apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm wondering if there's a link on this website that can corrall all your other yuppy neighbors into bullying small business/ long time neighbor/ poor people in the area into doing what you want. I think my neighbors have a bat phone that connects to every other ass bag in the neighborhood so they can form complaint mobs at lightning speed. Instead of pitchforks and torches, they use handmade cheese speaders and LED solar powered lawn lanterns when they go mobbing.

Gentrification isn't a term to classify the transition one goes through when they start to "appreciate the finer things in life" or as you call it being "yuppified." It speaks more to a homogonizing of culture, or in many cases the diminishing of cultural diversity, due to an influx of affluence into lower-class areas. It generally carries a negative connotation bc the people who have lived in these areas for their entire lives are pushed out/priced out as the area becomes more desirable.

If we homogenize our culture, how will AT laugh at non-yuppie people, as on the infamous "fung wah bus has chickens on it" post?
Showing your colors, indeed, AT.

That's why they mention doing the searches in the shame and privacy of your home internet connection. Gentrification is not really what they mean by moving up and growing out of your early 20s preferences-by-default, but what they mean by finding an apartment in a neighborhood of the class and hipness you think you deserve. You paid your dues, go ahead! Imperialize!

sorry for causing any misunderstanding, my point was more to poke fun at the concept.

I would have thought this entire blog is the essence of gentrification. You could rename it YuppyTherapy and it wouldn't miss a beat.

For people to pretend otherwise is a bit silly.

its a touchy subject, sflily--
AT is what it is, and pc or otherwise, I (obviously) still come here.
not offended... though thanks for stepping up
with a "sorry."

Chusmabilly - I bet the bat phones are made of titanium.

Lily - the image doesn't quite match the product either as it's a kick at non-inclusive urban renewal, but the craig's list tool is designed to make personal choices easier. I get where you were going though and I think it is to a funny place. '-)

sfdoddsy--when i started reading this blog, i made a folder to put all the bookmarked articles and titled it "future yuppie goodness" (as I am too poor and transient to utilize most of these ideas). i agree with you wholeheartedly.

In addition, nothing could be more telling of AT's position in the matter than the full embrace of this so-called "mid-century modern," which is basically mass-manufactured stuff given good graces by the famous names that made them. I don't hate though, and I still read.

I can't see gentrification as a bad thing in itself. Taking a really run down neighborhood, or even (let's be honest) taking a slum area, and fixing up the houses--basically rescuing them from being torn down--and the landscape. Making it beautiful. How can that be bad in itself? Are the only two options fixing the area up or letting it go to hades in a handbasket?

Baba yaga, where can I find this "fung wah bus has chickens on it" post?

kuroneko, (meow!),
It was a boston post, I think last spring or so.
It has apparently been removed. It was a snide remark
by the poster about how the Bolt bus was better than the "other" bargain (fung wah) bus, and you don't have to deal with the live chickens.
I found it offensive. The response from AT was arrogant and insincere. Then they pulled the whole post, because it used to be found under the search "bolt bus" and is not anymore.

Geez I cringed when I read this post.
I recommend the film "Flag Wars". (It is really a great documentary--part of PBS' pov series and is a "poignant account of the politics and pain of gentrification" as described by the filmmakers.)
That and you could just look around you.

Issues of Gentrification and what the intention of this post is aside -- I'm finding the site very helpful. I actually wish it existed for more cities.

We're probably moving and I've spent the last month looking for homes in several cities. We want to maintain our lifestyle - a walkable city or town, etc etc - and it's hard to get that on the internet. It's not any easier with a realtor because they don't like to deal unless you're actually moving. There's a lot of information that's helpful to someone moving across the country in this site. It's all in one place and it's coupled with rental listings. A catchall, if you will.

I dig it. (and took the entire approach as a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign.)


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