Apartment Living 1900/2017

Gentrification is an interesting-terrible-recurring process that heavily segregates an area by race, class and other socially-constructed criteria. This issue exists in most (probably all) major American cities, because capitalism simultaneously relies upon and creates competition, but is especially evident in cities like Baltimore -- where over 16,000 houses sit vacant amid rampant homelessness. Meanwhile, so-called "luxury apartments," located almost exclusively within Baltimore's "White 'L,'" market vacancies to young hipsters and yuppies. Outside the White L, poverty is a problem. Hunger is a problem. Homelessness is a problem. And the city's people of color are the ones largely affected.I decided to adapt the Baltimore Heritage Apartment Living tour, because I'm moving into the city soon, and I struggled for a long time with wanting to live in a safe, comfortable area without feeding this gentrification -- without becoming part of that aforementioned yuppie problem. My boyfriend and I have picked a place and signed the papers, but it took us too long too get here. It was way too hard to find somewhere nice to live without towering stories and stories above my city in some luxury hotel-esque bastardization of a home. Baltimore has a housing problem, and it separates the haves and the have-nots in a way that inherently keeps the latter underfoot. It started over 100 years ago, and it's still happening.