A conversation with Spike Lee

Spike:

I understand you are upset with gentrification in your old Brooklyn neighborhood. You complained about white people pushing out black people in black neighborhoods. But who lived in those neighborhoods  before the blacks? I don't think it was undeveloped farmland. But you are absolutely right. Look what these white educated, well to do, entrepreneurial  interlopers do to the 'hood.  First developers buy dilapidated tenements and make them attractive to the white people buy remodeling the places, which give designers, painters, carpenters, electricians, HVAC mechanics welders, masons, tool makers lumber yards, and loggers work. Then new businesses start to move in. Oh shit! Now we got coffee shops, antique stores, art stores, microbreweries, chic and higher end ethnic restaurants move in. Then God forbid a grocery store such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe's moves in! Black people were used to the food deserts as grocery stores moved out due to shoplifting, vandalism and robberies. People had to either go for miles to other neighborhoods to grocery shop or pay exorbitantly high prices for poor quality food at the dirty bodega's. Now they can buy wholesome food at reasonable prices. Then comes the retail stores like Gap Target and Ikea. Who wants that garbage?  Then over time the stores with Plexiglas are gone, giving the residents a feeling of safety. You probably miss the thick glass and the roll down fortress like gates when the businesses close for the day. Then these no-good-nicks keep their neighborhoods clean by sweeping the front of the stoop (It's a New York thing), throwing out  trash, obey the law, and not declare a gang war over some real estate. These assholes have the audacity to call the police when there in an emergency, and even come forward to help the police by coming forward as witnesses!!!!!! THEY SNITCH!!!! And look what the end result is: clean streets, attractive housing, low crime, no more drug dealing in the street, jobs, increased tax revenue, an increase in population and an increase of visitors (both tourists and locals) spending money in the local economy. Who the hell want's that?!

But there is a solution Spike. You would have to move. New York is gentrifying. But there is Newark, Camden, Patterson, Philadelphia, Atlanta (your old stomping grounds), Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore (Except the Inner Harbor, Fells Point and Little Italy), the east side of Washington, DC, and Richmond, VA. But I guess you got enough liquor stores, check cashing stores, pawn shops, chicken shacks, bodega's, sneaker stores, hair weave stores, store front churches, shelters, and uniformed security guards in fast food joints in your 8,000 square foot compound on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.