“Incredibly rich people made their environment and those of their rich neighbors better.” Great. But it does nothing for Oakland, or Richmond, or the kind of neighborhoods I can actually afford to live in (but still not buy a house in). I guess it’s okay if we keep making everything nicer for the elites and worse for everyone else?

I see the property deeds of the rundown apartments and tenement housing in my neighborhood. They are invariably owned by rich individuals and investment groups from far away in very upper class exclusive areas. I never see these owners do even the slightest gardening, sidewalk improvements, they won’t even fix the basic items of heat, water, building codes that they are legally required to do. Instead, they use their outsized slumlord profits to buy and remodel their own multi-multi-million dollar properties and leave the rest of us to rot.

Forgive me if I’m less than enthusiastic to cheer on the rich improving their neighborhoods and ignoring the rest of us.