inevitable, and maybe it's no one's fault. But I don't see how anyone can deny that important cultural institutions are being destroyed so that rich tech folks can have nice apartments to live in in "funky" neighborhoods. |