Gentrification in summarized terms is the trend where increased property values displace lower-income families, businesses, and people to create a cleaner cut, society approved areas, and it’s occurring in our backyard. For many first-time college students words like “Gentrification” rarely occurred in our vocabulary. However, to those whose families these extreme changes will affect, this has quickly become worrisome. This occurrence began in Atlanta in the 1970’s and since then has grown increasingly. The entire phenomenon of gentrification was news to me until I began attending my illustrious institution and I saw what it was doing for myself. I began taking city trips as a freshman to areas of the city that had become urbanized and I realized that this change was not for the better.
This humongous change will affect the homeless, the unlucky, and even the families struggling to make ends meet. As time commenced the city has changed drastically far wise as its demographics and you can physically see this from taking a simple drive around town. I am bringing this to attention, to Clark Atlanta University and the AUC as a whole because our beloved west end is now up for question. Since the construction of the stadium that is only a three-minute drive from campus, they plan to create large walkways, which will affect routes and those people who live by them, including us. Our shuttle trips to the west end will now be obsolete; the people traveling within it will soon fade away. They aim to change the outlook of Atlanta and completely reconstruct the area without caring the outcome of the backs of people who built it.
Although us residents of the AUC live close by I don’t think most of us realize just how much damage is done around this. I challenge you to get up, take a drive around the city and meet the beautiful people who inhabit it. Just have a simple conversation with someone who lives there, whether it is someone walking by or a black owned business owner; take the opportunity to soak in what could be lost. We the people need to help our people stand on our feet, whether you aid from your dorm room or out on the street. As I grow older and reach my alumni status, I’d like to return to Atlanta and make sure not much has changed, that I can recognize my lovely city for what it is. It is not damaged, and neither are its people. Gentrification is the product of man and we are the product of honey, and silk. Atlanta will always be our city, it will always have our people whether we claim it or not.