Wednesday, July 8, 2009
City Keeping Gays on Capitol Hill
Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 10:32 AM
First came the incomprehensible cartoons on telephone poles. Now, a new strategy to stop redevelopment from pricing queers out of Capitol Hill:
I know how it goes: You move into an apartment and the rents climb until you're forced to move out, perhaps into another neighborhood. But guess what? Graffiti only makes people want to kick your juvenile, gay asses out of the neighborhood more. For better strategies on retaining affordable housing in Capitol Hill, read this.
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1
... pricing the queers out? Are gay people having a harder time making money right now than straight people?
2
Hey Dominic -- don't you share a house with like 7 other people in order afford your rent?
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, you do.
3
queers are the first step in gentrification. the white homos move in, displacing whatever other minority had claim to the neighborhood, then white heteros feel more comfortable and start shuffling in, and then next thing there are designer boutiques lining the block.
for queers to cry about gentrifying is for queers to be typically racist and ignore their own responsibility for the gentrification in the first place.
for queers to cry about gentrifying is for queers to be typically racist and ignore their own responsibility for the gentrification in the first place.
4
I, for one, can't wait to see the queers reduced to gang violence amongst themselves.
The rumbles will be FABULOUS.
The rumbles will be FABULOUS.
6
Yeah... Let's stop redevelopment and the creation of more housing next to the fucking light rail station!
7
It won't be affordable, sorry. They deleted affordability requirements from the entire Pike/Pine overlay completely and without protest, so there's that. It "exists", but has no percentage requirement and it overrides any citywide rules. And desireable property around light rail stations isn't going to be cheap, so there's that.
Also, a lot of talk is going into taking bars down to SoDo or Georgetown. Lucky for those of us who live between Cap Hill and Light Rail stations, unlucky for the vibrance of auto-row.
You know, unless you're buying a car.
Also, a lot of talk is going into taking bars down to SoDo or Georgetown. Lucky for those of us who live between Cap Hill and Light Rail stations, unlucky for the vibrance of auto-row.
You know, unless you're buying a car.
10
Gentrification, decay, and urban renewal is a never-ending shell game. Whining about it just demonstrates that you are naive and unoriginal.
What with the march of progress and rights, there may not be another gay ghetto, but the next magnet neighborhood for artists, musicians, rebels, etc. will be whatever area is currently cheap and undesirable.
What with the march of progress and rights, there may not be another gay ghetto, but the next magnet neighborhood for artists, musicians, rebels, etc. will be whatever area is currently cheap and undesirable.
12
Uhhh, queers are the ones who do the gentrification. The rich fags move into shitty neighborhoods, fix it up, then the yuppies follow.
13
Hey, there are places I wanna live that I can't afford. Big deal. This just in: you can't have it all.
14
Too late anyway. Economically, we're in the midst of the largest housing price reset since the Great Depression. It's all a cycle, and this depreciatory side of it will cause financial pain for a lot of people. It's not rising housing prices pushing people out anymore, it's job loss and lack of once-available creative financing. That's probably what we should be worried about right now.
15
How did gentrification become a queer issue? The assumption this group of misguided graffiti protesters is that average queers can't afford to live on the Hill? Hasn't it been a demographic truth for quite a while that queers usually can spend more on housing because they don't traditionally have children? Gentrification, to me is more of a class/poverty issue than a queer issue. Queers have been marginalized in many ways but economically? I don't buy it...at least not in a widespread way.
16
I'm sorry, if it wasn't for queers bringing in antique stores, art galleries, high end design shops and cafes, how would any neighborhood get gentrified. Last time I checked, buggery and gentrification go hand in hand. That's why I love my queer neighbors.
17
Misguided gentrification activist.
I am gay and live in a very gentrified neighborhood, families with kids mainly young families, great places to socialize with people most ghetto gays would never mix with. I have gay friends come to my neighborhood and they think it is cool because their neighborhood over represents them in a gaudy crass way. Mix it up is all I say it gives a far better understanding of a real social network instead of just a gay oriented neighborhood. How fucking boring is that.
I am gay and live in a very gentrified neighborhood, families with kids mainly young families, great places to socialize with people most ghetto gays would never mix with. I have gay friends come to my neighborhood and they think it is cool because their neighborhood over represents them in a gaudy crass way. Mix it up is all I say it gives a far better understanding of a real social network instead of just a gay oriented neighborhood. How fucking boring is that.
18
Y'all's brilliance is blinding me. Blame queers for gentrification, then mock them for becoming aware of it. Great strategy, really great.
19
" Blame queers for gentrification, then mock them for becoming aware of it. "
Actually I'm enjoying watching them spank themselves over this; nothing like a little kinky masochism on a Wednesday.
Actually I'm enjoying watching them spank themselves over this; nothing like a little kinky masochism on a Wednesday.
20
#12 - WTF. Since when are rich fags NOT yuppies? Please.
Having lived in SF for more than a decade I can say that the Castro was exceeded in yuppiness ONLY by the marina district.
Having lived in SF for more than a decade I can say that the Castro was exceeded in yuppiness ONLY by the marina district.
21
While we're indulging in stereotypes and generalizations, I just want to add that it's been shown in laboratory conditions that queers host nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their root nodules.
In addition to their magical gentrification powers, the queers are also good for the soil.
(Apologies to Dead Milkmen fans.)
In addition to their magical gentrification powers, the queers are also good for the soil.
(Apologies to Dead Milkmen fans.)
23
The gays who gentrify and the queers who are against gentrification are very different brands..
CApital Hill stopped being gay ages ago... the natural progression of a neighborhood is:
Poor and ethnic > gays move in and gentrify > hipsters move in to be hip > gays move out > hipsters become breeders and move to suburbs to accomodate kids > poor, ethnic, homeless and queer youth move in > Buildings are bought up, torn down and condos are built > Yuppies are wooed with condos...
So what is happening now in Capitol Hill is not gentrification -- it is condofication.
Gays do NOT tear down rundown buildings, we fix up buildings...
Now, should you want to see gentrification of a neightborhood in the traditional gay fashion... come on over to Ballard....
CApital Hill stopped being gay ages ago... the natural progression of a neighborhood is:
Poor and ethnic > gays move in and gentrify > hipsters move in to be hip > gays move out > hipsters become breeders and move to suburbs to accomodate kids > poor, ethnic, homeless and queer youth move in > Buildings are bought up, torn down and condos are built > Yuppies are wooed with condos...
So what is happening now in Capitol Hill is not gentrification -- it is condofication.
Gays do NOT tear down rundown buildings, we fix up buildings...
Now, should you want to see gentrification of a neightborhood in the traditional gay fashion... come on over to Ballard....
27
will--absolutely right. the zone between c city and I-90 will be next up thanks to light rail and the essential gay-ripeness of that zone. A healthy peppering of gays in Rainier Beach is already on fire just those that don't warm a barstool every night.
28
I love it when capitalists and closeted LIBERALtarians stay on the internet patting each other on the back.
it keeps you assholes out of my way. :)
it keeps you assholes out of my way. :)
29
"Gays do NOT tear down rundown buildings, we fix up buildings..."
Really? Wow, next time I meet one I'll ask him/her about his/her fixer-upper.
Really? Wow, next time I meet one I'll ask him/her about his/her fixer-upper.
31
11 - Dominic doesn't live with 7 people either. (I'm one of the people he does live with.) I find it odd that someone who's such an expert on his personal habits and living situation wouldn't sign their name. Although I guess it's not really 'inside information' that he doesn't smoke pot since it's been published in the stranger before. Admittedly I'm both biased and idealistic, but I genuinely believe that our housemates have reasons for living together other than money ;)
As far as the original post goes, can there be gentrification if nobody can afford to buy? Most of the house and condo for sale signs that I see have been sitting... and sitting... and sitting. On a few of them I've looked at the asking price several times and each time it's been lower. I also agree that it's very idealistic of the (probably young) tagger to assume that queer = anti-gentrification, but other commenters have already covered that aspect.
As far as the original post goes, can there be gentrification if nobody can afford to buy? Most of the house and condo for sale signs that I see have been sitting... and sitting... and sitting. On a few of them I've looked at the asking price several times and each time it's been lower. I also agree that it's very idealistic of the (probably young) tagger to assume that queer = anti-gentrification, but other commenters have already covered that aspect.
32
Way to take a stand against graffiti. The nerve of those kids not reading your memo about the proper way to oppose gentrification.
33
Why do some misguided straights and gays assume that all queers have money, open boutiques, flip houses and gayify run down neighborhoods? It's true that the displacement of queers from Capitol Hill has been happening for a while. We've lost queer space on CP like bars, a community center, gay businesses and other lgbtq organizations.
Displacement sucks, especially when you don't have the power to stop it.
And why is there always a token gay who says she/he likes living amongst the straights? That the rest of us who like queer culture and value it are a bunch of bone heads. And then the straights say, look a gay person doesn't mind being displaced, she/he likes living in the suburbs with Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Why are our politics ghettoized in marriage equality? even by straight by...
So some queers have an analysis on how we are affected by displacement from a traditional queer neighborhood and we are expressing our frustration and maybe even organizing around it.
How queer is that!
Displacement sucks, especially when you don't have the power to stop it.
And why is there always a token gay who says she/he likes living amongst the straights? That the rest of us who like queer culture and value it are a bunch of bone heads. And then the straights say, look a gay person doesn't mind being displaced, she/he likes living in the suburbs with Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Why are our politics ghettoized in marriage equality? even by straight by...
So some queers have an analysis on how we are affected by displacement from a traditional queer neighborhood and we are expressing our frustration and maybe even organizing around it.
How queer is that!
34
all bow down, prostrate before Dominic's Phallus, trevor! the Phallus tells us how to be, and we obey. we have no desire, no will, none except that of Dominic's Phallus. obey and perhaps the Sphincter will appear for our tongues to wash clean. oh, the Honor! we have been graced by His Wisdom today, be grateful.
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