Gentrification demands its price
North Easton, Mass.: Many people assume that since gentrifying neighborhoods are gaining value, their original residents have access to more significant resources. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Gentrification negatively affects the health of residents who decide to stay in their neighborhoods. Those who stay have to pay the higher cost of daily living, which means less money to spend on services and products that help maintain their health. A resident should not have to sacrifice health and hygiene because they choose not to leave their lifelong home. One example of how general health and hygiene are affected: many families will crowd into living spaces with relatives if each cannot afford their own.
In terms of mental health, case studies have documented that legacy residents feel loss and are discouraged by their neighbors leaving. Newcomers’ opinions often have priority over their own, and they watch institutions relevant to their cultures be erased.
Community promises and policies can mitigate these effects. People need to begin supporting policymakers who value the history and culture that belong to central neighborhoods.
Censored
Daryl Morey of the Houston Rockets is stepping down as general manager for “insulting the government of China.” His crime? Tweeting last year that we should support the people of Hong Kong in their quest for freedom. Not a bad thing considering that the butchers in Beijing still practice ethnic cleansing in Tibet, send Muslim minority Uighurs to concentration camps and fill their prisons with journalists, artists, religious Christians and Muslims and anyone who dare take a free breath in that bastion of terror. Just goes to show you that the pouting, whining social justice warriors of the NBA, forever with the word oppression on their lips, care more about the almighty dollar than human rights. Talk about selling your soul to the devil! Ann Rychlenski
Loopy
Prospect, Conn.: To Voicer Mike Memphis: I think when Joe Biden’s tree hit you on the head it definitely affected your irrational decision to support the reelection of President Trump and then have Mike Pence to follow. Yikes!
Alan Podhaizer
In his own words
Newton, Mass.: If Trump loses on 1⅓, I’d love to see the paper run a full front page with a photo of Trump and under it in big letters: You’re fired! S.M. Stern
Invisible enemy
Bronx: You and I cannot see the air we breathe. We cannot see the virus in the air. Failure to wear a mask is most definitely not in anyone’s best interest.