Hey everyone! This week, I’ve been reading How to Kill a City by P.E. Moskowitz. If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t sure if I would like reading the book but I ended up enjoying it and wanted to learn more. The book was quite informative on the systemic racism that’s caused by the gentrification of cities. Previously, I had thought of gentrification as simply change, but it is much deeper than that. As Moskowitz described, it is a displacement of culture. While the cities are physically changing, they are also pushing people out of their homes. It was honestly quite angering to read about the evictions of people who had lived their whole lives in the same place. Although reading the book gave me a bit of a pessimistic view of the world, I am hopeful that things will change. It made me reflect on the work that we’re all doing in DCERP and how we are working with the community to improve conditions. It’s amazing to think about all the different projects that are happening to make some sort of change. Despite the little time we have here, I know that we will be helping our organizations to bring together and support a variety of diverse groups.
2 thoughts on “Week Four Blog”
Comments are closed.
Hi Emily! I’m glad you ended up enjoying the book – I also found it a lot more engaging than I expected. I really appreciate your hopefulness that things will get better, even though we read so many stories with sad, frustrating endings. Like you said, there are many organizations doing a lot of awesome work, and that makes me at least a little bit optimistic 🙂
Hi Emily! I appreciate your hopeful attitude about things changing in Detroit. The work that many of our non-profits do has been crucial in helping the residents of communities. While it is important to acknowledge and recognize the problems that Detroit faces, it is also crucial to help with the change!