Posted on 02/19/2014 5:17:26 PM PST by Lonely Bull
OAKLAND -- Steve Kopff was one of many San Franciscans who cascaded last year into sunnier, cheaper, hipper Oakland.
He bought and began restoring a historic but rundown mansion. He planted vegetables, raised backyard hens and bees, launched a neighborhood newsletter and peppered his Facebook account with paeans to his new city.
But this year, Kopff became a scorned symbol of the angst over Oakland gentrification. He wrote an online essay describing his diverse, working-class neighborhood east of Lake Merritt as "mostly undiscovered" and a "virtual food desert" in need of an organic supermarket, better restaurants and "a coffee kiosk with patisserie bites."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
“hipper Oakland.”
Beating up whitey is chic.
trying to improve a ‘hood is now a bad thing?
I’ve heard the word “gentrification” several times recently.
Wondering what the word would be if the Oakland standard were introduced into a nice neighborhood in SF?
LOO, great graphic. If you don’t want to be thought of as a gentrifying interloper please do not call for patisserie bites, or arugala, or brie, just don’t.
"Ancestral" - you keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
Gentrification: the process of turning a delapidated crime ridden garbage infested hell hole into a reasonably nice place to live
Bringing in other cultures to a neighborhood is fine unless it is American White Culture.
The guy is just talking about bringing new businesses to the neighborhood and he is attacked like he is an alien life form.
“Wondering what the word would be if the Oakland standard were introduced into a nice neighborhood in SF?”
That would be promoting “diversity”, of course.
“a coffee kiosk with patisserie bites.”
we call those “Starbucks”.
Before my inner sense of How Much To Quote got to me, I thought of quoting up to that line.
Yes, it's a gay partner, and the fact does get mentioned later on as a reason why Kopff And His Partner moved there:
[...] Kopff and his partner bought the house after considering a wealthier and whiter Oakland neighborhood they found too elitist.
"We're a gay couple. We can be discriminated against as well. We wanted to find a place where we could kind of melt in a little better," Kopff said.
I'm not totally clear on what he means.
Is he afraid of neighborhood discrimination? Never having being part of a gay couple that moved to a wealthier and whiter part of Oakland, I don't know for certain, but I'm a local and doubt that they'd get much systemic local discrimination if they'd moved uphill. This is a progressive and tolerant region, and if anyone doesn't like it, we'll drum them out of the city.
Or does he mean (and "elitist" makes me think so) that he expects more solidarity and shared purpose in an area where other people have experienced discrimination?
Oh, he got his wish.
I don't have a small vocabulary, especially when it comes to food, but I had to look up "patisserie."
And actually having been historically closer to Berkeley, where I've lived, worked, and gone to college, I could've easily told him that "undiscovered" has Colonialist Overtones and shouldn't be used like this by a Privileged White Person.
(But on the other hand, "food desert" is a well-known term at the White House, where no one is privileged.)
We fought the violation notice and got it revoked. Mostly because the supposed permits for planting trees behind mom's house had been forged in her signature by this jerk. Yep, he wanted his way and forged her name (in a way she never signs anything) on permits. I got in a big argument with the guy, who was a yuppie gay interloper new to the community. Mom-in-law and neighbor next to her been there since the early 1950s while these wine-sipping yuppies just arrived recently from out of state. After I threatened him and his business along with a couple other friend neighbors on our side, he and his boyfriend moved last year. Might be the same guy, all I know was his name was Steve. Might be a different guy, but the intentions are the same. Troublemaker to long-time residents.
Oops:
My “especially when it comes to food” isn’t supposed to be a boast. I’m not a “foodie” (ugh, that word). I’m not someone who works with food and therefore should have a large food-related vocabulary anyway.
It’s supposed to mean that if I’m not too careful, I’d wind up living to eat. There are languages which I know largely from menus.
Can you IMAGINE the uproar if residents of a white neighborhood openly voiced that kind of attitude against a black couple moving in? Obama would have called for federal troops to come in.
>>“a coffee kiosk with patisserie bites.”
>>>>we call those “Starbucks”.
I call that “the area to the left of my kitchen sink.” Well, minus the patisserie bites. I do keep some biscotti in the panty. Cheap at Costco.
His picture is at the link; you didn’t look?
Is it him?
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