Somehow, some way I am going to have to learn how to learn how to appreciate news stories on meetings. I want to be funny and descriptive with this story but it just seems like the story is lying in front of me dead. I try to resuscitate but this story just wants to die. It has given up hope and remains lifeless on my coffee table. As I continue working on this story, I realize how much that meeting really annoyed me. I have gotten into a little funk with this neighborhood, but I will try as hard as humanly possible to maintain a decent amount of objectivity.
I commented in my notes on how it was interesting that out of the 55 people that attended the meeting there was only one person of color. This neighborhood’s representatives are constantly claiming that they love the “diversity” of the neighborhood; the diversity is what makes Hayes Valley so unique. I looked up the term diversity in the dictionary just to make sure I understood the correct definition. I didn’t see any kind of diversity in the decision-making process of this meeting.
I adore my boyfriend’s father, I really do, but he has a tendency to think that I’m this spunky little girl with wildly liberal ideas who actually wants to have fiery debates with him, a conservative, able-bodied, upper middle-class, white male from Fresno of working age. NOT SO. For three years now, every visit we have sparks some kind of heated debate. Because I had been struggling with ideas for this paper over the weekend, this time we debated the gentrification of Hayes Valley. He didn’t see any issue with gentrification because rich white people need homes too. And so it began.
I ended this argument with a “Well you can just read Yvonne Daley’s book when it comes out!” I angrily marched away. Although I was angry, it revived my interest in this neighborhood and has made me think twice about my choice for Profile1.
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Well, you have made my sick day a little better. I'll send you a little excerpt from my book if I can find a little chunk that will brighten your life. You're a fighter after my heart. Yeah, for those who defend the downtrodden, the unrepresented, the uncelebrated. Go for it!
ReplyDeletevery true, you and i are having the same struggles with our neighborhoods. It's just hard to really care about people who's world view is so dissonant from yours. I also struggle with friends and family members who think i'm some sort of secret member of the Weather Men who's going to blow up their nativity scene.
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