He was provoked. She was working on a barren tree plat on a barren streetscape. That’s how gentrification sneaks in and soon takes over.
Never mind that gentrification means that those poor homeowners, who couldn’t sell for enough to afford to move out of a deteriorated neighborhood, can now sell for 3 or 5 times value and go live a better life. And that those who paid that 3-5x will be paying 3-5x property taxes, which fund social programs for those remaining renters in those deteriorated neighborhoods so that they, also, might have a better life.