Gentrification

I went to high school at St. Ignatius College Prep. I started going there when the projects along Racine and Roosevelt Road were still up. There used to be a Boys and Girls Club on the southwest corner of Taylor/Racine, and I watched as they tore that down along with the projects. For a while, the fire station on Roosevelt Road was the only thing left on that entire block. I've watched over the past few years as they have started to change the neighborhood with fancier styled housing and pricier stores and restaurants. They goal: gentrification. They are trying to bring riche, more well-to-do people into a neighborhood that hasn't had much going for it for a long while. That's all well and good, but for some reason, this whole process has bothered me. For one, I was deeply upset when I saw the Boys and Girls Club get torn down and replaced with nothing--I've met quite a few of the children who live in the neighborhood and they have nothing to do and nowhere to go after school. And another thing that has really bothered me is that I feel like the phrase "mixed-income housing" is just a big cover-up. It doesn't seem as though they're trying to integrate the neighborhood. It seems more as though they're trying to change the neighborhood; switch up the predominant demographic in the neighborhood. Another thing that my mom brought to my attention is this: St. Ignatius was founded by Father Damen a long time ago. He chose that neighborhood because he wanted the school--and the attached church--to be a safe haven for people living in a not so great neighborhood. He had intentions of being a place for needy people to go to--there was even a soup kitchen open in the basement of the church all up until an unexpected fire shut it down. With the neighborhood changing, it almost seems as though there's no point for the school/church to be in that neighborhood anymore. To me, it seems like it should move into a bad neighborhood, to help them. I don't know, it's complicated. And nothing I say will change what's happening. I'm just not happy with it. Because it's like I said. The neighborhood is just being changed completely. The people who used to live there are being moved to the suburbs and just the outskirts of the city. That's not how it should be.