all over north

The Alberta St neighborhood has changed a lot in just the six years since I've been in Portland. It's now described as "Artsy, fun, funky, quirky." In other words, gentrified.

Gentrification is an awful beast but before that beast sets in, certain steps have to be followed. First, there's the setting. Poor people, generally people of color, get pushed into a certain area of town. Then there's the leachers, artists and funky poor white people, generally younger, who settle the area and move in because of the cheap rent. Then there's the devourers, an upper class of folks who feel that the area is quirky now and, since the white people made it 'safe,' they can set up their boutiques and bars and charge $6 for a vegan grilled cheese sandwich.

Tonight, I went to two new places on Alberta Street. The first was Common Grounds. They moved from their old location closer south. It was wonderful and I'm going to go back there. Jeffrey, my one time massage therapist, is there. However, afterwards, we went to Bye and Bye cafe, a vegan bar. Hipster is too mellow of a term to describe the...hipsterness of the place. It was hard to keep my edadame beans down.

I know that gentrification is a touchy issue but it's also a sickening sight. My friend Amy grew up in the Alberta neighborhood. She moved away for a while, got married, had a few kids and was looking forward to returning to raise them in the Alberta neighborhood but when she went back to Alberta, her neighborhood was gone. A-O-way to go, hipsters.