After living in my home in Tottenville for as long as I can remember, I cannot possibly imagine being priced out of where I grew up. My whole life is tied to that neighborhood; my grammar school is there, the church I attend with my family is there, friends I’ve had for my whole life are there, and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately when the good intention of making a neighborhood “better” infiltrates a community, people that have lived there for their whole lives are being pushed out in the process. The people forced to leave lose the connection to their lifelong friends, the corner stores they’ve shopped at since they were kids, the parks where they grew up, and the list just keeps going. The changing neighborhood drives rents up and drives out lower income residents that no longer fit into this new community.

We hear a lot of talk about waging wars on poverty, but in an attempt to fix something that is not truly broken rents are rising in what used to be low income communities and poor residents are forced to leave. The rich culture of these communities is lost in the process. The people that built these communities are forced to leave, and replacing them are hipsters that care more about the avocado toast on their instagram than building a community with the people around them.