My Son and I Had the Talk -- About Gentrification

EXT. PEDESTRIAN SIDEWALK — MORNING

Busy thoroughfare near bustling commercial district in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Windy and overcast with extreme noise pollution, including stop-and-go traffic, vehicle horns blaring, and exasperated housewives loudly complaining into their AirPods about their husbands’ infidelities.

A father — stocky, menacing, brown-skinned, early forties — pulls his son — handsome, cacophonous, feral, thirty-three months old — to preschool in a red Radio Flyer wagon. Both are bundled up in winter attire.

They stop along the way to observe two excavators demolishing a large building complex.

FATHER

(Excited)

Whoa! Didi, check out those huge excavators!

SON

(Overwhelmed with joy)

WHOOOAAAA!!!! Ex-KA-Vatah goes K-RAWSH!

FATHER

They sure do, Bud. I wonder why they’re tearing this place down.

SON

VUUURRR, VRROOM — BEEP BEEP BEEP — S-S-SMASH!!

FATHER

(Rhetorical)

Didi, check out that stained-glass window at the top of the building. What was this place?

The father performs a perfunctory search on his cellphone while the son savors the demolition.

SON

(Out of his goddamned mind)

Skid stweer roadah! SKID! STWEER! ROADAH!!!

FATHER

Oh my God it’s a skid steer loader. With tracks. Nice. I can’t figure out what’s going on here, Didi. Hold on I’m gonna text your mom. Don’t get old, Dude. I don’t recommend it.

[seconds later]

Your mom says this used to be like a retirement home for old nuns or some shit. Weird. She says it’s been closed since the pandemic started and was recently sold to a developer. Apparently, it’s a historical landmark built by some famous architect. That’s pretty depressing, actually.

SON

(Confidently)

There’s tee-vee in the phone, Dad! There’s tee-vee in the phone!

FATHER

There sure is, Buddy. And I know you love TV and those excavators and that skid steer loader more than me and your mom, but new construction isn’t always a good thing. That was a really gorgeous building, with beautiful red brick, and which appeared to still be in really good shape. And even if it was like witness protection for nuns who covered up sexual abuse at the Catholic church — or whatever — it was still part of the community and served a cultural purpose. There’s zero chance they’re going to rebuild something just as nice in its place. Probably another fucking Chipotle. Or — if our “law-and-order” Alderperson has any input — another police precinct. Jesus F.

SON

(Happy)

SHVVSSVV. Sky-walkah! Sky-walkah fights Doo-ku, Dad.

FATHER

Yep, that didn’t work out too well for Dooku.

Listen up, Dude. This is important. When a community tears down cultural sites or demolishes “urban areas” in order to attract more rich white people, or to establish more businesses — meaning, attract more rich white people — that’s called gentrification.

SON

(Curious falsetto)

Jen-twa-ka-shion?

FATHER

Yep, gentrification. Because our society values money over all else, market forces and corrupt politicians and rent seekers of all stripes will do whatever it takes to squeeze every possible dollar out of every available square inch of valuable real estate. Look at New York City. After the Guiliani, Bloomberg and de Blasio years, the so-called “Greatest City in the World” is just one giant Starbucks filled with Wall Street twats and wannabe tech entrepreneurs.

The knock-on effects of these actions include skyrocketing housing prices and exorbitant property taxes, which then precludes middle- and lower-income citizens — in particular Black and Hispanic minorities — from accessing the neighborhood.

Chicago has a spectacularly racist history as well. Redlining denied housing, financial services, and healthcare, among other public goods and services, to low-income residents and disenfranchised minorities, entrenching poverty, reducing upward mobility and creating a de facto apartheid state in the city. That’s why you see so few Black and Hispanic people in our neighborhood.

And instead of redressing these issues — which unsurprisingly lead to lower employment opportunities and income inequality, hence lower educational attainment, higher crime rates and other similar societal ills — with sensible public policy proposals, people just double down on myths about bootstraps and self-determination.

For example, a few people got car-jacked in our neighborhood over the last few weeks — which is bad, definitely bad — but instead of evaluating the status quo and seeking out policies to reduce income and housing inequality and create more economic opportunity, our Alderperson was like, “Yo, we need more cops ASAP!”

SON

Po-weece car goes WEEE-OOO WEEE-OOO.

FATHER

(Defeated)

Oh well, fuck it, Dude. We’re part of the problem anyway. Your mom and I bought a house in this neighborhood because it had “good schools.” Model minorities, that’s what they call us. And, like me, you’ll be a chameleon. Blend in everywhere, fit in nowhere.

Dude, just try to be a good person when you grow up, okay?

SON

(Enthusiastic)

My pee pee gettin bigger an strawnger!

FATHER

Well, that’s a positive, at least. Just be careful with that thing. It can ruin your life in an instant. C’mon, let’s get to school.

SON

Bye Ex-ka-vatah!