Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Opposite of Gentrification

When I was growing up, my neighborhood was nice and relaxed in a way where it felt like a community. I lived in a peaceful environment until I was in my teens. After coming home from middle school, I started to notice changes within the environment that made me concerned after coming home from middle school. I lived in an apartment complex and made a lot of friends that ended up moving out because the upkeep wasn’t affordable. People with good money or that can afford the price moved into a complex.  The complex improved over the years I lived there, but at the same time the community started to switch atmospheres from calm and relaxed to dangerous and unsafe. I became more aware of my surrounds because of the unsafe activities that were occurring around the environment I lived in. Before, it was safe to play outside with your friends, stay the night at friend’s house, trade Pokémon cards, and have community get-togethers with everyone that lived inside the complex and even people from outside can be invited. Now you have to be careful when playing outside, or just stay inside, and worry about getting into fights or getting jump because that person thought you were looking at them the wrong way. To receive gun threats on a daily bases is scary because you could never know what is going to happen to you. I have witnessed these things that have happened and it is not pleasant, not great to have happen in your life. I am who I am despite the neighborhood I lived in because of my family. My family did their best to keep me out of trouble and show me their mistakes and taught me how to handle and prevent those mistakes from happening. Thanks to them, I am the person who I am today.

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