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Yes, it is interesting to watch the flight of non whites from San Fran as prices driven up by largely the progressives in the tech fields make it difficult for anyone but the wealthy to live there. A certain bitter irony in that.
I stepped on many a "progressive" newcomer's toes when I was editor of a weekly newspaper in a rapidly gentrifying district in Seattle and rarely missed an opportunity to highlight the hypocrisy of those who professed to "treasure the diversity" of the district while making it all the less diverse by their very presence there. And, of course, by the wildly escalating real estate values they spurred, which effectively drove out most of the lower income, largely persons of color population. Most galling were those who portrayed themselves as saviors, as though those of us who had resided there long before the newcomers' arrival were in need of such salvation.
A coworker in that industry, a photographer and sometimes reporter, grew up in Seattle's Chinatown. His family ran a restaurant there long ago. His father died when this friend was still a kid. His mother passed away just a couple three or four years ago, at something more than 100 years of age.
This friend of mine -- Dino is what he typically goes by -- is now widowed. His oldest, bestest friend, Donnie Chin, a longtime community advocate, was shot dead in the street not long after Dino's wife shuffled off. So Dino has been more than a bit blue and is making efforts toward lending purpose to what remains of his earthly voyage. He's been photo documenting contemporary life in Seattle's Chinatown and those of other North American cities. And he's been a strident anti-gentrification voice.
He'll lose, ultimately. Seattle's Chinatown is built atop what has become highly desirable real estate. There will be much empty rhetoric about honoring the history and traditions of the place, and many an old structure will be rehabbed. But money trumps.
Still, I respect his efforts, and I'm confident that his photos will find their way into at least one printed volume. The University of Washington Press has published a couple of volumes of his earlier work, and he's only getting better with age.
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