So this weekend a bunch of residents held an anti-gentrification march on York Blvd. in Highland Park.
Here’s a description from the Eastsider: “A group of anti-gentrification protestors – some of them masked and waving banners – paraded down the sidewalks of York Boulevard tonight, taping “Eviction Notices” on new businesses…”
Neither I nor anyone in my immediate family have ever lived anywhere long enough to form an attachment strong enough to cause me to protest if I were forced to move. But I’ve spoken with enough people going through relocation to know that being pushed out of your home can bring feelings of sorrow, powerlessness and, for some, rage.
While I think that posting mock eviction notices on the windows of new businesses along York is obnoxious behavior, it says something quite positive about the people who protested yesterday that they were able, despite their feelings, to keep things more or less under control.
There’s always going to be disagreement about the morality of gentrification. But we should all be proud to live in a society where people can lawfully protest and where that protest can take place without property destruction or loss of life.