15. Don't Call it Gentrification

 The article's title pretty much sums it up. "Gentrification", according to dictionary.com, is "the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighbourhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individual." The article talks about a man named James Tracy who wrote a book ("Dispatches Against Displacement") that fights against gentrification. The author of the article gave a short background as to what caused James Tracy to revolt and write criticism against the upper-income class. He complains that cities are turning into a  "rich-only playground", and that they are driving out the people who originally lived there (usually the lower-income society). Tracy's story is as follows- he saw cities gradually changing from what they were originally when he was a child. He remembers seeing a diverse culture that had no "division" as to the income of families. As he grew a little older, he saw the replacement of these people and the destruction of their "community culture" and buildings. The "rich people" would destroy the houses that were full of memories to build meaningless buildings and shops were only the "rich" would be pleasantly welcome into. He depicts his frustration throughout the book, harshly criticising the higher-income class for destroying a community that once used to be so harmonious.
 Liam O'Donoghue uses Tracy's book has his primary and sole source for his article. Throughout the article, O'Donoghue uses a lot of metaphors and analogies. He calls the "replacement" a storm that was like a hurricane. He carries on with this analogy when he talks about those who were affected by the replacement- some people died in the process: "Just as with a real hurricane, this storm also had a body count." There is not much to the article itself, since what it does the most is analyze Tracy's book and briefly summarizes it. I, personally, feel like there could be much more to the article. However, the author does not add much of his own opinions and solely talks about the author of the book. Using only one source shakes the reliability of the article as a whole. It is never safe to use one's opinion as a source of an article that critcizes. The article was good in the grammatical sense, but lacking in the communication and information sense.

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/02/don%E2%80%99t_call_it_gentrification/