I would like someone to explain to me exactly how a neighborhood 'changes'. I just drove through the neighborhood where I grew up. I have such fond memories of this place - playing outside all day and night, walking to the library or a friend's house, feeling safe and happy. That same neighborhood is now dirty and worn down. Trash strewn everywhere and houses in disrepair.
How does it happen? Who is the first family to move out where the people who move in are different from the rest of us in the neighborhood? Does this happen in every city or just mine? I just can't figure out how a nice, safe neighborhood becomes a filthy slum. HOW does it start? I know it sneaks up on you, but that's all I know.
I know people who grew up in nice neighborhoods and their parents still live there and it is still a nice neighborhood. Is it only because their houses are slightly bigger and more expensive than my childhood home? Or is it because these same children who were raised there, then grew up and bought their own house in this same neighborhood?
I would LOVE to live in a house like the one in my old neighborhood. Those houses were built to last, solid brick and stone, plaster walls, cool built-ins. But that's not going to happen because the trash all over the street and the crime there make me not want to raise my children there.
My parents felt compelled to move 15 years ago because of this 'change'. People weren't cleaning up in front of their house, they weren't maintaining the exteriors and there was a lot of noise at night. The crime rate soared. WHERE did all these dirty, loud, crime-prone people come from? Where WERE they prior to moving into our beautiful neighborhood? Did they WANT to ruin our neighborhood? I am going to research this and ask opinions and see if I can figure out how this happens. Hopefully you'll see an updated post soon.