Reverse Gentrification

If the law didn’t apply to me

I would squat in an upper income

suburb in SoCal the same way

Europeans squatted on land not their own.

And after stealing a home

not my own I would bulldoze the entire block to the ground.

Put up a 10-story apartment complex.

Siphon water and electricity

from the entire neighborhood

watching pools go empty,

and gardens wilt.

I would leave them with no choice,

but to move out or rent from me

at a cost equal to half or more

than the average family’s monthly income

while never fixing sewage, or power.

I would,

call the cops on all of them,

for walking their dogs at 11 PM,

for jogging in the middle of the street,

and for wearing yoga pants at 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

Happily,

to boost the local economy,

I would open a pawn shop,

Paycheck loan management center

and liquor store.

While I’m at it,

I could get a 1980’s CIA connection,

traffic drugs on the block,

hand some nickels and dimes

and a glock.

Give them different colored bandanas.

Sit back and watch them tear each other apart.

Use the profit to fund an illegal war in some foreign country

and then call the cops on which ever group gets too big.

But I would never do this,

because it’s already been done to us.

by Ramon Jimenez

from Decomp Journal

(3 Quarks Daily)