Gentrification

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Hey All,

Posting this as it came up for me in a previous post that was sort of an amalgam of "eccentric and annoying Davis Square traits."

I realize this is a hot-button issue but I trust that people can express themselves civilly. Ok, I *hope* we can.

Gentrification. It's a big deal. People in this community talk an awful lot about how we don't want Davis to "turn into another Harvard" but in some sense the people living there now and who have populated the square over the past decade *have* turned Davis into something different from what it was.

How does one say, "I don't want Davis Square to get too gentrified" without taking responsibility for being part of the gentrification that has happened thus far? Who decides how much gentrification is too much, not enough, just right?

Maybe Davis is better, maybe it's not -- it probably depends on who you ask and what they were looking for in a neighborhood when they picked Davis.

Comments

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of people who go to McDonald's -- not many of them HANG AROUND. Which is kind of the business model for McDonald's -- grab your food and go. And honestly, the few times I did want a $3 meal and ate there I was too embarrassed to sit down and eat it since there's such tremendous pressure to not patronize McDonald's from other Davis Square'ers. Woe to the person who selfishly occasionally enjoys a $1 double cheeseburger.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the one Davis Sq. person I know who's unembarrassed about patronizing the McD's in Davis blames it on her nine year old son. :-)

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

You know, some days you just need a McD's double cheeseburger.... After all, it is *your* stomach.