A conundrum

So like a good lefty I'm all for cheap housing for people who have less money. I think that mixed use neighborhoods/housing (in all the senses of that term: commercial, rentals, owned, subsidized even light industrial) make for better cities and societies.

I say this all to establish my street cred, and to try and mitigate what I'm about to say.

We live next to a boarding house. Firstly, boarding houses basically function as housing for people who have almost no way to get regular housing. As such they wind up accepting sub-par housing. Way way way sub-par. One of the guys who recently moved out told me that he couldn't open his closet during the winter, unless he wanted the out door temp to spill into his room. Secondly, there seem to be two kinds of people that live next door, working poor and, well, umm.. drunken/stoned idiots.

The former are amoung some of the best neighbors I've ever had. Helpful, pleasant, nice to Lucas, polite to Christine, quiet etc etc. The later? The later can all go to hell.

Between the late night guitar and fiddling, the abusive relationships (if you call the police and say that it sounds like your neighbor is beating his girlfriend, you get 6 police cars...), the abusive drunks on the front balcony...

The house was sold recently, all the working guys have pretty much moved out (one is left, but he's going at the first of the month) and the rest should be out with in a month or so. Then the new owners are going to split it in half vertically and make to duplexes (or whats called a cottage around here).

All of this to say that I've never, in my whole life, been more happy about gentrification.