Book exchange at my local tube station. On the one hand: yay books! On the other hand: MASSIVE GENTRIFICATION KLAXON
@ghost_bird aw eurgh, that's a rough commite right there >:/
@ghost_bird Free books = gentrification?
@bthall @ghost_bird i literally just googled gentrification and still dgi
I do at least have a couple of spare copies of “Lies: A Journal of Materialist Feminism” that I can contribute.
@ghost_bird really? My mum used to do bookswaps with her classes back when she worked in a ludicrously deprived area, I always thought they were a Poor Community Thing where libraries aren't an option for some people (distance, opening hours, needing a physical address to apply for a library card etc)
@Murkrow Depends who's running it and where, I think. This one's moved south from Clapham along with the well-meaning white couples who want to live in a "community" now they're putting in loft conversions and having kids.
@ghost_bird ahh, fair point. It's less "I want to do something for where I grew up" and a little more saviour-y then
@Murkrow I read an element of "we're a _nice_ neighbourhood where we can leave books out without them getting nicked" but it's possible I'm just in a bad mood after this morning's City bantz. And I'm posh enough myself, even if I've been in Tooting since it was curry caffs and bedsits.
@ghost_bird I see it's saying TOOTING there
@Stoori I live in Tooting, just up the road from the "Tooting Market" that sometimes shows up as a Mastodon meme.
@ghost_bird
"tooting bec", a mastodon story
@ghost_bird I don't think book swaps are a sign of gentrification as it benefits local people for free, if it was a hipster book store pop up like things in the silicon roundabout that's gentrification
@Maz In this specific case, I think it goes with a wave of affluent young white couples expanding from the posh area to the immediate north and wanting “local community” to go with their remodelled houses and newly-arrived children.
@ghost_bird I can understand how changes can feel gentrification, but as long as things are accessible and open to previous residents and not pushing anything out it's just a new thing, even if it feels weird.
Like our Brixton Pop Brixton tries to be good, it filled abandoned land, employ mostly from locals, has the free fridge, but cost and atmosphere makes it feel as an interloper.
On the other hand the new sports direct pushed out some long standing stores and is clearly gentrification.
@ghost_bird being against gentrification doesn't mean you have to be against new things
(Also: three youngish white guys in City uniform in front of me on my way to the tube this morning exchanging “banter” and wafting cheap aftershave. Not a good sign.)