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Due to the plague that's currently sweeping the world, I've found
myself going on daily walks around my neighbourhood and the park
next to it. It's actually been kind of nice; I've discovered more things
about my neighbourhood in the past two months than all the other three
years I've been living here. For example, I've discovered I actually live
in a neighbourhood now.
(When I had moved into my apartment, most of the area was still being
constructed. That was three years ago. At some point they finished?)
It's a nice area and is trying very hard to be a Vanguard of Gentrifcation
and convince people with money to move in and ignore the fact this area
has one of the highest crime rates in the state. To be fair, it worked
considering as a young, white, IT professional I am the epitome of a Gentrifier.
But anyway. I noticed something on my walks: my apartment complex is one of the first
buildings you see as you cross the bridge and enter the neighbourhood. As you
go farther into the neighbourhood, the houses get progressively nicer looking
and theres more amenities: benches, grassy areas for kids to play, trails, etc.
This is not a big neighbourhood, maybe 3/4 of a mile long so the fact that there's
a *noticible* difference is bit stunning.
My apartment complex is also predominantly black and middle eastern while the rest
of the neighbour is white and east-asian. My apartment also doesn't get invited to
the various events that happen in the neighbourhood (I can see them on NextDoor).
You've probably connected the dots already and see what I'm getting it.
You might think I'm exagerating a bit, which is fair. A more likely argument
is that the nicer houses are farther away from the road, or were built later after
more money came in, etc. It's possible I'm just being cynical from
apartment shopping recently: I'm moving out for unrelated reasons.
It's just a thing I noticed, like how when you cross county line from my
county (the poorest county in the state) to either of our horizontal neighbours
(the richest counties in the state) you can *literally* see the grass is
greener on the other side. I suspect nitrogen-fixing furtilizer.
Ah well.