Gentrify, gentrify, gentrify

you say it like it's a bad thing

The media. Oh, the media.

Who/what is that anymore? Content creators and talking heads reading scripts from Oligarchs, publicists and think tanks trying to trap your bird brain into believing some bullshit by repeating it over and over. While they steal all the tax money and send it to launder overseas.

Legacy TV has the brains of the old heads, everyone else reads headlines on Instagram and believes they’re informed. Bots are paid to stir the pot in the comments. Not even bots, real actual people who didn’t want to work at Starbucks are controlled opposition in the comment sections. Content creators create posts that are Pearl Clutchers so people “engage” on controversy from dog trainers to natural healers and that drives the stupid algorithm boat right into the mosh pit. Energy flows where attention goes.

It’s the worst. And we fall for it.

People make pretty good money doing it and the Big Tech nerds make unthinkable money providing platforms and mining your data for it. There’s much incentive but it’s not real. I’m not going to speak to all the trenches but just this one for now because I feel like I’ve been looking for a shelter/home forever since I sold my farm in 2019. I’ve been priced out of my own country. I’m a real estate refugee.

Why is gentrifying being thumped as negative? I know what you’ve been told, but really. What’s the reason? Not Colonialism. Gentrification.

I remember a time when I was lauded for cleaning up a corner in Atlanta and replacing the crack dealers with umbrellas and plants at my cafe patio and soon the vacant houses, hookers and rats were replaced with bungalows and young families, pizza joints and a shoe store. I was GENTRIFYING. I took an abandoned restaurant and put in all my time and money into my muse at the time, Oaxacan cuisine. Not shitty #23 Speedy Gonzales trash Taco Bell sour cream “Mexican” but real regional Mexican. Should I have left it the way it was?

As a result of my efforts, taxes and drawing nicer folks to the area who didn’t shoot anyone in the head, the town put in a park, a fountain, had jazz concerts, an art stroll, a farmers market and sidewalks. It became a walking community and there were street lights. I employed 14+ people. The place is still there TWENTY years later with the new owners and dozens more businesses thrive there too. I’m sure the rents are high, but too bad. Go find another dump and take a chance. Detroit is still waiting for you.

I read an essay on a nice Substack this morning about how the author misses being in Mexico and the lameness of being at home in the land of leaf blowers and SUVs in California mingling with angry Trump haters or Trump supporters (which I can’t believe is still a thing but hey, Bread and Circuses) and he’ll return soon and he plans on doing a piece on how the gringos are GENTRIFYING MEXICO and ruining it for the poor locals. Not another White Man Bad article?! Meh. Try harder bloggers. And wait, isn’t the author an expat/migrant? Or is he the good kind? Or is he the White Guilt kind, which reminds me of the late great Patrice O’neal bit about “Phillip” the white man who admits…oh yes I am evil.

All the people who moved to Austin from California 4 years ago, are now saying, okay now close the doors. It’s too crowded. I’m here to tell ya, Mexico still has room, it’s not as cheap as you’d think because the peso is strong and digi nomads are going to Italy for that new work permit or Argentina to see what the new president does. Are they hanging out in CDMX for a minute? Maybe. But so are 20 million others.

There are PLENTY of poor Texans who had to move to Amarillo when the tech and Rogan clan moved in and even the unthinkable boom of cesspool Waco from the HGTV kids at Magnolia. It’s as old as time. Supply and Demand. It would be great if we all loved Kansas, but we don’t. So the Russians and Chinese own NYC and San Fran now and you have to move to Florida or Texas. Or rent a studio for $6000, bye. And now Florida and Texas in all their humid oppressively hot traffic clogged streets are too expensive.

And the regular people moved to where? I’m still trying to figure it out, but in lieu of going to Mississippi I went to Mexico, not to live necessarily, just to travel around while the world figured out that Co vid was a scam. I couldn’t see paying 1000 a month to be locked in my Tulsa apartment. Vanlife beckoned.

Remember when everyone got in trouble for being racist and ignorant and being meanie weenies to Asian people for bringing SARS or the Rona to the world? Was that even a thing? Well now they’re stoking the flames of anti Gringo by creating this false narrative. I’m over it, and it is actually harmful and ruins lives. White Lives. I know, cry me a river Blanca.

Look, I’ve never benefited from any govt programs, had a Trust fund, legacy inheritance, health care or retirement pensions so I’ll say what I want. A couple of real estate bank down turns ate my investments up and I know lots of young people who are trying to figure out why their 30s are so lame and they’re living in mom’s basement or dog sitting all over the place. I’ve been working since I was 14 and now in my later 50s, I’d also like to know why I can’t afford to live. It’s hard to know where you’ll even get a mail delivery we all move so much! Don’t come for me for living South of the Border. I’m not made for living in a Walmart parking lot, nor should I be.

I hope that this nice blogger doesn’t add another log to the hate fire, it’s a bunch of hogwash. You can’t swing a dead gato without some article repeating the trope. Gringos are stealing land and white man bad and no one can afford to live in poor little ol Mexico anymore. Wah. YouTuber Boomers urging folks to move to Merida, Chapala, Puerta Vallarta, the usual suspects. it’s SO CHEAP! (click bait, no it’s not and the peso is strong and the dollar US and Canadian is tanking)

“Hidden” places like San Miguel de Allende ha! (more expensive than Napa Valley or Brooklyn and full of rich folks from all over for decades) and of course, the newly “overrun” Mexico City, where the “digital nomad gringos” ALLEGEDLY are making rents too high because of all the lines outside of Rosetta or a dozen other bakeries you can read about here.

*Newsflash: Rosetta has been open for 14 years and the owner is Mexican. Spoiler alert to the narrative. Further debunking the big bad gringo patriarchy wolf, this successful owner is a woman!

My rent tripled after my first ten year lease was up at my restaurant and because of my success at the time the landlord and commercial building owner benefited! That’s business folks. And he gave a 29 year old chick a chance in 1997 and his gamble paid off.

CDMX has a population of 21 million. Roughly the number of Mexicans living in the USA, but it’s hard to track because many are undocumented and not prone to filling out the census. But Mexico City has always been overrun and full. And Roma Norte was trendy and pish posh before the movie by the same name by a Mexican director. You know who can’t afford to live in Roma Norte? Tons of people. I don’t cry gentrification! When I can’t afford a $17million apartment on Park Avenue. Rich People Exist.

Also, for those who don’t study economic fluctuation, Mexicans have been working in the US and sending money home for hundreds of years. Why does Lupita have a new Nissan? her son hangs drywall in Tampa. Does Jose live in Merida? No, because it’s full of Narco Familias and Monterey banksters (and some middle class expat/migration but the heat will run them off) But Jose has a pretty good job running his print shop/shoe store/tienda/produce stand because of the influx. We have got to stop seeing everyone who moves into an area as bad. You know where the Mexican food is kick ass? LA, Texas, Arizona, Chicago because of migration. And without gringos opening coffee shops and yoga studios there would much less dog rescue in Mexico I’ll tell you that. And organics? Who’s buying that and supporting locally grown? Recycling programs? Cultural centers? Art tours? Gringos! And if Sayulita is too expensive, then you’ll have to go somewhere else like Tepic and take the bus to the beach.

The Chinese have invested money in my town to put in a pipeline for natural gas that they will pick up with big containers in the Sea of Cortez and take back to China. But not a peso for the locals. Promises to put in pavement, build schools, open grocery stores—all lies. There was even some talk about funneling money to me the dog rescue bitch! But nah. No new stores and they keep their employees on a campus with their own dorms and cafeteria. Some managers get put up in SUPER overpriced ugly rentals six men deep but they’re Mexican owned and Mexican workers.

They are tearing up the land, not repaving the highways that are so potholed you need a helicopter to get to Hermosillo and the Tesla lithium mines and copper!!! for stupid tech gadgets are driving rents up, not me. I’m the only American in this town and we have more vacant storefronts and rental houses than occupied. I spend every dollar I have or earn on street dog medical care, spay clinics and street dog feeding. My crappy house has a view of the street and a sandlot if you’re interested, come on down! We’d LOVE some gentrification. We need trash cans, an animal shelter, a vet, a dentist, an elementary school and restaurants. Clothing!

I’m old enough to remember Playa del Carmen and Tulum as one boat and a kid with a net barely surviving. Now of course (because of Mexican tourism investment) it’s a huge city thriving with people from all over the world. No one is crying about Gringos over there. Or Italians. Or French. Or Germans.

No American in Northern uggo Mexico is bulldozing Lupita’s Casita and putting in a Starbucks, so stop believing the hype. Greed and Industry run out affordable housing just like Southern Louisiana in the fracking boom/bust and Texas’ Gulf Coast drilling. But it’s hard enough out there, let’s stop acting like Americans have a shit ton of money because if they do, they’re aren’t living in Mexico in these barrios. They’ve run back to Montecito to watch the mudslides and fires and drive insurance prices up. As long as we’re pinning the tail on donkeys, let’s be fair about it.

linktr.ee/lolasdogrescue