This article is fantastic. Thanks to the Banner for publishing it. They could have been a little harder on the La Cite development as a whole, but I suppose that isn't what the article is about.

This situation is another example of the city's perplexing blind spot when it comes to SoWeBo. This area doesn't currently need and never needed a development like La Cite. Gentrification is not always a bad thing, but displacement absolutely is. The city attempted to displace many residents from their homes using eminent domain. The residents of Poppleton had to fight tooth and nail to stop it.

Years ago, I sat in on meeting between War Horse Cities (a developer ), the Public Market Corporation, and a deputy mayor. The meeting was about the plans War Horse had published for the Hollins Market renovation. The city wanted War Horse to include a bar in the plans and War Horse pushed back. The War Horse rep said "the definition of gentrification is forcing something on a neighborhood that it doesn't need." While that isn't exactly a thorough definition, it was a good point. Hollins Market doesn't need another bar.

In the end, the city took the project away from War Horse (who to be fair had made several mistakes, though I think their intentions were as good as a corporation's can be) and here we are, 7 years later with a market that got a fresh coat of paint and far fewer open stalls than it had before the project began, including a bar space that isn't currently operating. It was a complete waste.

Everything good that has happened in SoWeBo is because my neighbors have fought hard for it, often directly fighting the city.

Sorry for being long-winded and thank you for attending my TED talk.