Response to 'Bombin Brooklyn'

Gentrification is definately a shame. The prices of homes and apartments throughout all 5 boroughs have been steadily on the rise for as long as I can remember. My neighborhood, College Point in Queens, has experienced its own drastic changes. Growing up, grafitti was a popular thing amongst the youth of the neighborhood. Though, like you, I never took part in the art myself, I knew several kids who did. Now before you start thinking to yourself that I must have grown up with some thugs or troubled youths, know you're wrong. Most of the kids I knew that would tag up around CP were white, middle class, catholic school educated kids. College Point used to be an area inhabitted by German, Irish, Italian, and other Europeans. In the past 8-10 years, however, I have seen many of my friends' families sell their houses for small fortunes and move out to Long Island areas such as Masapequa. But they weren't selling their houses to other families, they were selling them to land developers who were eager to knock down historic victorians that had stood for in some cases more than 100 years only to be replaced by "houses" that could hold 6-8 families. Thus the demographic of the area has changed quite a bit over that time. A lot of the grafitti has dissapeared and as the neighborhood I up in fades away. Some of my friends from the old days that still either hang out in CP or still live here have tried to bring back taggin up. I say good for them because it makes me laugh everytime I see "WRD" on the stop sign on the corner of my house.

As for Miss 17 and Greenburg, I know someone who lives in Williamsburg and her parents are faced with the oppurtunity of selling their house, likely to developers who will probably try to use Banksy to drive the asking price up. Hopefully, both of our neighborhoods will retain some of their identity.