Reporting from the weirder (and not so weird) frontlines of gentrification.
"The Gentry," a luxury development being built in a gentrifying neighborhood, is forced to change its name.
Often, when developers come to neighborhoods of color with the intent of buying up property so they can flip it to white people, they aren't particularly subtle about their intentions.
Most developers, though, have the good sense to not name a luxury building they're bankrolling after the very class of people they're hoping to replace current residents with. Not so for Chicago's Villa Capital Properties, which is behind a new office and retail project that was forced to change its name last week because it was literally called "The Gentry." (Dictionary defitinion: A person in good social standing.)
The Gentry is opening in Pilsen, long a welcoming point of entry in Chicago for Mexican immigrants, and ground zero for witnessing creeping gentrification in the city. As the neighborhood gets whiter and whiter, gentrification infects every issue in the neighborhood: yuppie coffee shops are vandalized, new walk and bike trails are regarded with suspicion, and buildings are forced to change their names.
The media "discovers" a classic black Harlem sandwich, leading Whole Foods to debut a version at double the price.
The latest in the chopped cheese media saga: A Manhattan Whole Foods is now selling an $8 version of the $4 Harlem sandwich, which has now been thoroughly and variously investigated and "discovered" with varying degrees of success by white reporters from First We Feast, Business Insider, and the Times.
FWF, Complex Magazine's food site, was easily the most successful:
The Editors' Longreads Picks
- An excellent essay on poverty and writing by Starr Davis. Updated May 31, 2022
- Novelist Héctor Tobar tries to understand the 1992 Los Angeles riots through the experiences of a single high school.
- Steven Johnson with a long assessment of the current state of A.I. and language. (The illusion has gotten very good.)
Welcome to The Morning News Tournament of Books, 2017 edition.
- Our championship match is decided in the Tournament of Books, with news of a Rooster surprise debuting this summer. Updated Mar 31, 2017
- In Thursday's action, Reyhan Harmanci sets up a colossal final.
- The Zombie round opens with Buzzfeed's Isaac Fitzgerald reading The Nix and The Underground Railroad.
Все ваши Белый дом принадлежит нам.
- "Will Putin expose the failings of American democracy or will he inadvertently expose the strength of American democracy?" Updated Mar 3, 2017
- Wilbur Ross just wanted to make some money in ethically gray areas (that should've prevented him from taking office).
- Jeff Sessions's spokeswoman can't help but continue to lie.
The oceans are under assault, and not just from the White House and friends.
- Trump's assault on the environment begins with American headwaters. Updated Mar 1, 2017
- Don't just blame the oil companies for destroying the oceans—blame sushi restaurants.
- Nothing escapes the deepest trenches of the ocean floor. Not light, not nutrients, not pollutants.