Any one who has lived in Austin TX for a while or even just a few months, has ether heard or seen the The Keep Austin Weird signs and shirts. when to walk or drive down town it is hard to miss proof of our cities weirdness, from the spray paint frog the says HI, HOW ARE YOU, to the activities like Eeyore's birthday bash, S.X.S, A.C.L, and R.O.T rally just to name a few. what many don't notice unless you really look or are part of the minority is that the concept needs to expand to fight against harmful gentrification. The problem is that Austin has always been heavily segregated, and gentrification is spreading rapidly in areas that minorities have been pushed aside to. In 1917, a Supreme Court attempted to end segregation in cities, so “Austin and cities across the South started developing new policies to isolate minorities.” What we have today is minorities disproportionately living east of I-35. which is the city version of the boonies or slums, i have even heard a friend of mine call it poor town, because it is almost like you leave Austin when you cross I-35. i am all for improving our city, but building mini mansions, and 2,000 a month condos in large population areas where the average adult make about 3 to 7 hundred a month, is a student and/or a family to feed is far from helpful when what we really need is more affordable housing and job opportunities. if all you build is fancy shops with expensive products and high priced living arrangement, where does that leave us poor folk, i will tell you, no where, all of this gentrification is doing more harm to the average person then good, it keeps us segregated in our own little worlds while making those worlds smaller and smaller. i say STOP, if you want to make mini mansions and over price shops do so in area where people of wealth shop and live, they don't like our poor and modest area and we don't care for their better then thou area, so why try forcing us to mix. give us simple homes and low prices affordable stores, and leave us be.
While I agree with the author of Gentrification !!!!! Back off !!! that gentrification can be harmful in our city, there are a few constructive criticisms I'd like to offer. First, it would be beneficial for the author's credibility to use regular capitalizations at the beginning of sentences as well as regular punctuation. The tone of the piece is very informal, which is fine if the intended audience is friends and family, but not so much if it is the general public or a local representative. Also, there are some inconsistencies pertaining to what effect the author believes gentrification has on a community. It's both stated that "it keeps us segregated", and "why try forcing us to mix". That said, there are some nice creative elements to this blog article, the introduction describing Austin was a good idea. I think the author has made a great start into writing about gentrification, good job.
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