About four years ago, a new building was under construction just a few blocks from my house. At first I didn’t know what it was until it was finish about a year later. Before me was a three story house and it looked like a family has already moved in. It seemed peculiar as my neighborhood is full of apartments and middle class families. The building looked so new compared to its neighboring houses, withered after being built centuries ago with no renovation. My apartment looked the same as it was also built many years ago. Seeing a mansion of that size with the finest bricks and marble decoration made me wonder if any other house of that size was in the works as well.
I was wrong as the house that was built was the only house in the whole neighborhood. To this day the house still looks brand new and people often look at it in shock. I used to be one of those people with jealousy towards the family that lived in it until I noticed that I don’t need a house like that to be happy. Before the house was built, I was content with my small apartment and I even thought it was the best apartment on the block. Sure the family who owned the house most likely had plenty of wealth but I realized another person’s fortune should never affect mine.
Thanks for this, Erick! One thought about a way this could go: this house is an anomaly, in Sullivan’s framework: a disruption in the pattern of your neighborhood. What effect does this anomaly have? Or what effect does this kind of anomalous development have in other neighborhoods? Or what pattern is this kind of development part of? (Have you seen gentrification change places you used to know well?)