The moment Roland Barthes came up in our reading, I knew I was in for a good time. I truly appreciated every paragraph of the “Building the Frontier Myth” section of the Smith reading. And later, when he says, “Whereas the myth of the frontier is an invention that rationalizes the violence of gentrification and displacement, the everyday frontier on which the myth is hung is the stark product of entrepreneurial exploitation” (22)—is sobering, and an entirely necessary way to look at the stark reality of the way gentrification is a manipulative process. The stories of tenant abuse in this new wave of gentrification—mirroring the violence predicted by Smith—presented in the City Limits article was equally sobering; I’m tempted to make my question this week something like “why are all New York landlords terrible people?” but I feel my question this week is the same as last’s: where is the solution here? How do we stop gentrification? The way Alec said his relative handled it seems like a good idea that allows both the new people coming in to come in and the old people who want to stay to stay. The suggestion of co-ops in the latter article, while possibly very idealistic, also seems good. How can we make places like Crown Heights not become Williamsburg?