Flag Wars.

[SanFranciscan]

Last night I watched Flag Wars. While the KKK was filmed as background noise, the gays were the villains of the documentary for "gentrifying" the neighborhood. Has anyone else here seen this movie? It is intense.

One of the gays who had put a lot of work into restoring an old house talked about his "compassion for the house." It may sound silly to have compassion for a something not alive, but I understood how he felt because seeing the old houses in their decayed state reminded me of something else that I saw from Netflicks: the Life After People series.

 

[LukenDC]

I have not seen the film, but I have heard plenty about it. Gentrification is a hot topic in DC as well, with issues of race, class, and sexual orientation in the forefront. My partner and I recently saw some grafitti on a construction fence that read, "They come, they buy, they gentrify."

I have long maintained that the most significant contribution of gay Americans has been urban renewal and overall I am pro-gentrification. In DC at least, the gentrified communities tend to be racially diverse in housing, employment, shopping, and recreation. Gentrification adds to the tax coffers and increases employment opportunities. Of course with any mass social movement there can be displacement and we need to be mindful of the people who are apt to be displaced through gentrification. Responsible development can keep displacement at a minimum.

 

[SanFranciscan]

You have an strong sympathizer in me Luken.

I expect that to be moving after my landlady sells this building, which I expect that she will do now that she is elderly and her husband has recently died. I have lived here for over 20 years and have rent control, and this place will go to someone who can pay market rate. That's life. I can't blame the new owner for that because he or she will have to invest in upgrades that will be legally required for a new tenant. The opposition to the neighborhood gays in Flag Wars acted as if the buyers had stolen those houses instead putting their own labor into the houses they had bought and were now living in.