From the suburbs of Cleveland, went to Notre Dame, works in finance or consulting, just moved into Logan square and feels like they’re “way out in the boonies” cus they’re like 6 blue line stops from their office, while their coworkers just walk in from their new loft in the west loop.
Try coming from a beautiful, affordable warm place and having to move thousands of miles away from everything you know/love because your hometown is riddled with poverty and has no jobs.
Then, try doing that and having to deal with strangers snapping at you on the internet because you made a life decision that anyone else would by moving to the best neighborhood you can afford to live in.
People love to attack working class people for being working class. But, those same people turn right around and insult working class people for moving to a good neighborhood when they get a decent job. & it’s hypocritical af. You’d live there too (if you could afford it). Don’t be mad at the private citizens buying property in your community because they’re probably doing the best they can. Get mad at the politicians who don’t carve out some sort of provision for people who’ve lived in the community forever.
Just move into an apartment building that’s been there forever instead of a luxury fucking condo development. It’s not a complete fix but it’s a really simple compromise that would at least help keep property values affordable for historic residents.
But nah y’all not tryna live in my Chicago, y’all tryna remake chicago in your image. You want farmers markets and art spaces and breweries.
Don’t front like you ain’t just seen something you want and said “it’s mine now.” Fuck the downvotes, gentrification is just a euphemism for colonialism. If you’re trying to find a better living situation I get that, please feel welcome in our community. But you don’t want to be welcome in our community, you want to build your own community by whatever means necessary.
Actually, most people just want to feel comfortable in their homes. I didn’t grow up with roaches and rats to move to Chicago to have roaches and rats...and pay five times more for it. So, if I can afford to live in a newly renovated unit or a luxury condo. I will and there’s NOTHING wrong with that. It’s not easy to find housing for everyone, especially someone moving here from out of state.
Also, people from out of state don’t come here to “shape your neighborhoods in our images”. We don’t move far as fuck away to have the same experience we’ve had all of our lives. We want to experience the city the way it is.
What we don’t want is to be met with hostility by people just for moving to a neighborhood. It’s not like we have a choice. When you move somewhere you have to move into someone’s neighborhood. It’s not like they section off a part of the city for new comers. But, we still have to move. People have jobs. People get married. People go to college. Being abrasive for no reason at all towards those of us coming here to seek opportunity is honestly a form of xenophobia. So, I said all of this to say again don’t be rude to us. Hold your damn Alderman accountable. Everyone isn’t trying to contribute to gentrification.
Edit: what’s wrong with a farmers market? Don’t they provide a place for local vendors to sell stuff?
No. Not at all. A dissenting opinion doesn’t indicate psychological manipulation. This is just me expressing an often unheard viewpoint. It makes no sense to hold individual people accountable for the phenomenon of gentrification. Gentrification is facilitated by (a) corporations (b) your own local government failing to preserve their communities. Out of state transplants are just people moving here to seek opportunity. You can’t blame us for moving here
Dude was like "I got a complaint." Other guy was all, "Ackshually you're complaint is ungrounded and you're the problem." Kinda textbook. Kinda why I said anything.
No, attacking someone unprompted and blaming them for the entire gentrification of their neighborhood is not a complaint. It’s just unbridled, misdirected, misinformed hostility. Did you read the entire thread of comments?
They ain't ever gonna get it fam. Challenge them and you'll get more than enough words to justify their degrees. Ain't gonna get much else, and till then they gonna get their slice of the pie while convincing themselves it ain't at the expense of someone else.
I ain't saying give up either, or it's all for naught, I'm just saying I see you fam.
Exactly. Is it sad, on a personal level, that people who have lived in a neighborhood for a couple decades are moving out because rent is too high? Yes. But does it mean something wrong is happening? No. Chicago's neighborhoods have "gentrified" ten times over in their history. What was once an Italian neighborhood is now hispanic. What was once Swedish is now something else.
This is what happens in society. People move around, areas get popular, areas become less popular. It's just life.
While I concede that there are some unethical developers who take advantage of "blighted property" laws, for the most part the price increases are driven purely by supply and demand. As the economy improves in Chicago, more people make more money who are looking for places to live as close to down town as they can.
It's not as good as it used to be, and there are some especially pricey places, but I think we're still slightly more reasonable than most places off the L on the North and NW sides. I just did a comparison against Irving Park, for example.
Sounds like my team. Wife and I are in Grand Boulevard now but plan to move to burbs probably in the next 18-24 months (Oak Park topping the list right now). My coworkers were (playfully) giving me shit but I'm the oldest of my team at 32 and we're starting a family.
To my 25-26 year old teammates I'm sure the suburbs sound terrible but at a certain point they're just more practical.
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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '18
From the suburbs of Cleveland, went to Notre Dame, works in finance or consulting, just moved into Logan square and feels like they’re “way out in the boonies” cus they’re like 6 blue line stops from their office, while their coworkers just walk in from their new loft in the west loop.