The neighborhood I grew up in has changed a great deal, just over the last ten years. It’s gone through a common cycle found in cities, European immigrants, primarily Eastern European, followed by people of color, white flight and new immigrants from India and Asia, followed by younger “upwardly” mobile “students.” My family is part of the group that didn’t quite achieve white flight. My neighborhood is not really gentrifying as much as functioning as campus housing to the over five colleges in the area. After spending my time actively being the first wave of Gentrification in neighborhoods across the country, I guess this is my payback.

The house next door to my mom, is now a revolving door of various college kids. One night, I was trying to find parking and in front of this house was a chair and a parking cone, reserving a parking space. My immediate reaction was “Oh hell no, I know one of these kids that has lived here for 3 weeks isn’t putting up a chair! i’m throwing this shit on the side walk!” but I did not know definitely who the items belonged to and did not want my car keyed. I was also able to find another place to park.

If you Google “Parking Chair” you’ll find a Wikipedia page that lists Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Philadelphia as places known for it. I grew up with the understanding of parking chairs as being used by the person who shoveled out a parking space to reserve it for themselves or by older members of a neighborhood. I also grew up with them being a point of contention between the longer residents of a neighborhood and the newer residents. Long time residents of a neighborhood used and accepted them with some unwritten rules, while newer members felt they were simply illegal.

The next time I saw one of the tenants of the house next to my mom, I politely asked him if anyone in their home had placed a chair and parking cone in front of the house. He responded,

“Chair? I don’t know about a chair, we have a parking cone, but I don’t know about a chair.”

“Well why did you put the cone there?”

“Well, I’m not even from Pittsburgh, but I heard that’s what people do here.”

…..”LOOK CHAD, you entitled little bitch, my mom who lives in this house here, has lived in this neighborhood her entire life, except for about 10 years, in which she lived about 5 miles away, she doesn’t put out a chair. My grandmother lived in that house down there her entire life, her mom lived in that house her entire life, and she only put out a chair after she was 60 and had trouble walking. Can you do me a favor and not do that anymore?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Ok, thanks, thanks so much” SMILEY FACE.

Except for the insulting of the ethnicity of his name and the entitled little bitch thing, that’s what was said.

I may seem hypocritical for having a problem with this but not having a problem with “cultural appropriation” or certain aspects of “gentrification.” But, I don’t think these things are the same and I am too tired to get into it now, I just wanted to write about this terrible child whose parents did not raise him right.