[Glice]

A few points, local examples

- improving the prosperity of an area is by no means a bad thing. Anyone who remembers Bristol's St Pauls of 10-15 years ago would probably agree it's a better area now.

- Resisting 'gentrification' per se is by no means synonymous with resisting capitalism in toto. In fact, one of the things with capitalism is that it can make 'gentrification' into a generally positive things - such as the 'city farms' in Bedminster, the increased allotment spaces around St Werberghs and so on.

I have to say (before going on) that I think Bristol's 'gentrification' isn't always bad; London, particularly the areas I imagine Herr Rail's thinking of, it's generally a bit shit (especially with Cameron's voiding of most of London of working class people. The make-up of each particular urban/ outlying area is different. Liverpool's redevelopment in the last 10-15 years turned it from a place that was, frankly, shit into somewhere that's worth visiting.

So for me it very much depends on what form the gentrification takes. In south Bristol, the gentrified part of Bedminster became 'Southville' and a load of utter cunts moved in; gone were the fantastic cafes, decent cider pubs, a lot of the city fans - all replaced by pubs without decent beer, people or music; cafes started calling sandwiches paninis and conversations are always about fucking mortgages. Bad gentrification.

Somewhere like Werberghs (and bear in mind, I hate it there too) gets it about right - there's plenty of community things going on, allotments, live music (always shit, but that's not the point). It's been gentrified from an out-of-the-way suburb into yoghurt-weavers central, but it's not just exorbitantly priced organic almonds and a Waitrose - there's a shitload of indie grocers and whatnot. Good gentrification.

And, on the other hand, i know a few people who maintain that Stapleton Road, Easton is the last bastion of non-gentrification in Bristol. Which is a well-meaning way of saying 'I live on a street where pregnant women get punched for a mobile and £3.20'. Gentrification isn't the opposite of poverty, obviously, but there's a real danger in resisting it you end up thinking that areas like Easton - where you will get mugged, soon enough - are somehow preferable to areas where coffee costs too much.

And then the other side of this is Clifton, which is the place you're most likely to get stabbed, and the place you're least likely to find someone interesting/ understands the rounds system/ not a trustfund cunt.

Basically, most people are cunts, and gentrification is only a small part of general cuntestry.