yap sess #4 (gentrification)

so i live in nyc and have been all my life. recently, i've moved into brooklyn (beginning of high school) from queens, and i've never been slapped in the face with every little superficial thing so quickly

i didn't notice it as much as i do now from when i moved in, but i live close to one of the most gentrified neighborhoods around. i never really entered it, because it's filled with college kids and those are scary, but i finally drove through it one day to pick up a cheesecake from a bakery within that had good reviews (cheesecake was yummy, the staff were very rude unfortunately :[)

it's TERRIBLE, actually disgusting. i only left the car for about half an hour, but i hated every second of it. i feel like holden caulfield, but it really was just filled with a bunch of phonies. everything felt so sterilized. all the stores had the same annoying fonts, styles, and facade of authenticity. just existing around the people in it felt nauseating. everyone laughing at the same repetitive and unfunny jokes, wearing the same types of demin and t-shirt, and eating the same bland food. it was like anything soulful and genuine was ripped out of the place and instead filled with people who bought their personalities and whose interests are all more fascinating than they are. they all felt like they read a book and picked a character to emulate. i get that most of these people are college kids from out of town, so that only intensifies the uneasy feeling. they're all just trying to find their footings in the new world, and working on being adults for the first time, so i can't judge them too hard for taking the easy way into becoming a person, but it still makes me sick to see how everything they are is stolen and diluted into something palatable and easy to digest. however, i still can't help but feel angry knowing what they've turned the neighborhood into, and driving out the people who made it into what it was before they took it for themselves to enjoy. it's so easy for them to claim that they love the city when i know well enough they'd hate to be in the neighborhood i grew up in because it feels too 'unsafe' and too 'dirty' for their white asses. i feel pained to know that my home is turning into nothing but a playground for these people to destroy. transplants used to be fine when they were the artsy kids who had to get out of their suburban hellscapes of a town, but now i really don't get why all the boring people are coming to drive up the rent and bring their small town mindsets here. i'm just glad my neighborhood hasn't been cleansed yet, but the current climate would definitely make it easier than ever to do so (lots of immigrants live there).

i also think i might js be upset that most of my interests got swept up by the boring crowds. i had been happy at first to see more people getting into the shit i do (more people means more stuff and possible friends :P) but now it's just disheartening to realize that most dont actually care that much about the subject at hand, but rather that it makes them look cool for others and something to brag about to get laid or whatever.